When it comes to store efforts to stop shoplifting has it ever crossed your mind that store associates can be biased? How frequently do we look at someone and assume they will NOT steal from the store? The kind of bias I am talking about is making a snap judgement about people who may have a physical disability or a child with them when they enter a store. We may look at the way they dress, wearing a suit or dress or we may see a couple carrying a baby and decide there is no way someone with an infant would ever shoplift. I came across a news article about a pair of shoplifters who had shoplifted hundreds of dollars in merchandise from a cosmetics store. Nothing is different about this case from any other shoplifting incident except in this case one of the women has only one leg and is pushed in her wheelchair by her partner. The women were in a store that specializes in cosmetics, fragrances and skincare products. Somehow they were able to steal hundreds of dollars in merchandise and leave. The report even says the pair and a man had stolen from the same store a couple of months prior to this. How do I know that biases can influence associate interactions with potential shoplifters? I know because I have allowed it in my own career.
It was not intentional but I recall a shoplifting incident in which a person in a wheelchair was rolling around a high theft area of my store. This person had a bag on the back of the chair and I intentionally talked myself out of watching this shopper. I was uncomfortable with the idea of watching someone bound to a wheelchair. Instead of watching this person as I would anyone else in a high theft department I began looking for other suspicious people. For some reason I eventually decided I was not watching the customer simply because they were in a wheelchair. I went back to my observation of this person and wouldn’t you know it they did start placing merchandise in the bag! I nearly failed to stop shoplifting because I chose to focus on the person and not the area they were in. When I did stop the suspect I also had the benefit of Sensormatic labels setting off the electronic article pedestals. The alarm gave me confirmation a theft took place when I was still in somewhat of a state of disbelief.
As I read through the article and watched the attached video clip I was interested to see that the store had electronic article surveillance pedestals at the doors. As the two exited I did not see any lights flashing from the towers or note any signals that alarms were sounding that would have indicated merchandise with Sensormatic labels or any security tags was being taken (krqe.com, “Shoplifting suspects grab hundreds of dollars in merchandise from Ulta”, Jackie Kent, Sep. 23, 2018). I can only take an educated guess based off of my own experiences but assuming the electronic article surveillance equipment is working there are three possibilities. The merchandise the suspects took was not tagged, the merchandise was removed from the packaging or the suspects were using booster bags to steal. Booster bags are foil lined bags that are intended to defeat some security systems. It is important to point out that acousto-magnetic Sensormatic labels are not affected by foil lined bags and are an outstanding deterrent to professional shoplifters. I do not know this retailer’s security procedures and what they do or don’t tag. I do know that many major retailers will not tag every item in the store focusing only on high shrink merchandise. To stop shoplifting a comprehensive tagging program must be in place and as many items as possible should be protected.
While store employees and yes, even Loss Prevention Associates may slip and make unintentional, biased judgements electronic article surveillance labels don’t judge. People may assume someone “looks” honest, or wouldn’t steal because of a perceived disability it happens. It could be the shopper reminds the associate of their grandfather and grandfathers would never steal. I even once briefly stopped watching a young lady who was pregnant because I was sure a pregnant woman wouldn’t take anything. After a few moments I watched again when she entered a high shrinkage clothing department. You guessed it, she was shoplifting. Put Sensormatic labels on all of your merchandise and shoplifters who choose to try to steal from your store will set off your security system regardless of age, height, disability or if they have a child with them.
Get more information on Sensormatic labels, contact us or call 1.770.426.0547 today.
