Checkpoint Labels-5 WC Blog 501
Electronic Article Surveillance-4
Properly Respond To Electronic Article Surveillance Alarms
I write a lot about the benefits of using Checkpoint labels to protect merchandise from theft but I realized I do not necessarily do an adequate job of providing guidance on how to respond to electronic article surveillance alarms. I am going to spend some time in the article talking to you about the do’s and don’ts of alarm activations. It may sound like it is easy to do but issues can arise if an employee does it incorrectly.
You may be new to the world of electronic article surveillance and how it works so before I go too far into my article I am going to delve into it a bit here. Electronic article surveillance is used to protect merchandise through radio wave transmissions. Checkpoint labels come in several versions but are basically peel off labels with circuitry built into them. The circuitry sends out a radio wave on a specific frequency and this radio wave can be picked up by Checkpoint pedestals which are receivers. The pedestals are located near store entrances/exits or areas where merchandise is not to be taken into. When a tag has not been de-sensitized at a point of sale and the merchandise it is attached to is carried too close to a pedestal an alarm sounds. It is this alarm that requires a response and if a store is doing everything properly alarms will result in merchandise recoveries. In this way Checkpoint labels prevent shoplifters from stealing merchandise in stores where training is a focus.
I am sure there are some of you out there who are wondering how anyone could mess up a response to an alarm pedestal. There are a several ways to do this and I think I can safely say that over my 27 years in retail and Retail Loss Prevention I have probably seen most of them. To respond to an alarm activation properly store employees must:
• Be trained – I have watched employees just walk up and look into a customer’s bag and start rifling through it looking for the piece of merchandise the caused a problem. You have to be sure that employees responding to Checkpoint label alarms understand they have to respect the rights of the customer. The customer has the right to refuse to allow someone to look through their personal belongings. A store may reserve the right to look through a store shopping bag but it better be clearly posted in plain view. The approach to getting someone to give permission is key to having a successful deterrent program.
• This leads to my next point an employee must be personable and friendly when approaching someone who has activated an alarm. One thing that happens is that an employee may approach someone who is standing at a door waiting for a responder following an alarm. The customer waiting may not have been the one to activate the alarm. If multiple people are leaving about the same time, one person may set off the alarm carrying merchandise with active Checkpoint labels on them. The person who set off the alarm continued to walk out while an innocent person may just be trying to make sure they did not cause the alarm. Walking up to that person and treating them like a shoplifter can lead to all sorts of problems. Politeness and tact are going to resolve alarms and in the majority of cases result in the recovery of merchandise.
• An employee responding to alarm activations has to be able to give excuses to a potential shoplifter. What I mean is this, when responding to a pedestal alarm if someone IS trying to steal there is a better chance of getting merchandise back if the responder can say words like, “Is there something in your bag the cashier may have overlooked?” or, “Sometimes people get their hands full and accidently put things in their pockets or purses intending to take it out and forget they had it until they get to the door.” Being smart and diplomatic can pay off in a big way.
• A responder must also be able to deal with angry and upset patrons. Someone attempting to steal may try to display an attitude and act indignant in order to embarrass or intimidate the employee and get them to just send them out the door. Training should include how to de-escalate a tense situation without giving in to the temptation to just get the person out the door. An employee who gets tense or angry can make a situation explosive.
How your team responds to alarms can be the difference between antagonizing people and making substantial recoveries. Follow these suggestions and you can be sure you are optimizing your electronic article surveillance pedestals and tags and staying profitable.
Need information on electronic article surveillance? Give us a call at 1.770.426.0547 now.
I write a lot about the benefits of using labels to protect merchandise from theft but I realized I do not necessarily do an adequate job of providing guidance on how to respond to electronic article surveillance alarms. I am going to spend some time in the article talking to you about the do’s and don’ts of alarm activations. It may sound like it is easy to do but issues can arise if an employee does it incorrectly.
You may be new to the world of electronic article surveillance (EAS) and how it works so before I go too far into my article I am going to delve into it a bit here. Electronic article surveillance is used to protect merchandise through radio wave transmissions. EAS labels come in several versions but are basically peel off labels with circuitry built into them. The circuitry sends out a radio wave on a specific frequency and this radio wave can be picked up by EAS pedestals which are receivers. The pedestals are located near store entrances/exits or areas where merchandise is not to be taken into. When a tag has not been de-sensitized at a point of sale and the merchandise it is attached to is carried too close to a pedestal an alarm sounds. It is this alarm that requires a response and if a store is doing everything properly alarms will result in merchandise recoveries. In this way EAS labels prevent shoplifters from stealing merchandise in stores where training is a focus.
