Stop Shoplifting – 3 WC Blog 720
Sensormatic tags – 4
Lend Me Your Ear I Have Something To Say About Sensormatic Tags
When you stop shoplifting you are taking a bite out of crime to steal a phrase from McGruff. Unfortunately it seems things were the other way around when a shoplifter took a bite of a Loss Prevention Associate’s ear not too long ago. The story was an article in LPM Insider magazine, on October 31, 2018, titled “Accused Shoplifter Bites Off LP Associates Ear”, citing their source as The News Tribune. The story reports that a shoplifting suspect and two friends were being watched by the Associate. The suspect is reported to have taken two polo shirts and entered a fitting room. He was alleged to have folded them up and hidden them under his jacket. The article reports that the Associate stopped the suspect who was accompanied by his friends as they left the store. Apparently the situation became physical and the Associate got the suspect to the ground when the two friends started hitting the Associate. During the altercation the suspect bit the Loss Prevention Associate’s ear lobe taking off a piece in the process. The Associate was able to have the piece of ear stitched back on and the suspect was arrested and put in jail. The story reported that no information was given about the retail store itself or the names of any of the persons involved in the incident. Having been involved in my own fair share of scuffles and being bitten myself (as was one of my own Associates during an apprehension he initiated) I know how quickly a shoplifting incident can escalate. This is why it is so important to use Sensormatic tags on clothing and other merchandise to stop shoplifting from happening in the first place.
While the article does not state it I am going to assume that the retail store where this theft took place was not using anti-theft devices on the merchandise or at least not on all of their merchandise. If this is true then they are way behind the curve. The use of Sensormatic tags and other anti-theft devices is proven to be effective at reducing theft. If you take a look at the 2015 Global Retail Theft Barometer for North American retailers, apparel specialty stores saw an increase in retail shortage from .60% in 2013-14 to 2.28% in 2014-2015 (pg. 52). During this period the spending on Loss Prevention as a percent of total sales decreased from .39% to .24% (pg. 57). This information includes all Loss Prevention spending but I do believe it is safe to say that electronic article surveillance is a big part of this. I also found an interesting statistic on the pricegun.com website from an infographic chart, “Shoplifting is America’s #1 Property Crime”. The chart shows that stores that use visible cameras were shoplifted at 70% of the time while stores that use ink tags drop down to 27% and radio frequency tags are even less at 20%. I urge all retailers not just clothing store owners to look at Sensormatic tags and systems as an investment in reducing losses and saving money rather than an expense center that costs the store money.
Would the use of electronic article surveillance tags prevented the Loss Prevention Associate from being bitten? It is quite possible they would have stopped the incident before it took place (assuming they were not in use at this location). I have found that in many cases a shoplifter steals because they believe the opportunity presents itself and if no security tags are on an item there is no immediate deterrent at work. There is a slight chance that the merchandise had tags and the thief was committed to stealing the items anyways because he had his buddies with him but it is an unlikely scenario. Most crooks, especially opportunists don’t want to chance being caught and they know the tags will cause an alarm system to activate.
Altercations with shoplifters can be dangerous as evidenced in the story about the Associate and his confrontation. Proper training on how to stop shoplifting provided by Loss Prevention Systems, Inc. (LPSI) and the use of Sensormatic tags and pedestals can help to minimize unnecessary risks to store employees. Contact LPSI to learn more about how you can keep your workers safe and take a bite out of crime at the same time.
Get more information on Sensormatic tags, contact us or call 1.770.426.0547 today.
When you stop shoplifting you are taking a bite out of crime to steal a phrase from McGruff. Unfortunately it seems things were the other way around when a shoplifter took a bite of a Loss Prevention Associate’s ear not too long ago. The story was an article in LPM Insider magazine, on October 31, 2018, titled “Accused Shoplifter Bites Off LP Associates Ear”, citing their source as The News Tribune. The story reports that a shoplifting suspect and two friends were being watched by the Associate. The suspect is reported to have taken two polo shirts and entered a fitting room. He was alleged to have folded them up and hidden them under his jacket. The article reports that the Associate stopped the suspect who was accompanied by his friends as they left the store. Apparently the situation became physical and the Associate got the suspect to the ground when the two friends started hitting the Associate. During the altercation the suspect bit the Loss Prevention Associate’s ear lobe taking off a piece in the process. The Associate was able to have the piece of ear stitched back on and the suspect was arrested and put in jail. The story reported that no information was given about the retail store itself or the names of any of the persons involved in the incident. Having been involved in my own fair share of scuffles and being bitten myself (as was one of my own Associates during an apprehension he initiated) I know how quickly a shoplifting incident can escalate. This is why it is so important to use Sensormatic tags on clothing and other merchandise to stop shoplifting from happening in the first place.
