It never fails. Every year as spring rolls around, baseball season really gets into full swing. For us, as a sporting goods retailer, this means long days and a high influx of traffic to this section of the store. But, it never fails. I should be more specific… people who want to steal my baseball bats. Last year alone, I lost about $10,000 in product that I narrowed down to external theft. More alarming is that 95% of that was taken by just one individual.
A few years back, we began using O-Tags to secure the baseball bats, in addition to a locking mechanism on the display feature. As the season progressed, I noticed that merchandise was missing, along with the O-Tags, but I didn’t have a single sale. They were all high end items that retail for anywhere between $300-$500. I thought I had an internal problem, but couldn’t develop any leads. I changed gears and looked at vendor shipping errors, but again came up dry. It wasn’t until I noticed some bent locking arms one morning that I found my culprit.
It was early Saturday morning and my staff was pretty light. This shoplifter slipped in virtually undetected. He was wearing what appeared to be a very nice suit. He had a female accomplice with a long flowing dress, with a large Sunday hat. The pair looked as if they were on their way to church services. Within two minutes, the male had removed 10 baseball bats from the arms and handed them to the female. It was as if I were watching a street magician. With one smooth motion, the bats disappeared under her dress. One by one by one, they all made their way… somewhere. 30 seconds later, they walked out the door, but the O-Tags set off the door alarm. Based on their appearances, and lack of any bag/purse, the manager on duty at the front doors simply apologized and let them on their way. Kind of ironic now that I think about that apology. This pair hit me 3 more times during the season, and to this day, I’ve not made an arrest.
For more information, contact us: O-Tags, or call 1.770.426.0547
It never fails. Every year as spring rolls around, baseball season really gets into full swing. For us, as a sporting goods retailer, this means long days and a high influx of traffic to this section of the store. But, it never fails. I should be more specific… people who want to steal my baseball bats. Last year alone, I lost about $10,000 in product that I narrowed down to external theft. More alarming is that 95% of that was taken by just one individual.
A few years back, we began using O-Tags to secure the baseball bats, in addition to a locking mechanism on the display feature. As the season progressed, I noticed that merchandise was missing, along with the O-Tags, but I didn’t have a single sale. They were all high end items that retail for anywhere between $300-$500. I thought I had an internal problem, but couldn’t develop any leads. I changed gears and looked at vendor shipping errors, but again came up dry. It wasn’t until I noticed some bent locking arms one morning that I found my culprit.
It was early Saturday morning and my staff was pretty light. This shoplifter slipped in virtually undetected. He was wearing what appeared to be a very nice suit. He had a female accomplice with a long flowing dress, with a large Sunday hat. The pair looked as if they were on the way to church services. Within two minutes, the male had removed 10 baseball bats from the arms and handed them to the female. It was as if I were watching a street magician. With one smooth motion, the bats disappeared under her dress. One by one by one, they all made their way… somewhere. 30 seconds later, they walked out the door, but the O-Tags set off the door alarm. Based on their appearances, and lack of any bag/purse, the manager on duty at the front doors simply apologized and let them on their way. Kind of ironic now that I think about that apology. This pair hit me 3 more times during the season, and to this day, I’ve not made an arrest.
For more information, contact us at losspreventioinsystems.com, or call 1.770.426.0547
Having your club or bar show up on the nightly news because of troublesome patrons is not the way to have a long running successful business. You hear it on a regular basis, fights and gunfire inside the building or even in the parking lot. Either people just stop coming or the owners lose their liquor license and the bar is forced to close down.
One answer to this ever increasing problem is to offer Bottle Service. Some people look down on Bottle Service, saying it may turn off the every day customer. While it is meant as a VIP service, it does not exclude the average blue collar group at all. In most cases there is at least a 2 bottle minimum purchase, and those are usually going to be premium vodkas or champagnes. The charge for these bottles range from $200 to $400. The idea is for groups to reserve these tables, not individuals, so the charges are split evenly among the party. The total bill will generally include the tip, and cover charge as well. This can get a group of 10 a great night out for about $75 each. The table has an assigned waitress, and is provided with all the mixers, clean glasses, and anything they need is replenished during the evening.
