Having one store in a major metropolitan area is great. Having two or more really helps you capture more market share and increases the awareness to your particular company. Do you know what else multiple stores in the same market does? Attract thieves. Not just your bored stay at home mom, or school skipping teenager. I’m talking about individuals who make a living, a good living, off of ripping people like you and me off. You can deploy as many checkpoint tags and alarm systems as you want, and it will only keep the honest people honest. A professional booster will get that product no matter how secured it is. In my experience, the only thing that stops them is a tax-payer funded ride downtown.
Just recently the company I work for introduced a new line of athletic bottoms. That stretchy material that everyone is crazy about right now. I’m no expert in apparel, so I couldn’t tell you why this particular style retailed for $159, but it does. Before this product ever hit the stores, I made sure our buyers and warehouse were on the same page with securing this product. There was no way on Earth that I was going to put these pants on the shelf without some type of clothing security device. We opted for a checkpoint ink tag which had a bit more of a deterrence factor when you looked at it.
Due to the price point, they only hit select stores. In one particular market, one of my stores received them, while the other store across town did not. As in retail, the next big investigation came along and more new and exciting product dropped and I soon forgot about those $159 pairs of pants I was so excited about seeing a few months back. Until I was conducting a store audit one day. I happened to find myself in that store across town that did not stock these pants. As I was auditing their sales floor, I noticed several pairs of these pants on racks, simply mixed in with other styles of lesser priced clothing. This wasn’t right… we had a special section built for these units to showcase them. Why did this store have a small selection when they shouldn’t have at all? I grabbed the store manager and asked if he could explain. He couldn’t.
I began researching the product shipments and I came up empty handed. It wasn’t until I looked at the return history of the product that I saw that multiple pairs of these pants were being returned to this store. Upon closer inspection of the pants, I found holes where the checkpoint tag had been. I verified the sister store’s sales and while we were definitely selling the units, there were far more returns than sales. I had a theft problem. On top of that, the thieves were returning the stolen goods back to me in order to get store credit, then buying more product. I was out of that money 3 separate times. It took a few weeks of investigating to uncover the ring, but we eventually did. Local police assisted in making several arrests and we were able to stop that particular loss. Watching the theft on camera, I noticed that the thieves had struggled defeating the ink tags on each visit. Had it not been for the ink tags, I do believe they would’ve gotten even more product.
For more information, contact us: Clothing Security, or call 1.770.426.0547
Having one store in a major metropolitan area is great. Having two or more really helps you capture more market share and increases the awareness to your particular company. Do you know what else multiple stores in the same market does? Attract thieves. Not just your bored stay at home mom, or school skipping teenager. I’m talking about individuals who make a living, a good living, off of ripping people like you and me off. You can deploy as many Checkpoint Tags and EAS Alarm Systems as you want, and it will only keep the honest people honest. A professional booster will get that product no matter how secured it is. In my experience, the only thing that stops them is a tax-payer funded ride downtown.
Just recently the company I work for introduced a new line of athletic bottoms. That stretchy material that everyone is crazy about right now. I’m no expert in apparel, so I couldn’t tell you why this particular style retailed for $159, but it does. Before this product ever hit the stores, I made sure our buyers and warehouse were on the same page with securing this product. There was no way on Earth that I was going to put these pants on the shelf without some type of clothing security device. We opted for a Checkpoint Ink Tag which had a bit more of a deterrence factor when you looked at it.
Due to the price point, they only hit select stores. In one particular market, one of my stores received them, while the other store across town did not. As in retail, the next big investigation came along and more new and exciting product dropped and I soon forgot about those $159 pairs of pants I was so excited about seeing a few months back. Until I was conducting a store audit one day. I happened to find myself in that store across town that did not stock these pants. As I was auditing their sales floor, I noticed several pairs of these pants on racks, simply mixed in with other styles of lesser priced clothing. This wasn’t right… we had a special section built for these units to showcase them. Why did this store have a small selection when they shouldn’t have at all? I grabbed the store manager and asked if he could explain. He couldn’t.
I began researching the product shipments and I came up empty handed. It wasn’t until I looked at the return history of the product that I saw that multiple pairs of these pants were being returned to this store. Upon closer inspection of the pants, I found holes where the Checkpoint Tag had been. I verified the sister store’s sales and while we were definitely selling the units, there were far more returns than sales. I had a theft problem. On top of that, the thieves were returning the stolen goods back to me in order to get store credit, then buying more product. I was out of that money 3 separate times. It took a few weeks of investigating to uncover the ring, but we eventually did. Local police assisted in making several arrests and we were able to stop that particular loss. Watching the theft on camera, I noticed that the thieves had struggled defeating the Ink Tags on each visit. Had it not been for the ink tags, I do believe they would’ve gotten even more product.