While the article does not state it I am going to assume that the retail store where this theft took place was not using anti-theft devices on the merchandise or at least not on all of their merchandise. If this is true then they are way behind the curve. The use of Sensormatic tags and other anti-theft devices is proven to be effective at reducing theft. If you take a look at the 2015 Global Retail Theft Barometer for North American retailers, apparel specialty stores saw an increase in retail shortage from .60% in 2013-14 to 2.28% in 2014-2015 (pg. 52). During this period the spending on Loss Prevention as a percent of total sales decreased from .39% to .24% (pg. 57). This information includes all Loss Prevention spending but I do believe it is safe to say that electronic article surveillance is a big part of this. I also found an interesting statistic on the pricegun.com website from an infographic chart, “Shoplifting is America’s #1 Property Crime”. The chart shows that stores that use visible cameras were shoplifted at 70% of the time while stores that use ink tags drop down to 27% and radio frequency tags are even less at 20%. I urge all retailers not just clothing store owners to look at Sensormatic tags and systems as an investment in reducing losses and saving money rather than an expense center that costs the store money.
Would the use of electronic article surveillance tags prevented the Loss Prevention Associate from being bitten? It is quite possible they would have stopped the incident before it took place (assuming they were not in use at this location). I have found that in many cases a shoplifter steals because they believe the opportunity presents itself and if no security tags are on an item there is no immediate deterrent at work. There is a slight chance that the merchandise had tags and the thief was committed to stealing the items anyways because he had his buddies with him but it is an unlikely scenario. Most crooks, especially opportunists don’t want to chance being caught and they know the tags will cause an alarm system to activate.
Altercations with shoplifters can be dangerous as evidenced in the story about the Associate and his confrontation. Proper training on how to stop shoplifting provided by Loss Prevention Systems, Inc. (LPSI) and the use of Sensormatic tags and pedestals can help to minimize unnecessary risks to store employees. Contact LPSI to learn more about how you can keep your workers safe and take a bite out of crime at the same time.
Get more information on Sensormatic tags, contact us or call 1.770.426.0547 today.
If Loss Prevention pays for itself how fast can it do it? -3 WC Blog 709
Loss Prevention Calculator -4
Buying An EAS System Saves You Money; Use The Loss Prevention Calculator To See How
If Loss Prevention pays for itself how fast can it do it? That is an interesting question to consider. Can it do it in a day? Perhaps it can be done in a month? Maybe in a year? Can it be done at all? Does it sound like a silly question in the first place? It isn’t a silly question because often people don’t think about how something can pay for itself. In retail we invest in something to improve sales or productivity but not with the mindset it is going to pay for itself over time. Consider when you bought cash registers for your store. You weren’t looking at when that register was going to pay for itself. You might have looked at the ease of use, the functions it could do or if cashiers could have individual sign-on’s but you didn’t think, “Hey, this register is going to pay dividends in time!” You may have even thought about how long is the warranty on it in case it breaks down. Loss Prevention is one area of store operations where there is not only a return on the investment but it can pay for itself and Loss Prevention Systems, Inc. (LPSI) created a Loss Prevention Calculator that will help in seeing that return on investment.
Bill Bregar the founder of LPSI already knew the value that Loss Prevention brings to a store. His company was built on using that knowledge to help stores reduce their shortage and stop theft and fraud. Armed with his experience as a U.S. Army Intelligence Officer, a Bachelor’s Degree in Private Security Administration, training as a Private Investigator and a former National Director of Loss Prevention for several companies, Bill wanted to share that knowledge with owners of small and medium sized stores. One issue is that many people considering a Sensormatic security system deemed it to be just another expense. They did not properly understand that the system reduces theft and even criminal activity that often surrounds stores that experience rabid shoplifting and employee theft. What was Bill’s answer to the problem, the Free Loss Prevention Calculator. The store owners need only to go to the LPSI website, open the ROI Calc. tab and enter a few pieces of information. The result is that user’s see how much they will conservatively reduce the store shrink by and how many months it will take for the Sensormatic system to pay for itself. THAT is a powerful return on investment. If Loss Prevention pays for itself how fast can it do it? The Loss Prevention Calculator can answer that question for you.
There is another benefit to owning a Sensormatic security system that is usually not considered when deciding if it will improve profits. Purchase the system with the door counting sensor included and you can accurately track how many people are visiting your store. Now you are thinking I’m crazy. Consider this, if you know how many people walked into your store and you know how many sales you had in a day from your register information you get a difference. What was it that kept every one of those customers who left empty-handed from buying something? You can then begin to plan for ways that you might be able to capture some of these lost sales in the future. Maybe you do quick surveys of those customers. You may change up your displays or advertising. You might reassess your customer service training. Looking at the time of day of customer traffic you may change up how you schedule employees.
