I am a video gamer. I’m not very good at them, as my sons like to remind me, but I am a gamer nonetheless. I still have a PS2 at home as well as The Xbox consoles. I don’t have the opportunity to play them as frequently as I would like but I still find time to indulge in them every so often. Occasionally I like to go to the local videogame store and purchase a used game (being a cheapskate I don’t often buy a new one for myself). A while back I went to a particular store and wanted to purchase a game. This store has empty boxes on the shelf, requiring you to select the product you are interested in and take the empty box to the register. The actual game disc is stored in file drawers behind the counter in paper cd sleeves. I found the box for the game I wanted and dutifully walked it up to the register. The clerk hunted for the disc and could not locate it so he had to get a co-worker to help. Together they searched and still could not find the disc I wanted. I wasn’t too happy but I found a different game and ended up purchasing it. I was slightly irritated at the experience but did not say so since the employees did the best they could under the circumstances. Each time I go into this store now I get aggravated seeing empty video game cases on the shelves. I wonder to myself how many other discs they lose due to carelessness, a poor filing system or some other factor. It would be much easier for this business to use gaming keepers to prevent shoplifting rather than removing discs from all the cases they come in.
Gaming keepers are clear, hard, plastic cases with a hinged, locking door designed to prevent shoplifting. Many retailers keep popular and high theft merchandise in lock-up cases. While lock-up cases do prevent theft, they make it impossible for a customer to browse and look at package content without a sales person hovering over them while they look. Alpha Keepers, including those for video game software, provide the protection of a display case and affords customers the ability to read content information. While using empty display boxes also prevents shoplifting they can create a different set of issues for customers, like the one I experienced. Using gaming keepers prevents such a situation since the game disc remains in the package and the package is locked securely in the keeper. Games are only removed from the keepers when they are brought to the point of sale and a special detachment key is used to open keeper.
What prevents someone from simply walking out the door with merchandise in a Gaming Keeper? All Alpha Keepers are designed with electronic article surveillance (EAS) technology built into them. Stores that use Alpha Keepers also have EAS antennas installed at the entrances and exits. The antennas pick up radio frequency signals emitted by Keepers and other EAS tagged merchandise when they are carried too close to the doorway. This causes the antenna alarm to sound and warn store employees of a security breach. Staff respond to the alarm and prevent shoplifting by determining the cause of the alarm and recovering the merchandise from the perpetrator.
As a store owner or manager it is important that you consider the benefits of using Gaming Keepers and other Alpha Keepers to protect your merchandise. You won’t need to pay for extra staff so you have people available to “show” merchandise. You also won’t have to come up with alternative merchandise displays that may create unnecessary headaches of trying to locate items. You can have all of these advantages AND prevent shoplifting at the same time.
Gaming Keepers are important and we can help you with it. Call 1.770.426.0547 and let’s talk.
Loss Prevention ROI Calculator-4 WC Blog 221
Can Loss Prevention Be Free?-3
Free Loss Prevention Calculator-3
Theft Costs A Store Money; Using The Loss Prevention ROI Calculator Doesn’t And The Results Will Astound You
There a a lot of small retail stores that struggle to survive, let alone grow their profits. According to the Small Business Association (SBA) Office of Advocacy, https://www.sba.gov/sites/default/files/Business-Survival.pdf “About two thirds of businesses with employees survive at least 2 years and about half survive at least 5 years.” Owners and managers of small businesses know that there is a lot of personal sweat and blood that goes into running their store but that isn’t necessarily enough to stay afloat. There are a number of factors that can cause a business to go under. On their website, Quickbooks lists several of these reasons and I recommend anyone thinking about going into business for themselves to carefully read the article so they are prepared to be successful. There was one factor that I would like to focus on from the article; http://quickbooks.intuit.com/r/money/8-reasons-why-small-businesses-fail/ According to the Quickbooks article one of the reasons they cite for businesses failing is lack of funding. Their suggestion is that as part of the planning for the business, “calculate startup and operating costs.” In making those calculations one should ask, “What will my Return On Investment (ROI) be with this or that purchase?” Well, if you are starting a retail store you can start by using the Loss Prevention ROI Calculator.
