Upon opening the store one morning, we noticed our replacement razor cartridge section was completely empty. Knowing our usual inventory levels, we immediately investigated. After reviewing the CCTV, sure enough we found the culprits. 9:00 pm on Saturday, the cashier was vacuuming and the manager was in the office counting money. A couple came in pushing a stroller, put about $800 worth of cartridges in the stroller, covered it with a blanket, and walked back out the door without ever being offered help or receiving any kind of customer service. How can we prevent shoplifting if we don’t know who’s in our stores?
In another situation, a man came in the store around 10:00am on a weekday. He looked around for a bit, and it was obvious that he had not been noticed. Again, the person running the front register was head down, in the middle of a task, and her mind certainly was not on preventing any shoplifting. So he walked back to the salon hair care section and stuffed about $150 worth of product in his pants and jacket. Then he came up toward the door, saw the cashier was helping another customer, and went right out the door
When there are only one or two people working in your business at a time, awareness training can be priceless when you need to prevent shoplifting. One night I was on duty, and I noticed a woman come in with a large bag on her shoulder, and rather than choose a small shopping cart, she picked up a hand basket. I observed her walking around the store, choosing random items. She was placing the items in the basket, and I approached to ask if she needed any help finding anything. I was mentally taking notes of what I was seeing in the basket. We kept up this sort of dance for about half an hour, her shopping and me offering help and taking my mental inventory. I had to step away to the phone, and when I saw her next, she was coming up to checkout with one trial size bottle of hairspray in her basket now. Her face went ghost white when she saw me on the phone and looking straight at her. She then said she thought she wanted to get a different hairspray. She walked back through two of the aisles and I could hear items being placed on the shelves. She of course had stuffed all her previous choices in her big bag, but upon coming to the front and seeing me on the phone, assumed I was calling the police on her. (It was really just a customer calling with a question!) I never even had to ask for the merchandise back; she decided for herself that being noticed was bad news. She knew that I knew she had more than that one item just minutes before.
Shoplifters, professional or not, don’t want to be noticed. If you want to prevent shoplifting in your store, you have to train your employees to be aware of the people in the building. Making eye contact, saying hello, and offering assistance can make a potential shoplifter quickly change their mind and leave your store. You don’t need to post a sentry at the door or invest in a greeter. Just let them know you know they are in your building, and that alone can be one of the biggest deterrents.
For more information contact us at Preventshopliftingloss.net or call 1.770.426.0547
Upon opening the store one morning, we noticed our replacement razor cartridge section was completely empty. Knowing our usual inventory levels, we immediately investigated. After reviewing the CCTV, sure enough we found the culprits, 9:00 pm on Saturday, the cashier was vacuuming and the manager was in the office counting money. A couple came in pushing a stroller, put about $800 worth of cartridges in the stroller, covered it with a blanket, and walked back out the door without ever being offered help or receiving any kind of customer service. How can we prevent shoplifting if we don’t know who’s in our stores?
In another situation, a man came in the store around 10:00am on a weekday. He looked around for a bit, and it was obvious that he had not been noticed. Again, the person running the front register was head down, in the middle of a task, and her mind certainly was not on preventing any shoplifting. So he walked back to the salon hair care section and stuffed about $150 worth of product in his pants and jacket. Then he came up toward the door, saw the cashier was helping another customer, and went right out the door.
When there are only one or two people working in your business at a time, awareness training can be priceless when you need to prevent shoplifting. One night I was on duty, and I noticed a woman come in with a large bag on her shoulder, and rather than choose a small shopping cart, she picked up a hand basket. I observed her walking around the store, choosing random items. She was placing the items in the basket, and I approached to ask if she needed any help finding anything. I was mentally taking notes of what I was seeing in the basket. We kept up this sort of dance for about half an hour, her shopping and me offering help and taking my mental inventory. I had to step away to the phone, and when I saw her next, she was coming up to checkout with one trial size bottle of hairspray in her basket now. Her face went ghost white when she saw me on the phone and looking straight at her. She then said she thought she wanted to get a different hairspray. She walked back through two of the aisles and I could hear items being placed on the shelves. She of course had stuffed all her previous choices in her big bag, but upon coming to the front and seeing me on the phone, assumed I was calling the police on her. (It was really just a customer calling with a question!) I never even had to ask for the merchandise back; she decided for herself that being noticed was bad news. She knew that I knew she had more than that one item just minutes before.
