Is your store a one stop shop for shoplifters? Some shoplifters come into a store fully prepared for the task ahead of them, and they have everything they need with them to commit the crime. They may already have tools, bags or other items used for defeating anti-shoplifting devices. Even if they aren’t prepared, there is no need for them to worry. You likely have everything, or at least some of what they will need to steal already in your store. Picture this, the shoplifter walks into the store and grabs a shopping cart. While still at the front, they decide to go green and pick up some of your finest reusable shopping bags.
Next, they find some items that they are interested in, but they are bothered by those pesky anti-shoplifting devices you put on them. Then they head over to the tools, hardware, crafts or other areas where they can pick up things they may use to help them commit the theft. Some of these items could be a screwdriver, razor blades, plyers, or even items made specifically for opening packages after purchasing them. Finally, when they remove the anti-shoplifting devices, they bag all of your stolen goods, and head out the doors looking like they made a purchase. It couldn’t be a better situation for the shoplifters to have everything they need in one place.
If you’ve never thought about it like that before, you aren’t thinking like a shoplifter. If you want to stop shoplifting in your store, you may want to start thinking like one. My point is that you could be making it convenient for your shoplifters without realizing it. You utilize other methods of retail theft prevention, so why not change your thinking in addition to help protect your merchandise. Instead of only monitoring high theft areas, you may want to consider keeping an eye on some of the supplies they may use to commit the theft as well. In addition, some of these items typically come in packaging that is easy to open or easily accessible, such as razor blades, which sometimes comes in cardboard packaging that can be easily ripped opened without tools and will then give them access to almost everything else in your store. One option is to put these items in merchandise protection such as hard plastic keepers so they wouldn’t be able to get them out of the package as easy. Not only would it prevent easy access, and in turn improve safety in the store because there is one less person walking around cutting things open with a blade.
To help stop shoplifting, you’ll definitely want to take a look at this in your store. The best way to watch for the activity is to put up a camera and then review the video, you’ll be surprised at what you’ll see. You may find that you have just as much chance of identifying a shoplifter in these areas as high theft areas you already have on camera. If you don’t have the budget for a new camera, try increasing employee presence in the areas or make sure you walk these aisles daily to look for suspicious activity.
For more information contact us: (anti-shoplifting) or call 1.770.426.0547
Is your store a one stop shop for shoplifters? Some shoplifters come into a store fully prepared for the task ahead of them, and they have everything they need with them to commit the crime. They may already have tools, bags or other items used for defeating anti-shoplifting devices. Even if they aren’t prepared, there is no need for them to worry. You likely have everything, or at least some of what they will need to steal already in your store. Picture this, the shoplifter walks into the store and grabs a shopping cart. While still at the front, they decide to go green and pick up some of your finest reusable shopping bags.
Next, they find some items that they are interested in, but they are bothered by those pesky anti-shoplifting devices you put on them. Then they head over to the tools, hardware, crafts or other areas where they can pick up things they may use to help them commit the theft. Some of these items could be a screwdriver, razor blades, plyers, or even items made specifically for opening packages after purchasing them. Finally, when they remove the anti-shoplifting devices, they bag all of your stolen goods, and head out the doors looking like they made a purchase. It couldn’t be a better situation for the shoplifters to have everything they need in one place.
If you’ve never thought about it like that before, you aren’t thinking like a shoplifter. If you want to stop shoplifting in your store, you may want to start thinking like one. My point is that you could be making it convenient for your shoplifters without realizing it. You utilize other methods of retail theft prevention, so why not change your thinking in addition to help protect your merchandise. Instead of only monitoring high theft areas, you may want to consider keeping an eye on some of the supplies they may use to commit the theft as well. In addition, some of these items typically come in packaging that is easy to open or easily accessible, such as razor blades, which sometimes come in cardboard packaging that can be easily ripped opened without tools and will then give them access to almost everything else in your store. One option is to put these items in merchandise protection such as Alpha Keepers so they wouldn’t be able to get them out of the package as easy. Not only would it prevent easy access, and in turn improve safety in the store because there is one less person walking around cutting things open with a blade.