For more information, contact us: Clothing Security, or call 1.770.426.0547
For brick and mortar clothing retailers, there are many different options available to combat theft in their stores. But what are your options when don’t have a storefront, and your business is primarily online? Online retailers don’t face all of the same challenges as traditional retailers, but some of the problems are similar. For example, online wardrobing is a growing issue for clothing businesses on the internet. This issue is the same type of dishonesty that occurs in stores, the only difference is that the merchandise is purchased online before being returned. If you are facing a similar challenge with your own business, there’s good news for you. Alpha Shark Tags could very well be the solution to your problem, and save you a great deal of money by reducing fraudulent returns.
This is the issue…online wardrobing starts off as a typical sale. ”Customers” go on the internet and look through your products, finding something that theky think would look good on them. They then pick the size, style, color, and then they purchase the item. So what’s the problem? The problem is that it doesn’t always end with the sale. You have to expect that some merchandise that is purchased is going to wind up getting returned, but what you probably don’t expect is that the “customer” had no intention of keeping the item, or letting you keep your money from the sale.
Although some people make a habit of this type of behavior, online wardrobing usually occurs when someone wants an expensive outfit, suit, or clothing item that they will probably only need or want to wear one time. For example, if there is a big event that they need to attend and want to impress everyone there, but they really can’t afford to buy and keep the outfit, this is where the problem lies. Why keep the item when you can wear it for the event and then return it and get your money back? Of course this logic leads to dishonesty, but that doesn’t stop everyone from doing it.
But how can a merchandise protection device help you prevent theft if you don’t have an actual storefront? It’s easy, because Alpha Shark Tags aren’t your typical clothing security tags. They are made specifically to fight fraudulent returns, and all you have to do is attach the tags to your clothing before you ship the merchandise to the customer. The customer can try on the clothing item without removing the tag, but they won’t want to wear it in public because it is highly visible. If they like the purchased item and want to keep it, the tag can be easily removed with a pair of scissors.
The goal of Alpha Shark Tags isn’t to eliminate returns altogether, but only to reduce the chances of fraudulent returns from occurring. You can still accept returns, but you can require that the tag still be attached to the garment when it is returned if the customer wants a full refund. If you decided to, you may want to offer a partial refund if the tag was removed from the garment before returned, but that is a decision you’d have to make and add to your refund policy.
For more information contact us: (online wardrobing) or call 1.770.426.0547
For brick and mortar clothing retailers, there are many different options available to combat theft in their stores. But what are your options when don’t have a storefront, and your business is primarily online? Online retailers don’t face all of the same challenges as traditional retailers, but some of the problems are similar. For example, online wardrobing is a growing issue for clothing businesses on the internet. This issue is the same type of dishonesty that occurs in stores, the only difference is that the merchandise is purchased online before being returned. If you are facing a similar challenge with your own business, there’s good news for you. Alpha Shark Tags could very well be the solution to your problem, and save you a great deal of money by reducing fraudulent returns.
This is the issue…online wardrobing starts off as a typical sale. ”Customers” go on the internet and look through your products, finding something that theky think would look good on them. They then pick the size, style, color, and then they purchase the item. So what’s the problem? The problem is that it doesn’t always end with the sale. You have to expect that some merchandise that is purchased is going to wind up getting returned, but what you probably don’t expect is that the “customer” had no intention of keeping the item, or letting you keep your money from the sale.
Although some people make a habit of this type of behavior, online wardrobing usually occurs when someone wants an expensive outfit, suit, or clothing item that they will probably only need or want to wear one time. For example, if there is a big event that they need to attend and want to impress everyone there, but they really can’t afford to buy and keep the outfit, this is where the problem lies. Why keep the item when you can wear it for the event and then return it and get your money back? Of course this logic leads to dishonesty, but that doesn’t stop everyone from doing it.
But how can a merchandise protection device help you prevent theft if you don’t have an actual storefront? It’s easy, because Alpha Shark Tags aren’t your typical clothing security tags. They are made specifically to fight fraudulent returns, and all you have to do is attach the tags to your clothing before you ship the merchandise to the customer. The customer can try on the clothing item without removing the tag, but they won’t want to wear it in public because it is highly visible. If they like the purchased item and want to keep it, the tag can be easily removed with a pair of scissors.
