POLICIES THAT HELP STOP EMPLOYEE THEFT AND SHOPLIFTING
If you want to Stop Shoplifting and other forms of theft, it’s important that you have policies in place to give your managers a starting point. Polices are also a great legal tool that can help you remain consistent when you discipline and terminate employees for not upholding company standards and expectations. While there are several areas of policy, let’s focus on the ones that can help you to reduce losses in your store.
Exit Inspection and Bag Check
I’ve worked in several big box retailers over the years and they all had a similar policy regarding bags and their employees. If you brought a bag or something similar (including purses), you were subject to an inspection when you left the store at the end of your shift. A simple look inside was common, but it went a long way to prevent Employee Theft.
Personal Items Must be Secured in a Locker
This is another one of those “no brainers.” If you bring a bag, lunch kit, or purse to work, make sure it’s secured in a locker, and not on your sales floor. Not only can an empty bag be a source of Employee Theft, but customers can also have access to your employee’s personal effects, so a policy such as this could really benefit their personal safety as well as helping you to prevent shrink.
Receipts Must Accompany all Employee Purchases
Discouraging Employee Theft can be as simple as a policy that requires your team to always place their receipt on their purchase, while still in the store (think snacks and drinks). There can never be a question as to whether an item was purchased or not if the receipt is clearly visible on the item.
Back Door Security
You can Stop Shoplifting and dishonest employees by having a stringent back door policy. Never allow employees unsupervised access to outer doors. A policy that states a manager must be present anytime the door is open can and will discourage product from walking out the back door.
Number of Employees in the Building
In order to keep your team members safe in case of an accident, as well as to Stop Shoplifting from your employees, have a policy that specifies the minimum number of employees that must be present at all times in order to enter the store. Generally, 3 is a good number and is common at most big-box stores that I’ve worked for. Having at least three people in the store at once, especially during the morning prior to store opening and in the evenings after store closing, can discourage an easy theft by employees.
For more information about employee theft contact us or call 1.770.426.0547.
If you want to Stop Shoplifting and other forms of theft, it’s important that you have policies in place to give your managers a starting point. Polices are also a great legal tool that can help you remain consistent when you discipline and terminate employees for not upholding company standards and expectations. While there are several areas of policy, let’s focus on the ones that can help you to reduce losses in your store.
Exit Inspection and Bag Check
I’ve worked in several big box retailers over the years and they all had a similar policy regarding bags and their employees. If you brought a bag or something similar (including purses), you were subject to an inspection when you left the store at the end of your shift. A simple look inside was common, but it went a long way to prevent Employee Theft.
Personal Items Must be Secured in a Locker
This is another one of those “no brainers.” If you bring a bag, lunch kit, or purse to work, make sure it’s secured in a locker, and not on your sales floor. Not only can an empty bag be a source of Employee Theft, but customers can also have access to your employee’s personal effects, so a policy such as this could really benefit their personal safety as well as helping you to prevent shrink.
Receipts Must Accompany all Employee Purchases
Discouraging Employee Theft can be as simple as a policy that requires your team to always place their receipt on their purchase, while still in the store (think snacks and drinks). There can never be a question as to whether an item was purchased or not if the receipt is clearly visible on the item.
Back Door Security
You can Stop Shoplifting and dishonest employees by having a stringent back door policy. Never allow employees unsupervised access to outer doors. A policy that states a manager must be present anytime the door is open can and will discourage product from walking out the back door.
Number of Employees in the Building
In order to keep your team members safe in case of an accident, as well as to Stop Shoplifting from your employees, have a policy that specifies the minimum number of employees that must be present at all times in order to enter the store. Generally, 3 is a good number and is common at most big-box stores that I’ve worked for. Having at least three people in the store at once, especially during the morning prior to store opening and in the evenings after store closing, can discourage an easy theft by employees.
For more information about employee theft, contact us or call 1.770.426.0547.
Stop Shoplifting In A Gift Shop, Is A Sensormatic System Necessary?