To help stop shoplifting, you’ll definitely want to take a look at this in your store. The best way to watch for the activity is to put up a camera and then review the video, you’ll be surprised at what you’ll see. You may find that you have just as much chance of identifying a shoplifter in these areas as high theft areas you already have on camera. If you don’t have the budget for a new camera, try increasing employee presence in the areas or make sure you walk these aisles daily to look for suspicious activity.
For more information contact us: Anti-Shoplifting or call 1.770.426.0547
At the end of the day, the whole point of running a business is to make a profit. After you have paid your utilities, your suppliers, and your employees you need to have some money left in the bank. Retail stores in particular must have a plan to Prevent Shoplifting or there will be a hidden cost to the bottom line that cannot be seen on any P&L statement. Losing money to paperwork errors, computer errors and even vendor issues is expected and can even be budgeted to an extent. Those losses can be found, corrected, and reconciled.
When people are coming in and stealing the inventory that your store has paid for, you have to find and correct those problems too. It is a double loss to a retail business bank account when a thief steals your products. When the customer comes in to buy those very products, only to find you are out of stock, they leave empty handed and go shop your competitor. There are tools out there designed to help keep merchandise on your shelves, and available for purchase by your honest cash paying customers. My store is a big proponent of Alpha Products for inventory protection. When our store identifies an item that has become a target or just has the potential to become a target, we look at Alpha first.
There are the Keepers, which are clear, secure boxes that enclose the product while still giving complete visibility to the customer. They come in many different sizes, are simple for employees to use, and easy to remove when the product is brought up to be purchased. As far as Preventing Shoplifting, they make the items bulkier, and much harder to conceal. Thieves want to be silent, but try getting out the door with an arm load or bag stuffed full of these boxes, and you are going to make a lot of noise. There are also Spider Wraps, which wrap around large items from fragrance gift sets to electronics. I have used them on boxes of hair regrowth products, electronic toothbrushes, dvd players, and even 15” televisions. These have very strong thin cable lines that secure around the item, and they will alarm if the cable is cut. Both of these tools will cause the Checkpoint System to alarm if there is an attempt to remove them from the store.
These are just two examples of Alpha items that have made a big impact on our shrink numbers. They deter shoplifters and make them choose another retailer that has unprotected inventory instead. We have had problems in the past where we had to put items behind the counter, and put signs out front informing the customer to ask for them at checkout. It does keep the items from being stolen, but it also puts a big dent in sales. People do not want to have to ask a clerk to unlock the items they want to buy. That is as bad as having to ask for a key to the restroom; it is just bad business. When making the choices of how to Prevent Shoplifting, take a look at professional ways to protect your assets.
For more information contact us at Preventshopliftingloss.net or call 1.770.426.0547
At the end of the day, the whole point of running a business is to make a profit. After you have paid your utilities, your suppliers, and your employees you need to have some money left in the bank. Retail stores in particular must have a plan to Prevent Shoplifting or there will be a hidden cost to the bottom line that cannot be seen on any P&L statement. Losing money to paperwork errors, computer errors and even vendor issues is expected and can even be budgeted to an extent. Those losses can be found, corrected, and reconciled.
When people are coming in and stealing the inventory that your store has paid for, you have to find and correct those problems too. It is a double loss to a retail business bank account when a thief steals your products. When the customer comes in to buy those very products, only to find you are out of stock, they leave empty handed and go shop your competitor. There are tools out there designed to help keep merchandise on your shelves, and available for purchase by your honest cash paying customers. My store is a big proponent of Alpha Products for inventory protection. When our store identifies an item that has become a target or just has the potential to become a target, we look at Alpha first.