The goal of Alpha Shark Tags isn’t to eliminate returns altogether, but only to reduce the chances of fraudulent returns from occurring. You can still accept returns, but you can require that the tag still be attached to the garment when it is returned if the customer wants a full refund. If you decided to, you may want to offer a partial refund if the tag was removed from the garment before returned, but that is a decision you’d have to make and add to your refund policy.
For more information contact us at clothingsecurity.net or call 1.770.426.0547
It’s almost that season once again. What season you ask? Swimsuit season of course. I do apologize to anyone reading this who currently resides to the north. I’m very sorry and I hope, for your sake, the sun comes out soon. As a matter of fact, my store has already begun setting up the summer seasonal floor displays, complete with those new swimsuits. This past week also reminded me of why it’s important to use Checkpoint Tags on this product.
I was conducting a floor audit not 5 days ago when I was in the middle of our apparel floor. I noticed a man browsing the swimsuits that had just begun arriving to the store. At first, I didn’t pay too much attention to him, as if figured he was dreaming about a warmer time. After a few more minutes, his behavior struck me as odd and I watched him pull a pair of pliers from his pocket and he started removing the Checkpoint Tags that were securing the product. Right in the open. Clearly this guy didn’t really have a plan.
As I watched this gentlemen over the next 25 minutes, it was clear that he did have at least one plan. To defeat my Checkpoint System. The door clearly wouldn’t alarm if the Checkpoint Tags were removed and he was well aware of that. He wandered the store clipping the tags, as if he was the only person in the store. Oblivious to the fact that he was being watched by two LP agents and myself. After he had defeated just about every tag imaginable, he simple whipped out a shopping bag from his pocket and bagged his own merchandise.
Mr. Shoplifter made it outside where he was met by my team. His first was reaction was to point out that the Checkpoint System didn’t alarm. He wouldn’t return to the store, but rather decided to argue with us. Unknown to him, local police were already on their way to the store. When the police arrived, he was still arguing with me. He informed the officer that he was being wrongfully accused of shoplifting, and that he didn’t have to comply with the police officers request simply because the Checkpoint System didn’t sound.
I found this incredibly amusing. Here he is, dead to rights, with stolen goods still in his possession, arguing with the police. I thought for sure this guy would give up the act, but he started walking away from the officer. Up until this point, the officer was incredibly polite, and really had more patience that I could have imagined. When the officer grabbed this guy’s arm to stop him, he was met with resistance. Mr. Shoplifter was met with 50,000 volts. In the end, he took a ride to jail and we recovered our merchandise.
For more information, contact us: Checkpoint Tags, or call 1.770.426.0547
It’s almost that season once again. What season you ask? Swimsuit season of course. I do apologize to anyone reading this who currently resides to the north. I’m very sorry and I hope, for your sake, the sun comes out soon. As a matter of fact, my store has already begun setting up the summer seasonal floor displays, complete with those new swimsuits. This past week also reminded me of why it’s important to use Checkpoint Tags on this product.
I was conducting a floor audit not 5 days ago when I was in the middle of our apparel floor. I noticed a man browsing the swimsuits that had just begun arriving to the store. At first, I didn’t pay too much attention to him, as I figured he was dreaming about a warmer time. After a few more minutes, his behavior struck me as odd and I watched him pull a pair of pliers from his pocket and he started removing the Checkpoint Tags that were securing the product. Right in the open. Clearly this guy didn’t really have a plan.
As I watched this gentlemen over the next 25 minutes, it was clear that he did have at least one plan. To defeat my Checkpoint System. The door clearly wouldn’t alarm if the Checkpoint Tags were removed and he was well aware of that. He wandered the store clipping the tags, as if he was the only person in the store. Oblivious to the fact that he was being watched by two LP agents and myself. After he had defeated just about every tag imaginable, he simply whipped out a shopping bag from his pocket and bagged his own merchandise.
Mr. Shoplifter made it outside where he was met by my team. His first was reaction was to point out that the Checkpoint System didn’t alarm. He wouldn’t return to the store, but rather decided to argue with us. Unknown to him, local police were already on their way to the store. When the police arrived, he was still arguing with me. He informed the officer that he was being wrongfully accused of shoplifting, and that he didn’t have to comply with the police officers request simply because the Checkpoint System didn’t sound.