I am sure there are some of you out there who are wondering how anyone could mess up a response to an alarm pedestal. There are a several ways to do this and I think I can safely say that over my 27 years in retail and Retail Loss Prevention I have probably seen most of them. To respond to an alarm activation properly store employees must:
• Be trained – I have watched employees just walk up and look into a customer’s bag and start rifling through it looking for the piece of merchandise the caused a problem. You have to be sure that employees responding to EAS label alarms understand they have to respect the rights of the customer. The customer has the right to refuse to allow someone to look through their personal belongings. A store may reserve the right to look through a store shopping bag but it better be clearly posted in plain view. The approach to getting someone to give permission is key to having a successful deterrent program.
• This leads to my next point an employee must be personable and friendly when approaching someone who has activated an alarm. One thing that happens is that an employee may approach someone who is standing at a door waiting for a responder following an alarm. The customer waiting may not have been the one to activate the alarm. If multiple people are leaving about the same time, one person may set off the alarm carrying merchandise with active EAS labels on them. The person who set off the alarm continued to walk out while an innocent person may just be trying to make sure they did not cause the alarm. Walking up to that person and treating them like a shoplifter can lead to all sorts of problems. Politeness and tact are going to resolve alarms and in the majority of cases result in the recovery of merchandise.
• An employee responding to alarm activations has to be able to give excuses to a potential shoplifter. What I mean is this, when responding to a pedestal alarm if someone IS trying to steal there is a better chance of getting merchandise back if the responder can say words like, “Is there something in your bag the cashier may have overlooked?” or, “Sometimes people get their hands full and accidently put things in their pockets or purses intending to take it out and forget they had it until they get to the door.” Being smart and diplomatic can pay off in a big way.
• A responder must also be able to deal with angry and upset patrons. Someone attempting to steal may try to display an attitude and act indignant in order to embarrass or intimidate the employee and get them to just send them out the door. Training should include how to de-escalate a tense situation without giving in to the temptation to just get the person out the door. An employee who gets tense or angry can make a situation explosive.
How your team responds to alarms can be the difference between antagonizing people and making substantial recoveries. Follow these suggestions and you can be sure you are optimizing your electronic article surveillance pedestals and tags and staying profitable.
Need information on electronic article surveillance? Give us a call at 1.770.426.0547 now.
Stop Shoplifting – 3 WC Blog 469
Checkpoint Labels – 4
Deactivate Checkpoint Labels To Avoid Customer Service Issues
My current position as a shift manager in a library is sometimes very similar to my former position as a Loss Prevention Manager. In the library we use anti-theft systems that are identical to the retail anti-theft systems found in retail stores. We use tags here similar to EAS (electronic article surveillance) Checkpoint labels that we used in my store and they operate in a like manner. The tag we use in books and on DVD’s and music CD’s protects library inventory just as the EAS labels protected so many of the products we sold in our store. The systems are so similar that I recover materials on a fairly frequent basis using the skills I learned in retail to stop shoplifting. I also find I have to coach employees about the need to deactivate or de-tune labels properly just as I did in retail.
Stepping back for a moment I want to explain what Checkpoint labels are. These are soft tags that retail stores can place on merchandise that will cause an alarm in an EAS pedestal. The labels have a coiled wire in them that sends out a signal and when the signal gets in a specific vicinity of a pedestal an alarm is triggered. The alarm coming from the pedestal attracts the attention of store personnel and they respond to determine what caused the activation. Usually the only reason for an alarm is someone leaving a store with merchandise that has not been paid for. On a rare occasion an employee may fail to see merchandise in the bottom of a shopping cart that can then set off a pedestal. It is also possible that the employee does not use a scan bed or deactivation pad properly and this will cause an alarm. Both of these are rare instances and require follow up training with the employee.
