Alpha Hang Tag-3 WC Blog 422
Retail Anti-Theft Devices-4
Prevent Shoplifting-3
Surprising Results When You Choose To Use Retail Anti-Theft Devices To Prevent Shoplifting
Surprises can be good and they can be not-so-good. Not long ago I received an unexpected Thank You card with a gift card inside of it for a restaurant chain. It was sent by an employer that for whom I work as a token of their appreciation. You can imagine my surprise at such a gift when it was completely out of the blue. To top it off, it came unbeknownst to the people in the office that sent it, on my wife and my 26th wedding anniversary! Several years ago my wife got our church friends to throw me a surprise birthday party. I am not a big fan of parties, especially when they are for me but the thoughtfulness of the get-together was overwhelming. Some surprises are not welcome like one time when I was working an overnight shift and the tire on our van blew out while my wife was driving it. I was not there to be able to assist her and she was not sure what to do. That same kind of surprise, something unexpected happening is part of what enhances the ability of retail anti-theft devices to prevent shoplifting.
Retail anti-theft devices such as the Alpha hang tag work in part because of the surprise a shoplifter gets when the tag activates the electronic article surveillance (EAS) towers at the front doors of a store. The Alpha hang tag is used on the hang tab of peg hook merchandise to make it difficult for a shoplifter to simply conceal the item in a pocket or purse and walk out of a store. For starters the tag prevents a thief from easily cutting merchandise off of a locking peg hook. The tag is a solid plastic material that snaps over the tab. It is designed to be removed at the point of sale only and requires a detachment key to take if off. For merchandise not on a locking peg hook it deters theft because the tags have a lock symbol on them and the words “security protected” printed on the front. If a criminal decides to try to steal product that has the tag on it the EAS towers sound a piercing alarm that gets the attention of store employees. This alarm frequently surprises the crook dumb enough to try to steal the item. The surprise of the alarm noise and flashing lights in the towers can and does prevent shoplifting by causing the bad guy to drop the goods. Dropped merchandise is recovered merchandise.
Thinking back on my Loss Prevention days I can recall a number of times when a shoplifter got near the doors with merchandise protected with retail anti-theft devices and the alarm was activated and a recovery was made due to dropped merchandise. I remember once when a customer had placed a pair of tagged sunglasses in his pocket and began to leave the store. The alarm sounded and he looked shocked, pulled the glasses out and tossed them down on the ground and ran. I had no intention of stopping him for theft since I had not seen the concealment but I was going to have my uniformed security officer stop him and conduct a receipt check. As it turned out it wasn’t necessary to do that. I have seen people walk up the doors, set off the alarm and as a cashier supervisor approached they pulled the item out and say that they forgot that they had placed it wherever it was they had concealed it. The power of an EAS alarm cannot be underestimated when you see it prevent shoplifting.
The element of surprise can work wonders when an Alpha hang tag and other EAS retail anti-theft devices are used to protect merchandise. It can be a nasty surprise for a shoplifter trying to get merchandise past EAS towers and the alarms activate. It can be a pleasant surprise for a retail owner when a tag deters a theft or causes merchandise to be dropped and a recovery is made. The payoff in reduced shortage and improved in-stocks will drive up sales and THAT is a VERY pleasant surprise indeed.
For more information about Alpha Hang Tag contact us or call 1.770.426.0547
Surprises can be good and they can be not-so-good. Not long ago I received an unexpected Thank You card with a gift card inside of it for a restaurant chain. It was sent by an employer that for whom I work as a token of their appreciation. You can imagine my surprise at such a gift when it was completely out of the blue. To top it off, it came unbeknownst to the people in the office that sent it, on my wife and my 26th wedding anniversary! Several years ago my wife got our church friends to throw me a surprise birthday party. I am not a big fan of parties, especially when they are for me but the thoughtfulness of the get-together was overwhelming. Some surprises are not welcome like one time when I was working an overnight shift and the tire on our van blew out while my wife was driving it. I was not there to be able to assist her and she was not sure what to do. That same kind of surprise, something unexpected happening is part of what enhances the ability of retail anti-theft devices to prevent shoplifting.
