In part 1 of this series I discussed the use of Loss Prevention Systems Inc. security products and other retail anti-theft devices to prevent shoplifting during the current national opioid crisis. Certainly these tools can and do prevent all shoplifting crime but the focus of my concern for this piece is the increase in criminal activity law enforcement officials are seeing due to opioid use. In part 1 I shared several articles addressing shoplifting and opioid use but there is another factor retailers need to think about in all of this and that is the safety of their employees and customers. As opioid users become desperate for money to feed their habit, shoplifting is just one of the crimes to which they are resorting. They are also robbing and assaulting people and this can bleed into retail stores.
- From Pittsburgh Post Gazette, Dec 18, 2017 by Torsten Ove, “Drug-driven armed robberies prompt FBI to create violent crime task force in Alleghany, Beaver counties” the writer reports, “…the task force is an effort to address an increase in some communities of violent crime, especially bank holdups and store robberies.”
- From WPTV Dec. 15, 2017 by Sam Smink, “Panhandlers’ drug dealing/deaths led to 29 drug dealer arrests in West Palm Beach” This story revolves around a police investigation that led to 29 arrests. “Some of those panhandlers were actually dealing in addition to just using, so dealers connect to dealers to connect to dealers.”
- From Fox 9, December 29, 2017 “Charges: Minneapolis man robbed same market 5 times in 5 weeks” In this report the robber was using stolen money to purchase drugs. “He told police he would take the bus from northeast to downtown Minneapolis to buy heroin after the robberies.”
The dangers posed by the users and sellers of opioids should be scary for store owners and managers. It is the best interest of store owners to do whatever they can to keep these people out of their stores. Using Loss Prevention Systems Inc. (LPSI) security retail anti-theft devices will discourage shoplifters who are looking for a place to steal from in order to support their drug habits.
This is a good time for me to clue in those readers who are scratching their heads about what I am talking when I mention retail anti-theft devices. These are tags, labels, wraps or boxes that have electronic article surveillance technology built into them. The device sends out a radio wave that can be picked up by a receiving tower often located near the interior doors of a store. When someone gets too close to the tower with protected merchandise an alarm and flashing lights are set off. You may have heard an alarm activation while shopping in a store equipped with such a system. When these towers sound anyone within sight of the doors looks to see who caused the alarm. Store employees hurry over and conduct receipt checks and determine the cause for the alert. The result is usually recovered merchandise or an embarrassed criminal who pays for the item to try to make it seem like an honest mistake. Make no mistake about it, those who shoplift on a regular basis know what an LPSI Security device or other anti-theft tag looks like and they will avoid those pieces of merchandise that are protected. They can also be deterred from trying to steal simply by seeing the towers at the front doors.
The impact that LPSI Security devices has on safety is that when criminals who are stealing to support a drug habit are avoiding detection they leave stores alone when they know that they could very well set off alarms. This is one of the many reasons Loss Prevention Systems Inc. actively supports the use of retail anti-theft devices in stores. They want stores to keep merchandise on the shelves for legitimate customers and to reduce shortage but they also want stores to be safe. Along with merchandise protection strategies they stress the importance of building and property security. Chief Executive Officer Bill Bregar understands that when customers feel safe they will shop at a store but when a parking lot is dark, panhandlers approach customers or people just hang around the outside of a building shoppers stay away. When the incentive to steal is removed or the risk of being caught is too great undesirable elements will go elsewhere to commit crimes.
Don’t allow your business to be attractive to shoplifters and especially those who are prone to violence to support an opioid habit. Use LPSI Security devices to prevent shoplifting and visit LPSI’s website for more tips on creating a safe and attractive environment where customers will come to spend money.
Security is important and we can help you with it. Call 1.770.426.0547 and let’s talk.
Alpha Security
Prevent Shoplifting – 3 WC Blog 547
Alpha Keepers-5
Alpha Keepers Are The Answer To Lock-Up Case Lunacy
From time to time I find the need to go on a rant about efforts I see to prevent shoplifting after visiting different stores. I have to wonder who is making some of the decisions with respect to shortage protection initiatives. The other day I was shopping in a chain store and glanced at a small locking display case. Because I write about this stuff and because I have been involved in Retail Loss Prevention for so long I happen to be nosey about these things. What could be so important in this store (if I said where I was you would probably say the same thing) that there would be a need for a locking showcase? Well, there was some type of pay-as you-go cell phone and a $1 dollar phone card of some sort. You read that right, a ONE dollar card. A little further down the same aisle were foods that were more expensive! Now I will be generous and say that this might have been a fluke. However, I got to another aisle that had air freshener refills in one of those cases that sounds a chiming noise when the door is opened by a customer. I thought that the strategy was really odd. If shortage was an issue in these departments it would have been easier and made more sense to use Alpha Keepers on the items that were being “secured”.
