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Self-checkout has become one of retail's favourite villains.

It's blamed for rising theft.

Retailers are reducing it.

Politicians are questioning it.

And customers increasingly find themselves surrounded by cameras, barriers, receipt checks and interventions designed to stop loss at the checkout.

But what if we're looking in the wrong place?

In this episode of Retail Voices, I'm joined by Daniel Gabay, Co-Founder and CEO of Trigo, to challenge one of the biggest assumptions in modern retail loss prevention.

Trigo's analysis of highly stolen products suggests that around 80% are concealed before the shopper reaches the checkout.

Inside bags.

Under clothing.

Hidden beneath other products.

Or simply removed from the shelf and never presented for payment.

Which raises a rather important question:

If much of the theft has already happened before the customer reaches self-checkout, are retailers spending too much time trying to solve the problem at the till?

Daniel and I explore the entire customer journey — from shelf to checkout to exit — and discuss how computer vision and AI are changing what retailers can actually see inside their stores.

But this isn't simply a technology conversation.

It's also about the difficult balance between:

Loss prevention and customer experience.

How far should retailers go to prevent theft?

When does security create too much friction for honest customers?

Can technology allow retailers to intervene less often but more accurately?

And should the future of loss prevention be about watching the checkout — or understanding what happens across the entire store?

In this episode:

• Why self-checkout has become the focus of the retail theft debate
• Where theft actually occurs during the customer journey
• Why concealment can happen long before checkout
• The blind spots in traditional loss-prevention systems
• Self-checkout versus staffed checkouts
• How computer vision can follow products from shelf to payment
• AI and real-time loss detection
• Customer experience versus security
• Privacy and anonymous computer vision
• Why locking products away isn't necessarily the answer
• How retailers can reduce unnecessary interventions
• The future of self-checkout
• The future of retail loss prevention
• Three simple things retailers should remember

If you work in store operations, loss prevention, retail technology, customer experience or retail leadership, this is a fascinating challenge to some of the assumptions currently shaping the industry.

Retail Voices is part of RETAIL101online — conversations with people from inside and outside retail, exploring the ideas, technologies and operating principles shaping the future of our industry.

#RetailVoices #RETAIL101online #SelfCheckout #LossPrevention #RetailTheft #RetailTechnology #AIinRetail #RetailOperations

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Most retail turnarounds start in the wrong place.

A new promotion. A new planogram. A new customer service initiative with a snappy name and a laminated poster for every staffroom.

Jim Collins spent five years studying companies that went from good to truly great — and found something uncomfortable: the strategy is almost never the problem. The people almost always are.

In Episode 2 of our Good to Great: The Retail Edition mini-series, we tackle First Who, Then What — and what it really means to build a retail team that doesn't need managing into performance.

In this episode:

✅ Why great retail companies sorted the bus before they sorted the strategy

✅ The three ways retail keeps getting this wrong — the loyalty trap, the performance excuse, and the wrong hire

✅ A real story about a fresh food department that transformed — not through training, but through honesty

✅ The difference between being tough and being rigorous — and why it matters

✅ The Bus Audit — 5 actions you can take this week

🔁 Part of our From Good to Great: The Retail Edition mini-series — translating Jim Collins' landmark research into practical retail leadership.

Episode 1: Why Your Best Store Is Probably Your Biggest Problem — available now.

Episode 3: The Number Your Store Is Afraid to Look At — coming next.

🔔 Subscribe for new episodes every two weeks | retail101online.com

#Retail101online #GoodToGreat #JimCollins #FirstWhoThenWhat #RetailLeadership #RetailTeam #StoreManagement #RetailPodcast #HelpIsOnTheWay #RetailMiniSeries #StoreManagerTips #RetailHiring #RetailPeople #ShopFloorLeadership #RetailTraining #RetailPerformance #LeadershipLessons #RetailCulture #TeamDevelopment #RetailStrategy

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Why do some stores fall apart the moment their manager leaves — and others barely miss a beat?

In Episode 1 of our 5-part mini-series From Good to Great: The Retail Edition, we tackle Jim Collins' most counterintuitive finding — Level 5 Leadership — and bring it directly onto the shop floor.

Spoiler: the best store managers Collins found weren't the loudest, most charismatic, most heroic figures in the building. They were the ones quietly, consistently building something that didn't need them to survive.

In this episode:

• What Collins actually found about great leaders — and why it surprised everyone

• The Hero Manager Problem in retail — and why your best store might be your most fragile one

• The Mirror and the Window — the habit that separates great leaders from good ones

• What Level 5 looks like in practice (and what it definitely doesn't)

• 5 questions every store manager should ask themselves this week

Part of our From Good to Great: The Retail Edition mini-series — translating Jim Collins' landmark research into practical retail leadership.

Episode 2: Stop Fixing the Strategy. Fix the Bus. — coming next.

🔔 Subscribe for new episodes every two weeks | retail101online.com

#Retail101online #GoodToGreat #JimCollins #Level5Leadership #RetailLeadership #StoreManagement #RetailPodcast #HelpIsOnTheWay #RetailMiniSeries #StoreManagerTips #RetailTeamDevelopment #RetailOperations #ShopFloorLeadership #RetailTraining #RetailPerformance #LeadershipLessons #RetailCulture #TeamDevelopment #RetailStrategy #RetailMotivation

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