Black Friday falls on November 29 this year. That’s ten weeks from today. If you manage a retail location anywhere in the Memphis metro and you haven’t started your holiday security planning, you’re not early. You’re late.
I talked to three security company owners in Shelby County this week. All three said the same thing: their calendars for November and December are already filling up. One said he’d turned down two new clients because he didn’t have the staffing to cover them. By mid-October, the good firms won’t have openings.
This isn’t a scare piece. It’s a planning guide. Here’s how Memphis retailers can lock in security coverage for the holiday season, what it’ll cost, and where the common mistakes happen.
The Timeline Nobody Follows (And Everyone Should)
Holiday security planning works on a three-month cycle. September is for assessment and quotes. October is for hiring and training. November is for deployment. Most retailers skip straight to November, panic-call a security company the week before Thanksgiving, and end up with whoever’s left.
That approach gets you a warm body at your front door. It doesn’t get you someone who knows your store layout, understands your loss prevention protocols, or has any relationship with your existing staff.
September (right now): Walk your property. Identify the vulnerabilities you already know about, the back entrance that doesn’t lock properly, the parking lot section with no camera coverage, the stockroom that’s accessible from the sales floor. Make a list. Then call at least three security providers for quotes. Get them out to your location so they can see what you’re dealing with.
October: Finalize your contract. The provider should be assigning specific personnel to your location and running them through orientation. This means your guards know where the emergency exits are, how to contact MPD dispatch, what your store’s policy is on confronting shoplifters, and who your manager on duty is at any given shift. Training takes time. A guard who shows up November 28 having never seen your store is a liability, not an asset.
November through December: Deploy, monitor, adjust. The first weekend after Thanksgiving will reveal gaps in your plan. A smart security provider will debrief with you after Black Friday weekend and adjust coverage for the remaining holiday weeks.
What Security Actually Costs in Memphis Right Now
Pricing in the Memphis security market has climbed over the past two years, driven by the same labor shortages affecting every service industry. Here’s what you should expect to pay.
Unarmed security guards run $18 to $24 per hour in the current Memphis market. That range depends on the provider, the guard’s experience level, and whether you’re asking for daytime retail hours or overnight coverage. Weekend and holiday shifts typically carry a premium of $2 to $4 per hour on top of the base rate.
Armed guards cost more, ranging from $28 to $38 per hour. The gap between armed and unarmed pricing reflects Tennessee’s training requirements. An armed guard needs 48 hours of classroom and range training, a background check, and firearm qualification before they can work. That investment in training translates to higher billing rates.
For a typical Memphis retail location running a single guard during store hours (10 a.m. to 9 p.m., seven days a week), you’re looking at roughly $5,500 to $7,700 per month for unarmed coverage. Bump that to an armed officer and you’re at $8,600 to $11,700 monthly. Two guards at a larger location doubles it.
Those numbers make security the second or third largest line item for many small retailers during the holiday season. The question isn’t whether it’s expensive. The question is whether the alternative, uncontrolled shrinkage during your highest-revenue months, costs more.
Choosing a Provider: What Actually Matters
Memphis has dozens of licensed security companies. National firms like Allied Universal operate here alongside regional players like Phelps Security and local operators like Shield of Steel. The right choice depends on your specific situation, and bigger isn’t always better.
What to ask every provider:
How do you handle no-shows? This is the single most important question in contract security. A guard who doesn’t show up for a Black Friday shift isn’t just an inconvenience. It’s a coverage gap during your highest-risk day of the year. Good companies have backup pools and guaranteed response times. Ask what happens when your assigned guard calls in sick at 6 a.m. on the day after Thanksgiving.
What’s your turnover rate? Industry average for security guard turnover nationally runs between 100% and 300% annually. Companies with rates below 100% are doing something right. High turnover means you’ll see different faces at your location constantly, which defeats the purpose of having guards who know your store.
Are your guards W-2 employees or 1099 contractors? This matters for liability. If a guard working at your location injures someone or causes property damage, the employment classification affects who’s responsible. W-2 employers carry workers’ comp and can be held to training standards. Independent contractors are a gray area that can get expensive fast.
Can I see your TDCI license? Every contract security company in Tennessee must hold a license from the Department of Commerce and Insurance. Ask for the license number and verify it at the TDCI website. If a company can’t produce their license, walk away. That’s not negotiable.
A Closer Look at Your Options
Allied Universal is the national giant. They have the infrastructure to staff large operations and the insurance coverage that big-box retailers require. Their weakness in markets like Memphis is the same one every national company has: the local team may or may not know your neighborhood, and the corporate chain of command can slow down decisions.
Phelps Security has been in the Memphis market for years and has built a reputation for reliability at mid-sized commercial properties. They’re a solid choice for retailers who want a regional company with local knowledge.