Why should you spend money on a Sensormatic system if you “only” have a gift shop? Because shoplifters steal, and they steal from anyone. They do not care what kind of retailer you are. The same loss ratio applies to gift stores as it does to, well, any retailer. The formula is simple. Let’s say you lose a $20 item at retail. And let’s suppose that your margin is 2%. You divide $20 by 2 percent and you have the real cost of that loss of $20 (20/.02 = $1000). Yes, to make up and breakeven, not make any profit, you have to sell an additional $1000 in merchandise. That is on top of your normal sales. No one can do that for very long and stay in business.
Typical Sensormatic systems have a Return On Investment (ROI) of about 5.5 months depending how well you follow the Loss Prevention Systems, Inc. program. You can never stop shoplifting altogether however, our program is more than just installing a Sensormatic system. We train you on how to stop shoplifting before they steal and we will do this on a regular basis for you as often as you and your staff reasonably need it.
So if we can train you to deter a significant amount of shoplifting why do you need the Sensormatic system? You and your staff cannot be everywhere all the time. Shoplifters look for opportunities or they will create them where you and your folks are distracted. Busy days with lots of customers on the sales floor at the same time does not leave a lot of time for the identification of a shoplifter or the type of customer service that is required to send them off to someone else.
That is where Sensormatic systems comes into play. In many cases shoplifters will see the active Sensormatic system and they will be deterred. But many are not. Properly secured merchandise will stop the shoplifter in their tracks. Your gift shop will benefit from the same commercial grade systems that the major retailers use.
“But, Sensormatic systems are expensive?” NO, they are not, in fact they are very affordable. Depending on you store’s layout, current level of loss and needs, you could see a ROI payback in a matter of months. This puts you back in control against the shoplifter. Not only will you have a state of the art system but the proper training to attack and keep the shoplifting losses to an acceptable level.
How fast can this all happen? In many cases we can have your system shipped and installed in a matter of a few weeks. Even during a holiday season. Our Sensormatic systems are installed by factory tech’s that do this every day. Sensormatic is a world leader with 80% of the top 200 retailers depending on Sensormatic with the exact same equipment Loss Prevention Systems offers you to stop shoplifting.
Loss Prevention Systems also has the expertise to make sure you get the right genuine Sensormatic hard tags and/or labels to address your particular needs. This is not one size fits all. Your store has a diverse offering of merchandise that requires different solutions. We will help you with that in smaller quantities of the labels and tags you need so that you do not have a back room full.
Loss Prevention Systems will even include a copy of the book “Protect Your Store!” the shoplifting prevention guide for medium to small retailers by Bill Bregar, our founder and CEO. We want you to succeed and be profitable. Because if you stop shoplifting you are winning, then we win too.
For more information about Sensormatic systems and to stop shoplifting Contact us or call 1.770.426.0547 and fix your shoplifting problem once and for all!
Why should you spend money on a Sensormatic system if you “only” have a gift shop? Because shoplifters steal, and they steal from anyone. They do not care what kind of retailer you are. The same loss ratio applies to gift stores as it does to, well, any retailer. The formula is simple. Let’s say you lose a $20 item at retail. And let’s suppose that your margin is 2%. You divide $20 by 2 percent and you have the real cost of that loss of $20 (20/.02 = $1000). Yes, to make up and breakeven, not make any profit, you have to sell an additional $1000 in merchandise. That is on top of your normal sales. No one can do that for very long and stay in business.
Typical Sensormatic systems have a Return On Investment (ROI) of about 5.5 months depending how well you follow the Loss Prevention Systems, Inc. program. You can never stop shoplifting altogether however, our program is more than just installing a Sensormatic system. We train you on how to stop shoplifting before they steal and we will do this on a regular basis for you as often as you and your staff reasonably need it.
So if we can train you to deter a significant amount of shoplifting why do you need the Sensormatic system? You and your staff cannot be everywhere all the time. Shoplifters look for opportunities or they will create them where you and your folks are distracted. Busy days with lots of customers on the sales floor at the same time does not leave a lot of time for the identification of a shoplifter or the type of customer service that is required to send them off to someone else.
That is where Sensormatic systems comes into play. In many cases shoplifters will see the active Sensormatic system and they will be deterred. But many are not. Properly secured merchandise will stop the shoplifter in their tracks. Your gift shop will benefit from the same commercial grade systems that the major retailers use.