Alpha Keepers are clear, hard protective boxes with locking lids. The boxes have electronic article surveillance (EAS) technology built into them that is designed to work with Checkpoint Security System towers. The boxes are extremely tough and can only be opened with a detachment tool usually kept secured at store points of sale. Efforts to force open a Keeper box results in a tamper alarm sounding and alerting store employees to an attempted theft. Responding associates prevent shoplifting by providing great customer service to the would-be thief. If a criminal is foolish enough to try to carry an item protected in a Keeper past a Checkpoint tower the tower will sense the radio waves sent out by the Keeper. An alarm in the tower sounds at the attempted breach. Again, associates respond to the alarms and through careful receipt checks get the perpetrator to buy the item or hand it over. Either way theft is stopped.
Not only was I amused by the merchandise that was locked up in these showcases I was surprised that ANYTHING was locked up in the store. There were two employees working from what I could see. One was at the cash register (before she left the salesfloor for some reason, maybe a break?) and the other was on the salesfloor absorbed in putting out merchandise. Who was going to help me if I had wanted to look at something in a showcase? From the pace of the salesfloor guy I did not get the impression he was going to be in a hurry to assist me if I opened the chime door to the air freshener refills. CEO of Loss Prevention Systems Inc., Bill Bregar understands that for small and medium sized stores staffing could be limited to one or two people in the store at any given time. Locking merchandise in a showcase doesn’t make sense when store employees may be tied up at a register or at the other end of the store helping another customer. The only thing it may do is annoy a customer or prevent a sale. Sure, merchandise will be protected as it sits and does absolutely nothing to assist sales. Bill wants store managers to see that by using Alpha Keepers merchandise is still protected but customers can pick up an item and walk around. There is no need for a sales person to come by with a key and unlock it. Protected merchandise will sell rather than gather dust in a case.
The other take away in this is either protect merchandise or don’t protect it. If a manager is going to limit what will be protected, at least have it make sense. Don’t put an air freshener refill in a security case to prevent shoplifting and leave the main air fresheners on an open sell shelf. Don’t take up valuable salesfloor space with a locking showcase for a one dollar card of some sort. Alpha Keepers give more flexibility in what can be protected and take up less floor space in the process.
Take theft prevention seriously. Let the folks at Loss Prevention Systems Inc. help you in shortage reduction planning and the tools that can make you successful. Alpha Keepers can improve access to goods while freeing up your employees to provide customer service and ring sales.
Alpha Keepers are important and we can help you with it. Call 1.770.426.0547 and let’s talk.
From time to time I find the need to go on a rant about efforts I see to prevent shoplifting after visiting different stores. I have to wonder who is making some of the decisions with respect to shortage protection initiatives. The other day I was shopping in a chain store and glanced at a small locking display case. Because I write about this stuff and because I have been involved in Retail Loss Prevention for so long I happen to be nosey about these things. What could be so important in this store (if I said where I was you would probably say the same thing) that there would be a need for a locking showcase? Well, there was some type of pay-as you-go cell phone and a $1 dollar phone card of some sort. You read that right, a ONE dollar card. A little further down the same aisle were foods that were more expensive! Now I will be generous and say that this might have been a fluke. However, I got to another aisle that had air freshener refills in one of those cases that sounds a chiming noise when the door is opened by a customer. I thought that the strategy was really odd. If shortage was an issue in these departments it would have been easier and made more sense to use Keepers on the items that were being “secured”.
Keepers are clear, hard protective boxes with locking lids. The boxes have electronic article surveillance (EAS) technology built into them that is designed to work with an EAS System towers. The boxes are extremely tough and can only be opened with a detachment tool usually kept secured at store points of sale. Efforts to force open a Keeper box results in a tamper alarm sounding and alerting store employees to an attempted theft. Responding associates prevent shoplifting by providing great customer service to the would-be thief. If a criminal is foolish enough to try to carry an item protected in a Keeper past an EAS tower the tower will sense the radio waves sent out by the Keeper. An alarm in the tower sounds at the attempted breach. Again, associates respond to the alarms and through careful receipt checks get the perpetrator to buy the item or hand it over. Either way theft is stopped.