There are the Keepers, which are clear, secure boxes that enclose the product while still giving complete visibility to the customer. They come in many different sizes, are simple for employees to use, and easy to remove when the product is brought up to be purchased. As far as Preventing Shoplifting, they make the items bulkier, and much harder to conceal. Thieves want to be silent, but try getting out the door with an arm load or bag stuffed full of these boxes, and you are going to make a lot of noise. There are also Spider Wraps, which wrap around large items from fragrance gift sets to electronics. I have used them on boxes of hair regrowth products, electronic toothbrushes, dvd players, and even 15” televisions. These have very strong thin cable lines that secure around the item, and they will alarm if the cable is cut. Both of these tools will cause the Checkpoint System to alarm if there is an attempt to remove them from the store.
These are just two examples of Alpha items that have made a big impact on our shrink numbers. They deter shoplifters and make them choose another retailer that has unprotected inventory instead. We have had problems in the past where we had to put items behind the counter, and put signs out front informing the customer to ask for them at checkout. It does keep the items from being stolen, but it also puts a big dent in sales. People do not want to have to ask a clerk to unlock the items they want to buy. That is as bad as having to ask for a key to the restroom; it is just bad business. When making the choices of how to Prevent Shoplifting, take a look at professional ways to protect your assets.
For more information contact us at Preventshopliftingloss.net or call 1.770.426.0547
Thieves can be pretty smart. I’m convinced that if some of the people that I’ve come into contact with would just apply themselves to a legitimate business, they could be very successful. I guess it’s just easier to steal than to work…
Over the past couple of years, I’ve had more and more investigations that come from our e-com site. One of the more sophisticated schemes involved counterfeit purses and how a very inexpensive tool (the Alpha Shark Tag) helped us stop the losses.
It was bright and early one Monday morning (personally, my favorite day of the week), when I got to my desk I had a voicemail from the VP of brand protection that basically said, get your butt to my office as soon as you get this! I enter her office and she has boxes of these high end purses. She looks at me and says, “Do you see anything wrong here?” Puzzled, I said no. She began pulling purse after purse and after purse out of these boxes all the while throwing them in the corner. Each one she was touching was a counterfeit. Now, I’m not a purse guy myself, but according to the boss, a well trained eye could spot the fake. How had this happened? We were looking at nearly $30k in junk. Refund fraud.
After days of researching, we found that over the past several weeks, several individuals were making purchases of these purses legitimately through our online platform. They were all purchased using reloadable credit cards, but were shipped to the same address. Through our research we found that the purses would then be returned either through our stores, or directly back through e-comm. The catch? When they were returned, the actual product was switched with the counterfeit. During a routine walk through of the warehouse, one of the VP’s assistants saw the counterfeits and knew something was off. We had to stop this and after a bit of research, we found the Alpha shark tag to be the best solution.
We immediately made changes to our return policy regarding this particular line of product. Each would be affixed with an Alpha Shark Tag. These nifty little tags are removed by the customer at home and are placed in a very observable place. Once snipped, there’s no way to get it back on without you being able to see evidence of it being tampered with. Our return policy was amended to include language that stated once the tag was removed from the product, it could not, for any reason be returned. Within a few weeks, we stopped finding counterfeit goods. As far as our fraudster, the feds had a little chat with him at his house… since he was kind enough to provide his home address to us!
For more information, contact us: Shark Tags, or call 1.770.426.0547
Thieves can be pretty smart. I’m convinced that if some of the people that I’ve come into contact with would just apply themselves to a legitimate business, they could be very successful. I guess it’s just easier to steal than to work… Over the past couple of years, I’ve had more and more investigations that come from our e-com site. One of the more sophisticated schemes involved counterfeit purses and how a very inexpensive tool (the Alpha Shark Tag) helped us stop the losses.
