Winter 2022

Page 48

An Ounce of By Cory Lowe, PhD

Ianonymous author wrote n February of 1735, an

a letter to The Pennsylvania Gazette titled “On Protection of Towns from Fire.” The letter discussed how volunteer fire departments might be organized and resourced. However, the author started by listing the ways townspeople could prevent fires, such as being careful when carrying hot coals around the house or regularly sweeping chimneys. This article is famous today for two reasons. First, we now know that Benjamin Franklin wrote the letter and anonymously submitted it to his own newspaper. Second, Franklin used the now‑famous phrase “an

ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” for the first time in the letter. Franklin’s argument was that, in the worst possible scenario, all the fire departments in the city would not be able to extinguish a very large fire. Therefore, the townspeople needed to do all they could to prevent fires. Today, retailers are faced with the worst possible scenario—a metaphorical retail theft “fire”—and cannot just react to it. Retail offenders are becoming more brazen and aggressive, and retailers cannot rely on the criminal justice system to address the problem. Yes, many retailers have reduced or eliminated in-

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5D Retail Theft Prevention across the Five Zones

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