There are plenty of reasons for store owners to use Sensormatic labels on merchandise and I experienced one of those reasons at my retail job last night. I was working on the salesfloor putting out merchandise, providing assistance to customers and jumping on a register as a back-up cashier. I had just completed a transaction at the register and the Manager on Duty called me on the radio. I responded to her request to meet her in the middle of the building. She told me of a suspicious customer in the store that she has dealt with before regarding questionable returns without receipts. She told me the woman was in the store and had a large handbag on her shoulder and thought the woman had taken something out of the bag. As a former Loss prevention Manager I assured the M.O.D. I would watch the customer so she could attend to other matters. I first went to the customer, greeted her and offered her assistance. I also used the moment to assess what she was holding, what she was looking at and to see if I could identify any obvious stolen goods. She only had a notebook in her hand and quickly refused my gracious offer to help her. She immediately left the aisle we were on and went down several more aisles near the front of the store. I pretended to put away merchandise but using my Loss Prevention skills, I positioned myself so I could observe her without being seen by her. The customer picked up a small box of laminating sheets, looked around and placed them under the notebook but she did not conceal them in a purse or bag. She walked past me as I continued to pretend I was working and she stopped at a table behind me. I positioned myself so I could continue to watch her without being obvious. The woman was mumbling to herself about prices then turned to walk out the door. She walked past the electronic article surveillance towers but no alarm sounded. I did know she still had the laminating pouches in her hand and called to her that she had forgotten to pay for the item. She initially acted like she could not hear but when I called to her again in a more forceful manner she turned, stepped back in quickly and handed the merchandise to me and left muttering a barely audible, “I forgot” as she scampered off to a waiting car.
The value of the recovered merchandise in this little box was $24! In the bigger scheme of things this doesn’t sound like a lot. But there is more to this story. The store manager called our sister stores in the area and alerted them that the suspect and a male who was driving the car she got into may have other stolen items. The M.O.D. wanted them to turn down non-receipted refunds from the couple. Sure enough, only a matter of minutes passed before she got a call from one of those stores. The woman had label maker tape and two other items she tried to return for a cash refund but no receipt. They turned her down. That merchandise was valued at an additional $30 or more. Not one of these items had an electronic article surveillance tag on them and therefore no alarm was sounded to deter her and/or provide me or the manager an opportunity to ask her about merchandise inside her handbag. To make the whole episode more incredible our store HAS Sensormatic pedestals at the entry/exit doors. The fact that the company only protects a limited number of SKU’s baffles me. The expenditure of a few more dollars to place Sensormatic labels on merchandise could have prevented the theft that did appear to have taken place.
Electronic Article Surveillance equipment when used to the fullest potential can significantly reduce merchandise shrinkage. It is so effective if used properly and employees are trained on proper alarm response that a system can pay for itself over time. Loss Prevention Systems, Inc., a leader in retail shortage reduction and helping stores increase profits, is so confident in the impact a Sensormatic system can have in shortage reduction they estimate a system can potentially reduce shrinkage by almost half (a conservative estimation in my professional opinion). They even offer a free Return On Investment Calculator to show how long it would take for a system to pay for itself.
Invest in Sensormatic labels and an electronic article surveillance and begin to reap immediate rewards. Just do me one favor. Put labels on everything! The results on your store profit line will make you glad you did.
Sensormatic labels are important and we can help you with them. Call 1.770.915.0547 and let’s talk.
A comment from a library patron to me about our RFID system made me think about how the same issues take place in retail businesses with electronic article surveillance systems. I checked out several books to the patron that had been requested from another library. As I completed the checkout he asked me if the books were going to alarm when he left. I told him I was not sure and that we had no ability to deactivate the RFID tags from another library through our system. I told him I would be happy to walk them out for him and he said Good, it’s embarrassing when it goes off. We pride ourselves on providing outstanding customer service where I work and having something like this outside of our control is frustrating. As often happens I applied this to retailers and the customer service complaints that are associated with the failure to deactivate Sensormatic labels at the point of sale. As a Loss Prevention Manager I encountered the same types of problems and it was an unpleasant task.
The downside to unnecessary alarm activations in retail is the vast majority of those alarm events ARE avoidable and within the control of the store. When a cashier rings a transaction and fails to scan the item over the deactivation pad at the register it will cause an unnecessary alarm. When deactivation equipment is not tested at the beginning of the workday and a unit is malfunctioning alarms will happen that could have been avoided. If a cashier fails to remove an electronic article surveillance hard tag after ringing a piece of merchandise it will be the source of a false alarm. Then there are the phantom alarms that may take place at the pedestals when the alarm sounds and no one is around. If the equipment is not tested daily it may have been caught before it chirped when customers started coming through the doors to shop.
