Hiring sometimes can be like a box of chocolates; you never know who you’re going to get. You trawl the sea of candidates and strike it rich with a quality candidate, or you can get shot in buttocks with a dud. This is of course the case if you’re not utilizing an employee background check.
My mama always said that good help is hard to find. I never realized how true that statement was until I became a manager of a retail store. It is truly impossible to find someone that cares as much for my business as I do. Finding that person takes a whole lot of work, as I’m sure you are very much aware. What makes it even more difficult is weeding out the bad apples before they even make it into your store. That’s why a pre employment screening is a must for any business.
About 15 years ago my dad opened his own business, a small seafood restaurant. It wasn’t much back then and with a little help from family, it was running very well. Fast forward 15 years later and it’s strange to think about how slow those times really were (and we thought we were busy back then, too!!) I also own a small stake in the business now and we have to rely on a small staff. One of the challenges we faced when we first started hiring folks from the outside was how to properly screen them. We didn’t want to hire criminals and we definitely wanted people that were going to be good for business, not the other way around.
Working full time in the Loss Prevention industry, I knew just how important it was to run an employee background check, prior to hiring anyone. I actually had to convince my dad that people lie. All the time. He prefers to see the good in people. Great characteristic, but bad for business. Every time we’d hire someone, I’d go down to the local police department, pay some outrageous fee and have them run a criminal background check for me. It was a bit time consuming, but we knew we were hiring people that, statistically, were less likely to harm the business. While you won’t prevent all forms of employee theft, a simple pre-employment screening will help to minimize the risk and provide you with some peace of mind knowing you are hiring the right person.
Fast forward a few more years and today, we source our employee background checks to a third party, which saves us a ton of hassle and a few dollars. To this day, we have only had 1 employee steal from us (I’ll save that story for another time). It still amazes my dad when a clean cut candidate comes in and really impresses us, but fails the pre-employment screening. He’ll come around to the dark side eventually and realize there are people out there that want nothing more than to steal from you, but until then, we will continue to use pre employment screenings to verify anyone we bring into our family business; you should too.
For more information about Employee Background Checks, contact us or call 1.770.426.0547
RETURN FRAUD ON THE SKI SLOPES?
Last month, my girlfriend and I took a little winter vacation to a resort town high in the mountains of Colorado. I had just wrapped up another stressful and incredibly long holiday season, so getting out of my stores for a week was just what the doctor ordered. Of course, being in the LP world, I can’t really turn “It” off. You all know what I’m talking about. No matter where I go, or what store I’m in, I can’t help but to look at things from an LP perspective. I would have never imagined I’d be talking about Alpha Shark Tags on my ski trip, but what can I say?
What does one do in a mountain resort town after a week of fresh snow? You ski. Or at least, you attempt to. Well, we were not prepared so we went down to one of the retail stores and had to buy a couple of jackets and pants that would protect us from the cold. These items cost more than a night in the hotel. There it was. There was the “It” I couldn’t turn off. I looked at my girlfriend and asked her if she thought return fraud was a big problem at this particular store. She rolled her eyes and kept shopping.
I have to say, we were assisted by a sales associate that I would love to clone. She greeted us upon entry, helped us pick out everything we needed and really took the time and provided us with one on one service. When we were wrapping things up, I asked to speak with her manager. I like to recognize good service when I receive it. The manager came over and I let him know how impressed I was, and we began talking for a bit. I told him I was an LP manager for my company and I just had to ask about return fraud. I couldn’t help myself.
I was curious to know about how many people come into town for the week, get set up with their snow gear, only to return it at the end of their vacation. Not surprisingly, the manager told me it was pretty common, and they struggle with it almost on a daily basis, but they hadn’t figured out a way to really combat their issue in a manner that mirrored the owner’s philosophy of taking care of the customer. Sound familiar? I asked if he had ever heard of Alpha Shark Tags.
Of course, he hadn’t, so I grabbed my phone and Googled it for him. We talked a bit more about return fraud and he asked my opinion on how these tags could be applied to items in his store. Well, it was simple. Take the Alpha Shark Tag and place it front and center of all winter gear. Snow jackets, pants, boots, goggles, whatever. You put them in a place where they are visible and incredibly obvious to the wearer. You also make sure that your customer is aware of your return policy. That policy should clearly state that once the Alpha Shark Tag is removed from the garment, it can not be return. This will effectively stop vacationing families from using your store as a rental outlet.
