Alpha Keepers-4 WC Blog 478
Retail Anti-Theft Devices-4
Alpha Keepers Keep Products Safe
When I think of strong, durable retail anti-theft devices I think of one product in particular that keeps products safe from theft. Before I tell you what it is I have a bit of trivia for those who may be history buffs. How many of you know what a castle “keep” is? If you know congratulations! If you don’t know, a castle keep is basically a final defensive tower or stronghold within a castle. According to Medieval-Castle.com it is, “a castle within a castle as it has traditionally been used as a final defensive structure.” In other words the “keep” is a strongpoint for defending against castle assailants who may have breached the walls of a castle. Now to the analogy I want to make. When it comes to retail anti-theft devices Alpha Keepers is definitely a favorite of mine and provides a great defense against criminals who want to steal you blind.
Alpha Keepers are clear boxes with a locking lid that provides security for a wide variety of products. Because they are clear, customers can view the merchandise inside the box and read product information on labels. Your customers can also pick up the box and walk around the store with the merchandise until they are ready to check out. The merchant is comfortable knowing that the box is sturdy enough to prevent a thief from breaking into it and taking the product. Unlike the risks usually associated with open display products, items in Keepers means they are accessible but secure. This eliminates the need for display cases, call buttons and staff available with a key to open a case. Worried about someone taking merchandise and the Keeper out the door? No need, these retail anti-theft devices are equipped with electronic article surveillance (EAS) technology and interact with EAS pedestals. If a Keeper box gets too close to a pedestal an alarm in the pedestal sounds an alert. Store personnel respond and recover the Keeper with the merchandise inside of it. And did I mention that if a shoplifter tries to force open a box an alarm also sounds and employees respond to that location and recover the merchandise and box?
My analogy to the castle keep is this; shoplifters take advantage of stores where they know there is no protection for merchandise. Your store is your castle and the domain where you have set your flag and determined that you are going to be THE store shoppers will want to visit. Shoplifters are those who want to attack your castle and plunder your goods. If they find a weakness they will take advantage of it. They won’t attack the stores that are well defended, they get caught! They go to the locations where they find there is little or no security in place and then they attack it. I know it sounds a little extreme but the truth is shoplifters do victimize the weak and they return over and over again. Oh and by return, I mean in the same day not just over periods of time. Having worked in Retail Loss Prevention for nearly 17 years I have watched it happen.
How do the shoplifters know the weak stores? They walk in and look for EAS pedestals at the front doors, Public View monitors at front entrances and camera domes in the ceiling. They also see if they can find the use of retail anti-theft devices, such as Alpha Keepers being used. If they determine it is a vulnerable store they will begin plundering it, especially if they are part of an Organized Retail Crime group.
By protecting merchandise with Alpha Keepers merchants are setting up their castle within a castle. EAS pedestals, cameras and customer service are the castle walls that provide the first line of defense against the intruders. Alpha boxes represent the “Keep” the final stronghold. They work and they will stop the shoplifters who want to take your treasures without paying for them. They also keep the merchandise on the shelves for the customers who want to shop with you, and that drives sales!
Need information on Alpha Keepers? Give us a call at 1.770.426.0547 now.
When I think of strong, durable retail anti-theft devices I think of one product in particular that keeps products safe from theft. Before I tell you what it is I have a bit of trivia for those who may be history buffs. How many of you know what a castle “keep” is? If you know congratulations! If you don’t know, a castle keep is basically a final defensive tower or stronghold within a castle. According to Medieval-Castle.com it is, “a castle within a castle as it has traditionally been used as a final defensive structure.” In other words the “keep” is a strongpoint for defending against castle assailants who may have breached the walls of a castle. Now to the analogy I want to make. When it comes to retail anti-theft devices Alpha Keepers is definitely a favorite of mine and provides a great defense against criminals who want to steal you blind.
Alpha Keepers are clear boxes with a locking lid that provides security for a wide variety of products. Because they are clear, customers can view the merchandise inside the box and read product information on labels. Your customers can also pick up the box and walk around the store with the merchandise until they are ready to check out. The merchant is comfortable knowing that the box is sturdy enough to prevent a thief from breaking into it and taking the product. Unlike the risks usually associated with open display products, items in Keepers means they are accessible but secure. This eliminates the need for display cases, call buttons and staff available with a key to open a case. Worried about someone taking merchandise and the Keeper out the door? No need, these retail anti-theft devices are equipped with electronic article surveillance (EAS) technology and interact with EAS pedestals. If a Keeper box gets too close to a pedestal an alarm in the pedestal sounds an alert. Store personnel respond and recover the Keeper with the merchandise inside of it. And did I mention that if a shoplifter tries to force open a box an alarm also sounds and employees respond to that location and recover the merchandise and box?