The impact on your business may be hard to determine but false alarms are problematic. As with the patron at the library there are people who will say they are embarrassed, distraught or upset by an unnecessary alarm. When this happened in my store I was often the person that had to speak to the customer about it. I would apologize for the error and had to assuage the patron’s concerns especially if they were raising their voice and creating a scene. In most situations I was successful but at least once I had to offer a giftcard to the patron for their trouble. Was I required to do that? No, but was it worth the $10 giftcard to send the customer out of the store a bit irritated but not belligerent over an electronic article surveillance failure due to cashier error. It also may have been enough to prevent it from becoming a main point of discussion in the next conversation with friends.
I had a different encounter with another shopper when a cashier failed to deactivate Sensormatic labels on some item he bought but this ended much differently. The alarm sounded and the patron started to raise a big stink which pulled in the Manager On Duty. She spoke with this customer but he started tossing around that he was a Security Manager for another retailer and was extremely embarrassed and was going to sue the store. Apparently he did not think store Loss Prevention was working this day. The Manager called for me and I came to the door. I introduced myself and inquired about his concern. He went into his diatribe and I stopped him. I pointed out that as a fellow Loss Prevention Manager he was well aware of mistakes that can take place with electronic article surveillance. I also reminded him that since he worked for a hardware retailer I knew he had more than his share of false alarms. He began to hem and haw a bit. For good measure I told him I knew who his District Loss Prevention Manager was and I would be more than happy to place a phone call about his behavior and lack of professional courtesy. The ‘gentleman’ backed off and decided to leave. I mention this story because you never know who may be the “offended” party due to cashier or other errors.
Mistakes are going to happen. Proper training of cashiers on the deactivation of Sensormatic labels is crucial. The better they are the fewer the false alarms and the more you can be confident alarms are the result of attempts at theft. Train on proper alarm response and make recoveries that will put money back in your pocket.
Get more information on Sensormatic labels, contact us or call 1.770.426.0547 today.
Stop shoplifting-3 WC Blog 656
Electronic Article Surveillance-4
Sensormatic Labels-3
Group Theft Can Be Prevented With The Help Of Sensormatic Labels
I remember the days when I was a Loss Prevention Officer and had to make choices on how to stop shoplifting by a group that was working together. The decisions were never easy. I had to consider if I had a partner working with me or was I alone that shift. If I was alone, did I have a manager working on whom I could depend to at least call the police for me or did I have a less than reliable manager on duty? If I was working alone I had to decide how I was going to approach the group when I was ready to stop them. These may not seem like hard choices but there were all kinds of consequences and unforeseen outcomes that could occur if I was not careful. In fact when watching a group I even had to decide who the main actor was and determine if THAT was going to be the one to maintain surveillance on. Once concealment began I had to stick with one person to watch especially if the group split up. When it comes to Retail Loss Prevention store owners have choices to make also and they aren’t always easy.
Do you, the store owner have a Loss Prevention program in place? Is it effective and what does it consist of in terms of people, equipment, theft deterrence, etc.? Who in your store knows your plan or what their role if any is to stop shoplifting? Allow me to pause for a moment and say this if you don’t have an electronic article surveillance system as part of your anti-theft strategy you need one (another choice to make, right?). Most people are familiar with these systems so I won’t belabor that point. What I will comment on is there are a number of systems on the market and finding one that is effective and has a variety of tags and labels available is important. Sensormatic labels and tags along with their electronic article surveillance towers fits that bill. They offer both radio frequency labels and acoustic magnetic tags that protect a wide range of merchandise and packaging materials. As someone who has tagged more items than he cares to remember I can vouch for the fact that having multiple tags and styles is vital for an effective security plan. Different products have different security needs and one size does not fit all. I’m going to tag a package of gum with a different device than a pair of shoes.
