Wouldn’t it be great if shoplifters would just stick to the same methods, and steal the same things every time? It certainly would make my job a lot easier, and it would even out the playing field. While it is no game to steal from businesses simply for the sport of it, or to resell the merchandise for pure profit, it can definitely be compared to the standards of cat and mouse. We want to be proactive and get the return on the investment in the different Anti Shoplifting tools we utilize. More often, however, we end up reacting to a theft and making our choices based solely on those events.
I’ll give you an example from the latest edition of “how shoplifters drive me crazy”. I work for a retail pharmacy, and we sell various items out front based on the season. Two years ago the fragrance gift sets I had displayed for Christmas kept disappearing. When I reviewed video I found several instances where people were picking them up and taking them to the pharmacy to check out. They would have their prescriptions rang up, and then on the way to the front door, would just put the fragrance boxes into their bag. Last year, I decided the way to outsmart them was to put Checkpoint Labels inside the packages so the alarm would sound if they tried to leave without paying. It was Anti-Shoplifting 101 and worked well until they figured it out. Then they just started leaving behind the empty packages instead. I found the boxes stuffed in some strange places around the store. So this year, I changed it up again. When the fragrance sets arrived this year, I picked out the ones that were targeted most last year plus the new releases from this year, and put Spider-Wraps on them. The sets were selling instead of vanishing. Even the boxes I had not put anything on were not being stolen, and I really thought I had won the battle of the year.
Reality came back to me one day when a pair of shoplifters came in and re-taught me a lesson. My assistant looked up one weekend afternoon hearing the Checkpoint Alarm sounding, and sees two people running out the door with large gift bags in hand. Upon viewing the surveillance feed, we saw they had come in, gotten a shopping cart, and went to get those big bags from the greeting card section. They opened the bags, placed them in the cart, and began filling them with all the name brand hair regrowth products. It totaled over $300.00 in one hit. Of course, when they were replenished the next week, I placed some Spider-Wraps to these items. The worst thing was knowing these products had been stolen before, but my tunnel vision around the fragrance sets prevented me from thinking about that.
I got too wrapped up in seasonal merchandise being stolen, and forgot about the everyday stuff. Anti-Shoplifting efforts are a constant challenge, and if you let your guard down, the thieves will change their methods or their target items and leave you wondering: what just happened? Know the season, the new items that are trending, and use your instincts to determine what is likely to be your store’s most vulnerable products. Get input from your staff and the local police. Here is a tip from me: It is almost time for back to school; if you sell school items, start preparing now for what you will do to protect them.
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