One of the inevitable facts of owning or managing a retail store is that at some point you will be a victim of either shoplifting or employee theft. How you handle your assets during these losses, as well as what did you do to prevent them (previously or in the future), will be the determining factor as to whether or not you are set up for failure.
What many businesses run into is a lack of information as to how to effectively reduce the risk of shoplifting, or employee theft before it happens. Not every store has a budget for expensive EAS systems and the maintenance package to keep them running. Training employees to stop shoplifters can also be a no-go, depending upon the skill set of your average employees. Many small businesses cannot afford to hire employees who have reliable, complex decision making skills. Trusting them to manage a high impact situation is out of the question. Having a full time, dedicated loss prevention employee can also be a non-option due to payroll restraints.
That doesn’t mean that there are not other options to help you protect your assets and investments, as well as the reputation of your store. Loss prevention workshops are designed to help you find small business solutions that fit into your budget and your store’s specific needs.
This loss prevention training is essential for anyone in your organizational structure that would be in a position to execute loss prevention strategies. This could be any managers and key carriers. This could also be a great training for any employee working in your store.
Cashiers are usually the first and last person a customer sees because the cash wrap stands are positioned near entrance and exit doors. Training your cashiers on how customer service is an effective extension of loss prevention can help reduce your in store crimes, plus increase your customer loyalty.
If the employees working your sales floor understand that a clean, stocked and organized store makes it easier to spot missing merchandise, therefore increasing a shoplifter’s risk of getting caught, the employees might be more willing to do their jobs properly.
Even making small moves to inventory layouts within a store can make a reduction in the quantity of theft losses on a particular item. If you have an issue with a product, move it closer to a cash register where someone is frequently around to deter theft.
Having a set shelf quantity of an item can also help monitor a high theft item to determine where it is going an when. Instead of filling a hook or a shelf with all available product, limit it to only four or five pieces. Train your employees to count every time they pass the item. If one is missing, and has not been sold, you can narrow down the time since someone last saw it.
These are a few loss prevention techniques that would come from a training workshop that can effectively reduce inventory and asset losses, without ever having to make an apprehension of a shoplifter. These tactics do not require decision-making skills above the normal scope of an employee’s job description. They also do not require additional payroll expenses to ensure the programs execution.
Having a clearer understanding how each individual employee can make a positive impact of theft reduction, while continuing to operate within the standard job description strengthens your store’s defenses against theft and losses.
For more information on Loss Prevention Seminars, Loss Prevention Training, or Loss Prevention Workshop contact us or call 1.770.426.0547 – Atlanta Georgia
Visit the Loss Prevention Systems website for more information on Retail Employee Theft and Retail Shoplifting problems and view the Retail Loss Prevention Seminars, Retail Loss Prevention Training and Retail Loss Prevention Workshop we offer to help with your Employee Theft and Shoplifting problems.
One of the inevitable facts of owning or managing a retail store is that at some point you will be a victim of either shoplifting or employee theft. How you handle your assets during these losses, as well as what did you do to prevent them (previously or in the future), will be the determining factor as to whether or not you are set up for failure.
What many businesses run into is a lack of information as to how to effectively reduce the risk of shoplifting, or employee theft before it happens. Not every store has a budget for expensive EAS systems and the maintenance package to keep them running. Training employees to stop shoplifters can also be a no-go, depending upon the skill set of your average employees. Many small businesses cannot afford to hire employees who have reliable, complex decision making skills. Trusting them to manage a high impact situation is out of the question. Having a full time, dedicated loss prevention employee can also be a non-option due to payroll restraints.
That doesn’t mean that there are not other options to help you protect your assets and investments, as well as the reputation of your store. Loss prevention workshops are designed to help you find small business solutions that fit into your budget and your store’s specific needs.
This loss prevention training is essential for anyone in your organizational structure that would be in a position to execute loss prevention strategies. This could be any managers and key carriers. This could also be a great training for any employee working in your store.
Cashiers are usually the first and last person a customer sees because the cash wrap stands are positioned near entrance and exit doors. Training your cashiers on how customer service is an effective extension of loss prevention can help reduce your in store crimes, plus increase your customer loyalty.
If the employees working your sales floor understand that a clean, stocked and organized store makes it easier to spot missing merchandise, therefore increasing a shoplifter’s risk of getting caught, the employees might be more willing to do their jobs properly. Even making small moves to inventory layouts within a store can make a reduction in the quantity of theft losses on a particular item. If you have an issue with a product, move it closer to a cash register where someone is frequently around to deter theft.
Having a set shelf quantity of an item can also help monitor a high theft item to determine where it is going an when. Instead of filling a hook or a shelf with all available product, limit it to only four or five pieces. Train your employees to count every time they pass the item. If one is missing, and has not been sold, you can narrow down the time since someone last saw it.
These are a few loss prevention techniques that would come from a training workshop that can effectively reduce inventory and asset losses, without ever having to make an apprehension of a shoplifter. These tactics do not require decision-making skills above the normal scope of an employee’s job description. They also do not require additional payroll expenses to ensure the programs execution.