Not only was I amused by the merchandise that was locked up in these showcases I was surprised that ANYTHING was locked up in the store. There were two employees working from what I could see. One was at the cash register (before she left the salesfloor for some reason, maybe a break?) and the other was on the salesfloor absorbed in putting out merchandise. Who was going to help me if I had wanted to look at something in a showcase? From the pace of the salesfloor guy I did not get the impression he was going to be in a hurry to assist me if I opened the chime door to the air freshener refills. CEO of Loss Prevention Systems Inc., Bill Bregar understands that for small and medium sized stores staffing could be limited to one or two people in the store at any given time. Locking merchandise in a showcase doesn’t make sense when store employees may be tied up at a register or at the other end of the store helping another customer. The only thing it may do is annoy a customer or prevent a sale. Sure, merchandise will be protected as it sits and does absolutely nothing to assist sales. Bill wants store managers to see that by using Keepers merchandise is still protected but customers can pick up an item and walk around. There is no need for a sales person to come by with a key and unlock it. Protected merchandise will sell rather than gather dust in a case.
The other take away in this is either protect merchandise or don’t protect it. If a manager is going to limit what will be protected, at least have it make sense. Don’t put an air freshener refill in a security case to prevent shoplifting and leave the main air fresheners on an open sell shelf. Don’t take up valuable salesfloor space with a locking showcase for a one dollar card of some sort. Keepers give more flexibility in what can be protected and take up less floor space in the process.
Take theft prevention seriously. Let the folks at Loss Prevention Systems Inc. help you in shortage reduction planning and the tools that can make you successful. Keepers can improve access to goods while freeing up your employees to provide customer service and ring sales.
Keepers are important and we can help you with it. Call 1.770.426.0547 and let’s talk.
Stop shoplifting-3 WC Blog 631
Employee Theft Reduction Training-3
Improving Employee Awareness To Stop Shoplifting
How do I stop shoplifting? I stop it by using the skills I learned in my 17 years of Retail Loss Prevention. I prevent shoplifting in the store I work for as a salesfloor associate. I also work in a college library where I respond to RFID alarms when books and materials that have not been checked out are being carried out of the building by patrons. I use my L.P. experience to train my library co-workers on how to politely respond to alarms and effectively determine if any items have not been checked out. In short, I am conducting employee theft reduction training as I teach library co-workers and store co-workers and managers what to look for to help prevent theft.
I used those Loss Prevention skills last night to prevent a young lady from getting away with about $100 worth of merchandise theft in my retail job (and it might have been more but I can only speculate on that). I noticed the customer enter the store with a guy and I immediately greeted them and offered to help them find whatever they came in to purchase. They quickly declined my offer and picked out a shopping cart and continued into the store. They looked around for a few minutes and then the male left the store. I notified the Manager-On-Duty of my suspicious person and he helped me keep track of her as much as possible since he also had other responsibilities. Over the next 2 ½ hours I checked on her and watched what she would have in her shopping cart. She had no purse or bag so any theft would have to be a buggy roll-out or a financial transaction fraud. I am very limited in any surveillance I do on a customer and when I did sneak peaks at the patron I caught her looking around and several times looking at me. As she became more nervous seeing me so often and offering her assistance she started approaching me and asking for prices on items. She rambled on about buying things for her mom and dad but not wanting to spend too much on her credit cards. Eventually I was able to watch her hide something in a filing box then stash that box behind other similar boxes. I met her at the cash register where she pretended to ask about other items she had. The manager came over to assist me and I made a pretense of walking away to check on something. The woman told the manager she would be back but had to check on the balance on her credit card before buying the items she brought up. He put the items on hold for her until she could return. I went to the back and recovered the box with the stashed items to stop shoplifting when someone came for it.
I explained to the manager that while watching the young woman on the floor she was constantly making calls on her phone and then told him I suspected she had initially intended to roll the cart with everything in it out the door since she made several passes in that direction but either the manager or I were at the doors when she did so. When she was afraid to do the roll out with everything she finally hid the other items in the tote intending to come back for it later or she would send her male friend in for it. My manager was surprised and said he hadn’t thought about that. This was one of the moments when I was able to utilize employee theft reduction training, telling the manager about the things that might have transpired. I also shared the details with another co-worker who was surprised someone would do this.
