Crime and safety issues are impacting not just financial performance, but also the safety of store staff and customers. Over the course of this year, NACS convened an industry working group of asset protection, safety and loss prevention experts to navigate how retailers can support and protect their people and their stores.
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• Training and Education: “The issues we face today are different from those five years ago,” said Stillman. Retailers need more tools, resources and training for their employees. This includes better dialogue with law enforcement and community resources to find the right solutions.
• Data and Measurement: There is a need for accurate and consistent data to measure the industry’s issues and use that data to identify emerging issues and opportunities for training and resources. Data is essential for understanding what is happening, where it is happening and how we affect change.
• Advocacy: Effective advocacy requires good data, and anecdotal evidence is not enough. “We need solid empirical data to understand the situation and advocate for change,” said Stillman.

As his state’s chief prosecutor, chief securities officer and the chief legal counsel, South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson shared his perspectives on crime and safety issues, and how the convenience industry can address these challenges collaboratively.

One challenge for retailers, as also noted by Stillman, is having consistent data to benchmark crime across each state. “I firmly believe you cannot adequately manage a problem until you adequately measured that problem,” he said.

Under General Wilson, South Carolina has gone from having one of the worst human trafficking statutes in the U.S. to one of the best. In 2012, he worked with local legislators to strengthen the state’s human trafficking laws and established a Human Trafficking Task Force.

“When I became Attorney General, I went to a number of conferences. I met human trafficking victims, and I learned that this is a $200 billion a year industry worldwide, and that the United States is the number one destination for human trafficking in the world,” he said.

Convenience stores, noted Wilson, can have a very real and positive impact on combating human trafficking.

“Each and every one of you can be an ambassador to this cause, and you can be a foot soldier in the war against it. [Human trafficking] is real and it’s pervasive, and together, we can eradicate it,” he said.

“Convenience stores are the great public square of society. Everybody goes to convenience stores. You all have a constituency, and if you speak up with one voice, either through your national association or your local state associations, I promise you people like me will listen to you,” he said.

About NACS
As the leading global trade association for convenience and fuel retailers, National Association of Convenience Stores (NACS) advances the role of convenience stores as positive economic, social and philanthropic contributors to the communities they serve and is a trusted adviser to its retailer and supplier members from more than 50 countries. The U.S. convenience store industry, with more than 152,000 stores, conducts more than 160 million transactions daily and had sales of $860 billion in 2023. For more information, visit www.Convenience.org. Follow NACS on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

NACS Contact:
Jeff Lenard
V.P., Strategic Industry Initiatives
703-518-4272
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