So back to the original question, if Loss Prevention pays for itself how fast can it do it? There is no specific time frame. What I can tell you is that they DO significantly impact losses due to theft. I have seen them work over my 28 years in retail. Add the door counting sensor in and use the data to increase sales and that is going to only add more money to your bottom line. Now take a few minutes to try out the Loss Prevention Calculator and see for yourself. What are you waiting for? It’s FREE!
The Loss Prevention Calculator is important and we can help you with it. Call 1.770.426.0547 and let’s talk.
If Loss Prevention pays for itself how fast can it do it? That is an interesting question to consider. Can it do it in a day? Perhaps it can be done in a month? Maybe in a year? Can it be done at all? Does it sound like a silly question in the first place? It isn’t a silly question because often people don’t think about how something can pay for itself. In retail we invest in something to improve sales or productivity but not with the mindset it is going to pay for itself over time. Consider when you bought cash registers for your store. You weren’t looking at when that register was going to pay for itself. You might have looked at the ease of use, the functions it could do or if cashiers could have individual sign-on’s but you didn’t think, “Hey, this register is going to pay dividends in time!” You may have even thought about how long is the warranty on it in case it breaks down. Loss Prevention is one area of store operations where there is not only a return on the investment but it can pay for itself and Loss Prevention Systems, Inc. (LPSI) created a Loss Prevention Calculator that will help in seeing that return on investment.
Bill Bregar the founder of LPSI already knew the value that Loss Prevention brings to a store. His company was built on using that knowledge to help stores reduce their shortage and stop theft and fraud. Armed with his experience as a U.S. Army Intelligence Officer, a Bachelor’s Degree in Private Security Administration, training as a Private Investigator and a former National Director of Loss Prevention for several companies, Bill wanted to share that knowledge with owners of small and medium sized stores. One issue is that many people considering a Sensormatic security system deemed it to be just another expense. They did not properly understand that the system reduces theft and even criminal activity that often surrounds stores that experience rabid shoplifting and employee theft. What was Bill’s answer to the problem, the Free Loss Prevention Calculator. The store owners need only to go to the LPSI website, open the ROI Calc. tab and enter a few pieces of information. The result is that user’s see how much they will conservatively reduce the store shrink by and how many months it will take for the Sensormatic system to pay for itself. THAT is a powerful return on investment. If Loss Prevention pays for itself how fast can it do it? The Loss Prevention Calculator can answer that question for you.
There is another benefit to owning a Sensormatic security system that is usually not considered when deciding if it will improve profits. Purchase the system with the door counting sensor included and you can accurately track how many people are visiting your store. Now you are thinking I’m crazy. Consider this, if you know how many people walked into your store and you know how many sales you had in a day from your register information you get a difference. What was it that kept every one of those customers who left empty-handed from buying something? You can then begin to plan for ways that you might be able to capture some of these lost sales in the future. Maybe you do quick surveys of those customers. You may change up your displays or advertising. You might reassess your customer service training. Looking at the time of day of customer traffic you may change up how you schedule employees.
So back to the original question, if Loss Prevention pays for itself how fast can it do it? There is no specific time frame. What I can tell you is that they DO significantly impact losses due to theft. I have seen them work over my 28 years in retail. Add the door counting sensor in and use the data to increase sales and that is going to only add more money to your bottom line. Now take a few minutes to try out the Loss Prevention Calculator and see for yourself. What are you waiting for? It’s FREE!
The Loss Prevention Calculator is important and we can help you with it. Call 1.770.426.0547 and let’s talk.
RECOGNIZING EMPLOYEE THEFT FROM MANAGERS
While a lot of time has been spent on recognizing Employee Theft, as a business owner, you have to know that your managers are just as capable of stealing from you than your hourly teams. Moreover, managers have a unique ability to steal even more and go undetected even longer because they know the controls that are in place and they know how to beat them. As the owner of the business, you need to trust, but verify, all activity from your managers.
Over my career in Loss Prevention, I have had a dozen or so store managers that were arrested for theft. You can have every program working 100% to Stop Shoplifting, but one dishonest manager can completely derail an entire year’s worth of financial success. While the number of manager theft cases that I’ve had are relatively small over a 12 year period, they’ve all accounted for the absolute highest and most prolific thefts of any case I’ve worked. Those 12 cases have a higher combined case value that all of my cases over the last 5 years combined. Millions of dollars. So how do you determine if a manager is stealing from you?
Entering and Exiting the Store at Odd Hours
Hopefully, you have an alarm system for your store. If not, please stop reading now and have one installed yesterday. This is something that is an absolute necessity. Preventing a burglary is just as important to your store as it is to Stop Shoplifting. The great thing about modern business alarm systems, is that you can generally receive reporting on when the system was armed/disarmed. You should often review this data, as it will show you when a manager entered the store, and when they left, as well as everything in between. If your store is open from 8am-8pm, there’s no reason for a manager to come back in the store at 1am, right?