There are subtleties I am able to pick up on that I learned over the years in L.P. that I use to help the store stop shoplifting. A lot of those skills involve knowing when to give customer service and aggressive customer service. As I do so I also take the opportunities to provide tips to other store workers, providing a mini employee theft reduction training that can help them understand how to reduce theft too. Since I can’t be at YOUR stores to help out I do suggest you seek out the services of a company that CAN provide training and support. I know of one company, Loss Prevention Systems Inc., that can provide that training in my absence and they can even do employee background checks for you, something I cannot do. Make training a priority and see the impact it can have on reducing shortage in your stores!
Get more information on employee theft reduction training, contact us or call 1.770.426.0547 today.
How do I stop shoplifting? I stop it by using the skills I learned in my 17 years of Retail Loss Prevention. I prevent shoplifting in the store I work for as a salesfloor associate. I also work in a college library where I respond to RFID alarms when books and materials that have not been checked out are being carried out of the building by patrons. I use my L.P. experience to train my library co-workers on how to politely respond to alarms and effectively determine if any items have not been checked out. In short, I am conducting employee theft reduction training as I teach library co-workers and store co-workers and managers what to look for to help prevent theft.
I used those Loss Prevention skills last night to prevent a young lady from getting away with about $100 worth of merchandise theft in my retail job (and it might have been more but I can only speculate on that). I noticed the customer enter the store with a guy and I immediately greeted them and offered to help them find whatever they came in to purchase. They quickly declined my offer and picked out a shopping cart and continued into the store. They looked around for a few minutes and then the male left the store. I notified the Manager-On-Duty of my suspicious person and he helped me keep track of her as much as possible since he also had other responsibilities. Over the next 2 ½ hours I checked on her and watched what she would have in her shopping cart. She had no purse or bag so any theft would have to be a buggy roll-out or a financial transaction fraud. I am very limited in any surveillance I do on a customer and when I did sneak peaks at the patron I caught her looking around and several times looking at me. As she became more nervous seeing me so often and offering her assistance she started approaching me and asking for prices on items. She rambled on about buying things for her mom and dad but not wanting to spend too much on her credit cards. Eventually I was able to watch her hide something in a filing box then stash that box behind other similar boxes. I met her at the cash register where she pretended to ask about other items she had. The manager came over to assist me and I made a pretense of walking away to check on something. The woman told the manager she would be back but had to check on the balance on her credit card before buying the items she brought up. He put the items on hold for her until she could return. I went to the back and recovered the box with the stashed items to stop shoplifting when someone came for it.
I explained to the manager that while watching the young woman on the floor she was constantly making calls on her phone and then told him I suspected she had initially intended to roll the cart with everything in it out the door since she made several passes in that direction but either the manager or I were at the doors when she did so. When she was afraid to do the roll out with everything she finally hid the other items in the tote intending to come back for it later or she would send her male friend in for it. My manager was surprised and said he hadn’t thought about that. This was one of the moments when I was able to utilize employee theft reduction training, telling the manager about the things that might have transpired. I also shared the details with another co-worker who was surprised someone would do this.
There are subtleties I am able to pick up on that I learned over the years in L.P. that I use to help the store stop shoplifting. A lot of those skills involve knowing when to give customer service and aggressive customer service. As I do so I also take the opportunities to provide tips to other store workers, providing a mini employee theft reduction training that can help them understand how to reduce theft too. Since I can’t be at YOUR stores to help out I do suggest you seek out the services of a company that CAN provide training and support. I know one company, Loss Prevention Systems Inc., that can provide that training in my absence and they can even do employee background checks for you, something I cannot do. Make training a priority and see the impact it can have on reducing shortage in your stores!
Get more information on employee theft reduction training, contact us or call 1.770.426.0547 today.
