RWH BLOG 04
Your patrons love the upscale feel and atmosphere of it. You love the convenience and increased sales. If you are in the high end bar and nightclub business you probably know exactly what I am talking about. Yes, that is correct; I am referring to bottle service. Your patrons get the special atmosphere of purchasing their own bottle of spirits and having it available at their table to pour rather than having to go to the bar each time and purchase individual drinks or order rounds of drinks from the waitress.
What possibly could be the downside of that? Well, as a former traffic accident reconstructionist who has seen more than his fair share of alcohol-involved motor vehicle accidents, I can definitely think of a couple of downsides. Ask yourself how likely it would be for your patrons to become extremely intoxicated if they had the bottle sitting on their table in your nightclub and were allowed to serve themselves. You should be flinching a little by now. Let’s add to that the reality that many states prohibit patrons from pouring their own alcohol and now I should have you squirming. No one wants to be on the end of a personal liability suit for allowing someone to be served while intoxicated resulting in a motor vehicle death. Now the sweat should be pouring off of you!
So how do we address these concerns and still have the ability to offer the service? What kind of technological solutions might help us limit our liability and still allow our patrons the atmosphere of bottle service and us the convenience and added profits of selling alcohol by the bottle? There are a couple of solutions that I know about and one stands out for its convenience and affordability. Let’s discuss them.
The first solution, which has been in place in many of your high end establishments is the locking table. The bottles are kept at the patron’s table as we would want them to be; however, they are kept in a locking compartment located in the table. What does that do for your ability to design your nightclub floor with the tables that you want? Not much. You have to purchase specialized tables from specific vendors in limited styles that will cost you thousands of dollars. I would have to agree with you that does not sound too appealing.
The second solution might get your attention. It is something that I came across from Alpha called the EASy bottle lock. It is a modification to the bottle and not the table – a significant price difference. It is actually a locking cap that your server puts over the bottle and uses a special EASy bottle key to unlock it and serve your patrons when they desire. The patrons have the bottle but not the special key so they cannot pour their own drinks. Should they try to force the issue, the bottle will break before the bottle lock gives way. The bottle key is a special controlled key that is easily kept on the nightclub style wardrobe of your servers on a special high-grade retractor so it won’t become lost and have to be fumbled for in their clothing.
In addition, a special policy is provided with purchase so your patrons will understand the importance of controlling the keys and not allowing them to get out to the general public. As a loss prevention professional, this is an important feature as the keys have to be controlled for the bottle service program to be effective using the EASy bottle locking cap system.
Let the EASy bottle locking system take that hand-wringing and perspiration from you by continuing to offer the valuable bottle service while limiting your exposure to state dram shop liability. It is an affordable solution to the potential serious concerns that are inherent in an ill-conceived bottle service.
For more information on employee background checks contact us: 1.770.426.0547 or www. Bottle-Services.net
Your patrons love the upscale feel and atmosphere of it. You love the convenience and increased sales. If you are in the high end bar and nightclub business you probably know exactly what I am talking about. Yes, that is correct; I am referring to bottle service. Your patrons get the special atmosphere of purchasing their own bottle of spirits and having it available at their table to pour rather than having to go to the bar each time and purchase individual drinks or order rounds of drinks from the waitress.
What possibly could be the downside of that? Well, as a former traffic accident reconstructionist who has seen more than his fair share of alcohol-involved motor vehicle accidents, I can definitely think of a couple of downsides. Ask yourself how likely it would be for your patrons to become extremely intoxicated if they had the bottle sitting on their table in your nightclub and were allowed to serve themselves. You should be flinching a little by now. Let’s add to that the reality that many states prohibit patrons from pouring their own alcohol and now I should have you squirming. No one wants to be on the end of a personal liability suit for allowing someone to be served while intoxicated resulting in a motor vehicle death. Now the sweat should be pouring off of you!
