Disaster Cleanup in Aisle 2: Emergency Preparedness in the Retail Environment

While retailers are uniquely positioned to assist communities, they also have to attend to their own risk management concerns. Preparedness can be difficult because retailers need to strike a balance between serving their customers and protecting their facilities. Store lock-down is not usually an option, nor are any preparedness efforts that disrupt customers or make their shopping experience uncomfortable. Risk mitigation efforts that might work in airports, such as metal detectors or bag checks, are not possible in the retail environment without risking harm to the brand.

Retailers also need to remember that, more than any other sector, they are generally on their own in cases of emergency. Citizens turn to the government or emergency personnel. Local agencies turn to state or federal agencies for support. The private sector is generally left to fend for itself and is the last to receive assistance, so retailers need to put preparedness at the forefront of their asset protection and loss prevention agendas. With that in mind, the following are five tips for effective emergency preparedness planning in the retail environment.

1. Put Safety First
Saving lives is the most fundamental priority in emergency situations, and preparedness measures must be designed to place the safety of customers, employees and the community before anything else. Safety preparedness should also focus on "all hazards," meaning retailers need to have a plan and process for all possible types of disasters, not just the ones currently making headlines.

2. Empower People and Communicate Priorities
When an emergency actually occurs, immediate decisions are required. There is neither time-nor often the ability-to contact superiors. By providing clear and simple corporate priorities (say, personnel safety, employee communications and reopening the store, in that order) and giving employees the leeway to make decisions when actions are critical, these employees can make a real difference. Take the Walmart manager who broke into the pharmacy supply cabinet after Hurricane Katrina to deliver life-saving medicines to hospitals. The manager knew that, for Walmart, saving lives is the first priority, and she took action to support that principle. This kind of empowerment lets the people with local knowledge use their expertise. They are on the scene, they know what is needed and they can act accordingly.

3. Plans vs. Planning
As Dwight D. Eisenhower once said, "Plans are nothing; planning is everything." This means that, by themselves, preparedness plans are just lists of procedures, contacts and resources. In order to be truly effective, plans need to be put into action by taking what is on paper and putting it to use through testing, training and communication.

4. Business Continuity
Getting the store open again as soon as possible after the event can be misinterpreted as a cold-hearted, capitalist objective, but nothing could be further from the truth. Operational retail businesses serve the community by providing access to critical supplies from food and bottled water to life-saving medications and vital tools. In the longer term, they can provide jobs and revenue to the community to aid in its recovery. Good business continuity planning requires cooperation from all facets of the retail operation, including sourcing and stockpiling merchandise that will be needed, installing make-shift communication systems or altering the physical area to allow for deliveries or customer access. Security personnel must also be able to identify possible threats and ensure the safety of employees and customers alike.

5. Select the Right Decision-Makers
When an emergency occurs, the best business leaders may not necessarily make the best decision-makers. There is a distinct difference between the skills needed to make business decisions and those needed to function effectively in a crisis. Traditional business leaders usually want to collect as much data as possible, carefully evaluate all of it, and then make the best possible decision. But in a crisis, information is limited or inaccurate and time is of the essence. Therefore, traditional business leaders may need to step aside in favor of designated crisis management personnel-often operations or security professionals-who have been selected for their ability to stay calm and make tough calls when there are few good options.