People Counting Systems-5 WC Blog 532
Retail Traffic Counting System-3
Count On People Counting Systems To Help Improve Sales
It came to me recently that social media uses people counting systems of a sort as a measurement tool. Consider that there are thumbs up, thumbs down, emoji symbols, hearts and other things to show how many people like or don’t like a post or tweet or whatever else it may be called. I know there are analytics involved in determining website hits and page visits and in a way this is similar to what a retail traffic counting system does for stores. Let me explain myself. If I post a thought on my social media page I may get reactions from friends, family and even people I don’t know if a friend of a friend sees a reposting of my comment. I can see the names of the people who have reacted but I don’t know all of the people who may have seen my post and chosen not to comment. Retail can be somewhat the same. You may have analytical measures that indicate how much you sold in a day but you may have absolutely no idea how many people came into your store that never made a purchase. Is there an invisible clientele you are not reaching because you don’t even know they were there? People counting systems can aid you in finding out if you are missing customers who have walked in and out of your store without buying anything.
A retail traffic counting system is a measurement tool that tracks the number of people who walk in and out of a store. A counter is mounted near a door and possibly on a Checkpoint electronic article surveillance tower. The device records the number of patrons entering a store and keeps record of the day of the week and the time of day they are coming in to visit. For those stores that do utilize electronic article surveillance to prevent shoplifting, people counting systems also track alarm activations. The information is used to review situations where alarms sounded and look at possible patterns such as times of day. It can also be used in conjunction with closed circuit television recording to look for repeat offenders and alarm responses.
The total sales dollars and number of transactions your store has in a day is akin to the reactions on a social media post. This data is the measurable numbers you can refer to in order to decide if the store had a successful day in sales dollars. The retail counting system is more like the data analytics of social media that can measure the views a site or post received. The number of sales may not be reflective of the number of visitors received in your building today. By having this comparison number you can begin to rethink your sales strategies to improve sales. What sales strategies might you change? Staffing may be one area you will review. Are you putting your staffing dollars to their best use? If people counting systems show that there are periods of low patronage then a manager may use that information to reallocate staff to busier times of the day. If a manager uses the same staffing models daily it is quite possible there are times shoppers are in the store and not being assisted. That assistance may have made a difference in persuading the shopper to make a purchase rather than walk out empty handed.
Another sales strategy that may be influenced by knowing the numbers provided by a retail counting system is merchandise placement. If patron counts are remaining relatively the same and sales are stagnant a new merchandise display may be in order or a planogram change to spice things up. People counting systems will indicate whether foot traffic is inching upward and along with sales data information managers can determine if merchandise strategies are having the desired effect. Bill Bregar and his staff at Loss Prevention Systems Inc. know the importance of preventing theft to drive profits but they also know how important customer flow is to a store. This is why they are keen on supplying retailers with a system that can impact both.
Insanity has been defined as doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results. If you truly want to improve your sales you must have the right information in order to make smart decisions. A retail traffic counting system can be the tool to provide that information. Install one and see your statistics in a new light.
Get more information on a retail traffic counting system, contact us or call 1.770.426.0547 now.
It came to me recently that social media uses people counting systems of a sort as a measurement tool. Consider that there are thumbs up, thumbs down, emoji symbols, hearts and other things to show how many people like or don’t like a post or tweet or whatever else it may be called. I know there are analytics involved in determining website hits and page visits and in a way this is similar to what a retail traffic counting system does for stores. Let me explain myself. If I post a thought on my social media page I may get reactions from friends, family and even people I don’t know if a friend of a friend sees a reposting of my comment. I can see the names of the people who have reacted but I don’t know all of the people who may have seen my post and chosen not to comment. Retail can be somewhat the same. You may have analytical measures that indicate how much you sold in a day but you may have absolutely no idea how many people came into your store that never made a purchase. Is there an invisible clientele you are not reaching because you don’t even know they were there? People counting systems can aid you in finding out if you are missing customers who have walked in and out of your store without buying anything.
A retail traffic counting system is a measurement tool that tracks the number of people who walk in and out of a store. A counter is mounted near a door and possibly on a electronic article surveillance tower. The device records the number of patrons entering a store and keeps record of the day of the week and the time of day they are coming in to visit. For those stores that do utilize electronic article surveillance to prevent shoplifting, people counting systems also track alarm activations. The information is used to review situations where alarms sounded and look at possible patterns such as times of day. It can also be used in conjunction with closed circuit television recording to look for repeat offenders and alarm responses.
