Carter’s Loss Prevention Department Functions as a Business Partner

David Shugan, CFI, currently serves as the senior director of loss prevention for Carter’s, a children’s clothing company based out of Atlanta. He has been with that organization since 2008, when he joined the team to help build a loss prevention department from the ground up. Before his leadership role with Carter’s, Shugan served as the manager of investigations for Cracker Barrel Old Country Store. In 2009, Shugan was honored by the Security Director’s Report in a “Top 20 Under 40” list. Shugan is also involved with the National Retail Federation’s LP Advisory Council.

For the November-December 2016 issue of LP Magazine, Shugan details the evolution of the loss prevention department at Carter’s since he started it as a team of one. He shares the organization’s expectations for the LP team, the true measurements of success, and the crucial objectives that lie ahead. One successful LP program is described by Shugan in the article:

“We focus on proactive programs and have several programs here that achieve that approach. I use the phrase “loss prevention” with its literal meaning in mind, which is to prevent loss versus being a loss-reactive department.

Digital Partners

One example: we created a program here several years ago called ‘LP EveryDay.’ The team calls thirty stores every single week—five per region—and we ask them an LP trivia question. Only sales associates are allowed to participate. We post the trivia question and the answers in our weekly newsletter that goes out through our communication department. So this is an open-book test. We ask them things like: Do you know what your shrink is? Do you know what our LP program model is? Do you know what is your store’s highest-shrink item? If they get it right, they get entered in a drawing to win a gift card at the end of the month. If they get it wrong, we have that opportunity to train them. But they get excited when they’re called; it’s almost like a call-in radio show. The following month, we print the winners in our communications newsletter. It’s a way to keep LP alive and breathing every single day.”

Read the full article, “Building an LP Department Focused on People,” or check out the other articles in the November-December 2016 issue. Not subscribed yet? No problem – register here for free.