It was bright and early one Monday morning (personally, my favorite day of the week), when I got to my desk I had a voicemail from the VP of brand protection that basically said, get your butt to my office as soon as you get this! I enter her office and she has boxes of these high end purses. She looks at me and says, “Do you see anything wrong here?” Puzzled, I said no. She began pulling purse after purse and after purse out of these boxes all the while throwing them in the corner. Each one she was touching was a counterfeit. Now, I’m not a purse guy myself, but according to the boss, a well trained eye could spot the fake. How had this happened? We were looking at nearly $30k in junk. Refund fraud.
After days of researching, we found that over the past several weeks, several individuals were making purchases of these purses legitimately through our online platform. They were all purchased using reloadable credit cards, but were shipped to the same address. Through our research we found that the purses would then be returned either through our stores, or directly back through e-comm. The catch? When they were returned, the actual product was switched with the counterfeit. During a routine walk through of the warehouse, one of the VP’s assistants saw the counterfeits and knew something was off. We had to stop this and after a bit of research, we found the Alpha Shark Tag to be the best solution.
We immediately made changes to our return policy regarding this particular line of product. Each would be affixed with an Alpha Shark Tag. These nifty little tags are removed by the customer at home and are placed in a very observable place. Once snipped, there’s no way to get it back on without you being able to see evidence of it being tampered with. Our return policy was amended to include language that stated once the tag was removed from the product, it could not, for any reason be returned. Within a few weeks, we stopped finding counterfeit goods. As far as our fraudster, the feds had a little chat with him at his house… since he was kind enough to provide his home address to us!
For more information, contact us at losspreventionsystems.com, or call 1.770.426.0547
If you are finding yourself reacting to a theft, especially one that falls under the umbrella of organized retail crime, you have lots of company. As a business owner or manager, you should have some type of Anti-Shoplifting plan in place. You may not use any type of product protection tools. Some businesses rely solely on customer service and/or securing items behind cases. If that is working for you, then by all means, carry on. In my store, however, that approach will simply not work. We sell a variety of items, and our stores are not set up to run that way. We sell many of the same items flea markets sell, and some of the unscrupulous vendors know the easiest way to make more profit is to pay as little as possible for their inventory.
In the world of organized retail crime, professional shoplifters prey on businesses like mine. They case our stores, know our trends, and strike when we least expect it. Fortunately our Anti-Shoplifting tool chest is full and our plans are ever-changing. If one thing doesn’t work, or stops working, we change it up. A new recruit for a fence operation may be deterred by Checkpoint tags. They know they will get less money for the stolen merchandise if it has to be cleaned. Another thief may not even look for tags, and just wipe out an entire section. You may choose to protect one type of product and then the next time they come in and go for a completely different line of product. One time it may be high retail skin care, the next it could be pain relief or stomach remedies. That unpredictability is what makes Anti-Shoplifting efforts so important when your business is being hit with this type of crime.
We are a small retail pharmacy. A lot of what the professional shoplifters are going for depends on the season. I had moved my focus to razor cartridges recently. That was where we were being targeted about twice a month. I now have them merchandised in Alpha Keepers. These are great deterrents because they add extra weight and bulk to the “job” of the thief while keeping the items visible to honest customers. The thefts had seemed to stop so when I walked into my cough and cold section on New Year’s Eve, I was not really surprised to see that all of my Breathe Right strips were gone, and I mean every single box. I watched the DVR and see a man come in, wearing a big puffy coat (it was actually a cold day) and accompanied by a child that looked to be no more than four years old. He held the child’s hand the entire time, except when he was dropping all nineteen of those boxes into a shopping basket. Then he took that basket over to another aisle, stuffed the product in his coat, left the basket in the floor, and they left. The boxes were all tagged with store identifiers and Checkpoint labels, so I’m fairly certain his coat was lined with foil because he never caused an alarm. As of now, since I have restocked, those strips are now merchandised in Alpha Keepers, in addition to the tags. It was a $250 lesson that taught, once again, the game plan has changed, so mine has to as well. It’s a shame he brought a child in to deter suspicion, and now that he has seen it work, he will likely try that again. Next time he comes in, he probably won’t be so apt to grab those strips once he sees they have been put into the keepers. Anti-Shoplifting is a big deal, and it can be hard work. You don’t have to fight that battle alone though. Take the time and look into some tools that will make your job easier.
