With Proper Employee Training, You can Prevent Shoplifting in your Store!

There are hundreds, if not thousands of gadgets designed to prevent shoplifting. Some can be relatively inexpensive, while other systems can cost thousands of dollars to implement. In today’s retail climate, you, the business owner, or manager needs to maximize your profits, provide an enjoyable experience to your customer and at the same time keep your costs in line to stay out of the red. Your employees are an investment you make into your business, so why not introduce them to Lisa and Bob?
Lisa (Look InSide Always) and Bob (Bottom Of Basket) are two of my oldest friends, and they should be a part of your store training if they are not already. In my experience throughout my own career, I can assure you that anywhere between 40-65% of fraud and theft will happen at the point of sale. I can remember a few years back I was visiting one of my stores. I walked past the registers and noticed a customer purchasing a large ice chest. I watched as the cashier scanned the barcode on the cooler and the customer tendered payment and began to exit store. Upon the customer’s exit, the door alarm rang and it raised my suspicion since, the ice chest did not have any type of security device. The first thing I did was open the cooler. Much to my surprise, I discovered about $3,000 worth of assorted apparel merchandise. Would could this cashier have done to better prevent shoplifting through her register?
I can also recall a case recently where a suspect grabbed a 5hp boat motor and placed it under a shopping basket. He placed a bag of corn in the basket and checked out. Can you believe that the cashier failed to check the bottom of the basket (BOB) and allowed the individual to walk out of the store, causing an almost $2,000 loss? In speaking with that employee, they stated that this was their first job and no one had ever told them look under the basket! Again, we see how proper training can lead to increased sales and higher profits!
It’s always difficult to train new behaviors into your employees. I found that especially true in stores where loss prevention was never a focal point. You have to engage your employees and really get them to buy into your training. I used a simple game that really got my team involved in this. I took about 20 ‘sticky notes’ and wrote “Bring this to the Manager When Found” on them. I placed these in large items such as coolers, duffle bags, buckets and whatever other items I thought could be used to conceal other items in the store. I then told my team about these and offered a contest. Whichever one of my cashiers had the most “finds” at the end of the month would get lunch on the store. That month, we probably had $5,000 worth of recoveries from this simple training tool.  
You don’t always have to spend thousands of dollars on security measures to prevent shoplifting. Taking just a few minutes a day to train your employees on simple tactics to thwart a theft will ultimately make your store much more profitable. Remember, your employees are an investment that you make in your business, why not maximize that investment to its full potential?
For more information, contact us: Prevent Shoplifting, or call 1.770.426.0547

There are hundreds, if not thousands of gadgets designed to prevent shoplifting. Some can be relatively inexpensive, while other systems can cost thousands of dollars to implement. In today’s retail climate, you, the business owner, or manager needs to maximize your profits, provide an enjoyable experience to your customer and at the same time keep your costs in line to stay out of the red. Your employees are an investment you make into your business, so why not introduce them to Lisa and Bob?

Lisa (Look InSide Always) and Bob (Bottom Of Basket) are two of my oldest friends, and they should be a part of your store training if they are not already. In my experience throughout my own career, I can assure you that anywhere between 40-65% of fraud and theft will happen at the point of sale. I can remember a few years back I was visiting one of my stores. I walked past the registers and noticed a customer purchasing a large ice chest. I watched as the cashier scanned the barcode on the cooler and the customer tendered payment and began to exit store. Upon the customer’s exit, the door alarm rang and it raised my suspicion since, the ice chest did not have any type of security device. The first thing I did was open the cooler. Much to my surprise, I discovered about $3,000 worth of assorted apparel merchandise. Would could this cashier have done to better prevent shoplifting through her register?

 I can also recall a case recently where a suspect grabbed a 5hp boat motor and placed it under a shopping basket. He placed a bag of corn in the basket and checked out. Can you believe that the cashier failed to check the bottom of the basket (BOB) and allowed the individual to walk out of the store, causing an almost $2,000 loss? In speaking with that employee, they stated that this was their first job and no one had ever told them look under the basket! Again, we see how proper training can lead to increased sales and higher profits!

 It’s always difficult to train new behaviors into your employees. I found that especially true in stores where loss prevention was never a focal point. You have to engage your employees and really get them to buy into your training. I used a simple game that really got my team involved in this. I took about 20 ‘sticky notes’ and wrote “Bring this to the Manager When Found” on them. I placed these in large items such as coolers, duffle bags, buckets and whatever other items I thought could be used to conceal other items in the store. I then told my team about these and offered a contest. Whichever one of my cashiers had the most “finds” at the end of the month would get lunch on the store. That month, we probably had $5,000 worth of recoveries from this simple training tool.

You don’t always have to spend thousands of dollars on security measures to prevent shoplifting. Taking just a few minutes a day to train your employees on simple tactics to thwart a theft will ultimately make your store much more profitable. Remember, your employees are an investment that you make in your business, why not maximize that investment to its full potential?

For more information, contact us at Prevent Shoplifting, or call 1.770.426.0547