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Shoplifting Overtakes Internal Theft: Leverage Alpha Keepers To Prevent Shoplifting
Shoplifting overtakes internal theft! Those are the headlines across loss prevention circles these days as it is the first time in many years that the greatest loss for retailers is attributed to shoplifting rather than internal theft. If that isn’t reason enough to make retailers stay up at night, one can always look at the loss prevention news sources and see how prevalent organized retail crime (ORC) has become. It was enough to worry about the kids in the neighborhood wanting to get their hands on the new game system release and selecting your store to do their shoplifting. Now you have to worry about an organized gang of criminals who do not just want one of your products, but want a large number of your products and will be fairly brazen and cunning to get their hands on them. To some extent we have always had ORC with the “Travelers” hitting stores across the country in large numbers for years. We have had criminal enterprises striving to get their hands on precursors for illicit drug manufacturing. Now we have to prevent shoplifting of all types of merchandise from razor blades to Microsoft Surface. We have to find new ways to prevent shoplifting through new retail anti-theft devices.
I can recall Travelers coming through town and going into stores in groups, keeping sales staff and clerks busy while the members of their family pushed racks of clothes out the door into a waiting van. More recently, I can recall a shoplifter coming into the store and taking 10 or 12 flash drives off the hooks and concealing them to go into the restroom and remove the EAS tags. We have also seen multiple shoplifters come into one of the stores in my area and remove the game from the game system case and leave the store with multiple games. The same thing has happened with music CDs more than once.
A company I worked for had a zero tolerance approach towards theft and fought back hard to protect their merchandise—much like we all should in light of those new statistics about shoplifting. To prevent shoplifting of their merchandise they partnered with a leader in the industry: Alpha Products, a division of Checkpoint Systems. Alpha keepers were used on merchandise that was determined to be high risk. These hardened alarmed polycarbonate cases provide the highest level of security in retail anti-theft devices. The cases require a special magnetic key to open and will activate EAS (electronic article surveillance) alarms when the shoplifter tries to leave with the merchandise without going through your checkout. These hardened Alpha keepers allow you to display your merchandise with no difficulty on hooks or on shelves with complete visibility of the product while still ensuring no one can tamper with the merchandise and open the packaging to remove the product. Basically, it also means that shoplifters can look but not touch!
Alpha keepers are available in a variety of sizes and different designs for specific products, including razor blades, infant formula, electronics, CDs, DVDs, games, fragrances, and health and beauty products to name a few. They are reusable with your cashier removing the keeper from the merchandise at checkout and recycling it back to place on other merchandise.
With shoplifting being our number one potential loss causing event, we need to ensure that we are not making it easy for shoplifters to leave with our merchandise. Utilize retail anti-theft devices to their maximum advantage and prevent shoplifting – be it by the neighborhood youth or by the professional organized retail criminal.
For more information on Alpha Keepers, contact us or call 1.770.426.0547.
Shoplifting overtakes internal theft! Those are the headlines across loss prevention circles these days as it is the first time in many years that the greatest loss for retailers is attributed to shoplifting rather than internal theft. If that isn’t reason enough to make retailers stay up at night, one can always look at the loss prevention news sources and see how prevalent organized retail crime (ORC) has become. It was enough to worry about the kids in the neighborhood wanting to get their hands on the new game system release and selecting your store to do their shoplifting. Now you have to worry about an organized gang of criminals who do not just want one of your products, but want a large number of your products and will be fairly brazen and cunning to get their hands on them. To some extent we have always had ORC with the “Travelers” hitting stores across the country in large numbers for years. We have had criminal enterprises striving to get their hands on precursors for illicit drug manufacturing. Now we have to prevent shoplifting of all types of merchandise from razor blades to Microsoft Surface. We have to find new ways to prevent shoplifting through new retail anti-theft devices.
I can recall Travelers coming through town and going into stores in groups, keeping sales staff and clerks busy while the members of their family pushed racks of clothes out the door into a waiting van. More recently, I can recall a shoplifter coming into the store and taking 10 or 12 flash drives off the hooks and concealing them to go into the restroom and remove the EAS tags. We have also seen multiple shoplifters come into one of the stores in my area and remove the game from the game system case and leave the store with multiple games. The same thing has happened with music CDs more than once.
A company I worked for had a zero tolerance approach towards theft and fought back hard to protect their merchandise—much like we all should in light of those new statistics about shoplifting. To prevent shoplifting of their merchandise they partnered with a leader in the industry: Alpha Products, a division of Checkpoint Systems. Alpha keepers were used on merchandise that was determined to be high risk. These hardened alarmed polycarbonate cases provide the highest level of security in retail anti-theft devices. The cases require a special magnetic key to open and will activate EAS (electronic article surveillance) alarms when the shoplifter tries to leave with the merchandise without going through your checkout. These hardened Alpha keepers allow you to display your merchandise with no difficulty on hooks or on shelves with complete visibility of the product while still ensuring no one can tamper with the merchandise and open the packaging to remove the product. Basically, it also means that shoplifters can look but not touch!
Alpha keepers are available in a variety of sizes and different designs for specific products, including razor blades, infant formula, electronics, CDs, DVDs, games, fragrances, and health and beauty products to name a few. They are reusable with your cashier removing the keeper from the merchandise at checkout and recycling it back to place on other merchandise.
With shoplifting being our number one potential loss causing event, we need to ensure that we are not making it easy for shoplifters to leave with our merchandise. Utilize retail anti-theft devices to their maximum advantage and prevent shoplifting – be it by the neighborhood youth or by the professional organized retail criminal.
For more information on Alpha Keepers, contact us or call 1.770.426.0547