Whether or not this store manager takes my advice, or not, you should. Return fraud is one of the biggest and most financial impactful fraud schemes out there currently. You can’t make a profit if you are constantly renting out your merchandise. Take a stand against this practice and refuse to be the victim anymore. Oh, in case you’re wondering, I did not return my ski clothes!
For more information about Alpha Shark Tags, contact us or call 1.770.426.0547
Last month, my girlfriend and I took a little winter vacation to a resort town high in the mountains of Colorado. I had just wrapped up another stressful and incredibly long holiday season, so getting out of my stores for a week was just what the doctor ordered. Of course, being in the LP world, I can’t really turn “It” off. You all know what I’m talking about. No matter where I go, or what store I’m in, I can’t help but to look at things from an LP perspective. I would have never imagined I’d be talking about Alpha Shark Tags on my ski trip, but what can I say?
What does one do in a mountain resort town after a week of fresh snow? You ski. Or at least, you attempt to. Well, we were not prepared so we went down to one of the retail stores and had to buy a couple of jackets and pants that would protect us from the cold. These items cost more than a night in the hotel. There it was. There was the “It” I couldn’t turn off. I looked at my girlfriend and asked her if she thought return fraud was a big problem at this particular store. She rolled her eyes and kept shopping.
I have to say, we were assisted by a sales associate that I would love to clone. She greeted us upon entry, helped us pick out everything we needed and really took the time and provided us with one on one service. When we were wrapping things up, I asked to speak with her manager. I like to recognize good service when I receive it. The manager came over and I let him know how impressed I was, and we began talking for a bit. I told him I was an LP manager for my company and I just had to ask about return fraud. I couldn’t help myself.
I was curious to know about how many people come into town for the week, get set up with their snow gear, only to return it at the end of their vacation. Not surprisingly, the manager told me it was pretty common, and they struggle with it almost on a daily basis, but they hadn’t figured out a way to really combat their issue in a manner that mirrored the owner’s philosophy of taking care of the customer. Sound familiar? I asked if he had ever heard of Alpha Shark Tags.
Of course, he hadn’t, so I grabbed my phone and Googled it for him. We talked a bit more about return fraud and he asked my opinion on how these tags could be applied to items in his store. Well, it was simple. Take the Alpha Shark Tag and place it front and center of all winter gear. Snow jackets, pants, boots, goggles, whatever. You put them in a place where they are visible and incredibly obvious to the wearer. You also make sure that your customer is aware of your return policy. That policy should clearly state that once the Alpha Shark Tag is removed from the garment, it can not be return. This will effectively stop vacationing families from using your store as a rental outlet.
Whether or not this store manager takes my advice, or not, you should. Return fraud is one of the biggest and most financial impactful fraud schemes out there currently. You can’t make a profit if you are constantly renting out your merchandise. Take a stand against this practice and refuse to be the victim anymore. Oh, in case you’re wondering, I did not return my ski clothes!
For more information about Alpha Shark Tags, contact us or call 1.770.426.0547
Clothing Security – 4 WC blog 52
Clothing security tags – 3
Spending On Clothing Security Pays Off With Lower Shrinkage
Choosing the right solution to protect the clothing you sell can be a difficult decision to make. How much of what you carry should you protect? Do you protect certain price ranges? Do you protect only certain brands? I believe having clothing security measures in place can increase the profits of a store if properly administered by store owners or managers. Why do I say this? According to the 2014-2015 Global Retail Theft Barometer, in the section regarding retail shrinkage in North America, apparel specialty retailers experienced the second highest amount of theft as a division, following only pharmacies/drugstores. Shrink in the apparel market was measured at 1.98%! The report also states that apparel retailers spent less on loss prevention measures than they had in the previous year, from .39% as a percent of total sales to .24% in 2014-2015. The correlation between reduced spending on loss prevention and the increase in theft is clear. Spending on loss prevention, in this case clothing security, will improve profits lost due to theft.
Deciding on the type of clothing security to use will be up to you. There are a number of options on the market from which to choose. Possessing nearly 20 years of retail loss prevention experience, I will tell you that the first thing you need to do before worrying about types of clothing alarms is to ensure you have an electronic article surveillance (EAS) system in place. Without an alarm, most of your clothing security options will be of minimal usefulness mostly as visual deterrents. There are various clothing security tags to choose from, starting with the soft tag which has an adhesive back then the hard tags that attach to clothes with clips or lanyards. All of these clothing security tags will set off an EAS alarm antenna when someone attempts to exit a store with unpaid merchandise. As the store owner or manager you decide which would be the best option for a specific item. A lower priced t-shirt might be protected with a soft tag on a manufacturer tag. A pair of jeans however, may require a more substantial hard tag or apparel clip. The difference being, the soft tag could be potentially pulled off while with the other tags while the hard tag it is attached directly on the merchandise. The hard tag is very difficult to tamper with or remove without damaging the product. My recommendation is that the higher priced the item, the more difficult you want to make it for a thief and try to deter the theft in the first place.