Shoplifters, professional or not, don’t want to be noticed. If you want to prevent shoplifting in your store, you have to train your employees to be aware of the people in the building. Making eye contact, saying hello, and offering assistance can make a potential shoplifter quickly change their mind and leave your store. You don’t need to post a sentry at the door or invest in a greeter. Just let them know you know they are in your building, and that alone can be one of the biggest deterrents.
For more information contact us at Preventshopliftingloss.net or call 1.770.426.0547
Think about your store and how shrink affects you every day. We all know it’s a cost of doing business, but there comes a point where you have to stem those losses. It’s not acceptable for any business to allow shrink to go unchecked. That’s why there are so many tools available for retailers to prevent shoplifting. There is one tool that is often overlooked to aid in the reduction of shrink. That’s the background check. I bet you never thought such a simple tool could help you reduce your losses and make a positive impact on your bottom line.
I work for a well established corporation and we won’t hire someone with a negative background. This isn’t to discriminate a certain class of person, but aimed at minimizing our overall risk. That wasn’t always the case in my career and I can remember working for much smaller companies where this wasn’t quite a priority. I can assure you the losses, as a percentage to sales, were much higher in this smaller company than what I see in my current role, in a large, multi-billion dollar a year company. Why is that?
There’s an insurmountable number of reasons why, but I firmly believe that hiring the right person has everything to do with a reduction in overall shrink. For starters, if you are screening out potentially bad candidates with a criminal background check, you will more than likely reduce your store’s turnover. This is a key metric in successful businesses. How well does your company or store keep people? Turnover, especially in retail, can mean higher losses contributed to internal theft. If you have an individual that is job hopping, or has a less than stellar past, that person is more likely to steal from you. This holds true because that employee is not invested in your company.
A few years back, I was part of a team that was developing a program to address high shrink stores. Basically, we wanted to see what stores were experiencing the greatest amount of loss. From there, we eventually would implement different strategies to see if we could have a positive impact on the losses. There was a ton of research that went into this, and it became far more complex than I could have imagined. Of course, we looked at inventory adjustments, POS overrides and the usual contributors of loss; however we went a step further and looked at turnover in those stores compared to the others not on the list. No surprise, the stores with the highest shrink, also had the highest rates of turnover in the company. This wasn’t a coincidence. There also wasn’t an immediate fix we could put into place. We were already using a background check, so we looked at other ways to reduce turnover, such as improving store morale and better training for the store management teams.
If shrink in your store is a problem, try combating it from its root cause. There’s no simpler way to reduce your risk of employee theft than using a background check. Hire smart and don’t expose yourself to unnecessary loss.
For more information, contact us: Background Checks, or call 1.770.426.0547
Think about your store and how shrink affects you every day. We all know it’s a cost of doing business, but there comes a point where you have to stem those losses. It’s not acceptable for any business to allow shrink to go unchecked. That’s why there are so many tools available for retailers to prevent shoplifting. There is one tool that is often overlooked to aid in the reduction of shrink. That’s the background check. I bet you never thought such a simple tool could help you reduce your losses and make a positive impact on your bottom line.
I work for a well established corporation and we won’t hire someone with a negative background. This isn’t to discriminate a certain class of person, but aimed at minimizing our overall risk. That wasn’t always the case in my career and I can remember working for much smaller companies where this wasn’t quite a priority. I can assure you the losses, as a percentage to sales, were much higher in this smaller company than what I see in my current role, in a large, multi-billion dollar a year company. Why is that?
There’s an insurmountable number of reasons why, but I firmly believe that hiring the right person has everything to do with a reduction in overall shrink. For starters, if you are screening out potentially bad candidates with a criminal background check, you will more than likely reduce your store’s turnover. This is a key metric in successful businesses. How well does your company or store keep people? Turnover, especially in retail, can mean higher losses contributed to internal theft. If you have an individual that is job hopping, or has a less than stellar past, that person is more likely to steal from you. This holds true because that employee is not invested in your company.