I found this incredibly amusing. Here he is, dead to rights, with stolen goods still in his possession, arguing with the police. I thought for sure this guy would give up the act, but he started walking away from the officer. Up until this point, the officer was incredibly polite, and really had more patience that I could have imagined. When the officer grabbed this guy’s arm to stop him, he was met with resistance. Mr. Shoplifter was met with 50,000 volts. In the end, he took a ride to jail and we recovered our merchandise.
For more information, contact us: Checkpoint Tags, or call 1.770.426.0547
In the convenience store business there is generally only one clerk on duty at most times, day or night. This gives shoplifters the advantage because the employee is confined to the area behind the counter in order to keep an eye on the register. It is time to give some inventory control back to these employees, and your business can do that with the help of the new Checkpoint N10. This new model is perfect for the compact sales floor and valuable space in a convenience store.
Whether it is a planned theft or an impulse idea, there is a definite need for theft deterrence in this business. In today’s world there is little profit in the selling of gasoline. The real money is made when customers come inside and buy food, sodas, beer, and gadgets. Unfortunately, when you have a lot of customers in the store at once, the clerk is preoccupied at the counter, and there is no one to oversee the sales floor or the walk-in cooler. That is where the Checkpoint N10 can help out. It is a visible and recognizable system, designed smaller, but still as powerful for theft detection.
I know a lot of people that have either worked or been supervisors in this businesses. My assistant manager, my current boss, and my cousin all responded to my questions of what are the actual targets for theft in this environment. All three gave me the exact same answers! Obviously, beer is the number one problem. Especially in locations with walk-in coolers, there is rampant beer theft, mostly people stealing single bottles by concealing them in their clothing. Beef jerky is also a huge problem. I work for a small retail pharmacy and we have a lot of beef jerky theft too. It sounds crazy, but it is an expensive snack. The good news is these items can be tagged so the Checkpoint N10 can detect if someone gets too close to the door with unpaid merchandise.
The other top items on the list was medications and condoms. Many stores choose to keep these behind the counter. Studies show, however, that customers do not like to have to ask for items; they would rather be able to look at them, pick them up, and choose what they want. The store will ultimately lose sales in either situation, if the items are left out unprotected or if they are kept behind the checkout. Gadgets, like phone chargers and cases, are now popular items for thieves as well. Again, these items can be easily tagged with Checkpoint Labels.
The labels and the system serve as excellent deterrents for impulse theft. Most people don’t come in with the intent to steal. The see a line of people waiting, the see the opportunity, and they make the split second decision to give it a try. Checkpoint N10 can help change their minds and stop the thefts.
For more information contact us: 1.770.426.0547 or Antishoplifting.net
In the convenience store business there is generally only one clerk on duty at most times, day or night. This gives shoplifters the advantage because the employee is confined to the area behind the counter in order to keep an eye on the register. It is time to give some inventory control back to these employees, and your business can do that with the help of the new Checkpoint N10. This new model is perfect for the compact sales floor and valuable space in a convenience store.
Whether it is a planned theft or an impulse idea, there is a definite need for theft deterrence in this business. In today’s world there is little profit in the selling of gasoline. The real money is made when customers come inside and buy food, sodas, beer, and gadgets. Unfortunately, when you have a lot of customers in the store at once, the clerk is preoccupied at the counter, and there is no one to oversee the sales floor or the walk-in cooler. That is where the Checkpoint N10 can help out. It is a visible and recognizable system, designed smaller, but still as powerful for theft detection.
I know a lot of people that have either worked orhave been supervisors in this businesses. My assistant manager, my current boss, and my cousin all responded to my questions of what are the actual targets for theft in this environment. All three gave me the exact same answers! Obviously, beer is the number one problem. Especially in locations with walk-in coolers, there is rampant beer theft, mostly people stealing single bottles by concealing them in their clothing. Beef jerky is also a huge problem. I work for a small retail pharmacy and we have a lot of beef jerky theft too. It sounds crazy, but it is an expensive snack. The good news is these items can be tagged so the Checkpoint N10 can detect if someone gets too close to the door with unpaid merchandise.
The other top items on the list was medications and condoms. Many stores choose to keep these behind the counter. Studies show, however, that customers do not like to have to ask for items; they would rather be able to look at them, pick them up, and choose what they want. The store will ultimately lose sales in either situation, if the items are left out unprotected or if they are kept behind the checkout. Gadgets, like phone chargers and cases, are now popular items for thieves as well. Again, these items can be easily tagged with Checkpoint Labels.
The labels and the system serve as excellent deterrents for impulse theft. Most people don’t come in with the intent to steal. They see a line of people waiting, they see the opportunity, and they make the split second decision to give it a try. Checkpoint N10 can help change their minds and stop the thefts.