Going into the retail business involves more than simply setting up shelving, installing a point of sale system, obtaining merchandise and suppliers. It is easy to overlook the ongoing expense of what theft and merchandise shortage is going to cost. People are going to steal from you, customers, employees and potentially vendors. In North America in 2014-2015, retail shrinkage was around 1.97% (according to the 2014-2015 Global Retail Theft Barometer)! It is critical that before you start a business you plan on addressing this issue. The Loss Prevention ROI Calculator provides you with the ability to enter both your projected or anticipated sales dollars for a year and how much you would like to invest in retail theft prevention technology. You can change your entries and try out different calculations and the information is yours to view. Nothing is sent out unless you decide you would like more information and you can then share a figure with a representative. The amazing part of this is the Loss prevention ROI Calculator costs nothing to use. Can Loss Prevention Be Free? You may be surprised to learn it can be after you try out the Free Loss Prevention Calculator.
But what if you have already started your business, you are struggling, and you need to fix your problems since it is too late to plan them in your calculations. Can Loss Prevention Be Free for you as well? You bet it can. Your business may be seeing profits drained by theft and you don’t know it. An electronic article surveillance (EAS) system can prevent theft by deterring it in the first place and secondly, by allowing you to identify and stop it when it does happen. The deterrence value of an EAS system alone significantly reduces your shortage. Since you have an established business, you can use the Loss Prevention ROI Calculator and enter your known annual sales information without having to guess, as a start up owner would have to do. Enter different dollar amounts of what you might like to invest in EAS protection and you will get an estimate for how many months it would take for your new Checkpoint system to show your Return On Investment. With the Free Loss Prevention Calculator you will even be able to generate a PDF document to use for your strategic planning to get back to a stable footing.
As you make preparations for a new business or if you are struggling right now, you need to consider what your return on investments will be for each purchase you make and account for the dollars spent. Unless you plan for it, assume you will lose 2% or more annually from your bottom line. OR, you can make the best investment and use the Free Loss Prevention Calculator. No cost to use and you can answer the question for yourself, “Can Loss Prevention Be Free?” Go ahead, try it out and see how much a retail theft prevention system can save you and how quickly it can pay for itself.
Need information on the Loss Prevention ROI Calculator? Give us a call at 1.770.426.0547 now.
There a a lot of small retail stores that struggle to survive, let alone grow their profits. According to the Small Business Association (SBA) Office of Advocacy, https://www.sba.gov/sites/default/files/Business-Survival.pdf “About two thirds of businesses with employees survive at least 2 years and about half survive at least 5 years.” Owners and managers of small businesses know that there is a lot of personal sweat and blood that goes into running their store but that isn’t necessarily enough to stay afloat. There are a number of factors that can cause a business to go under. On their website, Quickbooks lists several of these reasons and I recommend anyone thinking about going into business for themselves to carefully read the article so they are prepared to be successful. There was one factor that I would like to focus on from the article; http://quickbooks.intuit.com/r/money/8-reasons-why-small-businesses-fail/ According to the Quickbooks article one of the reasons they cite for businesses failing is lack of funding. Their suggestion is that as part of the planning for the business, “calculate startup and operating costs.” In making those calculations one should ask, “What will my Return On Investment (ROI) be with this or that purchase?” Well, if you are starting a retail store you can start by using the Loss Prevention ROI Calculator.