The total sales dollars and number of transactions your store has in a day is akin to the reactions on a social media post. This data is the measurable numbers you can refer to in order to decide if the store had a successful day in sales dollars. The retail counting system is more like the data analytics of social media that can measure the views a site or post received. The number of sales may not be reflective of the number of visitors received in your building today. By having this comparison number you can begin to rethink your sales strategies to improve sales. What sales strategies might you change? Staffing may be one area you will review. Are you putting your staffing dollars to their best use? If people counting systems show that there are periods of low patronage then a manager may use that information to reallocate staff to busier times of the day. If a manager uses the same staffing models daily it is quite possible there are times shoppers are in the store and not being assisted. That assistance may have made a difference in persuading the shopper to make a purchase rather than walk out empty handed.
Another sales strategy that may be influenced by knowing the numbers provided by a retail counting system is merchandise placement. If patron counts are remaining relatively the same and sales are stagnant a new merchandise display may be in order or a planogram change to spice things up. People counting systems will indicate whether foot traffic is inching upward and along with sales data information managers can determine if merchandise strategies are having the desired effect. Bill Bregar and his staff at Loss Prevention Systems Inc. know the importance of preventing theft to drive profits but they also know how important customer flow is to a store. This is why they are keen on supplying retailers with a system that can impact both.
Insanity has been defined as doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results. If you truly want to improve your sales you must have the right information in order to make smart decisions. A retail traffic counting system can be the tool to provide that information. Install one and see your statistics in a new light.
Get more information on a retail traffic counting system, contact us or call 1.770.426.0547 now.
Clothing Security-4 WC Blog 565
Clothing security tags-5
Clothing Security Is Affordable And Will Add Profit To Your Bottom Line
I want to address the problem of clothing security, how big an issue it is and how stores can prevent shoplifting. This issue is important to me because I have spent almost 28 years in the retail industry and about 19 of those years were in Retail Loss Prevention. I saw the problems shoplifting caused in a big box retail store and know that the issue is amplified for smaller retailers. While a 1% inventory shrinkage is a drain on stores that may do 30 or 40 million in sales a year, that same 1% is shortage for a store that does a million in sales is $10,000. That may not even sound like a lot until you consider that the profit margin of a specialty clothing retailer ranges from 4% to 13% with average net margins at just below 8% according to quora.com in an article titled, “What is the average profit margin earned by apparel retailers (brick and mortar and e-commerce/online retailers) and/or distributors?” As a source of information they referenced an article from Forbes in 2017. That means the average profit margin dollars for a clothing retailer with sales of a million dollars a year would be $80,000. This may not sound too bad to some people. But consider this, according to score.org, citing a Gallup poll it was found that 39% of business owners said they work over 60 hours a week. My admiration for the risk-takers who are investing time, money and sweat in their small businesses is tremendous. I detest those criminals who steal, whether it is a spontaneous decision, a theft for a perceived need or an organized theft ring. I am not the only one who gets his hackles up over shoplifting. The CEO and founder of Loss Prevention Systems Inc., Bill Bregar does as well. He has developed his company to assist stores in preventing shortage due to theft and fraud encouraging the use of anti-theft devices such as clothing security tags.
You may be one of those small business owners who is thinking to yourself that you could use some help in reducing your losses and adding money back to your bottom line. The problem you have is that you have no idea how clothing security tags work or even where to begin to start to address the issues. Not to worry, I am going to give you the information you need to get a better handle on what anti-theft systems and devices are. When I am discussing retail anti-theft systems for clothing security (as well as other merchandise) I am talking about an electronic article surveillance (EAS) system. The system operates using radio frequency (rf) waves transmitted by clothing security tags and received by EAS Pedestals. The tags are pinned to clothing and are built so that they are nearly indestructible and cannot be removed without the use of a special detachment key. If a shoplifter walks into the area of a pedestal (located near the doors of a store) the pedestal picks up the rf signal from the tag and blasts out a loud screeching alarm and flashes built in lights. Store employees approach the customer who activated the alarm and complete receipt checks and recover unpaid merchandise from the offender. The wonderful thing about clothing security tags and EAS pedestals is that just the presence of them in a store deters most shoplifters. Criminals do not tend to want to attract attention so they go to places where they are less likely to do something to get noticed like activate alarms.
At this point I have your interest but I know what you are thinking, “There is NO WAY you could afford a retail anti-theft system even if I knew it would reduce my inventory shrink”. “Remember that $80,000 a year profit margin you mentioned?” That would be a good argument except Bill Bregar took that into consideration knowing the struggles small and medium business owners face. Visit the Loss Prevention Systems Inc. website and checkout the free Loss Prevention ROI Calculator he has available so store owners can see that not only can they afford a Checkpoint Security System the system actually pays for itself over time.
