I was shopping in a department store with my wife and as I am prone to do I noticed the Sensormatic security system towers at the doors. Sensormatic equipment is used by 80% of the top 200 retailers in the world (Sensormatic.com). I walked through this store and saw racks and tables filled with clothing that had not been protected with any Sensormatic labels or tags. This was peculiar to me. Why in the world would you have a system in place that could prevent theft and then not protect merchandise from the very theft you installed the system to defend against?
The purpose of an anti-theft system is to stop shoplifting, keeping merchandise in the store so it can be sold to the shoppers who want to purchase your products. In order for the system to properly work goods have to be tagged with electronic article surveillance tags and/or labels. It may seem like this should be common sense but if it is common sense then why do I find so many instances like the one I found during my shopping trip? Is it a lack of information on how a Sensormatic security system is supposed to work? I doubt it. This business has a Loss Prevention Department, I know because twenty-eight years ago I worked for them as a Loss Prevention Officer. Is there a lack of tagging due to payroll or the cost of the tags? This should not be a reason for neglecting tagging merchandise.Sensormatic hard tags are reusable so when a large quantity of tags are bought (which should be with the purchase of a new system) they aren’t going to quickly run out and require a new set to be bought. The tagging can be done by salesfloor employees as they are working. A newly installed system may require some initial payroll investment in order to get merchandise tagged but once complete it is simply a matter of maintaining the tagging program. In fact, if you were to use the Loss Prevention Systems, Inc. Free ROI Calculator you can include payroll into the amount you are willing to spend on a new system. After the numbers are figured the calculator will show you how long it will take for a new system to pay for itself. So I left the store perplexed at the lack of tagging I noted in my visit.
My wife and I then went into another department store, part of a company struggling financially at this time. Again, I saw theSensormatic security system towers at the front doors. My heart sank a bit as I noted to my wife how empty the store looked, of people AND merchandise. There were very few visible employees and very few customers for that matter. I could not help but wonder if the lack of merchandise was a planned decrease in merchandise levels or if a significant portion of the emptiness was a failure to stop shoplifting or a combination? With very few of the clothing items protected with a Sensormatic security tag I could only imagine that a significant portion of the financial woes faced by this business (and empty fixtures) was due in part to a poor anti-theft strategy. Even if an item was properly tagged and someone were to start to walk out of the store and activated the tower alarm, who was going to respond to that situation? No one was around to respond and the offender would have simply walked out without a proper package or receipt check. Since I was having a difficult time finding something that was tagged in the first place I’m not sure this was a concern anyways.
Having a Sensormatic security system will stop shoplifting but it requires some amount of effort. Proper tagging of merchandise, training of employees and staffing a store so someone is in a position to respond in a timely manner are important factors to consider. Loss Prevention Systems, Inc. can help you with theft prevention consultations to help make your store more money. They can even give guidance on how you can keep merchandise tagged and have employees staffed so they can respond to alarm activity. Don’t take my word for it check out their website for more information.
Get more information on a Sensormatic Security System, contact us or call 1.770.426.0547 today.