At this point you may be wondering what your continual investments will be if you decide to tag clothing. Soft tags are attached to an item and they remain on the product, they are deactivated at the register with a deactivation pad. These tags would require continual replenishment at the store since they are not reusable. The hard clothing security tags are reusable. They are detached from merchandise at the register before the item is taken from the store after purchase. These clips and tags are then reused to tag new merchandise. If you take advantage of source tagging, the merchandise is tagged before it is shipped to you and you only send the tags and clips back to the vendor. Two benefits of source tagging are, there is no need to tag the merchandise in the store which costs payroll and all the merchandise from the vendor is tagged in a consistent manner. Too often merchandise tagged by store employees is inconsistent where the tags are placed. This creates problems at the register when cashiers try to find tags to be removed.
Clothing security should be on the top of your list in reducing shortage and increasing profits. Clothing theft and fraud is a significant problem and if 1.98% shortage in North America is the average what is it really costing your business by not investing in loss prevention measures?
For more information on clothing security, contact us or call 1.770.426.0547
Choosing the right solution to protect the clothing you sell can be a difficult decision to make. How much of what you carry should you protect? Do you protect certain price ranges? Do you protect only certain brands? I believe having clothing security measures in place can increase the profits of a store if properly administered by store owners or managers. Why do I say this? According to the 2014-2015 Global Retail Theft Barometer, in the section regarding retail shrinkage in North America, apparel specialty retailers experienced the second highest amount of theft as a division, following only pharmacies/drugstores. Shrink in the apparel market was measured at 1.98%! The report also states that apparel retailers spent less on loss prevention measures than they had in the previous year, from .39% as a percent of total sales to .24% in 2014-2015. The correlation between reduced spending on loss prevention and the increase in theft is clear. Spending on loss prevention, in this case clothing security, will improve profits lost due to theft.
Deciding on the type of clothing security to use will be up to you. There are a number of options on the market from which to choose. Possessing nearly 20 years of retail loss prevention experience, I will tell you that the first thing you need to do before worrying about types of clothing alarms is to ensure you have an electronic article surveillance (EAS) system in place. Without an alarm, most of your clothing security options will be of minimal usefulness mostly as visual deterrents. There are various clothing security tags to choose from, starting with the soft tag which has an adhesive back then the hard tags that attach to clothes with clips or lanyards. All of these clothing security tags will set off an EAS alarm antenna when someone attempts to exit a store with unpaid merchandise. As the store owner or manager you decide which would be the best option for a specific item. A lower priced t-shirt might be protected with a soft tag on a manufacturer tag. A pair of jeans however, may require a more substantial hard tag or apparel clip. The difference being, the soft tag could be potentially pulled off while with the other tags while the hard tag it is attached directly on the merchandise. The hard tag is very difficult to tamper with or remove without damaging the product. My recommendation is that the higher priced the item, the more difficult you want to make it for a thief and try to deter the theft in the first place.
At this point you may be wondering what your continual investments will be if you decide to tag clothing. Soft tags are attached to an item and they remain on the product, they are deactivated at the register with a deactivation pad. These tags would require continual replenishment at the store since they are not reusable. The hard clothing security tags are reusable. They are detached from merchandise at the register before the item is taken from the store after purchase. These clips and tags are then reused to tag new merchandise. If you take advantage of source tagging, the merchandise is tagged before it is shipped to you and you only send the tags and clips back to the vendor. Two benefits of source tagging are, there is no need to tag the merchandise in the store which costs payroll and all the merchandise from the vendor is tagged in a consistent manner. Too often merchandise tagged by store employees is inconsistent where the tags are placed. This creates problems at the register when cashiers try to find tags to be removed.
Clothing security should be on the top of your list in reducing shortage and increasing profits. Clothing theft and fraud is a significant problem and if 1.98% shortage in North America is the average what is it really costing your business by not investing in loss prevention measures?
For more information on clothing security, contact us or call 1.770.426.0547
