Subscribe Now. Your Subscription Plan Cancel Subscription. Home India News Entertainment. HT Insight. My Account. Sign in. Sign out. It is those late hours that make convenience stores particularly attractive to robbers. With many convenience stores staying open late at night or even 24 hours with only one or two employees on staff and no scheduled bank run until the morning, the chance of a robbery is greatly increased. And this is borne out by crime statistics.
The numbers increase further when you include those taking place at service stations. While the number of convenience store robberies has decreased since their peak in the s due largely to improved security measures , they still comprise an outsized percentage of retail robberies in the US.
Provide good visibility. Keep windows and counters clutter-free so that the public can see into the store. Keeping cash registers towards the front of the store and near a window also means that any potential robber would probably need to do so in full view of the public. Mirrors can also provide visibility, especially when your business has multiple entrances or hidden-away pockets between displays or down hallways. The last thing you want is to search for the video of a suspicious character, only to find that the view was blocked by a sign or display.
Install alarms. Silent alarms that can be triggered in the event of a robbery can not only call law enforcement but save lives.
A robber with a firearm is less likely to resort to violence if they do not know that an alarm has been triggered. Quicker reaction times result when someone in the immediate vicinity is aware of what is going on and can respond immediately. And of course, your own business can return the favor, keeping the neighborhood as a whole safer and more secure.
Use surveillance cameras. Security cameras should be placed not only so they show the point of sale, but also any entrances, parking areas in order to clearly show both vehicles and license plates , display cases containing expensive electronics, jewelry, or other small valuables, and any tucked-away areas that might not easily be seen by employees from their most common locations.
Install and maintain high-quality lighting. Most are open every day until late in the evening, with some open 24 hours a day. Some are corporate franchises, others are independently owned. Single-store businesses that are owned and operated as a one-store business or franchise dominate the market.
There are generally six convenience store formats. Each is categorized by the size of the store and the products it sells, as shown in Table 1 below. Risk of robbery based on a variety of administrative and environmental factors has been proposed. For instance, stores with gas pumps, sometimes referred to as convenience gas stations, are less likely to be robbed than stores without pumps. The security and crime prevention measures convenience store owners employ vary considerably with the type and structure of ownership.
Several studies have evaluated the presence of two or more clerks to reduce the risk of robbery. The findings have been inconsistent, and are highly debated. The handling and storage of cash has a significant influence on the targeting of stores for robbery.
The Athena Research Corp. Again, both the ability to purchase such units and the implementation of strict cash protocol depend on the ownership type and structure. A strict cash control protocol can significantly reduce the chances a store will be targeted by potential robbers. Credit: Nancy Leach. Incident response policies. This includes following the offender's instructions, staying calm and quiet, avoiding eye contact, not making any sudden movements, remaining inside the workplace, not attacking the offender, while making mental notes to provide to the police regarding the offender's physical description.
Other suggestions include installing a visible drop safe to allow for natural surveillance throughout the store Faulkner, Landsittel, and Hendricks Like robbers in general, most convenience store robbers are male 95 percent with about two-thirds of them under the age of Most are seeking quick cash, often to buy drugs.
Serial robbers, particularly those that victimize the same location on more than one occasion, appear to be more professional, even determined, in their approach. They are significantly more likely to carry a gun, to have been in prison before, to wear a disguise, and to choose a specific time for the robbery. They are also more likely to be violent, and cause a higher rate of employee injury. Since it has been found that certain stores are more vulnerable to repeat victimization, we can conclude that robbers are selecting those stores because of the opportunities they offer for successful completion of a robbery.
For example, since offenders commonly use guns in convenience store robberies, some offenders looking for quick cash may think that a weapon overcomes any other obstacles to carrying out the crime.
Novice offenders might be less likely to differentiate between low-risk and high-risk targets. To limit the risk of apprehension, robbery offenders generally operate at night, when concealment is more likely. Convenience store robberies have been found to be consistent with this time pattern.
One study of robberies in 30 Leon County, Florida, convenience stores over a four-year period found significant correlations not only to time but also to day of the week, and month. Fifty percent occurred between 10 p.
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