One extra step the club or bar can take is to attach Bottle Locks to those premium spirits so the waitress has control of the drinks. He or she provides this personal service to those patrons as part of the experience. Only they pour the drinks and mix them, so they are consistent and not too weak or strong. They can also monitor the party and keep track of how many drinks each person has. This keeps the party safe and fun instead of it turning into a dangerous situation. If someone becomes too intoxicated, the waitress can alert management and make sure they are not allowed to have any more drinks.
While Bottle Service does add a swanky feel to the night out, it should not discourage your average club-goer. It will, however, attract some higher end clientele. When your location attracts more of a professional business crowd, you change the atmosphere of your establishment.
Plus when you add Bottle Service, you take away some of the open space in your bar area. You will have the majority of your seating area taken up by reservations and paying customers instead of people just loitering around. Your business can still service those that are there for a quick drink with a friend or coworker, but when they have finished their beverages they should exit the bar seating area to allow others in. Bottle Service customers pay the premium prices for their seating, the personal attention, and the experience.
When your club takes the initiative to offer this type of service, and executes it well, word gets out among the young professional demographic. Nothing helps a business more than word of mouth and referrals. If your business needs to change it’s image, either from bad to good, or just to make to add a more high end feel, take a look at what Bottle Service can do for you.
For more information contact us: 1.770.426.0547 or Bottle-Services.net
Having your club or bar show up on the nightly news because of troublesome patrons is not the way to have a long running successful business. You hear it on a regular basis, fights and gunfire inside the building or even in the parking lot. Either people just stop coming or the owners lose their liquor license and the bar is forced to close down.
One answer to this ever increasing problem is to offer Bottle Service. Some people look down on Bottle Service, saying it may turn off the every day customer. While it is meant as a VIP service, it does not exclude the average blue collar group at all. In most cases there is at least a 2 bottle minimum purchase, and those are usually going to be premium vodkas or champagnes. The charge for these bottles range from $200 to $400. The idea is for groups to reserve these tables, not individuals, so the charges are split evenly among the party. The total bill will generally include the tip, and cover charge as well. This can get a group of 10 a great night out for about $75 each. The table has an assigned waitress, and is provided with all the mixers, clean glasses, and anything they need is replenished during the evening.
One extra step the club or bar can take is to attach EASy Bottle Locks to those premium spirits so the waitress has control of the drinks. He or she provides this personal service to those patrons as part of the experience. Only they pour the drinks and mix them, so they are consistent and not too weak or strong. They can also monitor the party and keep track of how many drinks each person has. This keeps the party safe and fun instead of it turning into a dangerous situation. If someone becomes too intoxicated, the waitress can alert management and make sure they are not allowed to have any more drinks. While Bottle Service does add a swanky feel to the night out, it should not discourage your average club-goer. It will, however, attract some higher end clientele. When your location attracts more of a professional business crowd, you change the atmosphere of your establishment.
Plus when you add Bottle Service, you take away some of the open space in your bar area. You will have the majority of your seating area taken up by reservations and paying customers instead of people just loitering around. Your business can still service those that are there for a quick drink with a friend or coworker, but when they have finished their beverages they should exit the bar seating area to allow others in. Bottle Service customers pay the premium prices for their seating, the personal attention, and the experience.
When your club takes the initiative to offer this type of service, and executes it well, word gets out among the young professional demographic. Nothing helps a business more than word of mouth and referrals. If your business needs to change it’s image, either from bad to good, or just to make to add a more high end feel, take a look at what Bottle Service can do for you.
For more information contact us: 1.770.426.0547 or Bottle-Services.net
Managers and owners in the pharmacy business have to be on constant guard for drug theft. There is the danger of an external robbery, but the more pressing problem is the possibility of internal theft by your very own employees. RX Caps can help deter this type of theft, and keep your valuable inventory on the shelves until they are ready to be legally dispensed.
Even with a camera covering every inch of the pharmacy work area, a person that is determined to steal drugs will find a way to get it done. They could slip an entire bottle in their lab coat pocket, and then put that bottle in a garbage back to take out, for example. Another tactic many employ is to just skim some from the stock bottle they are using to fill a patient’s prescription. They may take some of the patient’s medication, or just take some extra out before returning the bottle to the shelf. Knowing which types of medications may be targeted for theft can help you determine which bottles you could benefit from locking up with RX Caps.
