It is you versus me. You are the business owner and I am a shoplifter. How can you try to stop me whose intentions are to steal from your business?
Increased prices, lost profits, inventory shrinkage and business closures are due to billions of lost dollars; dollars lost to retail theft. As you manage your daily business processes, how do you manage to prevent shoplifting?
Employees who are committed to provide good customer services provide attention to honest customers which is very much appreciated yet, I despise that service. Your employees who want to prevent shoplifting through good customer service are my worst enemy.
But I also look for secluded areas or blind corners in your store. You can prevent shoplifting by ensuring that your sales floor doesn’t provide such opportunities to me. And how are you handling your high theft items? Are they in a locked case or in a secure area? If they are not, move them so that an employee can be nearby.
What is considered a high theft item? A business needs to keep track of its inventory versus its sales of products so that a loss can be identified quickly. Once an item is identified as high theft, then measures can be taken to prevent the theft of that merchandise.
Decreased staffing has also assisted my efforts. If you have a large business and you only have a few employees on the floor at one time you cannot prevent shoplifting. I enjoy being unattended so that you cannot prevent shoplifting. Good customer service and a well laid out sales floor make it nearly impossible for me to do what I planned on doing when I entered your business. You and your profits win, while I lose. That was your goal to begin with wasn’t it?
For more information contact us or call 1.770.426.0547 – Atlanta Georgia
Should you bring a loss prevention investigator into your business to conduct the necessary research to identify the cause of a loss, develop a case, and refer it to the necessary authorities? Successful prosecution can be sought by employing an expert and recovery of the loss, in the form of restitution, can occur.
If a business experiences a loss that involves several employees, it might be best to bring in a loss prevention investigator. Several years ago I conducted a large internal theft investigation that ultimately involved eight employees resulting in losses amounting to more than $8,000. A case as complex as one like that, can be time consuming and may require the expertise of a loss prevention investigator.
Frequently a case that involves employee theft cases can be much bigger. Employee theft is the cause of more shrinkage than shoplifters because the dollar amount per instance is usually much higher. I was able to dedicate the time needed to the case I mentioned above and was able to thoroughly investigate this case, but many smaller businesses may not have the time or the loss prevention knowledge necessary to tackle this type of large theft investigation.
If you want to prevent the type of the theft involving employees from occurring, it might be in your best interest to hire loss prevention consultants who help to establish a loss prevention program after having analyzed a business and its security measures. Managers or business owners may overlook problems in the security and loss prevention measures that are obvious to loss prevention consultants. You want to reduce or eliminate the opportunities which present themselves to employees if you don’t deploy theft prevention measures thus reducing employee theft as well as shoplifting.
If you understand the principles surrounding inventory shrink, it is also critical to understand how to appropriately react when shrink occurs. Trained experts in the field of shrinkage prevention or shrinkage reaction like loss prevention consultants or a loss prevention investigator may need to be called upon in those instances.
For more information contact us or call 1.770.426.0547 – Atlanta Georgia
It’s that time of year again. Shoppers will be hitting the stores and malls with giving on their minds. It’s one of the busiest times of the year for everyone, especially criminals.
Prepare yourself for the holidays by familiarizing yourself with some basic crime prevention tips to help minimize your chances of being victimized during the busy holiday season.
- Be aware of the people around you. Some of them are out to commit crimes. Don’t be easily distracted; know where your shopping bags, packages, and/or other personal items are at all times. If you carry a purse or handbag, make sure not to leave them unattended. Keep an eye on your purchases.
- Always keep a hand on your wallet or purse. Many purses are stolen out of shopping carts when an unsuspecting shopper turns her back or walks away from the cart momentarily. If your purse or wallet is stolen, you need to call your credit card companies and the bank immediately. Thieves do the most damage in the first couple of hours after stealing these items.
- Avoid shopping alone. Take a friend or a relative to help you carry bags and/or packages.
- Park in a well-lighted space, and be sure to lock the car, close the windows, and hide shopping bags and gifts in the trunk.
- Avoid carrying large amounts of cash; pay with check or credit card whenever possible.
- Shopping with kids? Teach them to go to a store clerk or security guard if you get separated.
- When walking back to your automobile, have your lock key ready. Avoid having to look for it in your handbag. When parking, try to park near or as close to the entrance to the store as possible.
- Check the back seat, under and around the car before getting in.
- Do not leave shopping bags exposed in your car while unattended.
- If you think are you being followed, drive to a public place or a police, sheriff, or fire station.
Most thieves pick out their targets before committing a crime. They don’t want to get caught so they choose victims that aren’t paying attention and may not notice something missing from a purse or packages. Criminals don’t like to be noticed or remembered. They may decide against the person who has looked at them and said hello and move on to someone who is not as aware.
Holidays are a fun time of year, but can be disaster for the victims of crime. Be aware this Christmas and reduce your chances of being a victim. Don’t give these bad guys the opportunity to steal from you. Be aware of your surroundings and vigilant about your personal safety and security.
Most of all – have a great holiday season.
Loss Prevention Systems, Inc. wishes to thank the Washington County Oregon Sheriff’s Office for sharing this article.
There are many retail loss prevention controls that can be put in place . Have you ever noticed the back of your debit credit card? (I hope you all have any way!!) There is a strip on the back for your signature. This serves a purpose in that the retailer should check for a signature match on a slip when a purchase is made. If no signature is present, the retailer should ask for identification.
A few months ago, I walked in a Home Depot Store, purchased a $500 dollar item. That part of the story is not very remarkable. The way I purchased the item is. I used a company credit card, in a man’s name, (I am female). The cashier looked at me, said thank you and I left with my item. Not a good way for retail loss prevention to be obtained.
Credit card fraud is a huge problem in actual retail stores. The retailers have become very relaxed on their credit card acceptance policies. One reason is a retailer is not liable for fraudulent credit card charges. It gives them no incentive to check identities of the user. The second reason they are so negligent is they want to shorten customer’s time standing in a checkout line.
Would be credit card thieves contribute to inventory shrinkage through many different avenues. Preventing credit card fraud at your locations is one of the easiest ways to implement the first steps in a retail loss prevention program.
Need help finding other ways to secure your business and increase profit? For more information contact us call 1.770.426.0547
There are literally hundreds of methods employee theft will occur in the workplace. Here is a listing of the top 5 employee theft items large to small employers will face, cash, merchandise, hours, expenses, and office supplies.
Cash – If you have a retail operation, it’s very important that employees do not use the same cash register. It’s extremely difficult if they are all lumped together to find the responsible party if cash comes up missing. Cash theft can encompass company credit cards, tips from other employees, return/exchange theft from transactions and a variety of other schemes.
Merchandise – It is amazing but data shows that management employees of retail stores are more likely to partake in employee theft than lower level store employees. Retailers have been known to lose even large articles, such as televisions or computers.
Hours – There are many companies out there still using manual time cards. The pen and paper method makes it easy for employees to pad their hours, showing more time than they actually worked.
Expenses – Expense reports are a little harder to fake due to attaching receipts, however there are several ways to get around that. For instance, an employee can add mileage to trips or additional tip percentages to meals. Some companies do not require receipts for under $25.00 purchases, this leaves a huge transaction opportunity for employee theft.
Office Supplies – This seems like an insignificant issue that increases employee theft problems, however if you have a very large company it can become quite costly. On the flip side, if you are a small employer and you only purchase one box of pens, all of them are “borrowed”, your expenses double for office supplies for that item.
Have theft issues in the workplace? For more information contact us at employee theft or call 1.770.426.0547 – Atlanta Georgia