I have been in retail a long time and I have first-hand experience watching shoplifters struggle to try to defeat clothing security in stores. I have seen the frustration when a tag could not be forced off of a pair of jeans. I have seen the shock on the face of a woman who stuffed a box full of clothes protected with clothing security tags and the pedestal alarmed when she tried to walk out of the store.
Retail anti-theft devices work. There is no getting around it. If you want to run a more profitable store let Loss Prevention Systems Inc. help you get started with a clothing security strategy that works.
Clothing Security is importing and we can help you with it. Call 1.770.426.0547 and let’s talk.
I want to address the problem of clothing security, how big an issue it is and how stores can prevent shoplifting. This issue is important to me because I have spent almost 28 years in the retail industry and about 19 of those years were in Retail Loss Prevention. I saw the problems shoplifting caused in a big box retail store and know that the issue is amplified for smaller retailers. While a 1% inventory shrinkage is a drain on stores that may do 30 or 40 million in sales a year, that same 1% is shortage for a store that does a million in sales is $10,000. That may not even sound like a lot until you consider that the profit margin of a specialty clothing retailer ranges from 4% to 13% with average net margins at just below 8% according to quora.com in an article titled, “What is the average profit margin earned by apparel retailers (brick and mortar and e-commerce/online retailers) and/or distributors?” As a source of information they referenced an article from Forbes in 2017. That means the average profit margin dollars for a clothing retailer with sales of a million dollars a year would be $80,000. This may not sound too bad to some people. But consider this, according to score.org, citing a Gallup poll it was found that 39% of business owners said they work over 60 hours a week. My admiration for the risk-takers who are investing time, money and sweat in their small businesses is tremendous. I detest those criminals who steal, whether it is a spontaneous decision, a theft for a perceived need or an organized theft ring. I am not the only one who gets his hackles up over shoplifting. The CEO and founder of Loss Prevention Systems Inc., Bill Bregar does as well. He has developed his company to assist stores in preventing shortage due to theft and fraud encouraging the use of anti-theft devices such as clothing security tags.
You may be one of those small business owners who is thinking to yourself that you could use some help in reducing your losses and adding money back to your bottom line. The problem you have is that you have no idea how clothing security tags work or even where to begin to start to address the issues. Not to worry, I am going to give you the information you need to get a better handle on what anti-theft systems and devices are. When I am discussing retail anti-theft systems for clothing security (as well as other merchandise) I am talking about an electronic article surveillance (EAS) system. The system operates using radio frequency (rf) waves transmitted by clothing security tags and received by EAS Pedestals. The tags are pinned to clothing and are built so that they are nearly indestructible and cannot be removed without the use of a special detachment key. If a shoplifter walks into the area of a pedestal (located near the doors of a store) the pedestal picks up the rf signal from the tag and blasts out a loud screeching alarm and flashes built in lights. Store employees approach the customer who activated the alarm and complete receipt checks and recover unpaid merchandise from the offender. The wonderful thing about clothing security tags and EAS pedestals is that just the presence of them in a store deters most shoplifters. Criminals do not tend to want to attract attention so they go to places where they are less likely to do something to get noticed like activate alarms.
At this point I have your interest but I know what you are thinking, “There is NO WAY you could afford a retail anti-theft system even if I knew it would reduce my inventory shrink”. “Remember that $80,000 a year profit margin you mentioned?” That would be a good argument except Bill Bregar took that into consideration knowing the struggles small and medium business owners face. Visit the Loss Prevention Systems Inc. website and checkout the free Loss Prevention ROI Calculator he has available so store owners can see that not only can they afford an electronic article surveillance system the system actually pays for itself over time.
I have been in retail a long time and I have first-hand experience watching shoplifters struggle to try to defeat clothing security in stores. I have seen the frustration when a tag could not be forced off of a pair of jeans. I have seen the shock on the face of a woman who stuffed a box full of clothes protected with clothing security tags and the pedestal alarmed when she tried to walk out of the store.
Retail anti-theft devices work. There is no getting around it. If you want to run a more profitable store let Loss Prevention Systems Inc. help you get started with a clothing security strategy that works.
Clothing Security is importing and we can help you with it. Call 1.770.426.0547 and let’s talk.
