Shoprite is one of the most attractive name in the armed robbery business.
The retailer, which is Africa’s biggest, sees more than 1 armed robbery at its stores everyday. Last year, they had a total of 489 armed robberies.
Now, they have ramped up their security operation, setting up a department with crime analysts, investigators and even criminal lawyers.
They say that these latest measures have bore fruits, with arrests of criminals involved in Shoprite attacks going up 200%. They recently assisted in the arrest of two robbers involved in the shooting dead of its Worcester branch manager.
It is unclear whether this is part of a citizen arrest program, or they are in fact working directly with the police.
“Incidents of violent crime and robberies are coming down, and we will continue to do everything we can to make us a harder target,” Shoprite group loss prevention manager, Oswald Meiring, said.
Among some of the moves the retailer has taken is setting up a central command centre.
Here they are able to monitor all stores and can remotely trigger security alarms and devices.
Further, locks on trucks are managed from here, and can be opened or closed remotely. Alarms will be triggered if the trucks are stationery for certain length of time. This has been one of their more effective measures, with zero reported incidents on their transit goods since installation.
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