My analogy to the castle keep is this; shoplifters take advantage of stores where they know there is no protection for merchandise. Your store is your castle and the domain where you have set your flag and determined that you are going to be THE store shoppers will want to visit. Shoplifters are those who want to attack your castle and plunder your goods. If they find a weakness they will take advantage of it. They won’t attack the stores that are well defended, they get caught! They go to the locations where they find there is little or no security in place and then they attack it. I know it sounds a little extreme but the truth is shoplifters do victimize the weak and they return over and over again. Oh and by return, I mean in the same day not just over periods of time. Having worked in Retail Loss Prevention for nearly 17 years I have watched it happen.
How do the shoplifters know the weak stores? They walk in and look for EAS pedestals at the front doors, Public View monitors at front entrances and camera domes in the ceiling. They also see if they can find the use of retail anti-theft devices, such as Alpha Keepers being used. If they determine it is a vulnerable store they will begin plundering it, especially if they are part of an Organized Retail Crime group.
By protecting merchandise with Alpha Keepers merchants are setting up their castle within a castle. EAS pedestals, cameras and customer service are the castle walls that provide the first line of defense against the intruders. Alpha boxes represent the “Keep” the final stronghold. They work and they will stop the shoplifters who want to take your treasures without paying for them. They also keep the merchandise on the shelves for the customers who want to shop with you, and that drives sales!
Need information on Alpha Keepers? Give us a call at 1.770.426.0547 now.
Manager Training To Stop Employee Theft – 3 WC Blog 538
Stop Shoplifting -4
Intuition Won’t Prevent Crime – It Requires Manager Training To Stop Employee Theft
At the start of this semester at the college library where I work I learned a lesson that made me think about manager training to stop employee theft. We train all of our student employees on their jobs at the beginning of the semester and one of those tasks we train them on, or so I thought, is checking our outside book drop. The employees are trained by a supervisor and a training checklist is initialed by the supervisor. In the spring we conduct a quick refresher training and leave it at that. Not long ago we started finding the exterior book drop unlocked. We tracked it down to the guilty party and the student said they had been trained. I had him take me outside and show me how to unlock and lock the drop. He did it wrong. When I asked if he had actually had to open and close the drop during his training he said he had not. His group had only been “shown” how to do it. I then began asking other workers and learned that the majority did not know how to open and close the drop. I put a stop to all student workers checking the drop until a supervisor walked them each outside and made the student open and close the drop. The lesson I took away from this was that sometimes people don’t know what you think they know. In a library we are dealing mostly with a few books or possibly dvd’s in a bookdrop. In retail you are dealing with your livelihood so it is important that you and your managers know how to prevent employee theft and stop shoplifting. It is for this reason that Bill Bregar, the CEO and founder of Loss Prevention Systems Inc. created manager training to stop employee theft and shoplifting.
According to dictionary.cambridge.org shoplifting is defined as: The illegal act of taking goods from a store without paying for them. They define employee theft as the crime of employees stealing from the company they work for. While shoplifting is fairly clear-cut in terms of theft of merchandise, what determines when shoplifting has taken place can vary between jurisdictions. Employee theft is not as clear-cut and can entail such things as theft of property, merchandise, financial transaction fraud, cash theft, underringing, etc. Because there are so many types of employee theft and fraud and it can be difficult for even the best of investigators to track down a crime, LPSI has developed an intensive training program for store managers. Manager training to stop employee theft and modules for how to stop shoplifting will empower retail business owners and leaders with the knowledge needed to end shortage created by these thieves.
On the surface it may sound easy to stop shoplifting and prevent employees from stealing. Any store owner can tell if someone is going to steal whether it is a customer or an employee, right? If that were the case I sure could have used your expertise when I was a Loss Prevention Manager. It took several months of training to catch my first shoplifter on my own and when I became a Loss Prevention Manager I was not able to interview my first internal case for months. I was required to go through training on how to identify different types of employee theft, how to build my case and log my evidence. I had even more training on the proper methods for conducting a dishonest employee interview and had to be certified before I could do one. Did I mention that the first employee interview I conducted required me to have a certified Loss Prevention Manager with me in the office as I conducted my interview? No, LPSI isn’t going to have your managers go to such extremes but you need to be aware that there is more involved to stop shoplifting or prevent employee theft than looking at someone and “knowing” they are a thief. LPSI training seminars give managers the tools needed to prevent theft from shoplifters and employees.
Significantly reduce shortage due to theft from employees and shoplifters. Let LPSI provide manager training to stop employee theft to you and your supervisors. You will be surprised to learn what you didn’t know. Put that training to work and watch your profits grow.
Get more information on manager training to stop employee theft, contact us or call 1.770.426.0547 today.