We had an employee recently terminated for drug theft. You are probably thinking pain pills, but in this case, you would be wrong. We had noticed that she had been losing weight lately, and she seemed somewhat nervous, her hands shaky, while counting pills. She had also began requesting to be assigned certain tasks, such as cycle counting (verifying actual quantities on hand to the computer’s stated quantities). Fortunately for us, our system is designed to alert us if quantities on hand are changed on bottles that are also being ordered. We got such an alert on an appetite suppressant drug that was being ordered in amounts over what the system thought we needed since we were not dispensing it regularly. This was not a drug we had thought we needed to protect with an RX Cap. It turns out we were very wrong about this one. This young woman was hiding the drugs she was stealing in a small vial and slipping it into her clothing when she wanted more.
The idea behind RX Caps is that they will secure the bottles closed until they are needed for a prescription. Then the person authorized to open it will use the special magnet key to unlock it, dispense the medication into the proper customer’s bottle, and re-lock it back. Besides the fact that the bottle is secured shut while not in use, if there is an attempt to remove the bottle from the pharmacy, the cap has an alarm that will sound. In the pharmacy business, there is a lot of paperwork and time consuming reports around the loss of drugs. Between the DEA and the pharmacy board, it can be enough reason to consider locking up every bottle back there!
This is an ingenious way to keep the bottles on the shelves, while keeping their contents safe and reducing the temptation of drug theft. RX Caps can make your life in the pharmacy business a lot easier.
For more information contact us at Antishoplifting.net or call 1.770.426.0547
Managers and owners in the pharmacy business have to be on constant guard for drug theft. There is the danger of an external robbery, but the more pressing problem is the possibility of internal theft by your very own employees. RX Caps can help deter this type of theft, and keep your valuable inventory on the shelves until they are ready to be legally dispensed.
Even with a camera covering every inch of the pharmacy work area, a person that is determined to steal drugs will find a way to get it done. They could slip an entire bottle in their lab coat pocket, and then put that bottle in a garbage bag to take out, for example. Another tactic many employ is to just skim some from the stock bottle they are using to fill a patient’s prescription. They may take some of the patient’s medication, or just take some extra out before returning the bottle to the shelf. Knowing which types of medications may be targeted for theft can help you determine which bottles you could benefit from locking up with RX Caps.
We had an employee recently terminated for drug theft. You are probably thinking pain pills, but in this case, you would be wrong. We had noticed that she had been losing weight lately, and she seemed somewhat nervous, her hands shaky, while counting pills. She had also began requesting to be assigned certain tasks, such as cycle counting (verifying actual quantities on hand to the computer’s stated quantities). Fortunately for us, our system is designed to alert us if quantities on hand are changed on bottles that are also being ordered. We got such an alert on an appetite suppressant drug that was being ordered in amounts over what the system thought we needed since we were not dispensing it regularly. This was not a drug we had thought we needed to protect with an RX Cap. It turns out we were very wrong about this one. This young woman was hiding the drugs she was stealing in a small vial and slipping it into her clothing when she wanted more.
The idea behind RX Caps is that they will secure the bottles closed until they are needed for a prescription. Then the person authorized to open it will use the special magnet key to unlock it, dispense the medication into the proper customer’s bottle, and re-lock it back. Besides the fact that the bottle is secured shut while not in use, if there is an attempt to remove the bottle from the pharmacy, the cap has an alarm that will sound. In the pharmacy business, there is a lot of paperwork and time consuming reports around the loss of drugs. Between the DEA and the pharmacy board, it can be enough reason to consider locking up every bottle back there!
This is an ingenious way to keep the bottles on the shelves, while keeping their contents safe and reducing the temptation of drug theft. RX Caps can make your life in the pharmacy business a lot easier.
For more information contact us at Antishoplifting.net or call 1.770.426.0547
It is well-known in retail that there are shoplifters out to steal merchandise straight off of your shelves. There are even trickier ways that thieves can cause your store to experience loss, and many ways to prevent them from happening. In my business, they call these special shoplifting situations. One of the sneakiest ways shoplifters perform their “craft” is by switching merchandise tags. This can happen either before purchasing the merchandise, or before returning it. Another special shoplifting situation is when a customer attempts to return merchandise to the store that was not purchased at the store, called return fraud. Below are explanations of these tricky tactics, and some great ways to prevent shoplifting.