More likely than not, there is a store manager reading this who is thinking that they don’t need an electronic article surveillance system. They feel that their employees offer customer service and that is enough to prevent theft. As someone who has been in Loss Prevention for many years I am going to say that train of thought is flawed. The groups I was dealing with were astute in how they would commit their crimes. If they noticed that employees were providing customer service they would split up. Divide the store team and someone is going to get free to conceal merchandise. It was hard in a big box store to cover everyone, for a small or medium size retailer you will probably not have the personnel to match up one for one. Once your team is divided your store becomes free game. A force multiplier for YOU is to use Sensormatic labels to protect your merchandise and the towers at the front doors to alarm if a criminal tries to sneak goods out of the store.
In the department store I worked for as a Loss Prevention Officer we had multiple exits, I could never cover them all on my own or with a partner. BUT in the big box stores I worked for we had one entry/exit point and a single employee could respond to an electronic article surveillance alarm quickly and effectively. In a store with this equipment set up your team can offer the best customer service possible to deter shoplifters. But tagging merchandise and having one person near the front doors able to answer alarms means you don’t have to be concerned if you can’t keep up with every member of a suspicious party of customers.
You have decisions to make on how to stop shoplifting in your store(s) to stay profitable. With so many day to day managerial responsibilities to attend to this doesn’t need to be a difficult one to make. Tag merchandise with Sensormatic labels and add Sensormatic towers at your entrances and exits and you will see an immediate impact on theft reduction in your store. Multiply the impact of your customer service with Sensormatic.
Sensormatic labels are important and we can help you with it. Call 1.770.426.0547 and let’s talk.
I remember the days when I was a Loss Prevention Officer and had to make choices on how to stop shoplifting by a group that was working together. The decisions were never easy. I had to consider if I had a partner working with me or was I alone that shift. If I was alone, did I have a manager working on whom I could depend to at least call the police for me or did I have a less than reliable manager on duty? If I was working alone I had to decide how I was going to approach the group when I was ready to stop them. These may not seem like hard choices but there were all kinds of consequences and unforeseen outcomes that could occur if I was not careful. In fact when watching a group I even had to decide who the main actor was and determine if THAT was going to be the one to maintain surveillance on. Once concealment began I had to stick with one person to watch especially if the group split up. When it comes to Retail Loss Prevention store owners have choices to make also and they aren’t always easy.
Do you, the store owner have a Loss Prevention program in place? Is it effective and what does it consist of in terms of people, equipment, theft deterrence, etc.? Who in your store knows your plan or what their role if any is to stop shoplifting? Allow me to pause for a moment and say this if you don’t have an electronic article surveillance system as part of your anti-theft strategy you need one (another choice to make, right?). Most people are familiar with these systems so I won’t belabor that point. What I will comment on is there are a number of systems on the market and finding one that is effective and has a variety of tags and labels available is important. Sensormatic labels and tags along with their electronic article surveillance towers fits that bill. They offer both radio frequency labels and acoustic magnetic tags that protect a wide range of merchandise and packaging materials. As someone who has tagged more items than he cares to remember I can vouch for the fact that having multiple tags and styles is vital for an effective security plan. Different products have different security needs and one size does not fit all. I’m going to tag a package of gum with a different device than a pair of shoes.
More likely than not, there is a store manager reading this who is thinking that they don’t need an electronic article surveillance system. They feel that their employees offer customer service and that is enough to prevent theft. As someone who has been in Loss Prevention for many years I am going to say that train of thought is flawed. The groups I was dealing with were astute in how they would commit their crimes. If they noticed that employees were providing customer service they would split up. Divide the store team and someone is going to get free to conceal merchandise. It was hard in a big box store to cover everyone, for a small or medium size retailer you will probably not have the personnel to match up one for one. Once your team is divided your store becomes free game. A force multiplier for YOU is to use Sensormatic labels to protect your merchandise and the towers at the front doors to alarm if a criminal tries to sneak goods out of the store.