The system in our library is similar to a Checkpoint system with the difference being that we are preventing theft of materials while the store retail anti-theft system will stop shoplifting. I would be remiss if I failed to mention that sometimes we have failures to deactivate tags in the library just as we encountered in retail. For example, the other day I was at one of our desks and heard the alarm pedestal sound. I came around the corner and spoke to the patron who clearly could not figure out why the alarm sounded. She was insistent she had just checked out an item. Since we often email receipts I could not compare a receipt to anything to determine if she was telling me the truth. I nicely escorted her back to the counter where she had checked out and she told me who it was that checked out her materials. The worker confirmed that he had and I asked if he had used the deactivation pad when he checked out the items. It turned out he had used the hand scanner and did not use the pad and it caused the alarm. I had the materials checked in and out again properly and sent the patron on her way. I then explained to the worker what he had done wrong and the impact it had on customer service by not being careful. The EAS deactivation pad turns off an EAS label. When the handheld scanner is used but the materials are not laid on the pad Checkpoint labels are not turned off or detuned and this causes false alarms at the pedestals.
The lesson was learned and I may not have to address this worker again but as in retail you have to keep on top of these things. As a Loss Prevention Manager I had to speak to cashiers regularly about the customer service issues caused when they failed to deactivate Checkpoint Labels. It is difficult to stop shoplifting when excessive alarms cause unnecessary distractions and employee response becomes lazy. In the library excessive alarms are loud and irritate students trying to study. It also causes staff to become complacent in alarm response in a library and opens up the opportunity for materials to be stolen. Whether it is in a library or a retail store be sure to train staff on how to properly deactivate Checkpoint labels to make your systems more effective and customer friendly.
Get more information on Checkpoint labels. Give us a call at 1.770.426.0547 now.
My current position as a shift manager in a library is sometimes very similar to my former position as a Loss Prevention Manager. In the library we use anti-theft systems that are identical to the retail anti-theft systems found in retail stores. We use tags here similar to EAS (electronic article surveillance) labels that we used in my store and they operate in a like manner. The tag we use in books and on DVD’s and music CD’s protects library inventory just as the EAS labels protected so many of the products we sold in our store. The systems are so similar that I recover materials on a fairly frequent basis using the skills I learned in retail to stop shoplifting. I also find I have to coach employees about the need to deactivate or de-tune labels properly just as I did in retail.
Stepping back for a moment I want to explain what labels are. These are soft tags that retail stores can place on merchandise that will cause an alarm in an EAS pedestal. The labels have a coiled wire in them that sends out a signal and when the signal gets in a specific vicinity of a pedestal an alarm is triggered. The alarm coming from the pedestal attracts the attention of store personnel and they respond to determine what caused the activation. Usually the only reason for an alarm is someone leaving a store with merchandise that has not been paid for. On a rare occasion an employee may fail to see merchandise in the bottom of a shopping cart that can then set off a pedestal. It is also possible that the employee does not use a scan bed or deactivation pad properly and this will cause an alarm. Both of these are rare instances and require follow up training with the employee.
The system in our library is similar to a EAS system with the difference being that we are preventing theft of materials while the store retail anti-theft system will stop shoplifting. I would be remiss if I failed to mention that sometimes we have failures to deactivate tags in the library just as we encountered in retail. For example, the other day I was at one of our desks and heard the alarm pedestal sound. I came around the corner and spoke to the patron who clearly could not figure out why the alarm sounded. She was insistent she had just checked out an item. Since we often email receipts I could not compare a receipt to anything to determine if she was telling me the truth. I nicely escorted her back to the counter where she had checked out and she told me who it was that checked out her materials. The worker confirmed that he had and I asked if he had used the deactivation pad when he checked out the items. It turned out he had used the hand scanner and did not use the pad and it caused the alarm. I had the materials checked in and out again properly and sent the patron on her way. I then explained to the worker what he had done wrong and the impact it had on customer service by not being careful. The EAS deactivation pad turns off an EAS label. When the handheld scanner is used but the materials are not laid on the pad labels are not turned off or detuned and this causes false alarms at the pedestals.
The lesson was learned and I may not have to address this worker again but as in retail you have to keep on top of these things. As a Loss Prevention Manager I had to speak to cashiers regularly about the customer service issues caused when they failed to deactivate labels. It is difficult to stop shoplifting when excessive alarms cause unnecessary distractions and employee response becomes lazy. In the library excessive alarms are loud and irritate students trying to study. It also causes staff to become complacent in alarm response in a library and opens up the opportunity for materials to be stolen. Whether it is in a library or a retail store be sure to train staff on how to properly deactivate labels to make your systems more effective and customer friendly.