So how do we address these concerns and still have the ability to offer the service? What kind of technological solutions might help us limit our liability and still allow our patrons the atmosphere of bottle service and us the convenience and added profits of selling alcohol by the bottle? There are a couple of solutions that I know about and one stands out for its convenience and affordability. Let’s discuss them.
The first solution, which has been in place in many of your high end establishments is the locking table. The bottles are kept at the patron’s table as we would want them to be; however, they are kept in a locking compartment located in the table. What does that do for your ability to design your nightclub floor with the tables that you want? Not much. You have to purchase specialized tables from specific vendors in limited styles that will cost you thousands of dollars. I would have to agree with you that does not sound too appealing.
The second solution might get your attention. It is something that I came across from Alpha called the EASy bottle lock. It is a modification to the bottle and not the table – a significant price difference. It is actually a locking cap that your server puts over the bottle and uses a special EASy bottle key to unlock it and serve your patrons when they desire. The patrons have the bottle but not the special key so they cannot pour their own drinks. Should they try to force the issue, the bottle will break before the bottle lock gives way. The bottle key is a special controlled key that is easily kept on the nightclub style wardrobe of your servers on a special high-grade retractor so it won’t become lost and have to be fumbled for in their clothing.
In addition, a special policy is provided with purchase so your patrons will understand the importance of controlling the keys and not allowing them to get out to the general public. As a loss prevention professional, this is an important feature as the keys have to be controlled for the bottle service program to be effective using the EASy bottle locking cap system.
Let the EASy bottle locking system take that hand-wringing and perspiration from you by continuing to offer the valuable bottle service while limiting your exposure to state dram shop liability. It is an affordable solution to the potential serious concerns that are inherent in an ill-conceived bottle service.
For more information on employee background checks contact us: 1.770.426.0547 or www. Bottle-Services.net
Shoplifters are an ever-changing group, and have a seemingly never ending ideas for dishonest activities at their disposal. If you really want to do everything you can possibly do to stop shoplifting in your store, you have to learn their tricks and stay on top of trends. Some trends repeat themselves over the years, so don’t be surprised if you see some old tricks resurfacing a few years down the road.
Have you ever gotten a phone call in which the caller asked to speak with someone from security or loss prevention? If so, it may have been a shoplifter. Believe it or not, some shoplifters actually call the store before they come in to steal. They do this to try and see if there is anyone in the store working loss prevention or security. You pick up the phone and the caller hangs up, or asks a question that was not security related and could have been answered by anyone in the store.
A different scam you’ll want to watch out for is callers that try to get you to perform transactions over the phone. This type of theft has been around for a long time, but is still being used regularly. The caller tries to get a cashier to either load a gift card, complete a wire or money transfer, or key some kind of other transaction. They sometimes claim that they are even from the corporate office, or the company whose product is involved in the transaction they are trying to get you to conduct. They can be extremely convincing at times, and may provide bogus credentials as well. You should already be teaching your employees how to help stop shoplifting by looking out for certain red flags, so why not talk about these kinds of scams at the same time. They can cause you just as much loss, so be sure to include them in your retail theft prevention training.
I remember another shoplifter that used another sneaky trick to try to get away with theft. His method of operation was to bring an expensive item to a register, along with a handwritten note. This note was supposedly signed by the store manager, and said that the item was paid, or that he could have the item at half of its original price. Of course, it was a bogus note, and wasn’t really signed by the store manager. One thing that made the note semi-believable though, is the fact that it was the actual store manager’s name on the note. This guy would also call before he came into the store at times to see if the store manager was there at the time, so his scam would be more believable. He got away with it a couple times before we caught on to his tricks and put a stop to it.
My most memorable experience with a shoplifter phone call was when a coworker and I were watching a guy try to defeat an anti-shoplifting device in the store. We thought he got frustrated and gave up, because he dropped the merchandise and left the store empty handed. This was not the case, because a few minutes after he left there was a call for security holding. I picked up the call only to hear someone laughing loudly, and telling me that we were terrible at our jobs. I was going to say that we couldn’t be that bad because he didn’t leave the store with any merchandise, but he hung up the phone too quickly.