Bank Deposit Issues
If you are trusting a manager to deposit the day’s earnings each night, be wary of banking errors. If your store counted $2,000 on Friday and your statement shows that $1950 was deposited, you likely have an issue of Employee Theft by one of your managers. While banking errors are more common that we’d care to admit, consistent issues by one manager in particular should be a strong clue that forces you to look further.
Lost Keys
You’ll find it hard to Stop Shoplifting if you have sets of your keys “lost” in the world. Granted, it’s human to lose a set of keys at least once in your life. I’ve lost a set of store keys once. It was a learning experience and It’s never happened since. If you have a manager that continues to “lose keys”, then there’s probably something happening that shouldn’t be. Always change your locks when keys go missing. It’s also a great idea to have policies that spell out disciplinary action for managers that do lose their keys.
Frequent Large Discounts
Your managers are empowered to run your business. That often means approving discounts for a variety of reasons. Managers can easily slip from “taking care of a customer” to Employee Theft. Managers that give out discounts freely to everyone they know are quite popular with customers, but they are a detriment to your bottom line.
Unexplained Cashier Shortages
What if, all of a sudden, cashiers started coming up a few dollars short every day? Not just one or two, but every single one of them. Cashiers that have been solid for years are suddenly missing $2-$3 dollars every shift. This was actually one of my biggest cases where a manager was stealing cash. Every time this particular manager finalized a cashier, she would swipe a few bucks and run the cashier short. This went on for years before she was caught and costed the store several hundred thousand dollars over time.
Preventing employee theft is important and we can help you with it. Call 1.770.426.0547 and let’s talk.
While a lot of time has been spent on recognizing Employee Theft, as a business owner, you have to know that your managers are just as capable of stealing from you than your hourly teams. Moreover, managers have a unique ability to steal even more and go undetected even longer because they know the controls that are in place and they know how to beat them. As the owner of the business, you need to trust, but verify, all activity from your managers.
Over my career in Loss Prevention, I have had a dozen or so store managers that were arrested for theft. You can have every program working 100% to Stop Shoplifting, but one dishonest manager can completely derail an entire year’s worth of financial success. While the number of manager theft cases that I’ve had are relatively small over a 12 year period, they’ve all accounted for the absolute highest and most prolific thefts of any case I’ve worked. Those 12 cases have a higher combined case value that all of my cases over the last 5 years combined. Millions of dollars. So how do you determine if a manager is stealing from you?
Entering and Exiting the Store at Odd Hours
Hopefully, you have an alarm system for your store. If not, please stop reading now and have one installed yesterday. This is something that is an absolute necessity. Preventing a burglary is just as important to your store as it is to Stop Shoplifting. The great thing about modern business alarm systems, is that you can generally receive reporting on when the system was armed/disarmed. You should often review this data, as it will show you when a manager entered the store, and when they left, as well as everything in between. If your store is open from 8am-8pm, there’s no reason for a manager to come back in the store at 1am, right?
Bank Deposit Issues
If you are trusting a manager to deposit the day’s earnings each night, be wary of banking errors. If your store counted $2,000 on Friday and your statement shows that $1950 was deposited, you likely have an issue of Employee Theft by one of your managers. While banking errors are more common that we’d care to admit, consistent issues by one manager in particular should be a strong clue that forces you to look further.
Lost Keys
You’ll find it hard to Stop Shoplifting if you have sets of your keys “lost” in the world. Granted, it’s human to lose a set of keys at least once in your life. I’ve lost a set of store keys once. It was a learning experience and It’s never happened since. If you have a manager that continues to “lose keys”, then there’s probably something happening that shouldn’t be. Always change your locks when keys go missing. It’s also a great idea to have policies that spell out disciplinary action for managers that do lose their keys.
Frequent Large Discounts
Your managers are empowered to run your business. That often means approving discounts for a variety of reasons. Managers can easily slip from “taking care of a customer” to Employee Theft. Managers that give out discounts freely to everyone they know are quite popular with customers, but they are a detriment to your bottom line.
Unexplained Cashier Shortages
What if, all of a sudden, cashiers started coming up a few dollars short every day? Not just one or two, but every single one of them. Cashiers that have been solid for years are suddenly missing $2-$3 dollars every shift. This was actually one of my biggest cases where a manager was stealing cash. Every time this particular manager finalized a cashier, she would swipe a few bucks and run the cashier short. This went on for years before she was caught and costed the store several hundred thousand dollars over time.
Preventing employee theft is important and we can help you with it. Call 1.770.426.0547 and let’s talk.