For more information contact us at: Antishoplifting.net or call 1.770.426.0547
If you are finding yourself reacting to a theft, especially one that falls under the umbrella of organized retail crime, you have lots of company. As a business owner or manager, you should have some type of Anti-Shoplifting plan in place. You may not use any type of product protection tools. Some businesses rely solely on customer service and/or securing items behind cases. If that is working for you, then by all means, carry on. In my store, however, that approach will simply not work. We sell a variety of items, and our stores are not set up to run that way. We sell many of the same items flea markets sell, and some of the unscrupulous vendors know the easiest way to make more profit is to pay as little as possible for their inventory.
In the world of organized retail crime, professional shoplifters prey on businesses like mine. They case our stores, know our trends, and strike when we least expect it. Fortunately our Anti-Shoplifting tool chest is full and our plans are ever-changing. If one thing doesn’t work, or stops working, we change it up. A new recruit for a fence operation may be deterred by Checkpoint Tags. They know they will get less money for the stolen merchandise if it has to be cleaned. Another thief may not even look for tags, and just wipe out an entire section. You may choose to protect one type of product and then the next time they come in and go for a completely different line of product. One time it may be high retail skin care, the next it could be pain relief or stomach remedies. That unpredictability is what makes Anti-Shoplifting efforts so important when your business is being hit with this type of crime.
We are a small retail pharmacy. A lot of what the professional shoplifters are going for depends on the season. I had moved my focus to razor cartridges recently. That was where we were being targeted about twice a month. I now have them merchandised in Alpha Keepers. These are great deterrents because they add extra weight and bulk to the “job” of the thief while keeping the items visible to honest customers. The thefts had seemed to stop so when I walked into my cough and cold section on New Year’s Eve, I was not really surprised to see that all of my Breathe Right strips were gone, and I mean every single box. I watched the DVR and see a man come in, wearing a big puffy coat (it was actually a cold day) and accompanied by a child that looked to be no more than four years old. He held the child’s hand the entire time, except when he was dropping all nineteen of those boxes into a shopping basket. Then he took that basket over to another aisle, stuffed the product in his coat, left the basket in the floor, and they left. The boxes were all tagged with store identifiers and Checkpoint Labels, so I’m fairly certain his coat was lined with foil because he never caused an alarm. As of now, since I have restocked, those strips are now merchandised in Alpha Keepers, in addition to the tags. It was a $250 lesson that taught, once again, the game plan has changed, so mine has to as well. It’s a shame he brought a child in to deter suspicion, and now that he has seen it work, he will likely try that again. Next time he comes in, he probably won’t be so apt to grab those strips once he sees they have been put into the keepers. Anti-Shoplifting is a big deal, and it can be hard work. You don’t have to fight that battle alone though. Take the time and look into some tools that will make your job easier.
For more information contact us at: Antishoplifting.net or call 1.770.426.0547
Just another Monday at my store. I get in and get settled, then make my rounds of the store. I like to speak with all of my employees for a minute or so, every day. I’m also walking for opportunities to improve the store’s presentation, and of course, indicators of theft. This usually takes about an hour, so by the time I’m done, the store manager is calling everyone up front for the morning sales meeting. As the LP manager, I’ll also address the store team on trends we’re seeing with external theft and ways they can help the store prevent shoplifting. I use this time to acknowledge a sales associate who may have assisted in a shoplifting case, or some other type of positive reinforcement. I find this really motivates them to make shoplifting awareness a part of their day. I have 3 LP agents on my team. The store has 100 team members. 100 people can be in more places at once than 3.