A few years back, I was part of a team that was developing a program to address high shrink stores. Basically, we wanted to see what stores were experiencing the greatest amount of loss. From there, we eventually would implement different strategies to see if we could have a positive impact on the losses. There was a ton of research that went into this, and it became far more complex than I could have imagined. Of course, we looked at inventory adjustments, POS overrides and the usual contributors of loss; however we went a step further and looked at turnover in those stores compared to the others not on the list. No surprise, the stores with the highest shrink, also had the highest rates of turnover in the company. This wasn’t a coincidence. There also wasn’t an immediate fix we could put into place. We were already using a background check, so we looked at other ways to reduce turnover, such as improving store morale and better training for the store management teams.
If shrink in your store is a problem, try combating it from its root cause. There’s no simpler way to reduce your risk of employee theft than using a background check. Hire smart and don’t expose yourself to unnecessary loss.
For more information, contact us: Background Checks, or call 1.770.426.0547
I work for my company’s corporate Loss Prevention department. I hear from managers almost every week that they need more Loss Prevention associates in their store to curb shoplifting. In most big corporations, the LP department is pretty small and it’s even smaller at stores that operate only a few locations. In either situation, it’s impossible to add headcount without facing other budget restrictions (anyone out there have a payroll budget?). My answer is simple. Every time I get asked that question, I respond with two of my own. First, how many employees are in your store at any given time? Second, who’s responsible for Loss Prevention in your store? The second answer should always be “everyone”. The first has some thought behind it.
If you went out and hired someone catch thieves, you would have one person looking for dishonest customers. If you have ten employees in your store every day, then technically, you should have 10 loss prevention associates, since they all should be aware of their surroundings and know what to look for in a dishonest person. That’s why adequate loss prevention training for your store employees is so important to the success of your business. I’m in no way suggesting that you train everyone to catch apprehend a shoplifter, but giving them basic training can pay off in ways that you might not have ever imagined.
In my current role, I routinely conduct loss prevention workshops in the stores that are under my responsibility. These training sessions focus on two groups; store employees and store managers. I have the most fun with the store employees. Believe it or not, most employees are eager to learn ways to save their store money. This is especially true when you relate a $100 loss to money out of their pocket. If your payroll is based upon your store sales, that $100 theft can mean a reduction of 5-10 hours. You tell that to any hourly employee and you’ll have their attention. What I like to do is called a “cart test”. Try this out next time in your store and see if you’re not surprised by the results.
Take a walk around the store and start shoplifting. I like to switch prices on higher end product and conceal merchandise inside coolers, or tackle boxes. Think of all the ways in which someone could commit fraud through your point of sale and then demonstrate that technique. Have your cashiers, one at a time, ring you up as a normal customer. Don’t tell them something is amiss. Chances are, even your most tenured cashiers will allow an item to get passed that shouldn’t have. While it’s not always the fault of the cashier, it will definitely show you the potential for merchandise loss through your register.
After you do this with your entire cashier team, you will most likely get an idea of what opportunities lie in your store. Maybe none of the cashiers opened up a tackle box to find that $200 reel you placed in there. Maybe, none of them caught the price switch on a $300 cooler that rang up for $25. Whatever the case, you will be able to respond appropriately and then tailor specific loss prevention training to ensure that these issues don’t happen in the real world where they could potentially cost you hundreds, or thousands of dollars.
For more information, contact us: KW, or call 1.770.426.0547
I work for my company’s corporate Loss Prevention department. I hear from managers almost every week that they need more Loss Prevention associates in their store to curb shoplifting. In most big corporations, the LP department is pretty small and it’s even smaller at stores that operate only a few locations. In either situation, it’s impossible to add headcount without facing other budget restrictions (anyone out there have a payroll budget?). My answer is simple. Every time I get asked that question, I respond with two of my own. First, how many employees are in your store at any given time? Second, who’s responsible for Loss Prevention in your store? The second answer should always be “everyone”. The first has some thought behind it.
