“Why me?” asked the liquor store owner after he and his employees were held up for two hours at gunpoint. The thieves made off will about $40,000 dollars worth of top shelf liquor- all in cases. “ I never did anything to anyone” said the owner, as he tried to make sense out of the night’s events.
As it turns out, the owner and two of his employees were working well passed the store’s normal closing time; it was almost midnight. Under typical circumstances, the store would have been locked and secured by around ten o clock. Additionally, the store’s bottle security included a CCTV camera and recording system, which was still running and captured the night’s events.
The employees were working late building some new shelving units for the store. The doors were open, presumably for some fresh air. They were several hours into their project when a man walked in and asked if they were still open for business.
When they said no, two more men showed up and all three of them pulled out guns. The employees were tied; duct taped, and told to lie on the floor. The employees complied for fear of what would happen if they did not follow instructions.
The three men on the inside pulled the blinds shut, and started to call more of their friends, taking orders for what kind of liquor they wanted. There were three more men waiting outside, for a total of six robbers.
The three robbers outside would wait for a car to pull up by the curb. When they did, the robbers would load out full cases of liquor, and the cars would leave. Over and over, cars would show up, cases of liquor would go out the door, and the robbers took as much time as they wanted to get the job done.
The robbers left after about two hours of this, when the majority of the top shelf liquor cases had been handed out. The owner and the employees were able to cut themselves free and call the local police. Everything had been caught on the store’s CCTV camera system.
The owner was left wondering what had happened and why. What he didn’t realize through this ordeal was that the majority of this was the store’s fault. They literally left the store wide open for someone to come by and victimize them. By leaving the doors open late at night, it didn’t take long for someone (the robbers) to see that an opportunity had been presented.
More than likely, the robbers had driven or walked by earlier and saw a small staff (three people) working inside, with little disregard to their own personal safety. The doors were propped open, but no one was there to guard them. It was dark, and there wasn’t a lot of traffic going past the store due to the lateness of the hour.
It is an important reminder that even when a store is closed, personal security (as well as bottle security) needs to be enforced and addressed. The employees would have been better off had they not left the door open and worked behind a closed and locked door. Extra fans should have been provided to reduce the heat and any fumes created by the project. Another option would have been to keep an employee by the door to stand watch. Had the robbers seen an employee keeping an eye on the door, they may have decided against a robbery attempt.
Visit the Loss Prevention Store to purchase EASy Bottle bottle locks by Alpha Security and your Electronic Article Surveillance or EAS system.
For more information on Alpha Security, Bottle Lock, Bottle locks, Bottle Security, EASy Bottle or Liquor Bottle Security and how they can work with your Electronic Article Surveillance or EAS system contact us or call 1.770.426.0547
“Why me?” asked the liquor store owner after he and his employees were held up for two hours at gunpoint. The thieves made off will about $40,000 dollars worth of top shelf liquor- all in cases. “ I never did anything to anyone” said the owner, as he tried to make sense out of the night’s events.
As it turns out, the owner and two of his employees were working well passed the store’s normal closing time; it was almost midnight. Under typical circumstances, the store would have been locked and secured by around ten o clock. Additionally, the store’s bottle security included a CCTV camera and recording system, which was still running and captured the night’s events.
The employees were working late building some new shelving units for the store. The doors were open, presumably for some fresh air. They were several hours into their project when a man walked in and asked if they were still open for business.
When they said no, two more men showed up and all three of them pulled out guns. The employees were tied; duct taped, and told to lie on the floor. The employees complied for fear of what would happen if they did not follow instructions.
The three men on the inside pulled the blinds shut, and started to call more of their friends, taking orders for what kind of liquor they wanted. There were three more men waiting outside, for a total of six robbers.
The three robbers outside would wait for a car to pull up by the curb. When they did, the robbers would load out full cases of liquor, and the cars would leave. Over and over, cars would show up, cases of liquor would go out the door, and the robbers took as much time as they wanted to get the job done.
The robbers left after about two hours of this, when the majority of the top shelf liquor cases had been handed out. The owner and the employees were able to cut themselves free and call the local police. Everything had been caught on the store’s CCTV camera system.
The owner was left wondering what had happened and why. What he didn’t realize through this ordeal was that the majority of this was the store’s fault. They literally left the store wide open for someone to come by and victimize them. By leaving the doors open late at night, it didn’t take long for someone (the robbers) to see that an opportunity had been presented.
More than likely, the robbers had driven or walked by earlier and saw a small staff (three people) working inside, with little disregard to their own personal safety. The doors were propped open, but no one was there to guard them. It was dark, and there wasn’t a lot of traffic going past the store due to the lateness of the hour.