Get more information on labels. Give us a call at 1.770.426.0547 now.
SAY NO TO SHOPLIFTING BY UTILIZING EAS LABELS IN YOUR STORE NOW!
EAS Labels- 4 ML Blog 17
Stop Shoplifting – 3
Working in Loss Prevention shows you all aspects of shoplifting. Each day as you are watching for thieves, you never know what will happen or what technique you will observe. One day you are catching a thoroughly experienced thief who steals for a living. The next day you are catching a mom pushing a stroller with kids. Other times you may catch a group of 5 kids, not thinking about the seriousness of what they are doing. Some days you run into extremely strange situations that make you wonder what the person was thinking! You just never know. Just last month, I had a strange incident with EAS Labels! My store now uses them every day to stop shoplifting!
One morning I was on CCTV, scanning CCTV on a very slow morning. Slow, I thought! I had a subject enter the store acting very suspiciously. She paced the sales floor for close to 20 minutes, looking for associates and acting extremely nervous. This is a behavior I know too well from shoplifters, so I had to be patient and continue to observe. I kept CCTV on her due to these behaviors. After she finally felt “safe” to steal, she started rapidly selecting our highest dollar product out of the home décor department. I noticed all of the product was small, and would be easily concealable in a large purse she was carrying. After selecting 8 items priced between $39.99 and $79.00, she AGAIN paced the sales floor appearing very paranoid for another 20 minutes. I knew at this point, this was going to be a long, drawn out shoplifting incident. I continued to watch, and finally the subject started pulling each price tag off each item. After pulling the tags, she walked the floor looking for a trash can to conceal the ripped tags in. The subject finally concealed each item slowly into her purse. However, one thing struck me as extremely odd. Why go through all this trouble scoping out the sales floor & pulling tags but not removing the EAS Labels!!? It didn’t make any sense. That should be the first thing you want off, especially with how they alarm at the door! The subject ended up walking the floor for another 45 minutes before finally exiting the building! Finally, she looks like she is making her way for an exit. While exiting, the alarm went ballistic! She panicked, quickly dumping all product on ground, just as I thought would happen. She ran to her vehicle, and took off as fast as she could. The store associates and I ran outside to where she dumped. I was able to recover all product from outside the store! EAS Labels saved us from taking a loss on this product! After this incident, I had several other occurrences where the labels worked to stop shoplifting. Less worry, more product on the shelf. Another positive element is how extremely easy they are to apply, and an inexpensive fix.
I invested a lot of time into this case. But the payoff was massive! Especially showing my store team that the labels we have in place works to stop shoplifting. This was a strange shoplifter case, but it helped illustrate for store management why we utilize EAS labels anytime we receive high dollar product to place on the shelves! You will see a decrease in theft trends once you utilize the same program as me.
Need information on EAS Labels? Give us a call at 1.770.426.0547 now.
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Working in Loss Prevention shows you all aspects of shoplifting. Each day as you are watching for thieves, you never know what will happen or what technique you will observe. One day you are catching a thoroughly experienced thief who steals for a living. The next day you are catching a mom pushing a stroller with kids. Other times you may catch a group of 5 kids, not thinking about the seriousness of what they are doing. Some days you run into extremely strange situations that make you wonder what the person was thinking! You just never know. Just last month, I had a strange incident with EAS Labels! My store now uses them every day to stop shoplifting!
One morning I was on CCTV, scanning CCTV on a very slow morning. Slow, I thought! I had a subject enter the store acting very suspiciously. She paced the sales floor for close to 20 minutes, looking for associates and acting extremely nervous. This is a behavior I know too well from shoplifters, so I had to be patient and continue to observe. I kept CCTV on her due to these behaviors. After she finally felt “safe” to steal, she started rapidly selecting our highest dollar product out of the home décor department. I noticed all of the product was small, and would be easily concealable in a large purse she was carrying. After selecting 8 items priced between $39.99 and $79.00, she AGAIN paced the sales floor appearing very paranoid for another 20 minutes. I knew at this point, this was going to be a long, drawn out shoplifting incident. I continued to watch, and finally the subject started pulling each price tag off each item. After pulling the tags, she walked the floor looking for a trash can to conceal the ripped tags in. The subject finally concealed each item slowly into her purse. However, one thing struck me as extremely odd. Why go through all this trouble scoping out the sales floor & pulling tags but not removing the EAS Labels!!? It didn’t make any sense. That should be the first thing you want off, especially with how they alarm at the door! The subject ended up walking the floor for another 45 minutes before finally exiting the building! Finally, she looks like she is making her way for an exit. While exiting, the alarm went ballistic! She panicked, quickly dumping all product on ground, just as I thought would happen. She ran to her vehicle, and took off as fast as she could. The store associates and I ran outside to where she dumped. I was able to recover all product from outside the store! EAS Labels saved us from taking a loss on this product! After this incident, I had several other occurrences where the labels worked to stop shoplifting. Less worry, more product on the shelf. Another positive element is how extremely easy they are to apply, and an inexpensive fix.