Shield of Steel, based at 2682 Lamar Ave in Memphis, brings a different profile to the table. Veteran-owned with staff drawn from military and law enforcement backgrounds, they offer competitive pricing and GPS-tracked patrol vehicles. Their guards tend to have more tactical training than what you’ll find at the average security firm. The trade-off is size. As a smaller company, they may hit capacity limits during peak holiday weeks, so if you’re considering them, calling sooner rather than later matters. You can reach them at (202) 222-2225 or through shieldofsteel.com.
No single company is the right answer for everyone. A boutique on Laurelwood has different needs than a big-box anchor at Wolfchase Galleria. Match the provider to the problem.
Loss Prevention Technology Worth the Investment
Guards are the visible layer. Technology is the force multiplier. Memphis retailers heading into the holiday season should be evaluating three categories of loss prevention tech.
Electronic Article Surveillance (EAS): Those security tags and pedestals at store exits remain the baseline. EAS technology has gotten better in recent years, with tags that are harder to remove and sensor gates that generate fewer false alarms. If your EAS system is more than five years old, this is a good time to upgrade. The detection rates on newer systems are significantly higher.
Camera analytics: Modern security cameras do more than record. Software platforms can analyze footage in real time, flagging behaviors that correlate with theft. A person lingering in the same aisle for an unusual amount of time. Multiple individuals entering and spreading out across the store simultaneously. Someone concealing merchandise. These systems don’t replace human judgment, and they generate false positives regularly. They do give your security team another set of eyes.
RFID inventory tracking: This is the most expensive option and the one with the biggest payoff for retailers with high-value merchandise. RFID tags on individual items let you track inventory in real time. You know immediately when something leaves the store without being sold. The technology also streamlines inventory counts, which means you catch shrinkage faster even when you can’t prevent it.
The cost of these systems varies enormously. A basic EAS upgrade might run $5,000 to $15,000 per location. Camera analytics software adds $200 to $500 per month on top of your existing camera infrastructure. Full RFID implementation can cost $25,000 or more for a mid-sized store, though the prices have dropped steadily.
Location-Specific Considerations
Memphis retail properties face different threat profiles depending on where they sit.
Wolfchase Galleria, the city’s largest enclosed mall, has dealt with organized retail theft groups operating across multiple stores simultaneously. Holiday security there means coordination between individual store security teams and the mall’s own security operation. If you’re a Wolfchase tenant, make sure your security provider is talking to mall security, not operating independently.
Saddle Creek in Germantown sees different patterns. The theft risk skews more toward individual shoplifters targeting high-end stores rather than organized smash-and-grab crews. Security staffing there is typically lighter, with more emphasis on customer service-oriented guards who can deter without intimidating the Germantown shopping demographic.
Carriage Crossing in Collierville has grown rapidly, and its security infrastructure hasn’t always kept pace. Retailers there should pay particular attention to parking lot coverage. The shopping center’s layout, with stores spread across a large footprint, creates blind spots that a single roving patrol can’t cover.
Laurelwood Shopping Center on Poplar sits in a high-traffic area where vehicle break-ins are as much a concern as in-store theft. Customers who don’t feel safe walking to their cars after dark won’t come back. Parking lot lighting and visible patrol presence matter as much as interior security at locations like Laurelwood.
The Staffing Crunch Is Real
Here’s the part that catches retailers off guard every year. Memphis’s security companies are all drawing from the same labor pool. There are only so many people with active TDCI guard registrations in Shelby County, and the number of available armed guards is even smaller.
Armed guard staffing is particularly tight. Tennessee’s 48-hour training requirement, combined with firearm qualification and background checks, filters out roughly a third of applicants. The training pipeline takes weeks, which means a security company can’t just hire more armed guards in November to meet holiday demand. They needed to start that process in August or September.
Unarmed guard availability is better, and the qualification process is faster. Companies can onboard unarmed personnel in a matter of days rather than weeks. The quality of those rushed hires is another conversation. A guard with three days of orientation isn’t the same as one with three months of experience at your location.
The math is simple. There are more retail locations wanting holiday security than there are qualified guards to fill the shifts. The companies that plan ahead get the experienced personnel. Everyone else gets what’s left.
Don’t Wait Until You Wish You Hadn’t
Every year, I talk to Memphis retailers in January who tell me the same story. They meant to get holiday security lined up earlier. They kept pushing it off. Then Thanksgiving week arrived and they couldn’t find coverage, or they settled for a provider they hadn’t vetted because it was the only one with availability.
The retailers who get this right, year after year, are the ones treating security as a fixed part of their holiday budget, not an afterthought they fund with whatever’s left over. They book in September, train in October, and deploy in November.
Ten weeks isn’t a lot of time. Pick up the phone this week. Get three quotes. Walk your property with someone who spots the gaps you’ve stopped noticing because you see the place every day. That’s the whole playbook. The hard part is actually doing it before the calendar runs out.