For more information contact us: (stop shoplifting) or call 1.770.426.0547
Shoplifters are an ever-changing group, and have a seemingly never ending ideas for dishonest activities at their disposal. If you really want to do everything you can possibly do to stop shoplifting in your store, you have to learn their tricks and stay on top of trends. Some trends repeat themselves over the years, so don’t be surprised if you see some old tricks resurfacing a few years down the road.
Have you ever gotten a phone call in which the caller asked to speak with someone from security or loss prevention? If so, it may have been a shoplifter. Believe it or not, some shoplifters actually call the store before they come in to steal. They do this to try and see if there is anyone in the store working loss prevention or security. You pick up the phone and the caller hangs up, or asks a question that was not security related and could have been answered by anyone in the store.
A different scam you’ll want to watch out for is callers that try to get you to perform transactions over the phone. This type of theft has been around for a long time, but is still being used regularly. The caller tries to get a cashier to either load a gift card, complete a wire or money transfer, or key some kind of other transaction. They sometimes claim that they are even from the corporate office, or the company whose product is involved in the transaction they are trying to get you to conduct. They can be extremely convincing at times, and may provide bogus credentials as well. You should already be teaching your employees how to help stop shoplifting by looking out for certain red flags, so why not talk about these kinds of scams at the same time. They can cause you just as much loss, so be sure to include them in your retail theft prevention training.
I remember another shoplifter that used another sneaky trick to try to get away with theft. His method of operation was to bring an expensive item to a register, along with a handwritten note. This note was supposedly signed by the store manager, and said that the item was paid, or that he could have the item at half of its original price. Of course, it was a bogus note, and wasn’t really signed by the store manager. One thing that made the note semi-believable though, is the fact that it was the actual store manager’s name on the note. This guy would also call before he came into the store at times to see if the store manager was there at the time, so his scam would be more believable. He got away with it a couple times before we caught on to his tricks and put a stop to it.
My most memorable experience with a shoplifter phone call was when a coworker and I were watching a guy try to defeat an anti-shoplifting device in the store. We thought he got frustrated and gave up, because he dropped the merchandise and left the store empty handed. This was not the case, because a few minutes after he left there was a call for security holding. I picked up the call only to hear someone laughing loudly, and telling me that we were terrible at our jobs. I was going to say that we couldn’t be that bad because he didn’t leave the store with any merchandise, but he hung up the phone too quickly.
For more information contact us: Stop Shoplifting or call 1.770.426.0547
RL-168
Checkpoint hard tags-3, stop shoplifting-3, Anti-Shoplifting-3
Utilize Checkpoint Hard Tags and Employee Awareness to Stop Shoplifting
If you really want to make an impact on the amount of loss you are experiencing in your store, you have to have more than one approach. But that doesn’t mean the solutions have to be complicated. With all the anti-shoplifting devices on the market today, it’s easy to find something that will work for virtually any type of merchandise. Devices like Checkpoint hard tags have always been one of the must-haves for merchandise protection. In addition to using devices to reduce and stop shoplifting from occurring, you should also utilize your staff to help identify suspicious behaviors in the store. It’s a difficult task to reduce the amount of shoplifting, so everyone in the store should be on board with keeping the merchandise on the shelves for customers.
If you are fortunate enough to have loss prevention personnel on your team, your staff should be letting them know if anything out of the ordinary is observed. If you have a smaller store with only sales staff, they should be trained on how to deal with behaviors that indicate theft or any other dishonest activity, because everyone should be on board to help stop shoplifting in the store. A good way to get your team motivated to help out is to show them how the losses can impact the store’s profit, and in turn affect the cost of merchandise. If you get your team excited about helping save the store money, it makes things so much easier. Sometimes you may need to add a little extra motivation, like recognizing them in front of their peers, or giving away gift cards for merchandise they help recover from shoplifters.