Retail anti-theft devices such as the Alpha hang tag work in part because of the surprise a shoplifter gets when the tag activates the electronic article surveillance (EAS) towers at the front doors of a store. The Alpha hang tag is used on the hang tab of peg hook merchandise to make it difficult for a shoplifter to simply conceal the item in a pocket or purse and walk out of a store. For starters the tag prevents a thief from easily cutting merchandise off of a locking peg hook. The tag is a solid plastic material that snaps over the tab. It is designed to be removed at the point of sale only and requires a detachment key to take if off. For merchandise not on a locking peg hook it deters theft because the tags have a lock symbol on them and the words “security protected” printed on the front. If a criminal decides to try to steal product that has the tag on it the EAS towers sound a piercing alarm that gets the attention of store employees. This alarm frequently surprises the crook dumb enough to try to steal the item. The surprise of the alarm noise and flashing lights in the towers can and does prevent shoplifting by causing the bad guy to drop the goods. Dropped merchandise is recovered merchandise.
Thinking back on my Loss Prevention days I can recall a number of times when a shoplifter got near the doors with merchandise protected with retail anti-theft devices and the alarm was activated and a recovery was made due to dropped merchandise. I remember once when a customer had placed a pair of tagged sunglasses in his pocket and began to leave the store. The alarm sounded and he looked shocked, pulled the glasses out and tossed them down on the ground and ran. I had no intention of stopping him for theft since I had not seen the concealment but I was going to have my uniformed security officer stop him and conduct a receipt check. As it turned out it wasn’t necessary to do that. I have seen people walk up the doors, set off the alarm and as a cashier supervisor approached they pulled the item out and say that they forgot that they had placed it wherever it was they had concealed it. The power of an EAS alarm cannot be underestimated when you see it prevent shoplifting.
The element of surprise can work wonders when an Alpha hang tag and other EAS retail anti-theft devices are used to protect merchandise. It can be a nasty surprise for a shoplifter trying to get merchandise past EAS towers and the alarms activate. It can be a pleasant surprise for a retail owner when a tag deters a theft or causes merchandise to be dropped and a recovery is made. The payoff in reduced shortage and improved in-stocks will drive up sales and THAT is a VERY pleasant surprise indeed.
For more information about Alpha Hang Tag, contact us or call 1.770.426.0547
Pre-employment drug testing -4 WC Blog 508
Retail Theft Prevention – 3
Pre-employment Drug Testing Improves Profitability
Pre-employment drug testing and random drug screening in the workplace has become a controversial issue. On the one hand opponents claim it is an invasion of an individual’s privacy to ask them to submit to a drug test. The concern they have is that what someone does on their own time is their own business as long as they show up for work and do the job they were hired to do. On the other hand business owners have to be concerned on a number of levels. The liabilities they potentially face due to accidents or harm caused by employees to their customers, poor customer service, hindering retail theft prevention efforts and lost productivity are real issues. Consider the following stories:
• According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics: “Overdoses from the non-medical use of drugs or alcohol while on the job increased from 165 in 2015 to 217 in 2016, a 32-percent increase.”
• “BMW was forced to shut down an assembly line for 40 minutes on March 3 – reportedly costing the company more than $1 million – after two drugged-out employees got high and collapsed while working, Bild reports.” The Drive, “Stoned Assembly Line Workers Cost BMW $1 Million in One Day, Report Claims”, by Aaron Brown, March 20, 2017.
• From a story in auburnpub.com, Sep 6, 2017, by Megan Barr, “Ex-employee admits stealing from Cayuga County non-profit to support drug habit”. “During his plea, he told Judge Mark Fandrich that he stole two snowblowers from CSCAA on Jan. 9. “I stole from my employer to support my drug habit.”
The potential problems for employers are real and have to be considered before a new employee is hired. How to minimize the chance of hiring someone who may use drugs in the workplace is not an easy question to answer but Loss Prevention Systems Inc. has the solution with pre-employment drug testing.