If you went out and hired someone catch thieves, you would have one person looking for dishonest customers. If you have ten employees in your store every day, then technically, you should have 10 loss prevention associates, since they all should be aware of their surroundings and know what to look for in a dishonest person. That’s why adequate loss prevention training for your store employees is so important to the success of your business. I’m in no way suggesting that you train everyone to catch apprehend a shoplifter, but giving them basic training can pay off in ways that you might not have ever imagined.
In my current role, I routinely conduct loss prevention workshops in the stores that are under my responsibility. These training sessions focus on two groups; store employees and store managers. I have the most fun with the store employees. Believe it or not, most employees are eager to learn ways to save their store money. This is especially true when you relate a $100 loss to money out of their pocket. If your payroll is based upon your store sales, that $100 theft can mean a reduction of 5-10 hours. You tell that to any hourly employee and you’ll have their attention. What I like to do is called a “cart test”. Try this out next time in your store and see if you’re not surprised by the results.
Take a walk around the store and start shoplifting. I like to switch prices on higher end product and conceal merchandise inside coolers, or tackle boxes. Think of all the ways in which someone could commit fraud through your point of sale and then demonstrate that technique. Have your cashiers, one at a time, ring you up as a normal customer. Don’t tell them something is amiss. Chances are, even your most tenured cashiers will allow an item to get passed that shouldn’t have. While it’s not always the fault of the cashier, it will definitely show you the potential for merchandise loss through your register.
After you do this with your entire cashier team, you will most likely get an idea of what opportunities lie in your store. Maybe none of the cashiers opened up a tackle box to find that $200 reel you placed in there. Maybe, none of them caught the price switch on a $300 cooler that rang up for $25. Whatever the case, you will be able to respond appropriately and then tailor specific loss prevention training to ensure that these issues don’t happen in the real world where they could potentially cost you hundreds, or thousands of dollars.
For more information, contact us: Loss Prevention Seminar, or call 1.770.426.0547
You spend a lot of your hard-earned revenue on purchasing more clothing for your loyal customers to come shop, purchase, and enjoy. The last thing you want is for some thief to come into your store and clean house, taking those tokens of your hard work, and those outfits that your shoppers love to buy. It may not seem like a problem today, but you never can be sure when a shoplifter will come take advantage of you. There are some important tips to ensure clothing security in your store to keep those loyal customers coming back, and to keep those would-be shoplifters at bay.
Merchandise Protection is probably the first, most important way to keep clothing in your store. Securing clothing by using ink tags or Electronic Article Surveillance (EAS) hard-tags is the primary way to protect your product. These devices are able to provide more protection that you might first think. Not only do they physically prevent criminals from taking your merchandise, but they also psychologically deter a large number of would-be shoplifters from even attempting such a feat. Beyond that, they also allow store employees to easily identify illegitimate customers trying to defeat devices securing clothing.
Fitting room controls are another essential aspect of protecting clothing. Most clothing theft occurs inside of fitting rooms; they are the perfect hiding place for thieves to do their dirty-work without being identified. If you have in-store fitting areas, it is a good idea to have an employee work these areas. Counting the number of items a customer enters the fitting room with, and recording this number is another strong psychological deterrent for bad guys (and girls). It also allows the fitting room attendant to remember what the customer went in with, and acknowledge any discrepancies that are noticed.
I worked for a clothing retail store in loss prevention for quite some time. One of the greatest theft preventers was the fitting room security. Fitting room attendants were trained to count items, and place items in the fitting rooms for the customers. As time went on, the associates would check back with the customers, asking them if they would like any other sizes or styles, sometimes offering them other style selections the employee thought might go well with what they saw the customer taking into the fitting room. It was a great way to prevent theft, and to encourage sales on different items!
Employee awareness is the last piece to ensure optimal clothing security. The better your employees know the product that is being sold in the stores, and the more they know how to identify suspicious behavior, the better they will be able to prevent merchandise theft. At one store where I worked, employees were trained to identify alert signals in the changing areas. When there were item discrepancies, the employee would simply provide a customer service-friendly statement, identifying the item they noticed missing specifically, such as, “Did those white-wash jeans not work out for you?” This would frequently panic thieves into dumping the merchandise concealed, and would be great customer service for those who were legitimate shoppers!