Going into the retail business involves more than simply setting up shelving, installing a point of sale system, obtaining merchandise and suppliers. It is easy to overlook the ongoing expense of what theft and merchandise shortage is going to cost. People are going to steal from you, customers, employees and potentially vendors. In North America in 2014-2015, retail shrinkage was around 1.97% (according to the 2014-2015 Global Retail Theft Barometer)! It is critical that before you start a business you plan on addressing this issue. The Loss Prevention ROI Calculator provides you with the ability to enter both your projected or anticipated sales dollars for a year and how much you would like to invest in retail theft prevention technology. You can change your entries and try out different calculations and the information is yours to view. Nothing is sent out unless you decide you would like more information and you can then share a figure with a representative. The amazing part of this is the Loss prevention ROI Calculator costs nothing to use. Can Loss Prevention Be Free? You may be surprised to learn it can be after you try out the Free Loss Prevention Calculator.
But what if you have already started your business, you are struggling, and you need to fix your problems since it is too late to plan them in your calculations. Can Loss Prevention Be Free for you as well? You bet it can. Your business may be seeing profits drained by theft and you don’t know it. An electronic article surveillance (EAS) system can prevent theft by deterring it in the first place and secondly, by allowing you to identify and stop it when it does happen. The deterrence value of an EAS system alone significantly reduces your shortage. Since you have an established business, you can use the Loss Prevention ROI Calculator and enter your known annual sales information without having to guess, as a start up owner would have to do. Enter different dollar amounts of what you might like to invest in EAS protection and you will get an estimate for how many months it would take for your new Checkpoint system to show your Return On Investment. With the Free Loss Prevention Calculator you will even be able to generate a PDF document to use for your strategic planning to get back to a stable footing.
As you make preparations for a new business or if you are struggling right now, you need to consider what your return on investments will be for each purchase you make and account for the dollars spent. Unless you plan for it, assume you will lose 2% or more annually from your bottom line. OR, you can make the best investment and use the Free Loss Prevention Calculator. No cost to use and you can answer the question for yourself, “Can Loss Prevention Be Free?” Go ahead, try it out and see how much a retail theft prevention system can save you and how quickly it can pay for itself.
Need information on the Loss Prevention ROI Calculator? Give us a call at 1.770.426.0547 now.
Checkpoint labels-3 WC Blog 152
Stop shoplifting-3
Lack of Checkpoint Labels Leads To A Trickle Down Theory
On occasion when I am discussing my Loss Prevention experience with others the question usually arises, “You must have some interesting stories to tell?” As a matter of fact, I do have a couple that I enjoy sharing. I was never of the mindset that someone should be allowed to get away with shoplifting. As long as there was nothing more pressing happening in the store I expected my Loss Prevention team to stop all shoplifters (within company guidelines) or if it was a small item, to make every effort to deter theft. One area we were having a lot of petty theft in was our collector cards near the end of the checkout lanes. There was a popular collector card series out at the time, based on a children’s television cartoon that was the object of many juvenile shoplifters. We tagged our boxed sets of cards with Checkpoint labels to stop shoplifting but we did not do so with individual card packs due to the quantities we carried and some were source tagged by the vendor inside the packaging.
Let me briefly take a moment to mention what the Checkpoint labels are. Labels come in a number of styles, but they are “soft” tags that are designed with a circuit in the tag that is designed to work with the radio frequency of a Checkpoint security system electronic article surveillance antenna (EAS). The labels are placed on merchandise at the store and in some cases by vendors who “source tag” merchandise inside the packaging. Tags are “turned off” when passed over deactivation pads at the point of sale, usually integrated in the point of sale scan beds. When someone attempts to steal merchandise that is tagged, the tag is not deactivated and will set off the EAS antenna alarms.