Drug screening may seem unpleasant but for the sake of the employer it is necessary. Usually it only involves a potential employee rendering a urine sample in a controlled environment where the chance of tampering with the sample is minimized. The sample bottle is sealed by a professional staff member and shipped out for testing or depending on the facility the testing is done on-sight. Results are usually obtained fairly quickly and returned to employer. Results that indicate the candidate has been using illegal or controlled substances are reported to the employer and a decision is made on how to proceed. In the case of controlled substances the candidate should be reporting in advance that they are on a prescription and be able to present a doctor’s note confirming that.
As you can see from the stories I listed in the first part of this article hiring someone who takes drugs can have an adverse effect on your business from retail theft prevention concerns to on-the-job injuries. You have no idea whether this candidate would injure him/herself while on your property. Are you aware that should an employee be injured on the job, according to the OSHA (Occupational Safety and Hazard Administration) “1. Requires employers to inform employees of their right to report work-related injuries and illnesses free from retaliation. 2. Clarifies the existing implicit requirement that an employer’s procedure for reporting work-related illnesses must be reasonable and not deter or discourage employees from reporting” https://www.osha.gov/recordkeeping/finalrule/finalrule_faq.html In other words, should an employee be injured on the job they must feel safe to report it without fear of retaliation, this seems to even be if drugs are suspected to be involved. The policy FAQ section goes on to state, “The rule does not prohibit drug testing of employees. It only prohibits employers from using drug testing or the threat of drug testing as a form of retaliation against employees who report illnesses or injuries.” I would suggest that post-accident drug testing is pointless as it would appear that firing an employee who tests positive for drug use could be considered retaliation. Pre-employment drug testing BEFORE you make a final hiring decision on an applicant can save you headaches in the future.
In order to support your retail theft prevention efforts and to keep your store safe you need to conduct pre-employment drug testing. Don’t hire someone who may steal to support a drug habit or possibly have an on the job injury due to being high. Drug testing plays a critical role for employers to keep their stores profitable and safe. Be sure you are bringing the right people on your team that will support your goals of running a profitable business.
Need information on pre-employment drug testing? Give us a call at 1.770.426.0547 and let’s talk
Pre-employment drug testing and random drug screening in the workplace has become a controversial issue. On the one hand opponents claim it is an invasion of an individual’s privacy to ask them to submit to a drug test. The concern they have is that what someone does on their own time is their own business as long as they show up for work and do the job they were hired to do. On the other hand business owners have to be concerned on a number of levels. The liabilities they potentially face due to accidents or harm caused by employees to their customers, poor customer service, hindering retail theft prevention efforts and lost productivity are real issues. Consider the following stories:
• According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics: “Overdoses from the non-medical use of drugs or alcohol while on the job increased from 165 in 2015 to 217 in 2016, a 32-percent increase.”
• “BMW was forced to shut down an assembly line for 40 minutes on March 3 – reportedly costing the company more than $1 million – after two drugged-out employees got high and collapsed while working, Bild reports.” The Drive, “Stoned Assembly Line Workers Cost BMW $1 Million in One Day, Report Claims”, by Aaron Brown, March 20, 2017.
• From a story in auburnpub.com, Sep 6, 2017, by Megan Barr, “Ex-employee admits stealing from Cayuga County non-profit to support drug habit”. “During his plea, he told Judge Mark Fandrich that he stole two snowblowers from CSCAA on Jan. 9. “I stole from my employer to support my drug habit.”
The potential problems for employers are real and have to be considered before a new employee is hired. How to minimize the chance of hiring someone who may use drugs in the workplace is not an easy question to answer but Loss Prevention Systems Inc. has the solution with pre-employment drug testing.
Drug screening may seem unpleasant but for the sake of the employer it is necessary. Usually it only involves a potential employee rendering a urine sample in a controlled environment where the chance of tampering with the sample is minimized. The sample bottle is sealed by a professional staff member and shipped out for testing or depending on the facility the testing is done on-sight. Results are usually obtained fairly quickly and returned to the employer. Results that indicate the candidate has been using illegal or controlled substances are reported to the employer and a decision is made on how to proceed. In the case of controlled substances the candidate should be reporting in advance that they are on a prescription and be able to present a doctor’s note confirming that.