Ticket switching happens frequently and can be difficult to catch. The most common type of ticket switching is when an illegitimate customer takes the price tag from a less-expensive item, and places it onto the more expensive item they want to purchase. The level of sophistication in these schemes can vary. Most tag switchers will try to peel off clearance price tags, bend or tear cardboard tags off of the plastic tag holder and place them onto the item they want to purchase. Some thieves even utilize the plastic tagging guns that your associates use and replace the tags in a legitimate-appearing fashion.
Another form of tag switching is UPC switching, which involves either covering up, or replacing UPC barcodes on items to get them at a cheaper price. Sometimes thieves will take items completely out of a box and place them into the box of a cheaper item to get them at a reduced price. In my experience, I have even seen customers create their own UPC barcode stickers and place them over the original UPC on the item, ringing them up at a lower price. Likewise, I have seen UPC labels cut out of boxes and replaced with others for the same reason. Not only will shoplifters try to buy items at a lesser price, but they will also try to return them at a higher price than what they paid for, if they even paid at all!
Another special shoplifting situation is return fraud. This can happen in many ways, but most typically involves a shoplifter attempting to return merchandise that has either already been shoplifted, or that was just picked off of the shelf. This allows shoplifters to get 100% of the value of the product, instead of having to sell it on the streets for ten cents on the dollar. Likewise, they get immediate access to cash. There are many different elements that can be added to the return fraud scenario including the use of a receipt to conduct the fraud, tag switching or box-stuffing before return, UPC switching, just to name a few. There are two fairly simple yet powerful ways to stop shoplifting of this kind.
To prevent shoplifting that occurs through these special scenarios, employee training is most important. Ensure that employees know the return policy and stick to it; this goes for management also. There will be some exceptions of course, but following policy is the best way to insulate you from return fraud, along with having a good return policy. Secondly, employees must be familiar with product and prices! This will prevent return of merchandise that didn’t come from the store, and items being returned or purchased at a greater or lower price. Well trained employees can spot the brands that don’t belong in the store, and the prices that don’t match the product.
For more information contact us: Prevent Shoplifting or call 1.770.426.0547
It is well-known in retail that there are shoplifters out to steal merchandise straight off of your shelves. There are even trickier ways that thieves can cause your store to experience loss, and many ways to prevent them from happening. In my business, they call these special shoplifting situations. One of the sneakiest ways shoplifters perform their “craft” is by switching merchandise tags. This can happen either before purchasing the merchandise, or before returning it. Another special shoplifting situation is when a customer attempts to return merchandise to the store that was not purchased at the store, called return fraud. Below are explanations of these tricky tactics, and some great ways to prevent shoplifting.
Ticket switching happens frequently and can be difficult to catch. The most common type of ticket switching is when an illegitimate customer takes the price tag from a less-expensive item, and places it onto the more expensive item they want to purchase. The level of sophistication in these schemes can vary. Most tag switchers will try to peel off clearance price tags, bend or tear cardboard tags off of the plastic tag holder and place them onto the item they want to purchase. Some thieves even utilize the plastic tagging guns that your associates use and replace the tags in a legitimate-appearing fashion.
Another form of tag switching is UPC switching, which involves either covering up, or replacing UPC barcodes on items to get them at a cheaper price. Sometimes thieves will take items completely out of a box and place them into the box of a cheaper item to get them at a reduced price. In my experience, I have even seen customers create their own UPC barcode stickers and place them over the original UPC on the item, ringing them up at a lower price. Likewise, I have seen UPC labels cut out of boxes and replaced with others for the same reason. Not only will shoplifters try to buy items at a lesser price, but they will also try to return them at a higher price than what they paid for, if they even paid at all!
Another special shoplifting situation is return fraud. This can happen in many ways, but most typically involves a shoplifter attempting to return merchandise that has either already been shoplifted, or that was just picked off of the shelf. This allows shoplifters to get 100% of the value of the product, instead of having to sell it on the streets for ten cents on the dollar. Likewise, they get immediate access to cash. There are many different elements that can be added to the return fraud scenario including the use of a receipt to conduct the fraud, tag switching or box-stuffing before return, UPC switching, just to name a few. There are two fairly simple yet powerful ways to stop shoplifting of this kind.
To prevent shoplifting that occurs through these special scenarios, employee training is most important. Ensure that employees know the return policy and stick to it; this goes for management also. There will be some exceptions of course, but following policy is the best way to insulate you from return fraud, along with having a good return policy. Secondly, employees must be familiar with product and prices! This will prevent return of merchandise that didn’t come from the store, and items being returned or purchased at a greater or lower price. Well trained employees can spot the brands that don’t belong in the store, and the prices that don’t match the product.
