You might have heard some of the news stories about shameless thefts at Ulta Beauty locations and wondered how people seem to get away with this kind of crime. What exactly is the Ulta shoplifting policy?
Ulta Beauty spokespeople and ex-employees have indicated that employees are instructed not to confront shoplifters or try to follow them. Even security staff might not pursue criminals that are leaving the store.
Read on to find out why!
Does Ulta Beauty Have A Universal Shoplifting Policy?
Before we get into what we know, it is important to first talk about how difficult it is to say exactly how individual employees at specific Ulta establishments are told to handle shoplifters.
Ulta Beauty is a very large chain of American beauty stores that operates around 1,200 locations across the country. They employ around 37,000 people and reported a revenue of more than $10 billion in 2023.
With so many different shops in so many different parts of the country, it shouldn’t be too surprising to understand that some of these locations will operate under different rules than others.
While there will be a general policy to follow, each manager could make adjustments to how that is implemented at their store based on the specific security issues that they face.
Additionally, most companies never fully release the details of their theft and shoplifting policies as this would give criminals information that they could use to bypass their security measures.
The information that we do have comes from spokespeople for the company and ex-employees who have discussed the policies that they personally operated under – which may differ from store to store.
What Is The General Ulta Shoplifting Policy?
While we don’t know everything that is underlined within the Ulta Beauty shoplifting policy and how it is implemented at every location, reports have given a pretty clear message about the general rules that employees are expected to follow.
Ulta employees are typically told not to interfere with, or take video of, shoplifters that are trying to get away from the store. This is why you may have seen news reports where brazen shoplifters are able to walk out of an Ulta Beauty with large quantities of goods without being stopped.
This might seem like a confusing policy to the general public, but there are good reasons why a company like Ulta might choose to operate this way – and many other retailers actually instruct their employees in a very similar way.
Why Don’t Ulta Employees Stop Shoplifters?
So, why is it that the staff at Ulta are told not to confront people that are shoplifting from their stores, or even take video of them? The answer is relatively simple: it’s not worth it.
Ulta Beauty does not want to risk the situation escalating and potentially losing money in a lawsuit, and they are confident that they will recover any lost revenue without having to physically stop shoplifters from leaving. Insurance will cover the value of the items and they will get even more money back through the courts once the perpetrators are later arrested by police.
Ulta claims that the main reason why they instruct their employees not to interfere with shoplifters or video them is for their own protection, which is certainly partly true.
Confronting a criminal is risky, particularly if they are part of an organized shoplifting ring. Ulta doesn’t want to be responsible for their staff getting hurt trying to intervene in a crime.
The other side of this, though, is that having their employees pursue and physically detain criminals could open the store up to potential lawsuits, either from an injured employee who feels they were instructed to do something dangerous by the company or from the alleged criminal who believes that the detention was unlawful.
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Will Ulta Security Pursue Shoplifters?
Before we talk about how Ulta actually does prevent and punish shoplifting, it is worth mentioning what security staff at Ulta locations might do.
Many stores will tell their general employees not to intervene when a crime might be occurring and, instead, to leave this job to their trained security staff.
They are better equipped to deal with these issues and trained in how to ensure that they are complying with local laws when they do.
Legally, security in almost every US state is allowed to detain anyone that they think has committed a crime or is in the process of committing a crime. They can use reasonable force to do so and can hold the suspect for a reasonable amount of time.
However, some reports from ex-employees have stated that even security staff at some Ulta stores have been instructed not to chase shoplifters if they try to leave.
They act as a deterrent in the store itself and may peacefully confront shoplifters but they are told not to actively pursue them when they run.
How Are Ulta Employees Told To Handle Shoplifting?
According to some sources, if Ulta employees do notice that someone is shoplifting, they are actually given some advice that might seem counterintuitive at first glance.
If the situation does not appear dangerous, then Ulta staff will interact with a shoplifter, but they are told to give great customer service and be very polite and friendly.
They will be overly nice and highly professional, which is likely to make the potential criminal uncomfortable enough to want to leave without actually taking anything.
It is actually a very common tactic in loss prevention. With this strategy, employees are not placed in harm’s way and a physical or dangerous confrontation is very unlikely, but shoplifters are not left alone to take anything else and they will feel highly pressured to leave without their stolen goods.
While they are doing this, though, there is more going on behind the scenes. Staff will be gathering as much evidence as possible about what the shoplifter looks like, the car that they are driving, their license plate, and any other information that they can possibly get. That way, they will have much more to give to the police so that the criminal can be apprehended later.
How Does Ulta Punish Shoplifting?
Considering the shoplifting policy that we have outlined so far, you might think that shoplifters could easily get away with stealing from an Ulta – but that is actually far from the truth.
The reality is that Ulta does not let shoplifters get away, they just handle the issue through the legal system and the police instead. After (or even during) a shoplifting offense, staff will contact the police and give them a huge amount of evidence on the crime.
Their staff, security teams, camera surveillance, tracking equipment, and much more will have been monitoring the individuals and the merchandise the entire time that they were in the store and the parking lot, and all of the evidence they have will help the police to track and arrest the suspects.
As well as going to law enforcement, pictures of the criminals will be immediately sent out to all Ulta locations and other stores in the local area so that they will all be on high alert and keeping an eye out for when the suspects might return.
Summary
So, what is the Ulta shoplifting policy? Employees are told not to try and stop shoplifters from leaving but, instead, to give them great customer service to prevent the situation from escalating and gather evidence for the police.
Law enforcement will be called straight away, and images of the suspects will be widely shared so that they can be found and prosecuted through the courts.
Through this policy, Ulta employees don’t have to be put at risk but the company still gets their lost revenue back, and the criminals are brought to justice.
Reference Source
https://www.the-sun.com/lifestyle/5307154/worked-at-ulta-security-guards-dont-chase-shoplifters/