As you can see from the stories I listed in the first part of this article hiring someone who takes drugs can have an adverse effect on your business from retail theft prevention concerns to on-the-job injuries. You have no idea whether this candidate would injure him/herself while on your property. Are you aware that should an employee be injured on the job, according to the OSHA (Occupational Safety and Hazard Administration) “1. Requires employers to inform employees of their right to report work-related injuries and illnesses free from retaliation. 2. Clarifies the existing implicit requirement that an employer’s procedure for reporting work-related illnesses must be reasonable and not deter or discourage employees from reporting” https://www.osha.gov/recordkeeping/finalrule/finalrule_faq.html In other words, should an employee be injured on the job they must feel safe to report it without fear of retaliation, this seems to even be if drugs are suspected to be involved. The policy FAQ section goes on to state, “The rule does not prohibit drug testing of employees. It only prohibits employers from using drug testing or the threat of drug testing as a form of retaliation against employees who report illnesses or injuries.” I would suggest that post-accident drug testing is pointless as it would appear that firing an employee who tests positive for drug use could be considered retaliation. Pre-employment drug testing BEFORE you make a final hiring decision on an applicant can save you headaches in the future.
In order to support your retail theft prevention efforts and to keep your store safe you need to conduct pre-employment drug testing. Don’t hire someone who may steal to support a drug habit or possibly have an on the job injury due to being high. Drug testing plays a critical role for employers to keep their stores profitable and safe. Be sure you are bringing the right people on your team that will support your goals of running a profitable business.
Need information on pre-employment drug testing? Give us a call at 1.770.426.0547 and let’s talk
Customer Counting Systems-3 WC Blog 430
Door Counting Sensor4
A Door Counting Sensor Is A More Sensible Method To Allocate Payroll Than Old Sales Data
I work in a college library as a day shift supervisor. I have recently changed shifts from being an overnight supervisor in the same library for the past six years. The difference in positions is significant. Where I am used to working with only a few students in the building after 1:00am, I now have to adjust to having several hundred in the building at any given time. This means we provide more assistance, have more student workers during a shift and usually will have more staff at one time. We also have more resources on campus to refer a patron to when they have questions regarding their enrollment, classes, fines, etc. There are times when retail owners and managers have varying numbers of customers in their buildings too. Knowing when those differences take place and being able to track them by day of the week, hour of the day or a particular seasonal event enables store managers to adjust workloads around those times and utilize payroll dollars in a manner that makes sense. The question is, how do you track customer counts? Using customer counting systems is the most efficient means of doing this.
Customer counting systems keep track of the number of people entering a store by the hour of day. In our library we send a worker around with an iPad and they count the number of people we have on an hourly basis. A door counting sensor can alleviate this problem and for a store, a waste of payroll if someone is stationed at a door to count heads. They can provide electronic article surveillance (EAS) alarm response time for store managers to assess whether personnel are responding to alarms appropriately. The advantage of having the EAS system is that a store can impact theft and fraud and improve profits through reduced shrink. Add that to the benefits of adjusting payroll to be customer driven and stores can see substantial profit increases.
I know some of you may doubt me right now. It sounds a little incredible that something as simple as a door counting sensor could really make an impact on sales. Consider for a moment that there are people coming into your store and leaving without making any purchases. If you knew how many people are visiting and at what time they are visiting you could adjust your scheduling. I am aware of two methods that are regularly used for retail scheduling by large businesses. One method is when a store is allocated payroll hours by a headquarters and stores use the hours where they deem appropriate. It may be based on merchandise shipments that will be coming in that week or a store manager allotting hours based on prior year sales data.