In the department store I worked for as a Loss Prevention Officer we had multiple exits, I could never cover them all on my own or with a partner. BUT in the big box stores I worked for we had one entry/exit point and a single employee could respond to an electronic article surveillance alarm quickly and effectively. In a store with this equipment set up your team can offer the best customer service possible to deter shoplifters. But tagging merchandise and having one person near the front doors able to answer alarms means you don’t have to be concerned if you can’t keep up with every member of a suspicious party of customers.
You have decisions to make on how to stop shoplifting in your store(s) to stay profitable. With so many day to day managerial responsibilities to attend to this doesn’t need to be a difficult one to make. Tag merchandise with Sensormatic labels and add Sensormatic towers at your entrances and exits and you will see an immediate impact on theft reduction in your store. Multiply the impact of your customer service with Sensormatic.
Sensormatic labels are important and we can help you with it. Call 1.770.426.0547 and let’s talk.
I worked in Retail Loss Prevention for many years and during that time I had a lot of opportunities to stop shoplifting as the result of an electronic article surveillance alarm set off by a tagged piece of merchandise. Today I work in a library but still deal with alarms when patrons set them off as they exit or enter our building. The alarms are sometimes caused by items that are tagged but the tags have not been properly deactivated. In other cases it is the result of someone trying to sneak library materials out in order to steal them (sounds a lot like shoplifting doesn’t it?). It is necessary to investigate and resolve the source of any alarm until it is satisfactorily resolved. Just a few days ago a student was leaving the building and as she walked through our towers the alarm sounded. I used my Loss Prevention experience to stop the patron and talk to her about what may have caused the activation.
Whether it is a college library or a store, electronic article surveillance labels can prevent merchandise and property from being improperly removed from a building. In the case of a retail business those labels can make the difference between a profitable and successful enterprise and one that struggles. Sensormatic labels can prevent thieves from stealing but even with a system as good as Sensormatic’s a store must have employees available to respond to alarms. Those employees must also have the proper training to approach shoppers who set off alarms and the know how to resolve the alarms. It is not as easy as it may sound. I would like to offer some tips from my own experience so you can train your employees to identify what has set off an electronic article surveillance alarm system.
• An employee who approaches a customer that has set off an alarm should never begin the interaction assuming the customer was trying to steal something. The attitude exhibited by the employee influences the way the customer will respond. I have found that by making a statement that indicates a mistake happened rather than an attempted theft can calm a patron almost immediately. I will say something like, “Uh-oh, our system must not have deactivated a tag properly, I’m sorry.”
• I then begin the process of determining the cause of the alarm. In a store I will ask if the patron has made a purchase. If they say they did I ask if they could show me a receipt? If the patron said they bought something but they don’t have the receipt I ask if I can look in their bag. I follow up by asking what register they went through and after reviewing the transactions if I cannot locate the item I tell the customer we must have accidentally missed the item as we were scanning. No, I’m not throwing the cashier under the bus, I am giving the person an “out” so it does not appear I am accusing them of theft.
• If a look through a shopping bag does not reveal the cause of the alarm a bit if finesse will be required. You may have to try to get a peak in a purse, backpack or tote and that can be more difficult. People don’t like to have their personal belongings rummaged through. I like to say something that will make the person feel like I am helping them. If they have multiple bags I will suggest they walk one bag through the tower at a time. Through the process of elimination I find the bag that has the active tag in it. I then diffuse the situation further. I mention that I have had customers forget and put an item in a purse to see if it would fit (such as a wallet) and forget they put it in. Again, providing a ready-made excuse for the customer makes it easier to get an item back or the person to pay for it, I have encountered both. I also tell customers that sometimes people make purchases at other stores with electronic article surveillance systems and they fail to deactivate tags and it can set off our system.
A skilled employee who has been trained can stop shoplifting and even prevent unintentional missed merchandise from leaving the store.
If you don’t currently have a Sensormatic system in your store I strongly encourage you to get one. You will stop shoplifting and as you do you will see your instocks improve. THAT drives sales and profits. As evidence that my tips work, in the case of the library alarm, the student had two books in her backpack that she had forgotten about. I got them checked out and the student went on her way.
Need more information on electronic article surveillance, contact us or call 1.770.426.0547 today.