It is important that you do everything you can to make sure your clothing is protected and available for customers to purchase. Take some of these tips, get creative, and have fun with them. It will keep your customers happy, and keep the cash in your pockets and out of the hands of criminals.
For more information contact us: Clothing Security or call 1.770.426.0547
You spend a lot of your hard-earned revenue on purchasing more clothing for your loyal customers to come shop, purchase, and enjoy. The last thing you want is for some thief to come into your store and clean house, taking those tokens of your hard work, and those outfits that your shoppers love to buy. It may not seem like a problem today, but can you never be sure when a shoplifter will come take advantage of you. There are some important tips to ensure clothing security in your store to keep those loyal customers coming back, and to keep those would-be shoplifters at bay.
Merchandise Protection is probably the first, most important way to keep clothing in your store. Securing clothing by using ink tags or Electronic Article Surveillance (EAS) hard-tags is the primary way to protect your product. These devices are able to provide more protection that you might first think. Not only do they physically prevent criminals from taking your merchandise, but they also psychologically deter a large number of would-be shoplifters from even attempting such a feat. Beyond that, they also allow store employees to easily identify illegitimate customers trying to defeat devices securing clothing.
Fitting room controls are another essential aspect of protecting clothing. Most clothing theft occurs inside of fitting rooms; they are the perfect hiding place for thieves to do their dirty-work without being identified. If you have in-store fitting areas, it is a good idea to have an employee work these areas. Counting the number of items a customer enters the fitting room with, and recording this number is another strong psychological deterrent for bad guys (and girls). It also allows the fitting room attendant to remember what the customer went in with, and acknowledge any discrepancies that are noticed.
I worked for a clothing retail store in loss prevention for quite some time. One of the greatest theft preventers was the fitting room security. Fitting room attendants were trained to count items, and place items in the fitting rooms for the customers. As time went on, the associates would check back with the customers, asking them if they would like any other sizes or styles, sometimes offering them other style selections the employee thought might go well with what they saw the customer taking into the fitting room. It was a great way to prevent theft, and to encourage sales on different items!
Employee awareness is the last piece to ensure optimal clothing security. The better your employees know the product that is being sold in the stores, and the more they know how to identify suspicious behavior, the better they will be able to prevent merchandise theft. At one store where I worked, employees were trained to identify alert signals in the changing areas. When there were item discrepancies, the employee would simply provide a customer service-friendly statement, identifying the item they noticed missing specifically, such as, “Did those white-wash jeans not work out for you?” This would frequently panic thieves into dumping the merchandise concealed, and would be great customer service for those who were legitimate shoppers!
It is important that you do everything you can to make sure your clothing is protected and available for customers to purchase. Take some of these tips, get creative, and have fun with them. It will keep your customers happy, and keep the cash in your pockets and out of the hands of criminals.
For more information contact us at Clothing Security or call 1.770.426.0547
One concern that every nightclub worries about is a physical altercation. Anytime you mix a large group of people with differing personalities, and alcohol there is bound to be some kind of conflict. The hope is that when a fight breaks out the damage is minimized and security has swiftly brought the incident to a halt.
There is also a concern that the nightclub can somehow be held liable for any injuries or personal property damage incurred during the duration of the altercation. As such, nightclubs need to be aware of anything in their clubs that are not bolted down, which could be used as a weapon. These makeshift weapons not only increase the damages but further point fingers at the club as having a role in the fight.
Stanchions, tables, chairs, beer bottles and decorations have all been used at some point as a tool in a club altercation. Over the last decade or so there has been an increase in the use of liquor bottles, full or otherwise. This is not because of patrons hopping over bars and grabbing bottles to be used in a fight. It is because the bottles were accessible out in the common areas of the club. They were found on tables that had paid for bottle services.
There are some legislators that, after noticing the increase, have started lobbying for these liquor bottles to be banned from service. The argument is that liquor bottles are easily grasped, heavy, and because they are made from glass can do additional damage when they are broken or shattered. Glass beer bottles are similar, but because of their comparatively smaller size, are not as big of a threat. Therefore, the pending and proposed legislation surrounds only glass liquor/ wine bottles, and not glass beer bottles.