I invested a lot of time into this case. But the payoff was massive! Especially showing my store team that the labels we have in place works to stop shoplifting. This was a strange shoplifter case, but it helped illustrate for store management why we utilize EAS labels anytime we receive high dollar product to place on the shelves! You will see a decrease in theft trends once you utilize the same program as me.
Need information on EAS Labels? Give us a call at 1.770.426.0547 now.
DW Blog 01
Alpha Keepers – 5, Prevent shoplifting – 3
ALPHA KEEPERS: PROTECTING YOUR PRODUCT WHILE HELPING INCREASE YOUR SALES
One of the most challenging aspects of running a business knows how to react when your inventory starts to disappear. A lot of folks have a gut reaction to pull the items that they are losing to prevent shoplifting and lock them up behind a cage; some other folks may limit quantities. While these reactions can potentially limit your losses, they will most definitely have a negative impact on your sales. Alpha Keepers allow you to both protect those items while allowing for sales growth.
Success of retail business is dependent on being able to drive sales growth. This can be challenging when those items start flying off the shelf before they make it to the register. Alpha Keepers can help you protect you prevent shoplifting. If you haven’t heard of them, they are clear acrylic containers that you place your product in, that activates the alarm on the Electronic Article Surveillance (EAS) towers at the stores entrance when nearby.
There are a number of benefits aside from just setting off an alarm. The most important benefit is that you can place your product on the shelf and allow the customer to still interact with that product without having to have someone from your team unlock a display case. I couldn’t tell you how many times I’ve been out shopping and wanted an item and had to wait around for a long time for an employee to get a key and unlock the display case. In many cases customers just walk away, causing another missed sale. Along with availability, the other benefit is that Alpha Keepers are reusable. When a protected item is purchased at the register, the cashier easily removes the product and the keeper is able to be used again and again. They also come in a variety of sizes for different types of product. What’s more is they cannot be accidentally deactivated like some of the EAS labels out there.
In my many years of Loss Prevention experience, I have found that there are two types of shoplifter; the amateur and the professional. Alpha Keepers deter both equally. Your professional thief wants to get in and out as quickly as possible. They are looking to load up as much product as they can in the shortest amount of time possible. Alpha Keepers increase the size of the product they are protecting, which makes it difficult for professional thieves to load up as much product. If they were going to attempt to get the item out of the keeper, they would risk damaging the product as well as waste precious time. The amateur thief is even more deterred, as most amateur shoplifters tend to steal based on opportunity. These devices tell potential shoplifters that getting this product out is no easy task.
Training your team to use Alpha Keepers is also super easy. The device uses a magnet key that matches up to the device and a simple slide of the tab allows for easy entry. This makes it easier for your team to adapt to the changes of the new devices. You don’t need any special equipment to use these devices either. They sit on the shelf just like the product you want protected. You can rest easy knowing that they are there protecting your product, even if you aren’t there.
So if you’re in a situation where you need to prevent shoplifting, just know that there are solutions out there to help you with your problem.
Need information on Alpha Keepers? Give us a call at 1.770.426.0547 now.
One of the most challenging aspects of running a business knows how to react when your inventory starts to disappear. A lot of folks have a gut reaction to pull the items that they are losing to prevent shoplifting and lock them up behind a cage; some other folks may limit quantities. While these reactions can potentially limit your losses, they will most definitely have a negative impact on your sales. Alpha Keepers allow you to both protect those items while allowing for sales growth.