At the start of this semester at the college library where I work I learned a lesson that made me think about manager training to stop employee theft. We train all of our student employees on their jobs at the beginning of the semester and one of those tasks we train them on, or so I thought, is checking our outside book drop. The employees are trained by a supervisor and a training checklist is initialed by the supervisor. In the spring we conduct a quick refresher training and leave it at that. Not long ago we started finding the exterior book drop unlocked. We tracked it down to the guilty party and the student said they had been trained. I had him take me outside and show me how to unlock and lock the drop. He did it wrong. When I asked if he had actually had to open and close the drop during his training he said he had not. His group had only been “shown” how to do it. I then began asking other workers and learned that the majority did not know how to open and close the drop. I put a stop to all student workers checking the drop until a supervisor walked them each outside and made the student open and close the drop. The lesson I took away from this was that sometimes people don’t know what you think they know. In a library we are dealing mostly with a few books or possibly dvd’s in a bookdrop. In retail you are dealing with your livelihood so it is important that you and your managers know how to prevent employee theft and stop shoplifting. It is for this reason that Bill Bregar, the CEO and founder of Loss Prevention Systems Inc. created manager training to stop employee theft and shoplifting.
According to dictionary.cambridge.org shoplifting is defined as: The illegal act of taking goods from a store without paying for them. They define employee theft as the crime of employees stealing from the company they work for. While shoplifting is fairly clear-cut in terms of theft of merchandise, what determines when shoplifting has taken place can vary between jurisdictions. Employee theft is not as clear-cut and can entail such things as theft of property, merchandise, financial transaction fraud, cash theft, underringing, etc. Because there are so many types of employee theft and fraud and it can be difficult for even the best of investigators to track down a crime, LPSI has developed an intensive training program for store managers. Manager training to stop employee theft and modules for how to stop shoplifting will empower retail business owners and leaders with the knowledge needed to end shortage created by these thieves.
On the surface it may sound easy to stop shoplifting and prevent employees from stealing. Any store owner can tell if someone is going to steal whether it is a customer or an employee, right? If that were the case I sure could have used your expertise when I was a Loss Prevention Manager. It took several months of training to catch my first shoplifter on my own and when I became a Loss Prevention Manager I was not able to interview my first internal case for months. I was required to go through training on how to identify different types of employee theft, how to build my case and log my evidence. I had even more training on the proper methods for conducting a dishonest employee interview and had to be certified before I could do one. Did I mention that the first employee interview I conducted required me to have a certified Loss Prevention Manager with me in the office as I conducted my interview? No, LPSI isn’t going to have your managers go to such extremes but you need to be aware that there is more involved to stop shoplifting or prevent employee theft than looking at someone and “knowing” they are a thief. LPSI training seminars give managers the tools needed to prevent theft from shoplifters and employees.
Significantly reduce shortage due to theft from employees and shoplifters. Let LPSI provide manager training to stop employee theft to you and your supervisors. You will be surprised to learn what you didn’t know. Put that training to work and watch your profits grow.
Get more information on manager training to stop employee theft, contact us or call 1.770.426.0547 today.
Wardrobing-5 WC Blog 453
Return Fraud-3
Simple Solutions To Prevent Return Fraud Can Include Wardrobing Tags And Slight Review Of Return Policies
There are different times of the year when people have a tendency to purchase an item to use for a brief period of use and return it. Last year our area experienced Hurricane Matthew and people purchased power generators and when the power was restored they were taking them back to hardware stores for refunds. This might be good for the people who want one at a discounted price but for the stores that sold them it can be cause for a financial loss, depending on the condition of the unit when it was returned. For the first few years I worked for a big box retailer we sold lawn mowers. As the end of summer neared we would have a number of them returned (within the return date cut-off) and the customer would tell us how it no longer worked. A look at the machine often explained a lot about why it no longer worked. Swim suits would be returned by customers who had clearly worn them either for the summer or for the time they were on vacation. Proms were a notorious time for what is referred to as wardrobing. Our store didn’t sell tuxedos but we did sell prom dresses and you could always be ready to take several back that had obviously been worn but were within the store’s return policy guidelines. How about Halloween and all of those costumes our store sold? You guessed it we always had a number of them returned AFTER the Great Pumpkin failed to make another appearance. So what is the point of all these different returns? They are forms of refund fraud, but fraud that was in large part empowered by our own company policies.
One thing I want to quickly mention is that I referenced wardrobing above. Some of you may not be familiar with this type of fraud so let me describe it. Wardrobing is a form of return fraud that makes it appear the customer is following a store’s own policies but they twist those policies. Where it is expected that a piece of clothing would be returned if it did not fit, had a defect or in the event it was a gift that was not well-received, those committing this fraud disregard that aspect of the policy. These people wear the item(s) intentionally, going out to parties or events appearing to have a new outfit and then return the merchandise within a few days. Frequently the clothing has smells that have permeated them and/or stains that have marred them. Unfortunately many retailers have loosened refund policies to the point that all they require are the tags and a receipt (and sometimes even the receipt isn’t required).