For more information contact us at Antishoplifting.net or call 1.770.426.0547
We’re now in a new fiscal year, and what that means for most of us is that changes are coming. What it also means for me is that I have to hear that silly word, “fiscal” used over and over again. Usually at this time of the year, we are able to look back at the previous year’s data and analyze what we did right, and what we can improve upon. Whether you have a liquor store, or a larger store that carries only a small selection of alcoholic products, you may be scared to look, but it’s time to check out what losses occurred and what measures you took last year reduced your loss and increased your profit. This is your chance to see if the investments you made in bottle security products actually paid off.
Don’t get too overwhelmed by the mountains of data that you may have to read over and come up with new plans of action for different areas of the business. Start off with the top five or ten items and go from there, because if you make a huge list, your focus becomes more widespread and you are defeating the entire purpose of the process. Compare your sales from last year to sales from the previous year, then look at your shrink or loss from the same years to find out what percentage of loss you have compared to the sales. After that, list your top losses and see how the bottle locks or other merchandise protection devices you purchased affected your loss in the areas you used them on the products.
You may be surprised, or even excited by the numbers you see in front of you. The loss associated with the bottles you protected with bottle locks may have significantly been reduced. If this is the case, you can choose to keep that plan in place or even increase your bottle security measures on other lower cost items. It really just depends on what your numbers show you, and if you personally observed the devices at work throughout the year. On the other hand, if you look at the numbers and see that the theft has increased or stayed the same, you may want to check out other options like locking up some of the more expensive items in a locked showcase.
Although that may seem like a drastic measure, it will almost definitely stop theft of the items, while it still allows customers to see the merchandise displayed inside the glass case or cage. If this seems like too severe of a change for your situation, you can try to use different types of bottle locks. There are several different options available, so if you were using a certain type of device in the past, you may want to try an EASy bottle guard instead.
The fact is, you need to do whatever you can to stop your loss from growing if you plan on staying in business for years to come. If you’re not taking advantage of this opportunity to look at the data and make needed changes to your business, you’re missing out on valuable information that could save you tons of money. You’re just helping the shoplifters out and hurting yourself. It doesn’t take a lot of time to sit down and look at the numbers and see where improvements need to be implemented.
For more information contact us: (bottle security) or call 1.770.426.0547
We’re now in a new fiscal year, and what that means for most of us is that changes are coming. What it also means for me is that I have to hear that silly word, “fiscal” used over and over again. Usually at this time of the year, we are able to look back at the previous year’s data and analyze what we did right, and what we can improve upon. Whether you have a liquor store, or a larger store that carries only a small selection of alcoholic products, you may be scared to look, but it’s time to check out what losses occurred and what measures you took last year reduced your loss and increased your profit. This is your chance to see if the investments you made in bottle security products actually paid off.
Don’t get too overwhelmed by the mountains of data that you may have to read over and come up with new plans of action for different areas of the business. Start off with the top five or ten items and go from there, because if you make a huge list, your focus becomes more widespread and you are defeating the entire purpose of the process. Compare your sales from last year to sales from the previous year, then look at your shrink or loss from the same years to find out what percentage of loss you have compared to the sales. After that, list your top losses and see how the Bottle Locks or other merchandise protection devices you purchased affected your loss in the areas you used them on the products.
You may be surprised, or even excited by the numbers you see in front of you. The loss associated with the bottles you protected with Bottle Loks may have significantly been reduced. If this is the case, you can choose to keep that plan in place or even increase your bottle security measures on other lower cost items. It really just depends on what your numbers show you, and if you personally observed the devices at work throughout the year. On the other hand, if you look at the numbers and see that the theft has increased or stayed the same, you may want to check out other options like locking up some of the more expensive items in a locked showcase.
Although that may seem like a drastic measure, it will almost definitely stop theft of the items, while it still allows customers to see the merchandise displayed inside the glass case or cage. If this seems like too severe of a change for your situation, you can try to use different types of bottle locks. There are several different options available, so if you were using a certain type of device in the past, you may want to try an EASy bottle guard instead.
The fact is, you need to do whatever you can to stop your loss from growing if you plan on staying in business for years to come. If you’re not taking advantage of this opportunity to look at the data and make needed changes to your business, you’re missing out on valuable information that could save you tons of money. You’re just helping the shoplifters out and hurting yourself. It doesn’t take a lot of time to sit down and look at the numbers and see where improvements need to be implemented.
For more information contact us: Bottle Security or call 1.770.426.0547
