As I write this column, Hurricane Irma is bearing down on Florida just two weeks after Hurricane Harvey devastated southeast Texas and southwest Louisiana. Both storms have exacted extreme damage termed “unprecedented,” “800-year event,” “largest ever in the Atlantic,” and other superlatives that seem to have become the new normal.
At the same time, we are seeing tremendous response to these disasters from all parts of the local, state, and national communities, especially from retail. Retailers have always been on the front line of disaster response be it home centers providing materials for hurricane preparation and then rebuilding, convenience stores and service stations providing fuel and ice, and especially supermarkets providing fresh and prepared food, water, and other essentials to both first responders and victims.
With Hurricane Harvey, we heard about the great efforts put forth by H-E-B, Walmart, Kohl’s, and others. Just as we did with Hurricane Katrina in 2005, we want to tell the story of how retailers handled their crisis management and business recovery with these storms. Please contact me directly if you want to be included in this story.
LPM Online
In August we premiered a new digital magazine called LPM Online. We plan to publish our digital magazine bimonthly on even-numbered months in between our print editions. We are excited about this digital publication because of the dynamic elements that can be added to both the editorial as well as the advertising—things like videos, podcasts, and animations that will bring the information alive.
We are also planning to use this vehicle for focused editorial. For example, in the August edition, the majority of topics were on the broad subject of surveillance. Articles included:
- Adapting LP Strategy to Retail’s Revolution,
- Feature Recognition as a Sales and Marketing Tool,
- Why You Need Complete Video Coverage for Your Store,
- Retail Technologies and Privacy, and
- Surveillance-related news from solutions providers.
In the future we will focus on subjects like safety, data analytics, e-commerce, and organized retail crime (ORC). We hope the focus we choose will reflect your interests. As always, we welcome your suggestions for topics for LPM Online. Please send suggestions to editor (at) LPportal (dot) com.
The digital magazine is accessible at LPM-online.com. The digital magazine is optimized to view on any device, from smartphone to tablet to desktop.
To receive notification of all editions of LPM Online, you need to be a digital subscriber of LPM. It’s free and gives you access to all our digital content, including our extensive website, print magazine archives, special reports, and much more. If you are not a subscriber, subscribe now.
If you are a solution provider and want to reach the loss prevention audience with a medium that allows you to demo your technology, show a corporate video, or showcase your products and services in other ways, please contact our advertising manager Ben Skidmore at BenS (at) LPportal (dot) com.
We have always prided ourselves in being on the forefront of the LP and publication industries. After all, we were the first magazine to exclusively serve the retail loss prevention professional. We hope you enjoy our new digital-only publication as much as you do our print edition. Let us know what you think. We’re always interested in hearing from you. Contact me at JackT (at) LPportal (dot) com.
Jack Trlica
Managing Editor