Business insights. Баутина И.В - 21 стр.

5
Instead, you could try to make crime pay.
The idea came from the US, where almost every one of the 50 states has legislation
allowing retailers not only to sue thieves for the cost of goods lost or money stolen -
but also to claim up to four times the value, as well as what they spent on
investigations.
Another is to minimise the costs incurred once the investigation is complete.
Drydens, a law firm used by several large High Street retailers, has developed the
business of going after retail criminals into a production line.
In the seven years since its retail loss recovery work began, it has processed 75,000
cases - with clients filing details of shoplifting cases over the web and letters going
out to suspects automatically.
6
A third solution would be to cut back on opportunities by getting ahead of the
crooks - particularly the insiders who cause many of the biggest losses.
The business-government joint venture Action Against Business Crime is
sponsoring databases of persistent offenders, both insiders and shoplifters, to make it
more difficult for them to move from one target store to another with impunity.
Eventually, the data should be included in a national fraud reporting system -
although that remains at least two years away from going live.

b. Vocabulary tasks. The article deals mainly with the theme of losses. Find the
words or phrases in the text connected with this idea.

c. Match these terms with their definitions.
   1. Margin (also profit margin)           a) the amount of profit that a company
                                            makes on sth
   2. Loss reduction                        b) an act of making the amount of
                                            money which is lost by a business less
   3. Turnover                              c) the rate at which workers leave a
                                            company and are replaced by new ones
   4. Joint venture                         d) an agreement between two
                                            companies, especially in different
                                            countries, to do business together
   5. Shrinkage                             e) the process of becoming smaller in
                                            size; the amount by which sth becomes
   6. Deterrence                            smaller
                                            f) the place where you pay for goods in
   7. Till                                  a large store/shop
                                            g) the situation when there is a thing
                                            that makes sb less likely to do sth
                                          21