It is an important reminder that even when a store is closed, personal security (as well as bottle security) needs to be enforced and addressed. The employees would have been better off had they not left the door open and worked behind a closed and locked door. Extra fans should have been provided to reduce the heat and any fumes created by the project. Another option would have been to keep an employee by the door to stand watch. Had the robbers seen an employee keeping an eye on the door, they may have decided against a robbery attempt.
Visit the Loss Prevention Store to purchase EASy Bottle bottle locks by Alpha Security and your Electronic Article Surveillance or EAS system.
For more information on Alpha Security, Bottle Lock, Bottle locks, Bottle Security, EASy Bottle or Liquor Bottle Security and how they can work with your Electronic Article Surveillance or EAS system contact us or call 1.770.426.0547
Spotting employee theft during bottle services can be difficult, due to the nature of the service. That does not mean it is impossible. All it takes is a little more knowledge and awareness to be able to pick up on warning signs or red flags that there is something more devious going on with one of your employees.
When you suspect employee theft happening from one of your bartenders, you probably picked up on a few red flags like inconsistent/ over pours of liquor, or maybe too many free drinks being handed over. During a bottle service, however, you cannot look for free shots coming out of a bottle, as a sign of theft.
During a bottle service, the patron has paid for the entire bottle, so pouring a drink or a shot from that bottle will not lead you to theft. What you are looking for is theft of an entire bottle that has not been paid for by the client.
Generally, bottles purchased during a bottle service will run several hundred dollars for the client. If you have a customer that wants to pay cash, it can be very tempting for the waitress to pocket some, or that entire sale. Since bottle services are set up in advance with the nightclubs minimum bottle requirement already accounted for, it is easy for an employee to sell off additional bottles to a client without being noticed.
Bottle services are set up for a group or party, with one person putting the reserve on their credit card. That does not mean that throughout the night another member of the party won’t want to buy a bottle on their own. They may insist on paying cash for the additional bottles.
This is where your employees are tasked with remaining honest. They may see the hundreds of dollars as a perfect opportunity. They can go and get the additional bottle out of your storeroom but not ring it up. They might also skim off the top by charging the customer more for the bottle than what they actually ring up.
There is one of two ways to skim. The employee can ring up the actual bottle sold, but charge the client more than the total. The other way is to charge the client the price of the bottle requested, but might ring up a lower priced bottle in the register. Either way, the employee can end up with several hundred dollars extra without the client, or the nightclub becoming suspicious. That’s assuming that the employee even rings up the bottle, instead of pocketing all of the cash for him or herself.
A few things to watch out for from a management perspective, is to see if you see flips in your inventory. If you are noticing overages in the quantity of lower priced bottles of liquor, but shortages in higher ones, you might have a theft problem.
You can also compare sales totals between your employees. You should have consistent sales per hour average for all of your host or wait staff employees overseeing bottle services. If you have one employee consistently falling short, you need to question why. It could be that they are simply under trained, or need to work on selling/ up selling skills. The other possibility is that they are stealing bottles from you and are keeping the profits for themselves.
For more information on Bottle Caps, Bottle Lock, Bottle Locks, EASy Bottle or Bottle Services in your Nightclub please contact us at Bottle Service or call 1.770.426.0547
All of the most prominent nightclubs, bars and venues in New York, Chicago, Miami, Atlanta, New Orleans, Dallas, Denver, Phoenix, Albuquerque, Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, Virginia Beach, Washington D.C., and Las Vegas use Bottle Services for their best clientele. Don’t let your nightclub miss out on this VIP experience.
Spotting employee theft during bottle services can be difficult, due to the nature of the service. That does not mean it is impossible. All it takes is a little more knowledge and awareness to be able to pick up on warning signs or red flags that there is something more devious going on with one of your employees.
When you suspect employee theft happening from one of your bartenders, you probably picked up on a few red flags like inconsistent/ over pours of liquor, or maybe too many free drinks being handed over. During a bottle service, however, you cannot look for free shots coming out of a bottle, as a sign of theft.
During a bottle service, the patron has paid for the entire bottle, so pouring a drink or a shot from that bottle will not lead you to theft. What you are looking for is theft of an entire bottle that has not been paid for by the client.
Generally, bottles purchased during a bottle service will run several hundred dollars for the client.If you have a customer that wants to pay cash, it can be very tempting for the waitress to pocket some, or that entire sale. Since bottle services are set up in advance with the nightclubs minimum bottle requirement already accounted for, it is easy for an employee to sell off additional bottles to a client without being noticed.
Bottle services are set up for a group or party, with one person putting the reserve on their credit card. That does not mean that throughout the night another member of the party won’t want to buy a bottle on their own. They may insist on paying cash for the additional bottles.
This is where your employees are tasked with remaining honest. They may see the hundreds of dollars as a perfect opportunity. They can go and get the additional bottle out of your storeroom but not ring it up. They might also skim off the top by charging the customer more for the bottle than what they actually ring up.