Eventually our business did tighten up policies on some things to prevent return fraud and in some instances we stopped carrying a specific line of merchandise. For example, the lawn mower issue became a big enough problem in terms of non-resalable merchandise being returned under the 90 day return policy that the company simply stopped selling them. Seasonal merchandise such as Christmas trees and Halloween costumes were limited in how much they could be returned for after the date of the holiday. Some items that seemed like they should be able to be turned down because they had obviously been worn such as bathing suits were still taken back. Often managers were afraid to refuse a refund because they didn’t want a complaint called in to company headquarters and sent down the chain to the district manager.
Was the best solution to a refund abuse problem to end the sale of a product line? I’m not sure about that, I didn’t have company data to look at regarding the P and L on the lawnmowers. If a business wants to impact return fraud, without hurting customer service tightening up return policies a little bit can be helpful. Another solution for clothing stores would be to use wardrobing tags to prevent customers from wearing an item and returning it. These are red tags that are pinned where they would be seen if the item is worn in public which would be rather embarrassing. The tag has to be cut off by the purchaser when they decide to keep the item and once it is removed the store policy dictates the item cannot be returned. Think about what that would do to help your profit margin while still maintaining a customer friendly environment.
Before you make a move that would impact the variety of items your store carries or drastically restrict return policies. Look for the simple things you can do to keep clients happy and not take a hit on your bottom line. Wardrobing tags may be one solution for you to consider.
Need information on wardrobing? Give us a call at 1.770.426.0547 now.
There are different times of the year when people have a tendency to purchase an item to use for a brief period of use and return it. When our area experienced Hurricane Matthew, people purchased power generators and when the power was restored they were taking them back to hardware stores for refunds. This might be good for the people who want one at a discounted price but for the stores that sold them it can be cause for a financial loss, depending on the condition of the unit when it was returned. For the first few years I worked for a big box retailer we sold lawn mowers. As the end of summer neared we would have a number of them returned (within the return date cut-off) and the customer would tell us how it no longer worked. A look at the machine often explained a lot about why it no longer worked. Swim suits would be returned by customers who had clearly worn them either for the summer or for the time they were on vacation. Proms were a notorious time for what is referred to as wardrobing. Our store didn’t sell tuxedos but we did sell prom dresses and you could always be ready to take several back that had obviously been worn but were within the store’s return policy guidelines. How about Halloween and all of those costumes our store sold? You guessed it we always had a number of them returned AFTER the Great Pumpkin failed to make another appearance. So what is the point of all these different returns? They are forms of refund fraud, but fraud that was in large part empowered by our own company policies.
One thing I want to quickly mention is that I referenced wardrobing above. Some of you may not be familiar with this type of fraud so let me describe it. Wardrobing is a form of return fraud that makes it appear the customer is following a store’s own policies but they twist those policies. Where it is expected that a piece of clothing would be returned if it did not fit, had a defect or in the event it was a gift that was not well-received, those committing this fraud disregard that aspect of the policy. These people wear the item(s) intentionally, going out to parties or events appearing to have a new outfit and then return the merchandise within a few days. Frequently the clothing has smells that have permeated them and/or stains that have marred them. Unfortunately many retailers have loosened refund policies to the point that all they require are the tags and a receipt (and sometimes even the receipt isn’t required).
Eventually our business did tighten up policies on some things to prevent return fraud and in some instances we stopped carrying a specific line of merchandise. For example, the lawn mower issue became a big enough problem in terms of non-resalable merchandise being returned under the 90 day return policy that the company simply stopped selling them. Seasonal merchandise such as Christmas trees and Halloween costumes were limited in how much they could be returned for after the date of the holiday. Some items that seemed like they should be able to be turned down because they had obviously been worn such as bathing suits were still taken back. Often managers were afraid to refuse a refund because they didn’t want a complaint called in to company headquarters and sent down the chain to the district manager.
Was the best solution to a refund abuse problem to end the sale of a product line? I’m not sure about that, I didn’t have company data to look at regarding the P and L on the lawnmowers. If a business wants to impact return fraud, without hurting customer service tightening up return policies a little bit can be helpful. Another solution for clothing stores would be to use wardrobing tags to prevent customers from wearing an item and returning it. These are red tags that are pinned where they would be seen if the item is worn in public which would be rather embarrassing. The tag has to be cut off by the purchaser when they decide to keep the item and once it is removed the store policy dictates the item cannot be returned. Think about what that would do to help your profit margin while still maintaining a customer friendly environment.
Before you make a move that would impact the variety of items your store carries or drastically restrict return policies. Look for the simple things you can do to keep clients happy and not take a hit on your bottom line. Wardrobing tags may be one solution for you to consider.
Need information on wardrobing? Give us a call at 1.770.426.0547 now.