Success of retail business is dependent on being able to drive sales growth. This can be challenging when those items start flying off the shelf before they make it to the register. Alpha Keepers can help you protect you prevent shoplifting. If you haven’t heard of them, they are clear acrylic containers that you place your product in, that activates the alarm on the Electronic Article Surveillance (EAS) towers at the stores entrance when nearby.
There are a number of benefits aside from just setting off an alarm. The most important benefit is that you can place your product on the shelf and allow the customer to still interact with that product without having to have someone from your team unlock a display case. I couldn’t tell you how many times I’ve been out shopping and wanted an item and had to wait around for a long time for an employee to get a key and unlock the display case. In many cases customers just walk away, causing another missed sale. Along with availability, the other benefit is that Alpha Keepers are reusable. When a protected item is purchased at the register, the cashier easily removes the product and the keeper is able to be used again and again. They also come in a variety of sizes for different types of product. What’s more is they cannot be accidentally deactivated like some of the EAS labels out there.
In my many years of Loss Prevention experience, I have found that there are two types of shoplifter; the amateur and the professional. Alpha Keepers deter both equally. Your professional thief wants to get in and out as quickly as possible. They are looking to load up as much product as they can in the shortest amount of time possible. Alpha Keepers increase the size of the product they are protecting, which makes it difficult for professional thieves to load up as much product. If they were going to attempt to get the item out of the keeper, they would risk damaging the product as well as waste precious time. The amateur thief is even more deterred, as most amateur shoplifters tend to steal based on opportunity. These devices tell potential shoplifters that getting this product out is no easy task.
Training your team to use Alpha Keepers is also super easy. The device uses a magnet key that matches up to the device and a simple slide of the tab allows for easy entry. This makes it easier for your team to adapt to the changes of the new devices. You don’t need any special equipment to use these devices either. They sit on the shelf just like the product you want protected. You can rest easy knowing that they are there protecting your product, even if you aren’t there.
So if you’re in a situation where you need to prevent shoplifting, just know that there are solutions out there to help you with your problem.
Need information on Alpha Keepers? Give us a call at 1.770.426.0547 now.
Protect Fragrance-4 WC blog 298
Alpha Keepers-4
Prevent Shoplifting-4
Perfume Sampling Stinks When It Causes Shortage; Protect Fragrance Bottles From Fraud And Theft With Alpha Keepers
Do you know what stinks? Fragrances, perfumes and body sprays, when they are all mixed together around a perfume counter or a fragrance aisle of a store. Whatever you want to call it, there are few odors worse than this to give someone (me) a headache or nauseated feeling. Sometimes it can be so overwhelming I can almost taste it! If you have ever seen the movie “Elf”, there is a scene where a sales clerk wants the main character Buddy to smell a sample of a perfume. He doesn’t realize what it is and he sprays it in his mouth and makes a horrible face and screams…that’s kinda like me walking through a perfume cloud in a store. Aside from the odors though, there is another problem that retailers cope with in a perfume department. The tester bottles run out and so the customers take the initiative to open a new bottle to bathe in. Where is the problem in this? Well, aside from the nasal nightmare that results from these perfume parties, retailers experience shortage. Opening a new bottle and spraying the contents means that a buyer won’t purchase it (who wants to buy a used bottle of perfume?). That bottle has to be marked out of stock and could result in lost profit. There is an easy fix to the problem, using Alpha Keepers to protect fragrance in your shop.
If you have ever paid particular attention, perfume bottles tend to come in a large assortment of designs and shapes, all geared to draw consumer attention. You don’t want to do anything that will hinder the attraction of the customer to the bottle design and that is one of the benefits of using Alpha Keepers. They are clear, hard plastic containers that prevent shoplifting but still allow a customer to see the bottle and be drawn to it. The keeper boxes lock so there is no concern over someone taking the merchandise out and sampling the product. The boxes also prevent shoplifting because they are secure and have radio frequency coils built into them. If a shoplifter takes a Keeper that is protecting a fragrance bottle into the area of electronic article surveillance (EAS) antennas, the antennas alert nearby employees to the attempted theft. LED lights flash and a loud alert signal sounds providing staff an opportunity to conduct a receipt check to retrieve the merchandise. Frequently the alarm startles a thief and results in them dropping merchandise and running rather than risking being caught with stolen goods.