So, one day I was walking through the store doing audits on high theft merchandise and I heard the sound of cellophane being torn open, one of those things that always perked up my ears. I started to walk down the back row of the area I was in and noticed a young boy, perhaps 5 or 6 years old standing in an aisle with his back to me. He was opening some type of packaging, but I had not seen him select anything although I could guess it was one of our collectable card packs. It was merely my intention to simply stop shoplifting by startling him and getting him to put the cards down and leave. I walked up behind the young fella and said, “Hello”. He turned to look at me with a petrified look on his face. I looked at the cards in his hand, and the torn packaging and asked what kind of cards he had. The boy did not respond, his mouth was hanging open and his eyes were wide. I asked again about the cards in his hands and then I heard something that sounded like water spilling on the tile floor. I looked down and wouldn’t you know it, the young man was urinating himself and on our floor. Being a parent myself, I was sympathetic and asked for assistance in a spill cleanup and took the boy to the front where I paged for his mother. Mom came up and I explained what had happened. I let her know I thought the he may have learned his lesson and said he was probably embarrassed enough at having wet himself. Mom apologized for her son, bought him a pair of jeans and left.
It has been my experience that when merchandise has Checkpoint labels on them and they are placed in a visible location on a package, they have a strong deterrent value and can stop shoplifting. In my case above, there was no visible label and even had there been the young man may not have been old enough to be deterred, but an adult may have been.
Need more information on Checkpoint labels? Give us a call at 1.770.426.0547 now.
On occasion when I am discussing my Loss Prevention experience with others the question usually arises, “You must have some interesting stories to tell?” As a matter of fact, I do have a couple that I enjoy sharing. I was never of the mindset that someone should be allowed to get away with shoplifting. As long as there was nothing more pressing happening in the store I expected my Loss Prevention team to stop all shoplifters (within company guidelines) or if it was a small item, to make every effort to deter theft. One area we were having a lot of petty theft in was our collector cards near the end of the checkout lanes. There was a popular collector card series out at the time, based on a children’s television cartoon that was the object of many juvenile shoplifters. We tagged our boxed sets of cards with Checkpoint labels to stop shoplifting but we did not do so with individual card packs due to the quantities we carried and some were source tagged by the vendor inside the packaging.
Let me briefly take a moment to mention what the Checkpoint labels are. Labels come in a number of styles, but they are “soft” tags that are designed with a circuit in the tag that is designed to work with the radio frequency of a Checkpoint security system electronic article surveillance antenna (EAS). The labels are placed on merchandise at the store and in some cases by vendors who “source tag” merchandise inside the packaging. Tags are “turned off” when passed over deactivation pads at the point of sale, usually integrated in the point of sale scan beds. When someone attempts to steal merchandise that is tagged, the tag is not deactivated and will set off the EAS antenna alarms.
So, one day I was walking through the store doing audits on high theft merchandise and I heard the sound of cellophane being torn open, one of those things that always perked up my ears. I started to walk down the back row of the area I was in and noticed a young boy, perhaps 5 or 6 years old standing in an aisle with his back to me. He was opening some type of packaging, but I had not seen him select anything although I could guess it was one of our collectable card packs. It was merely my intention to simply stop shoplifting by startling him and getting him to put the cards down and leave. I walked up behind the young fella and said, “Hello”. He turned to look at me with a petrified look on his face. I looked at the cards in his hand, and the torn packaging and asked what kind of cards he had. The boy did not respond, his mouth was hanging open and his eyes were wide. I asked again about the cards in his hands and then I heard something that sounded like water spilling on the tile floor. I looked down and wouldn’t you know it, the young man was urinating himself and on our floor. Being a parent myself, I was sympathetic and asked for assistance in a spill cleanup and took the boy to the front where I paged for his mother. Mom came up and I explained what had happened. I let her know I thought the he may have learned his lesson and said he was probably embarrassed enough at having wet himself. Mom apologized for her son, bought him a pair of jeans and left.
It has been my experience that when merchandise has Checkpoint labels on them and they are placed in a visible location on a package, they have a strong deterrent value and can stop shoplifting. In my case above, there was no visible label and even had there been the young man may not have been old enough to be deterred, but an adult may have been.
Need more information on Checkpoint labels? Give us a call at 1.770.426.0547 now.
