When you think of jewelry, you’re probably like me and think of a high end diamond retailer with every item neatly kept and secured in a glass case. Those guys don’t have to worry about shoplifters. Well, those aren’t the only pieces of jewelry that are worth stealing. Walk into any mall, or retail store and you’ll quickly notice that whole sections of the store are dedicated to necklaces, bracelets, earring and watches. If you’re like me, you’ll also notice that the vast majority of those items are in very minimal packaging and can be quickly and easily concealed. How can you prevent shoplifting on such a small item?
Any day of the week, I can walk into my store and head over to a few choice sections of the store and find evidence of theft. One of these locations is close to the jewelry/accessory department. Every day when I come to work, I check the shelves on this particular aisle for empty packages or discarded merchandise tags. One day, I was being extra nosey and lifted some basedecks. There, I found nearly 100 different tags for all sorts of bracelets and earrings. None of these items were protected by Alpha Jewel Loks (like some other higher end products were), so they were an easy target for this shoplifter. I went and reviewed video, but I didn’t have any coverage to that specific area of the store.
About two weeks later, I went back to that same basedeck and again found about 50 discarded packages. I had to catch this shoplifter, so I moved a camera to give me eyes on this aisle and waited a few days before I checked again. In addition, I started tagging some of those lesser value items that I had been finding with the Alpha Jewel Lok to see what impact that may have. The great thing about these tags is that they actually protect the item and not just the packaging they are in. Basically, the only way to steal the jewelry would be to damage, or break it, making it useless for the thief. They are great at preventing shoplifting… that is, if they are used on the items that are getting stolen!
Well, another week or so went by and I again checked the same basedecks. Again, I found about 50 or so empty packages. Strangely enough, I also found packages for merchandise that were secured with the Alpha Jewel Lok, in addition to finding the tags hidden there as well. I was a bit annoyed since these tags were supposed to prevent shoplifting! I quickly dashed to my office to review the last few days and within an hour or so, I had identified the person responsible for theft. That person happened to be one of my jewelry department associates.
After watching the video, I was able to see where she was taking the merchandise, removing the EAS devices and concealing them in her purse throughout the day. To mask the theft, she would hide the tags under the basedeck. After an investigation, it was uncovered that she had been selling the items online and making a de EAS labels Alpha Jewel Lok scent amount of money doing so. Altogherth, she was responsible for about $5,000 in theft.
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