There were many times I would do theft audits and come across partial bottles of perfume (and empty packages too). I pulled the partial bottles and had them marked out of stock and labeled them with a “tester” label and put them back on display. The hope was to minimize additional markdowns due to customers opening more bottles of the same product to sniff. Each time a bottle had to be marked out, the store was impacted by shortage. The only other options to protect fragrance at the time was placing EAS labels on the packages, locking them up in a display case or if the product was in a clamshell package we put them on locking peg hooks. Lock up cases and locking peg hooks required someone with a key to be available to open or unlock the case or hook when a customer wanted to look at an item. This was a poor option because customers had to wait for assistance. If it took too long for an associate to get to the patron, they would leave and a potential sale was lost. Using Alpha Keepers to protect fragrance is a solution I wish I had available to me. I could have used it to prevent shoplifting AND to stop the sampling of merchandise. They are also a sales driver, giving customers the ability to pick up an item, carry it around the store and take it to checkout at their convenience.
Use vendor supplied testers to give customers a sniff of the perfume they are interested in. Use Alpha Keepers to protect fragrance profit and prevent shoplifting at the same time. Get a whiff of more green in your cash registers!
Get more information on Alpha Keepers, contact us or call 1.770.426.0547 today.
Do you know what stinks? Fragrances, perfumes and body sprays, when they are all mixed together around a perfume counter or a fragrance aisle of a store. Whatever you want to call it, there are few odors worse than this to give someone (me) a headache or nauseated feeling. Sometimes it can be so overwhelming I can almost taste it! If you have ever seen the movie “Elf”, there is a scene where a sales clerk wants the main character Buddy to smell a sample of a perfume. He doesn’t realize what it is and he sprays it in his mouth and makes a horrible face and screams…that’s kinda like me walking through a perfume cloud in a store. Aside from the odors though, there is another problem that retailers cope with in a perfume department. The tester bottles run out and so the customers take the initiative to open a new bottle to bathe in. Where is the problem in this? Well, aside from the nasal nightmare that results from these perfume parties, retailers experience shortage. Opening a new bottle and spraying the contents means that a buyer won’t purchase it (who wants to buy a used bottle of perfume?). That bottle has to be marked out of stock and could result in lost profit. There is an easy fix to the problem, using Alpha Keepers to protect fragrance in your shop.
If you have ever paid particular attention, perfume bottles tend to come in a large assortment of designs and shapes, all geared to draw consumer attention. You don’t want to do anything that will hinder the attraction of the customer to the bottle design and that is one of the benefits of using Alpha Keepers. They are clear, hard plastic containers that prevent shoplifting but still allow a customer to see the bottle and be drawn to it. The keeper boxes lock so there is no concern over someone taking the merchandise out and sampling the product. The boxes also prevent shoplifting because they are secure and have radio frequency coils built into them. If a shoplifter takes a Keeper that is protecting a fragrance bottle into the area of electronic article surveillance (EAS) antennas, the antennas alert nearby employees to the attempted theft. LED lights flash and a loud alert signal sounds providing staff an opportunity to conduct a receipt check to retrieve the merchandise. Frequently the alarm startles a thief and results in them dropping merchandise and running rather than risking being caught with stolen goods.
There were many times I would do theft audits and come across partial bottles of perfume (and empty packages too). I pulled the partial bottles and had them marked out of stock and labeled them with a “tester” label and put them back on display. The hope was to minimize additional markdowns due to customers opening more bottles of the same product to sniff. Each time a bottle had to be marked out, the store was impacted by shortage. The only other options to protect fragrance at the time was placing EAS labels on the packages, locking them up in a display case or if the product was in a clamshell package we put them on locking peg hooks. Lock up cases and locking peg hooks required someone with a key to be available to open or unlock the case or hook when a customer wanted to look at an item. This was a poor option because customers had to wait for assistance. If it took too long for an associate to get to the patron, they would leave and a potential sale was lost. Using Alpha Keepers to protect fragrance is a solution I wish I had available to me. I could have used it to prevent shoplifting AND to stop the sampling of merchandise. They are also a sales driver, giving customers the ability to pick up an item, carry it around the store and take it to checkout at their convenience.
Use vendor supplied testers to give customers a sniff of the perfume they are interested in. Use Alpha Keepers to protect fragrance profit and prevent shoplifting at the same time. Get a whiff of more green in your cash registers!
Get more information on Alpha Keepers, contact us or call 1.770.426.0547 today.