So what does this mean for nightclubs that want to serve full liquor or wine bottles during a bottle service? By eliminating the original glass bottles, an entirely new set of concerns comes into play. Clients want to see full, unopened bottles of their favorite alcohol brought to their tables. Part of the allure is to see the full bottle opened before them. It is also a status symbol to have a particular brand’s bottle sitting on their table. Since liquor bottles are designed to be recognized simply by the size shape and color of their bottles, eliminating this original packaging takes away from the draw to spending the hefty price for a bottle service.
Another key feature for clubs to be aware of if the bottles can no longer be used, is maintaining the integrity of the bottle. Without the original bottle, can a client really be sure that they are getting what they paid for? There would be an increased risk that employees might switch out lower dollar liquor for the higher priced one actually paid for. The quantity of the bottle can also be shorted by a few shots without the client’s knowledge. There is also a greater risk that the contents might be tampered with in some other way posing a risk to the client, and to the nightclub’s liability.
For more information on Bottle Caps, Bottle Lock, Bottle Locks, EASy Bottle or Bottle Services in your Nightclub please contact us at Bottle Service or call 1.770.426.0547
All of the most prominent nightclubs, bars and venues in New York, Chicago, Miami, Atlanta, New Orleans, Dallas, Denver, Phoenix, Albuquerque, Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, Virginia Beach, Washington D.C., and Las Vegas use Bottle Services for their best clientele. Don’t let your nightclub miss out on this VIP experience.
One concern that every nightclub worries about is a physical altercation. Anytime you mix a large group of people with differing personalities, and alcohol there is bound to be some kind of conflict. The hope is that when a fight breaks out the damage is minimized and security has swiftly brought the incident to a halt.
There is also a concern that the nightclub can somehow be held liable for any injuries or personal property damage incurred during the duration of the altercation. As such, nightclubs need to be aware of anything in their clubs that are not bolted down, which could be used as a weapon. These makeshift weapons not only increase the damages but further point fingers at the club as having a role in the fight.
Stanchions, tables, chairs, beer bottles and decorations have all been used at some point as a tool in a club altercation. Over the last decade or so there has been an increase in the use of liquor bottles, full or otherwise. This is not because of patrons hopping over bars and grabbing bottles to be used in a fight. It is because the bottles were accessible out in the common areas of the club. They were found on tables that had paid for bottle services.
There are some legislators that, after noticing the increase, have started lobbying for these liquor bottles to be banned from service. The argument is that liquor bottles are easily grasped, heavy, and because they are made from glass can do additional damage when they are broken or shattered. Glass beer bottles are similar, but because of their comparatively smaller size, are not as big of a threat. Therefore, the pending and proposed legislation surrounds only glass liquor/ wine bottles, and not glass beer bottles.
So what does this mean for nightclubs that want to serve full liquor or wine bottles during a bottle service? By eliminating the original glass bottles, an entirely new set of concerns comes into play. Clients want to see full, unopened bottles of their favorite alcohol brought to their tables. Part of the allure is to see the full bottle opened before them. It is also a status symbol to have a particular brand’s bottle sitting on their table. Since liquor bottles are designed to be recognized simply by the size shape and color of their bottles, eliminating this original packaging takes away from the draw to spending the hefty price for a bottle service.
Another key feature for clubs to be aware of if the bottles can no longer be used, is maintaining the integrity of the bottle. Without the original bottle, can a client really be sure that they are getting what they paid for? There would be an increased risk that employees might switch out lower dollar liquor for the higher priced one actually paid for. The quantity of the bottle can also be shorted by a few shots without the client’s knowledge. There is also a greater risk that the contents might be tampered with in some other way posing a risk to the client, and to the nightclub’s liability.
For more information on Bottle Caps, Bottle Lock, Bottle Locks, EASy Bottle or Bottle Services in your Nightclub please contact us at Bottle Service or call 1.770.426.0547
All of the most prominent nightclubs, bars and venues in New York, Chicago, Miami, Atlanta, New Orleans, Dallas, Denver, Phoenix, Albuquerque, Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, Virginia Beach, Washington D.C., and Las Vegas use Bottle Services for their best clientele. Don’t let your nightclub miss out on this VIP experience.