“But, Sensormatic systems are expensive?” NO, they are not, in fact they are very affordable. Depending on you store’s layout, current level of loss and needs, you could see a ROI payback in a matter of months. This puts you back in control against the shoplifter. Not only will you have a state of the art system but the proper training to attack and keep the shoplifting losses to an acceptable level.
How fast can this all happen? In many cases we can have your system shipped and installed in a matter of a few weeks. Even during a holiday season. Our Sensormatic systems are installed by factory tech’s that do this every day. Sensormatic is a world leader with 80% of the top 200 retailers depending on Sensormatic with the exact same equipment Loss Prevention Systems offers you to stop shoplifting.
Loss Prevention Systems also has the expertise to make sure you get the right genuine Sensormatic hard tags and/or labels to address your particular needs. This is not one size fits all. Your store has a diverse offering of merchandise that requires different solutions. We will help you with that in smaller quantities of the labels and tags you need so that you do not have a back room full.
Loss Prevention Systems will even include a copy of the book “Protect Your Store!” the shoplifting prevention guide for medium to small retailers by Bill Bregar, our founder and CEO. We want you to succeed and be profitable. Because if you stop shoplifting you are winning, then we win too.
For more information about Sensormatic systems and to stop shoplifting, Contact us or call 1.770.426.0547 and fix your shoplifting problem once and for all!
Electronic Article Surveillance – 4 WC Blog 707
Sensormatic Labels – 3
Be A Good Sport Find Out How Electronic Article Surveillance Can Protect Your Store
I would not normally relate a football game to electronic article surveillance but I saw something at a game that got me thinking about just this topic. When I get the opportunity, I enjoy attending football, baseball and occasionally a basketball game at my Alma Mater. In the last two years, our school has transitioned to FBS level football and they have begun requiring attendees to carry clear totes or purses. Absolutely no backpacks or standard totes or purses are allowed. All of this is for security purposes and while my wife is no fan of this she has grudgingly followed this policy in order to get into the venues. I personally think the policy is more to do with keeping illicit candy, food and drinks from getting into the stadium rather than security but that is a matter of opinion (who wants to pay $8 for a lemonade and pack of M&M’s?). That aside, giving the benefit of the doubt I will allow that the rules are intended to make the building/stadium safer for fans. So you can imagine my anger when I saw a couple of men arrive in the 3rd quarter of the game and one of them had a backpack on! It made me wonder where the lapse in security for the stadium took place. Did security officials at the gates stop checking for bags after the initial rush of fans? I can only wonder. It was this that caused me to think about retail security and Sensormatic labels. What steps do you and your managers take to protect your business from theft, fraud and criminal activity and do you let your guard down during operating hours?
On the surface it might seem like protecting a football stadium and fans would be different than protecting a store but in reality there are a number of similarities. When entering the football stadium the security guards and police are preventing “contraband” from getting into the facility. In a retail store you want to keep unpaid merchandise from getting out of the building. In the football stadium officials want to keep bad guys and criminals out and the same should be true for retail store owners. In a sports venue it may be a security team monitoring the gates and entrances. In a retail store it may be Loss Prevention or managers monitoring the doors and sales floor. In the stadium, staff scan tickets to let people in. In the retail store an electronic article surveillance tower is scanning for active Sensormatic labels or security tags. It isn’t a perfect analogy but I think you get the picture.
What took place that the guys with the backpack somehow made it into the stadium? Did security become tired or careless? Did they decide after a certain time that checking fans was less important than it was when the gates opened? Now let me ask you this; do your employees get lax about responding to electronic article surveillance alarms during the shift? Do cashiers get in a hurry to finish a shift and take short cuts while scanning merchandise that can lead to failing to deactivate Sensormatic labels? Lapses in these areas for a store are not much different than a lapse in the procedures at a sporting event.