The other means I have seen used is to have payroll dollars allocated to a store. The headache with this is there has to be tracking of employee pay rates. A store may have to have fewer people on the salesfloor for a shift since Mary Ann earns $10.00 an hour while Jimmy Bob earns $8.00 an hour. When these stores are trending over that dollar amount they have to cut payroll dollars. This poses a conundrum for the store management team they have to decide where those hours will come from. Do you take it from cashiering? Then you have a line of customers that gets angry and abandons shopping carts and leave the store. Oh and don’t forget the snowball effect that has. Now, someone has to get all the merchandise put back and that is on top of the regular tasks that have to be done before the store closes. Is the team going to have to stay later than scheduled in order to get the store back in shape for the next day? A customer counting system allows managers to see when the peak traffic is in the store. Payroll based on dollars or hours using old sales information may give a false picture of the needs for the store.
Get a true picture of how many people are coming into your store. Use a door counting sensor and get reliable information without wasting payroll dollars to do it. When you staff your store to provide adequate service to all of the people walking through your doors you will see your sales improve and that translates to more returning customers and new customers due to word of mouth advertising.
Need information on a door counting sensor? Give us a call at 1.770.426.0547 now.
I work in a college library as a day shift supervisor. I have recently changed shifts from being an overnight supervisor in the same library for the past six years. The difference in positions is significant. Where I am used to working with only a few students in the building after 1:00am, I now have to adjust to having several hundred in the building at any given time. This means we provide more assistance, have more student workers during a shift and usually will have more staff at one time. We also have more resources on campus to refer a patron to when they have questions regarding their enrollment, classes, fines, etc. There are times when retail owners and managers have varying numbers of customers in their buildings too. Knowing when those differences take place and being able to track them by day of the week, hour of the day or a particular seasonal event enables store managers to adjust workloads around those times and utilize payroll dollars in a manner that makes sense. The question is, how do you track customer counts? Using customer counting systems is the most efficient means of doing this.
Customer counting systems keep track of the number of people entering a store by the hour of day. In our library we send a worker around with an iPad and they count the number of people we have on an hourly basis. A door counting sensor can alleviate this problem and for a store, a waste of payroll if someone is stationed at a door to count heads. They can provide electronic article surveillance (EAS) alarm response time for store managers to assess whether personnel are responding to alarms appropriately. The advantage of having the EAS system is that a store can impact theft and fraud and improve profits through reduced shrink. Add that to the benefits of adjusting payroll to be customer driven and stores can see substantial profit increases.
I know some of you may doubt me right now. It sounds a little incredible that something as simple as a door counting sensor could really make an impact on sales. Consider for a moment that there are people coming into your store and leaving without making any purchases. If you knew how many people are visiting and at what time they are visiting you could adjust your scheduling. I am aware of two methods that are regularly used for retail scheduling by large businesses. One method is when a store is allocated payroll hours by a headquarters and stores use the hours where they deem appropriate. It may be based on merchandise shipments that will be coming in that week or a store manager allotting hours based on prior year sales data.
The other means I have seen used is to have payroll dollars allocated to a store. The headache with this is there has to be tracking of employee pay rates. A store may have to have fewer people on the salesfloor for a shift since Mary Ann earns $10.00 an hour while Jimmy Bob earns $8.00 an hour. When these stores are trending over that dollar amount they have to cut payroll dollars. This poses a conundrum for the store management team they have to decide where those hours will come from. Do you take it from cashiering? Then you have a line of customers that gets angry and abandons shopping carts and leave the store. Oh and don’t forget the snowball effect that has. Now, someone has to get all the merchandise put back and that is on top of the regular tasks that have to be done before the store closes. Is the team going to have to stay later than scheduled in order to get the store back in shape for the next day? A customer counting system allows managers to see when the peak traffic is in the store. Payroll based on dollars or hours using old sales information may give a false picture of the needs for the store.
Get a true picture of how many people are coming into your store. Use a door counting sensor and get reliable information without wasting payroll dollars to do it. When you staff your store to provide adequate service to all of the people walking through your doors you will see your sales improve and that translates to more returning customers and new customers due to word of mouth advertising.
Need information on a door counting sensor? Give us a call at 1.770.426.0547 now.