There is one of two ways to skim. The employee can ring up the actual bottle sold, but charge the client more than the total. The other way is to charge the client the price of the bottle requested, but might ring up a lower priced bottle in the register. Either way, the employee can end up with several hundred dollars extra without the client, or the nightclub becoming suspicious. That’s assuming that the employee even rings up the bottle, instead of pocketing all of the cash for him or herself.
A few things to watch out for from a management perspective, is to see if you see flips in your inventory. If you are noticing overages in the quantity of lower priced bottles of liquor, but shortages in higher ones, you might have a theft problem.
You can also compare sales totals between your employees. You should have consistent sales per hour average for all of your host or wait staff employees overseeing bottle services. If you have one employee consistently falling short, you need to question why. It could be that they are simply under trained, or need to work on selling/ up selling skills. The other possibility is that they are stealing bottles from you and are keeping the profits for themselves.
For more information on Bottle Caps, Bottle Lock, Bottle Locks, EASy Bottle or Bottle Services in your Nightclub please contact us at Bottle Service or call 1.770.426.0547
All of the most prominent nightclubs, bars and venues in New York, Chicago, Miami, Atlanta, New Orleans, Dallas, Denver, Phoenix, Albuquerque, Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, Virginia Beach, Washington D.C., and Las Vegas use Bottle Services for their best clientele. Don’t let your nightclub miss out on this VIP experience.
Checkpoint Systems EAS alarm reports are broken down by hour of the day, and by day of the week for each location. The VisiPlus people traffic counter also reports its data by hour of the day, and by day of the week. When compared side by side, you can get a better understanding of theft activity in your stores, and also how to better staff your locations- even if it is just temporarily.
We found during a recent investigation that several of our stores were all starting to experience shortages of a specific item. Since this item was not one we had previously had issues with, we wondered if there was a particular group of shoplifters that were targeting us.
We started by having each store conduct an AM and a PM cycle count of the item. After a few days, we saw that the item had disappeared by the time we did our PM count. What was interesting was that all of our stores experienced the losses on the same day.
We tracked the item for another week, and sure enough, we incurred more losses on the same day of the week as the previous week- in all of our stores.
We decided that we needed to find a way to narrow down the losses to a more specific time of day- in the hopes of catching the shoplifters. We pulled our Checkpoint Systems reports and our VisiPlus people traffic counter reports. By comparing both reports from the day of the week we saw the losses, we noticed an influx in both alarms and in customers during a specific hour of the day.
We also noticed by comparing our other store’s VisiPlus people traffic counter reports and their Checkpoint Systems alarm reports, that we could track the starting point for this particular shoplifting ring. We calculated the drive time to the nearest store, and sure enough, that store had the same traffic and alarm increase during that time frame.
We went from store to store and compared how long it would take to drive to the next store, and matched that time with the times on the reports. We had discovered the shoplifter’s road map and plan of action.
The next week we were ready for them. Each store was staffed at the designated times based on the VisiPlus and Checkpoint Systems reports. Like clockwork, we found the shoplifters by watching who was taking the merchandise in question, and had them arrested as they attempted to steal from each of our stores.
Checkpoint Systems EAS alarm reports are broken down by hour of the day, and by day of the week for each location. The VisiPlus people traffic counter also reports its data by hour of the day, and by day of the week. When compared side by side, you can get a better understanding of theft activity in your stores, and also how to better staff your locations- even if it is just temporarily.
We found during a recent investigation that several of our stores were all starting to experience shortages of a specific item. Since this item was not one we had previously had issues with, we wondered if there was a particular group of shoplifters that were targeting us.
We started by having each store conduct an AM and a PM cycle count of the item. After a few days, we saw that the item had disappeared by the time we did our PM count. What was interesting was that all of our stores experienced the losses on the same day.
We tracked the item for another week, and sure enough, we incurred more losses on the same day of the week as the previous week- in all of our stores.
We decided that we needed to find a way to narrow down the losses to a more specific time of day- in the hopes of catching the shoplifters. We pulled our Checkpoint Systems reports and our VisiPlus people traffic counter reports. By comparing both reports from the day of the week we saw the losses, we noticed an influx in both alarms and in customers during a specific hour of the day.
We also noticed by comparing our other store’s VisiPlus people traffic counter reports and their Checkpoint Systems alarm reports, that we could track the starting point for this particular shoplifting ring. We calculated the drive time to the nearest store, and sure enough, that store had the same traffic and alarm increase during that time frame.
We went from store to store and compared how long it would take to drive to the next store, and matched that time with the times on the reports. We had discovered the shoplifter’s road map and plan of action.
The next week we were ready for them. Each store was staffed at the designated times based on the VisiPlus and Checkpoint Systems reports. Like clockwork, we found the shoplifters by watching who was taking the merchandise in question, and had them arrested as they attempted to steal from each of our stores.