Not long ago, my store was being visited regularly by a shoplifter that took all different kinds of merchandise like tents and electronic items. He would come into the store and actually pick up a duffel bag or backpack from the shelf, and then fill it up with items in the store, before walking out without paying. He got away with it several times. I printed out a picture of the guy and showed it to the whole store team to be on the lookout for him. It didn’t take long before he came back again. An employee was leaving the store to go home for the day when he saw the guy walking into the store. As soon as he saw him, he gave me a call and I started watching him. Of course he picked up a duffel bag and started loading up on merchandise. We were finally able to get the guy thanks to the help of the employee who wanted to help stop shoplifting in the store and gave me a call.
If you are having your team utilize devices that work with your EAS system, make sure that they are properly trained on how to use them before attempting to attach the devices. Don’t assume that they know how to place the anti-shoplifting devices on the merchandise correctly. I have seen merchandise easily stolen several times because the thieves were easily able to remove the anti-shoplifting devices that were incorrectly secured to the items. Also, you want them to know exactly where to attach the device to the item. For example, you obviously don’t want any tags damaging the product or covering important information on the package that your customers need to be able to read. There are so many different ways to use Checkpoint hard tags and different types of merchandise you can use them on, so do some research so you will be sure to make the most of the devices.
For more information contact us: Checkpoint hard tags or call 1.770.426.0547
If you really want to make an impact on the amount of loss you are experiencing in your store, you have to have more than one approach. But that doesn’t mean the solutions have to be complicated. With all the anti-shoplifting devices on the market today, it’s easy to find something that will work for virtually any type of merchandise. Devices like Checkpoint hard tags have always been one of the must-haves for merchandise protection. In addition to using devices to reduce and stop shoplifting from occurring, you should also utilize your staff to help identify suspicious behaviors in the store. It’s a difficult task to reduce the amount of shoplifting, so everyone in the store should be on board with keeping the merchandise on the shelves for customers.
If you are fortunate enough to have loss prevention personnel on your team, your staff should be letting them know if anything out of the ordinary is observed. If you have a smaller store with only sales staff, they should be trained on how to deal with behaviors that indicate theft or any other dishonest activity, because everyone should be on board to help stop shoplifting in the store. A good way to get your team motivated to help out is to show them how the losses can impact the store’s profit, and in turn affect the cost of merchandise. If you get your team excited about helping save the store money, it makes things so much easier. Sometimes you may need to add a little extra motivation, like recognizing them in front of their peers, or giving away gift cards for merchandise they help recover from shoplifters.
Not long ago, my store was being visited regularly by a shoplifter that took all different kinds of merchandise like tents and electronic items. He would come into the store and actually pick up a duffel bag or backpack from the shelf, and then fill it up with items in the store, before walking out without paying. He got away with it several times. I printed out a picture of the guy and showed it to the whole store team to be on the lookout for him. It didn’t take long before he came back again. An employee was leaving the store to go home for the day when he saw the guy walking into the store. As soon as he saw him, he gave me a call and I started watching him. Of course he picked up a duffel bag and started loading up on merchandise. We were finally able to get the guy thanks to the help of the employee who wanted to help stop shoplifting in the store and gave me a call.
If you are having your team utilize devices that work with your EAS system, make sure that they are properly trained on how to use them before attempting to attach the devices. Don’t assume that they know how to place the anti-shoplifting devices on the merchandise correctly. I have seen merchandise easily stolen several times because the thieves were easily able to remove the anti-shoplifting devices that were incorrectly secured to the items. Also, you want them to know exactly where to attach the device to the item. For example, you obviously don’t want any tags damaging the product or covering important information on the package that your customers need to be able to read. There are so many different ways to use Checkpoint hard tags and different types of merchandise you can use them on, so do some research so you will be sure to make the most of the devices.
For more information contact us: Checkpoint hard tags or contact us or call 1.770.426.0547