For more information contact us: Prevent Shoplifting or call 1.770.426.0547
Have you ever had that one person or group of people that you just knew were stealing from your business? They come in and shop around, they may buy something small, but usually they just leave with no purchase. In over fifteen year of retail, I have dealt with a number of these people, and it always made me crazy. The newest offering from Checkpoint, the AutoPeg Tag, may be the answer to some of these “shoppers” that plague businesses every day.
We had one man that owned a shop next door to our small retail pharmacy and he came in on a regular basis. You would think you could trust another business owner, but we did not trust this man. He ran a nail salon, and whenever he would leave, it seemed things were missing. His main target was actually denture cream. (The ingredients in denture cream take the yellowish color off finger nails) We never could catch this man concealing merchandise, no matter what we did. Thankfully we relocated our store and he did not visit our new location!
They come in with that smug look on their face because they know something you don’t know. They have found some way to steal from your store, and your staff cannot seem to figure out their method. They know you are watching them, and they just smile the whole time they are ripping you off. This is the kind of problem customer that you can finally catch using the AutoPeg Tag, or other tags by Checkpoint, depending on the packaging you need to protect.
The best thing is these devices do not affect the look of the product, and your customers can still freely choose the items they came in for without having to come to the checkout and ask for them.
In the last two years, we have had a small group that we have dubbed “the ink cartridge bandits” that have consistently wiped out our small selection in several of our locations. They would come in the store and go directly to the gift bag section and choose a huge bag. Then they would go to the ink cartridge section and cut all the packages off the locking pegs with razor blades. They would stuff them all into the gift bag and walk right out the door. This happened numerous times, and they did not strike the same store on back to back occasions. This year we are going to do something about it with AutoPeg Tags. They attach to the product without pins, and they blend right into the packaging. Now if the group comes back, if they try to cut the product off the locking peg, they are going to damage the packaging, which in turn makes it useless and unsellable for them.
The AutoPeg Tag is tough, but easy to remove at the checkout, and they are completely reusable so they will continue to return your investment in saving your profits and securing your inventory.
For more information contact us at 1.770.426.0547 or Preventshopliftingloss.net
Have you ever had that one person or group of people that you just knew were stealing from your business? They come in and shop around, they may buy something small, but usually they just leave with no purchase. In over fifteen years of retail, I have dealt with a number of these people, and it always makes me crazy. The newest offering from Checkpoint, the AutoPeg Tag, may be the answer to some of these “shoppers” that plague businesses every day.
We had one man that owned a shop next door to our small retail pharmacy and he came in on a regular basis. You would think you could trust another business owner, but we did not trust this man. He ran a nail salon, and whenever he would leave, it seemed things were missing. His main target was actually denture cream. (The ingredients in denture cream take the yellowish color off finger nails) We never could catch this man concealing merchandise, no matter what we did. Thankfully we relocated our store and he did not visit our new location!
They come in with that smug look on their face because they know something you don’t know. They have found some way to steal from your store, and your staff cannot seem to figure out their method. They know you are watching them, and they just smile the whole time they are ripping you off. This is the kind of problem customer that you can finally catch using the AutoPeg Tag, or other tags by Checkpoint, depending on the packaging you need to protect.
The best thing is these devices do not affect the look of the product, and your customers can still freely choose the items they came in for without having to come to the checkout and ask for them. In the last two years, we have had a small group that we have dubbed “the ink cartridge bandits” that have consistently wiped out our small selection in several of our locations. They would come in the store and go directly to the gift bag section and choose a huge bag. Then they would go to the ink cartridge section and cut all the packages off the locking pegs with razor blades. They would stuff them all into the gift bag and walk right out the door. This happened numerous times, and they did not strike the same store on back to back occasions. This year we are going to do something about it with AutoPeg Tags. They attach to the product without pins, and they blend right into the packaging. Now if the group comes back, if they try to cut the product off the locking peg, they are going to damage the packaging, which in turn makes it useless and unsellable for them.
The AutoPeg Tag is tough, but easy to remove at the checkout, and they are completely reusable so they will continue to return your investment in saving your profits and securing your inventory.
For more information contact us at 1.770.426.0547 or Preventshopliftingloss.net