As our meeting drew to a close and we were readying the doors for business, one of the store team members told me that she had found a defeated spider wrap near the boiling pots. She handed me the device and it was clear that it had been snipped off of whatever product it was supposed to secure. I thanked our employee for bringing it to my attention and went try to determine what happened. Thankfully, the area in which the tag was discovered was covered by a few CCTV cameras. I found where our employee discovered the anti-theft device and went backwards from there.
Even though I work for a rather large company, seeing a large theft that got away always makes me sick. I still get that feeling in the pit of my stomach, even though I’m not personally at a loss. I could only imagine how someone who owns their own store feels when the same thing happens to them. Recently, the store received a new fixture for GPS units. It was a secured cabinet with an area for display. The product, which was also secured with a Spider Wrap was behind a showcase under lock and key. The problem was that an employee was unfamiliar with the system. He sold a legitimate customer a unit and incorrectly set the locking device, leaving the showcase completely unsecured.
Thieves are often criminals of opportunity. If they see a chance, they will take it. This guy saw that my case was unlocked and completely emptied it out during a busy Saturday. I watched the CCTV in disgust as he took approximately $4500 in GPS units to a secluded section of the store, removed the anti-theft devices and placed them into a boiling pot, which he then brought up to the front of the store and paid for. There were employees all around, but no one paid any mind. I thought about what we could have done better and that’s when I realized that we had purchased the 2 alarm version of the tags. If we would have gone with the 3 alarm, those tags would have made an audible alert when they were compromised, alerting store personnel. That small difference could have meant the difference between that loss and a great recovery.
Just another Monday at my store. I get in and get settled, then make my rounds of the store. I like to speak with all of my employees for a minute or so, every day. I’m also walking for opportunities to improve the store’s presentation, and of course, indicators of theft. This usually takes about an hour, so by the time I’m done, the store manager is calling everyone up front for the morning sales meeting. As the LP manager, I’ll also address the store team on trends we’re seeing with external theft and ways they can help the store prevent shoplifting. I use this time to acknowledge a sales associate who may have assisted in a shoplifting case, or some other type of positive reinforcement. I find this really motivates them to make shoplifting awareness a part of their day. I have three LP agents on my team. The store has 100 team members. One hundred people can be in more places at once than three.
As our meeting drew to a close and we were readying the doors for business, one of the store team members told me that she had found a defeated Spider Wrap near the boiling pots. She handed me the device and it was clear that it had been snipped off of whatever product it was supposed to secure. I thanked our employee for bringing it to my attention and went to try to determine what happened. Thankfully, the area in which the tag was discovered was covered by a few CCTV cameras. I found where our employee discovered the anti-theft device and went backwards from there.
Even though I work for a rather large company, seeing a large theft that got away always makes me sick. I still get that feeling in the pit of my stomach, even though I’m not personally at a loss. I could only imagine how someone who owns their own store feels when the same thing happens to them. Recently, the store received a new fixture for GPS units. It was a secured cabinet with an area for display. The product, which was also secured with a Alpha Spider Wrap was behind a showcase under lock and key. The problem was that an employee was unfamiliar with the system. He sold a legitimate customer a unit and incorrectly set the locking device, leaving the showcase completely unsecured.
Thieves are often criminals of opportunity. If they see a chance, they will take it. This guy saw that my case was unlocked and completely emptied it out during a busy Saturday. I watched the CCTV in disgust as he took approximately $4500 in GPS units to a secluded section of the store, removed the anti-theft devices and placed them into a boiling pot, which he then brought up to the front of the store and paid for. There were employees all around, but no one paid any mind. I thought about what we could have done better and that’s when I realized that we had purchased the Alpha 2 Alarm version of the tags. If we would have gone with the Alpha 3 Alarm, those tags would have made an audible alert when they were compromised, alerting store personnel. That small difference could have meant the difference between that loss and a great recovery.
For more information contact us at losspreventionsystems.com or call 1.770.426.0547
