If you are not aggressively trying to prevent shoplifting in your retail store your profits will suffer. Shoplifters are not going away. In fact as un-employment continues to be high and the economy remains unstable a higher percentage of people are shoplifting to get what they need and want. We also know from studies that shoplifters shift to unprotected retailers.
From experience, I know that when shoplifters know that you are an easy target they will hit you over and over. Shoplifters will also tell their shoplifter friends about your store (“Hey they are asleep at the switch in there. They are clueless”). Over time you become “the store of choice”. Without realizing it your profits get slowly worse.
What measures do you take to prevent shoplifting?
- Training!!! Have an Anti-shoplifting training program. Doing it once feels good for a while but like any other business issue unless you make it a priority your employees will loose interest over time. You have to refresh and train new people.
- Install a Checkpoint Electronic Article Surveillance (EAS) system. Label and tag a select group of merchandise. EAS is a labor multiplier. Spend less labor dollars to cover the same amount of sales floor. Shoplifters are caught at the door. This creates deterrence. Word will get around.
- Don’t be afraid to approach suspected shoplifters. Their goal is to be anonymous. Let them know you are aware, see and are helping them. Shoplifters hate customer service. Give them their fill! If necessary stand right there with them providing exceptional customer service.
Waiting to prevent shoplifting is like hoping that engine knock in your car will get better on it’s own. YOU can fix the problem. Step back and objectively look at your operation now. You might be surprised what you see.
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Think of this, a shoplifter in your clothing area wants to steal a shirt. They conceal the shirt and leave. They get away and are not caught. Do you think they be back? Oh yeah!
Now consider this, when they get home (somewhere under a slimy rock) they take out their new shirt and discover a Checkpoint Chekink tag attached. OK now what do they do?
They will have to forcefully remove the Clothing Security Tag. When they do, long before the tag is broken off the two vials of pressurized ink/dye break the brightly colored mixture spreads out on the shirt staining it forever. And because the vials are pressurized the ink does not just seep out.
But wait; let’s put the entire shirt and Chekink tag in the freezer. Once we freeze the tag we try to then force it off. Sorry, we thought of that. The ink/dye in the glass vials are made with a solution that has anti-freeze. Oops, still pressurized and still liquid. Think they will come back to shoplift from you again? Probably not but your competitor down the street….
What about accidents by your store personnel? Won’t we ruin some merchandise? A high amount of force is required to break the vials and normal use does not cause a problem. Hit them with a hammer and we may have an issue. This is a clothing security tag with an attitude. Oh and by the way they work with any checkpoint hard tag or by themselves!
Think of this, a shoplifter in your clothing area wants to steal a shirt. They conceal the shirt and leave. They get away and are not caught. Do you think they be back? Oh yeah!
Now consider this, when they get home (somewhere under a slimy rock) they take out their new shirt and discover a Checkpoint Chekink tag attached. OK now what do they do?
They will have to forcefully remove the clothing security tag. When they do, long before the tag is broken off the two vials of pressurized ink/dye break the brightly colored mixture spreads out on the shirt staining it forever. And because the vials are pressurized the ink does not just seep out.
But wait; let’s put the entire shirt and Chekink tag in the freezer. Once we freeze the tag we try to then force it off. Sorry, we thought of that. The ink/dye in the glass vials are made with a solution that has anti-freeze. Oops, still pressurized and still liquid. Think they will come back to shoplift from you again? Probably not but your competitor down the street….
What about accidents by your store personnel? Won’t we ruin some merchandise? A high amount of force is required to break the vials and normal use does not cause a problem. Hit them with a hammer and we may have an issue. This is a clothing security tag with an attitude. Oh and by the way they work with any checkpoint hard tag or by themselves!
Checkpoint has released a new, dynamic clothing security tag. Called the “3G Hard Tag With Super Lock”, this tag is a bi-color gray/white. 3G’s are similar in size to the standard mini-hard tag.
3G’s will solve several problems in the mini-hard tag arena. Knockoffs that are cheap imports have been made to look identical to the Checkpoint mini hard tag, Genuine Checkpoint mini hard tags have the Checkpoint logo. Most knockoffs have rough edges that snag and damage clothing. They also have poor locking clutches that do not function smoothly. This causes frustration at checkout. The 3G has a hole located near the clutch that will take a flex string. This is used to loop the flex string through larger items and allows you to use the tag more diverse situations.
The 3G clothing security tags by Checkpoint will require a Checkpoint super detacher, which means that shoplifters will not be able to remove them. Store personnel will place the 3G the same as any other hard tag. Using a pin place them on a seam, top rear of a shirt below the collar, eyelet of a shoe, etc. Use the same pins you already have.
An additional clothing security tag suggestion is to place a label such as a 410 barcode in a pocket in addition to the hard tag. This will double your security for a few pennies more.
Tactics in Clothing Security Tags
If you are using regular clothing security tags but you are still are experiencing losses you need to evaluate the problem and take further action. Follow the process below:
1 Are your losses on all different types of merchandise you sell or just specific ones? In other words certain lines such as Polo or leather jackets are being targeted. You have to know this first. Keep a clipboard handy for your associates to note when they find evidence of the loss of tagged product.
5 Consideration should be given to the location of your clothing security tags. Do you put them on a seam or other location that is strong enough to make tag removal difficult? Are your associates applying tags to every one of the items that you have decided must be tagged? Many times tagging does not happen and the product gets put out anyway.
6 If it is specific line of items that have problems you may need to add a special tag to your arsenal of tags. Tags that go several more levels higher in security. You would not use these for everything, just problem areas. This new tag will still cause an alarm on the Checkpoint system as usual. However, the tag itself has its own sounder built in that is VERY loud. As the tag goes through the Checkpoint antennas its built in sounder goes off. There is little doubt at that point where the tag is.
Better yet while still in the store a shoplifter that attempts to damage or remove the tag will cause the tag sounder to go off.
7 Do your associates simply wave a customer through when the Checkpoint Anti-shoplifting system alarms? Every time you do this you train your customers, shoplifters and anyone else that observes this that you can shoplift and not be stopped.
If you put a properly train your associates and put a priority on clothing security tags you WILL reduce your shoplifting losses.