We can also look at safety issues surrounding a store when people stop paying attention. If no one is watching and greeting customers as they come through the doors a certain amount of deterrence is lost. Criminals seek out stores where they can enter unnoticed and this isn’t restricted to shoplifters. We are talking about purse snatchers, robbers, sexual predators, etc. all persons you don’t want in your building. Lest you think I’m over-blowing this I worked as a Loss Prevention Manager for thirteen years and I dealt with ALL of these criminal types. I learned that recognition is something they will all avoid and if your employees are not saying hello as customers enter the wrong element will start to frequent your store. No, you can’t require everyone to carry a clear purse or bag to enter your store but you can have other controls in place. Those controls should include people who greet each customer (regardless of what time of the day it is) and an electronic article surveillance system that will sound the alarm when merchandise such as clothing is protected with Sensormatic tags and labels.
Don’t let down your guard. Protect your store and merchandise at all times. If you need more information on how to do it Loss Prevention Systems, Inc. has the answers. Don’t fumble this play, call them today.
Sensormatic labels are important and we can help you with it. Call 1.770.426.0547 and let’s talk.
I would not normally relate a football game to electronic article surveillance but I saw something at a game that got me thinking about just this topic. When I get the opportunity, I enjoy attending football, baseball and occasionally a basketball game at my Alma Mater. In the last two years, our school has transitioned to FBS level football and they have begun requiring attendees to carry clear totes or purses. Absolutely no backpacks or standard totes or purses are allowed. All of this is for security purposes and while my wife is no fan of this she has grudgingly followed this policy in order to get into the venues. I personally think the policy is more to do with keeping illicit candy, food and drinks from getting into the stadium rather than security but that is a matter of opinion (who wants to pay $8 for a lemonade and pack of M&M’s?). That aside, giving the benefit of the doubt I will allow that the rules are intended to make the building/stadium safer for fans. So you can imagine my anger when I saw a couple of men arrive in the 3rd quarter of the game and one of them had a backpack on! It made me wonder where the lapse in security for the stadium took place. Did security officials at the gates stop checking for bags after the initial rush of fans? I can only wonder. It was this that caused me to think about retail security and Sensormatic labels. What steps do you and your managers take to protect your business from theft, fraud and criminal activity and do you let your guard down during operating hours?
On the surface it might seem like protecting a football stadium and fans would be different than protecting a store but in reality there are a number of similarities. When entering the football stadium the security guards and police are preventing “contraband” from getting into the facility. In a retail store you want to keep unpaid merchandise from getting out of the building. In the football stadium officials want to keep bad guys and criminals out and the same should be true for retail store owners. In a sports venue it may be a security team monitoring the gates and entrances. In a retail store it may be Loss Prevention or managers monitoring the doors and sales floor. In the stadium, staff scan tickets to let people in. In the retail store an electronic article surveillance tower is scanning for active Sensormatic labels or security tags. It isn’t a perfect analogy but I think you get the picture.
What took place that the guys with the backpack somehow made it into the stadium? Did security become tired or careless? Did they decide after a certain time that checking fans was less important than it was when the gates opened? Now let me ask you this; do your employees get lax about responding to electronic article surveillance alarms during the shift? Do cashiers get in a hurry to finish a shift and take short cuts while scanning merchandise that can lead to failing to deactivate Sensormatic labels? Lapses in these areas for a store are not much different than a lapse in the procedures at a sporting event.
We can also look at safety issues surrounding a store when people stop paying attention. If no one is watching and greeting customers as they come through the doors a certain amount of deterrence is lost. Criminals seek out stores where they can enter unnoticed and this isn’t restricted to shoplifters. We are talking about purse snatchers, robbers, sexual predators, etc. all persons you don’t want in your building. Lest you think I’m over-blowing this I worked as a Loss Prevention Manager for thirteen years and I dealt with ALL of these criminal types. I learned that recognition is something they will all avoid and if your employees are not saying hello as customers enter the wrong element will start to frequent your store. No, you can’t require everyone to carry a clear purse or bag to enter your store but you can have other controls in place. Those controls should include people who greet each customer (regardless of what time of the day it is) and an electronic article surveillance system that will sound the alarm when merchandise such as clothing is protected with Sensormatic tags and labels.
Don’t let down your guard. Protect your store and merchandise at all times. If you need more information on how to do it Loss Prevention Systems, Inc. has the answers. Don’t fumble this play, call them today.
Sensormatic labels are important and we can help you with it. Call 1.770.426.0547 and let’s talk.
