In any retail store, you have to have a good plan in place to help prevent shoplifting if you want to stay profitable. When you place items on display for customers to be able to look at before making a purchase, there is always a risk that someone will take one of those products without paying for it. With this in mind, of course you have to do something to prevent shoplifting from occurring in your store. Your plan should obviously include the use of retail anti-theft devices, like the Alpha Spider Wrap, but you also have to ensure your team is properly trained on the proper use of these devices if you want to see a return on your investment. If your employees aren’t all on board with the program you have place, it may all be for nothing.
If the training for the use of retail anti-theft devices isn’t kept up, your new hire employees will likely not understand how to use them as they were intended. For example, if you put five of an item on the same shelf, and ensure that they are all protected, that’s great, but the challenge is with keeping all of the product protected. When the next employee comes along to restock the product without placing retail anti-theft devices on all of the items, which one do you think the shoplifter is going to steal? Of course, the shoplifter will go for the unprotected item because it will be so much easier for them to get the merchandise and get out of the store unnoticed. It’s very simple, if there are two items next to each other and one has an Alpha Spider Wrap attached, and the other doesn’t, the one without it is getting stolen. You have to be consistent if you want your plan to have any chance of being successful.
I can remember several shoplifting cases in which merchandise protection consistency would have saved the store a lot of money and stress. At a store I previously worked for, we were using several different types of merchandise protection devices in the store as a way to help prevent shoplifting in the store, but we were still experiencing quite a bit of theft. There was on shoplifter I recall that would come into the store looking to steal merchandise like electric shavers and electric toothbrushes. He would go into the department and look for merchandise that could be easily resold, and wasn’t protected. One more occasions than one, he found items that should have had protection devices on them, but unfortunately for the store, did not.
The day we finally caught him was no exception. The guy came into the store and headed straight for the electric shavers. Once he entered the aisle, he selected one that didn’t have an Alpha Spider Wrap attached to it, but this time I was waiting for him to come into the store. I saw him take the shaver out of its package, put it into the front of his pants, and pull down his shirt. He was definitely surprised to see us when we finally caught him leaving the store with our products, because he had gotten away with it in the past. We were lucky enough to be there and actually see the theft happen that day, but it could have been a much different outcome. The lesson here is that if you are going to use retail anti-theft devices, be consistent and do it right.
For more information about retail anti-theft devices contact us or call 1.770.426.0547