Having a clearer understanding how each individual employee can make a positive impact of theft reduction, while continuing to operate within the standard job description strengthens your store’s defenses against theft and losses.
For more information on Loss Prevention Seminars, Loss Prevention Training, or Loss Prevention Workshop contact us or call 1.770.426.0547 – Atlanta Georgia
Visit the Loss Prevention Systems website for more information on Retail Employee Theft and Retail Shoplifting problems and view the Retail Loss Prevention Seminars, Retail Loss Prevention Training and Retail Loss Prevention Workshop we offer to help with your Employee Theft and Shoplifting problems.
With Halloween right around the corner, we see the plethora of Halloween themed clothing and merchandise start to infiltrate our stores. From witches to black cats, even ghosts and goblins, my stores always seem to find the scariest thing around- the Phantom Clothing Alarm!
The phantom clothing alarm is an EAS alarm that seems to activate all on its own. There never seems to be a plausible reason why it goes off. It was like that when the employees came in at the beginning of the day, or it was working earlier, and something must have happened when they were on their breaks.
Indeed, the phantom alarm has a spooky life all on its own, which is why I seem to be the one they call on to figure out what is going on. I don’t remember ghost buster as part of my job description, but somehow I have a knack for stopping these phantom alarms from haunting my employees and customers.
Obviously stores do not experience routine hauntings that affect only the clothing alarm system. That means there is a more logical, physical reason as to why the alarm is being activated without customers or merchandise present. That reason is usually a hidden EAS or clothing security tag in the area.
A hidden EAS tag usually has nothing to do with shoplifting. These are not tags that have been discarded by a shoplifter on their way out the door. That would be counterintuitive to a shoplifter trying to make their way out of a store without drawing attention to themselves.
These tags are often still on merchandise. One of the more common reasons for a phantom alarm is that there was a remerchandising initiative at some point over night. When clothing racks and tables are moved around, the are often moved too close to the EAS towers, without anyone realizing it. As the merchandise (containing EAS tags) is put back on these tables and racks, the EAS alarms go off. Putting the product back is one of the last steps, and happens around the time the day shift is coming in. As the employees come and go for the day, it is generally much later that someone realizes the alarm is going off.
Luckily, this is a simple fix. By moving tables and racks away from the towers, the alarms should subside. There is no need to retune the towers or shorten the fields around them. Often the remerchandised fixtures only need to be moved back maybe 6 to 8 inches or so, depending upon how close to the EAS towers they were originally staged.
Another common cause of phantom alarms is that a tag was thrown into a trashcan by the EAS towers. It is not unheard of for a customer to want to wear a new clothing item out of the store. Once paid for, the customers will tear the tags off, and leave them in a trashcan on their way out of the store. Soft clothing security tags that are imbedded in these price tags will then set of the alarm, since the tag was scanned at purchase, but not deactivated.
Upon closer inspection, probably 99% of these unexplained phantom alarms are explained by having an EAS tag in the area. Sometimes it just takes a little more looking to find the culprit.
Visit the Loss Prevention Store to purchase Checkpoint Tags, a Clothing Alarm, Clothing Security or Clothing Security Tags to put Security Tags on Clothes and an Electronic Article Surveillance or EAS system.
For more information on Checkpoint tags, clothing security, clothing alarm, or clothing security tags how they can work with your Electronic Article Surveillance or EAS system contact us at security tags on clothes or call 1.770.426.0547
With Halloween right around the corner, we see the plethora of Halloween themed clothing and merchandise start to infiltrate our stores. From witches to black cats, even ghosts and goblins, my stores always seem to find the scariest things around- the Phantom Clothing Alarm!
The phantom clothing alarm is an EAS alarm that seems to activate all on its own. There never seems to be a plausible reason why it goes off. It was like that when the employees came in at the beginning of the day, or it was working earlier, and something must have happened when they were on their breaks.
Indeed, the phantom alarm has a spooky life all on its own, which is why I seem to be the one they call on to figure out what is going on. I don’t remember ghost buster as part of my job description, but somehow I have a knack for stopping these phantom alarms from haunting my employees and customers.
Obviously stores do not experience routine hauntings that affect only the clothing alarm system. That means there is a more logical, physical reason as to why the alarm is being activated without customers or merchandise present. That reason is usually a hidden EAS or clothing security tag in the area.
A hidden EAS tag usually has nothing to do with shoplifting. These are not tags that have been discarded by a shoplifter on their way out the door. That would be counterintuitive to a shoplifter trying to make their way out of a store without drawing attention to themselves.
These tags are often still on merchandise. One of the more common reasons for a phantom alarm is that there was a remerchandising initiative at some point over night. When clothing racks and tables are moved around, the are often moved too close to the EAS towers, without anyone realizing it. As the merchandise (containing EAS tags) is put back on these tables and racks, the EAS alarms go off. Putting the product back is one of the last steps, and happens around the time the day shift is coming in. As the employees come and go for the day, it is generally much later that someone realizes the alarm is going off.
Luckily, this is a simple fix. By moving tables and racks away from the towers, the alarms should subside. There is no need to retune the towers or shorten the fields around them. Often the remerchandised fixtures only need to be moved back maybe 6 to 8 inches or so, depending upon how close to the EAS towers they were originally staged.
