Alcohol is one of the highest margin products a store/bar/restaurant can carry. Most however, do little to prevent shrink in their places of business. You’ve probably never seen alcohol in a secured place at your local restaurant, or favorite bar. Do you think these places aren’t impacted by theft and shoplifting? Of course they are, but liquor bottle security is probably the last thing on these manager’s minds. Well, most of the time it’s not. 

Not too long ago, I took my girlfriend out to a family owned Italian restraint in the city. They probably have the best chicken parmesan you ever had the pleasure of eating. When you walk in, you have to traverse a small corridor before you get to the main seating area. This hallway is lined with bottles of wine that are available for purchase either for your meal, or as you leave. There’s no bottle security, and why would there be, it’s a restaurant after all. We get our seats, enjoy our meal and are walking out the restaurant about an hour later. As we are walking, the couple in front of us, very casually grabs a bottle of wine, places it in a purse and walks out. I let the manager know what I saw and he told me that it happens quite often, and there wasn’t any way to stop it. It almost made me want to ask for a free bottle…

I went out to my car and grabbed an EASy Bottle device that I had from work. I let the manager know I worked in LP for a living and showed him the device and told him how it would more than likely discourage theft and help his profits if he used them. He didn’t seem to enthused, so I went on about my way. I’ll just stick to LP and he can stick to making that chicken parm, right?

A few weeks later, I went back for dinner with my parents. I noticed when I walked in that every single bottle of wine was now secured with a bottle lock. I chuckled to myself and went on about my meal. Before we left, I saw that same manager and called him over to our table. He didn’t recognize me at first, but after talking for a few minutes, he recalled me giving him the idea a few weeks earlier. He told me that the locks had simply stopped theft altogether. No more were his customers helping themselves to free wine at the end of the night, and his sales were much stronger in that area. It was definitely an unconventional place to use the bottle locks, but it just shows that no matter the application, they will perform to do what they were designed to do… STOP THEFT!

For more information, contact us: Bottle Lock, or call 1.770.426.0547

Over the past two years, the company I work for has been slowly increasing the headcount of our Loss Prevention Department. Our upper management finally understands that we can deploy all the latest anti-shoplifting devices money can buy, but it still won’t stop a shoplifter whose full time job is to steal from us. So, over the past two years or so, I had the privilege of assembling a team of young professionals to work in my higher shrinking stores to tackle the shoplifter problem (not literally though). While not every store environment can have a dedicated LP agent, the return on investment that I get from my team is huge. Last quarter, they recovered more dollars for the store than what I spent on their payroll. 

Just recently, I found myself training one of our new hires. He came to us with a plethora of LP experience and was ready to hit the ground running. After a few days of covering policies, it was time to hit the floor and make a few apprehensions. One of the key notes in our training is what behaviors to look for in a potential shoplifter. Within no time, my rookie calls me and informs me that there is a suspect attempting to remove a checkpoint tag from a pair of brand name blue jeans. I knew what was about to happen, so I met up with my rookie and we continued observation. In no time, the suspect had defeated the hard tag. I figured concealment was next, but it didn’t happen. 

We both watched as our suspect selected a very inexpensive pair of shorts. After a few minutes of tinkering with the tag, he switched the prices on the jeans for the much cheaper barcode from the shorts. Surprisingly, this wasn’t the first time I had seen this happen, but I always give credit to a shoplifter who puts some thought into their deceptive ways. With all the countless hundreds of retail theft prevention solutions out there, sometimes, a dedicated thief will still cause you loss. That’s why having an LP resource in the store is important in some instances. 

Getting back to our suspect, who now has a $5.99 barcode on a $69 pair of jeans. He starts making his way to the registers where I was hoping… no expecting the well trained cashier to catch the discrepancy and stop the loss. She didn’t and he got a very good deal on denim. My agent attempts to detain the suspect, however he flees. We don’t chase, but we do relay his information to local police, who were able to catch up to him down the road. Not only did he run from us, he also thought it a good idea to run from the police. Long story short, he totaled his vehicle and hid in the woods for a few hours before being introduced to a Malinois named Trigger. Good dog. 

For more information, contact us: Anti-Shoplifting, or call 1.770.426.0547

I’d like to think most people wouldn’t want to purchase meat that was stolen from a grocery store, let alone meat that was smuggled out of the store down some guy’s pants as he got out of the store and then transported it to his buyer.  The reality is that is how it sometimes happens.  You can help stop this from happing in your store by using Checkpoint Labels.  These labels are not your typical everyday anti-shoplifting devices, as they are specifically designed for use on meat and other grocery items, and are even microwave safe.  You can also have messages such as handling or cooking instructions custom printed right on the label itself, so the space will be well used efficiently.  Meat is an item that most people consume daily, so when hard times hit, this is one of the key items that tends to be stolen more often.  

Some people then to look at grocery theft differently, because they feel that it’s a little different than someone stealing a power tool or pushing out a television, but it’s still a theft.  Times are tough for consumers and retailers, so the more you do to stop shoplifting from occurring in your store, the more you will profit.  Observing shoplifters take meat from the store in the past got me wondering, who is buying this stuff anyway?  Who knows?  Other than personal use, it could be that it is being sold to a small market or shop that repackages and labels the merchandise with their own brand, or maybe there is a market for back alley meat sales. I can picture it now, “hey you, you want to buy some meat?”…No thank you.  I don’t know about you, but I would think twice about buying a pound of beef from a guy walking around with a camping cooler filled with different kinds of meats and seafood. 

Believe it or not, I have actually been approached on more than one occasion by random people while I was pumping gas, asking me if I wanted to buy something.  The first time I was approached, it was a guy that walked up to me and pulled a bunch of “gold” chains out of his pocket, and began informing me that it was my lucky day.  He then continued to explain how much of a good deal it would be for me if I purchased them from him.  Although this particular man was quite the salesperson, I decided not to make a purchase. He then scurried along to the next “lucky” person, which kind of hurt my feelings, because it turned out to be everyone’s lucky day, not just mine.  

The second time, I was once again pumping gas, and here comes two upstanding young gentlemen trying to sell me a brand new home theater system that was still in the box.  Though the thought of getting a $600 home theater system for $75 sounded nice, I once again declined the purchase, and the men got back into their rickety van and drove away.  I don’t know why people always think I want to buy stolen items, maybe I just have that look?  I may want to think about changing up my appearance. Regardless of who is buying the stolen meat from your store, placing Checkpoint Labels on the packages before they are put on the shelf is sure to help you stop shoplifting and reduce the amount of overall theft you experience.  

For more information contact us: (Checkpoint Labels) or call 1.770.426.0547