Another common cause of phantom alarms is that a tag was thrown into a trashcan by the EAS towers. It is not unheard of for a customer to want to wear a new clothing item out of the store. Once paid for, the customers will tear the tags off, and leave them in a trashcan on their way out of the store. Soft clothing security tags that are imbedded in these price tags will then set of the alarm, since the tag was scanned at purchase, but not deactivated.
Upon closer inspection, probably 99% of these unexplained phantom alarms are explained by having an EAS tag in the area. Sometimes it just takes a little more looking to find the culprit.
Visit the Loss Prevention Store to purchase Checkpoint Tags, a Clothing Alarm, Clothing Security or Clothing Security Tags to put Security Tags on Clothes and an Electronic Article Surveillance or EAS system.
For more information on Checkpoint tags, clothing security, clothing alarm, or clothing security tags how they can work with your Electronic Article Surveillance or EAS system contact us at security tags on clothes or call 1.770.426.0547
After several months of investigating a completely unrelated incident of employee theft, we decided that we should do an informal investigation of the rest of our employees. We had been loosing inventory at an alarming rate and needed to make sure we had caught all of the culprits.
During these investigations, we noticed that one of our bottle service waitresses was taking an unusually high number of drinks from her tables. We do not allow our employees to drink on the clock, but do offer them leeway if the take a drink or a shot glass from a customer to avoid offending the customers. The policy is that the employees are to take the drinks back to the bar and dispose of them down the drain.
This particular employee was taking drinks and shots, not back to the bar, but out on the floor. We started to notice that the employee was selling the drinks (for cash) to other patrons. Hmm. Well she wasn’t causing a loss to our nightclub, but she definitely had no right to sell off another customer’s purchased liquor.
We watched her carefully for a few weeks to see how frequently this occurred. It was frequent enough that we could see she was making an extra several hundred dollars each week from these under the table drinks. We knew it was time to put an end to this employee’s deceit, and her employment with our nightclub.
We sat her down at the end of the night and asked her a few questions about what was going on. She said that she just recently started doing it when a table gave her a drink, and as she was going back to the bar to dump it out, a guy asked her to get him a drink. She told him he could have the one she was carrying. She didn’t expect him to give her any money for it, but when he did, she kept the cash. From there she realized how easy it would be to make some extra money.
She never felt like she was stealing because the bottle service table had paid in full for all of the liquor, mixers, etc. If they wanted to give drinks away, she would accept them. She never asked any of her tables for the drinks. She never felt like she was doing something illegal, since the club wasn’t out any money for the drinks.
The conversation was a real eye opener for us on just how easy it was for an employee to be dishonest, without throwing up any red flags or inventory losses. We were lucky that none of the VIP clients ever found out about her scheme. If they did, we might have lost their invaluable business, and may not have been alerted to the problem, the VIPs might have decided to simply never come back.
The employee was terminated for her actions. Even though she did not cause an inventory loss, she did, in fact, steal sales from our club. Every drink that was sold under the table was one less sale that we were able to make.
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.
After several months of investigating a completely unrelated incident of employee theft, we decided that we should do an informal investigation of the rest of our employees. We had been loosing inventory at an alarming rate and needed to make sure we had caught all of the culprits.
During these investigations, we noticed that one of our bottle service waitresses was taking an unusually high number of drinks from her tables. We do not allow our employees to drink on the clock, but do offer them leeway if the take a drink or a shot glass from a customer to avoid offending the customers. The policy is that the employees are to take the drinks back to the bar and dispose of them down the drain.
This particular employee was taking drinks and shots, not back to the bar, but out on the floor. We started to notice that the employee was selling the drinks (for cash) to other patrons. Hmm. Well she wasn’t causing a loss to our nightclub, but she definitely had no right to sell off another customer’s purchased liquor.
We watched her carefully for a few weeks to see how frequently this occurred. It was frequent enough that we could see she was making an extra several hundred dollars each week from these under the table drinks. We knew it was time to put an end to this employee’s deceit, and her employment with our nightclub.
We sat her down at the end of the night and asked her a few questions about what was going on. She said that she just recently started doing it when a table gave her a drink, and as she was going back to the bar to dump it out, a guy asked her to get him a drink. She told him he could have the one she was carrying. She didn’t expect him to give her any money for it, but when he did, she kept the cash. From there she realized how easy it would be to make some extra money.
She never felt like she was stealing because the bottle service table had paid in full for all of the liquor, mixers, etc. If they wanted to give drinks away, she would accept them. She never asked any of her tables for the drinks. She never felt like she was doing something illegal, since the club wasn’t out any money for the drinks.
The conversation was a real eye opener for us on just how easy it was for an employee to be dishonest, without throwing up any red flags or inventory losses. We were lucky that none of the VIP clients ever found out about her scheme. If they did, we might have lost their invaluable business, and may not have been alerted to the problem, the VIPs might have decided to simply never come back.
The employee was terminated for her actions. Even though she did not cause an inventory loss, she did, in fact, steal sales from our club. Every drink that was sold under the table was one less sale that we were able to make.
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.
