Stop shoplifting and start profiting with Checkpoint systems

March 23, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Business owners need an option to manage their shrink.  If shrink is allowed to run rampant, then profit becomes non-existent.  Retail theft prevention is necessary to keep shrink at bay.

Anti shoplifting devices are reliable options for protecting the merchandise you wish to have available for your customers.  Shoplifters try to be one step ahead of our efforts, but with options like Checkpoint security systems available, business owners can win the war against shrinkage and theft, and help stop shoplifting within their business.

Recently I was told about an attempted theft at my employer in which a lady tried to walk out with an expensive craft machine.  There was no concealing in her purse, or hiding merchandise in her jacket.  She was simply going to walk out of the door.  An alert employee noticed her and was able to prevent this theft before it happened.

An employee was able to prevent that theft, but what if all of the employees were busy helping other customers?  A similar theft in your business could go unnoticed if employees happened to be busy.  As much as we’d like to have plenty of employee coverage in order to prevent this type of theft, this is not realistic retail theft prevention.  But if you use Checkpoint labels or Checkpoint tags, you can have that coverage to help protect your merchandise.

Checkpoint security systems alert employees when merchandise heads out the doors without being paid for.  Checkpoint labels and checkpoint tags can act as those extra employees that you wish you had, preventing the shoplifting that you know is there.  Retail theft prevention such as Checkpoint security systems is well worth the investment in order to stop shoplifting in your business.

An anti shoplifting will put money on your bottom line not the shoplifters!

Visit the Retail Loss Prevention Store

For more information about retail theft prevention or anti shoplifting or checkpoint security systems or stop shoplifting or checkpoint labels or contact us at checkpoint tags or call 1.770.426.0547.

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The underestimated benefit of bottle security

March 23, 2011 by

Bottle security in the retail world can seem a daunting task. Some may even say downright difficult. It doesn’t have to be. I still walk into liquor stores, convenience stores, and others and see the lack of security and the frustrations on the faces of the managers and owners. Yet, relatively cheaply, the proper protection can be afforded.

Once, while working the salesfloor of a grocery store, I observed a customer enter the liquor department. This guy was on the hunt for “free” liquor or liquor without any sort of bottle security. He walked up and down the aisle, observing closely, the brands of his choice. He made a couple of looks up towards the ceiling, then back and forth down the aisle. Section after section, he found no bottle lock. He chose his brand, stuffed two bottles in his waistband and was off. Obviously at this store, bottle security was the last issue management wanted to deal with.

This particular store had suffered a whopping 30% loss in liquor sales directly related to “missing product”. Absolutely no form of bottle security was present in this enormous store. I spoke with the manager and asked him if he knew of the issues his store was having with missing items, he said yeah and assumed it was a receiving issue or that the vendor was not supplying him with the product ordered. We went back and reviewed that, yet the shipments were correct. After a more analysis, we could be certain the loss was directly related to theft. No where it was customer or employee, we weren’t sure.  We discussed his opportunities in the liquor aisle and I explained to him the benefits of bottle security and how a simple program like EASy bottle locks would greatly impact his losses.

After we go the go ahead, EASy bottle locks were installed on various price points throughout the department. Over a period of 6 months, the store noticed a considerable reduction in loss directly related to EASy bottle locks and security program.

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For more information about Alpha Security or liquor bottle security contact us at bottle lock or call 1.770.426.0547

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Tips to Prevent Shoplifting – Atlanta Georgia

March 23, 2011 by Leave a Comment

There are many different ways to prevent shoplifting these are just a few that I have found useful over the years. I might be a little twisted but I’m a firm believer that fear is a useful tactic when trying to deter a thief. Therefore I strongly suggest posting signs throughout your establishment, especially in high-risk departments and in or around fitting room, bathrooms, etc. These signs should convey your policy against shoplifting and your complete willingness to prosecute anyone caught participating in the act. Now, don’t go crazy. You still want to make your store a comfortable environment for your honest clientele.

 Avoid tall displays or large hanging signs that can block the view of sales associates or the line of sight of CCTV cameras. Avoid clutter. Clutter is a shoplifter’s best friend. Anything they can do to confuse you or disguise their activity works to their benefit. Therefore, they hate clean, open spaces. They make it easier for you to spot something that is missing or out of place and make it harder for them to make a clean getaway.

 The best way to prevent shoplifting is still the use of great customer service. Make sure your employees are constantly walking the sales floor and offering help to all customers. The legitimate customers will find their attentiveness helpful. The shoplifters will find them to be a nuisance – exactly what you want. Train your employees on a discreet way to communicate the presence of a shoplifter. I find that a coded page over the loud speakers for a “Mr. Randolph” or “Mrs. Coakley” works well. All associates instantly know that a shoplifter is present yet the thief has no idea that they now have several sets of eyes on them. Used properly these tips will undoubtedly help prevent shoplifting in your store.

For more information to prevent shoplifting contact us at Prevent Shoplifting or call 1.770.426.0547 – Atlanta Georgia

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Is Your Company Suffering From Internal Theft? – Atlanta Georgia

March 23, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Do you think your company is suffering from internal theft? Do you need an employee theft investigation? If you think just because you have had the same employees for years or because they might be your friends or family, here are a few things you might need to know.

According to the National Retail Theft Survey, 43% or over 14 billion dollars of retail loss is due to employee theft. Employee theft is as prevalent as it is because of many reasons. One of the main reasons is that employees over time begin to feel a sense of entitlement. More times than not an employee will justify stealing something before they do. Whether it is something small and they think no one will notice or that it is “owed” to them because of things they have done “for the company” in the past.

Employees can rapidly become used to the idea of stealing and something that they had to justify becomes a part of their routine. This is where an employee theft investigation is needed. Internal theft, if not handled swiftly, can destroy a company’s bottom line. What could begin as a single person can quickly become multiple people in different divisions of your company. Once someone realizes that what they are doing is not being discovered they will usually pass that information on to coworkers.

Hopefully you can prevent this from happening to you with a loss prevention program, but for most this is a daily occurrence costing companies billions of dollars a year. If you think that employee theft might be a problem in your company, let us help you stop the bleeding.

For more information on how we can help prevent employee theft, employee theft investigation or internal theft contact Loss Prevention Systems, Inc. at 1-770-941-0547 or contact us at employee theft investigation – Atlanta Georgia

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Let clothing security be a watchful eye over your merchandise

March 22, 2011 by

My employees that apprehend shoplifters recently caught a lady that was stealing clothing.  They clued into her because she was just grabbing clothing off of racks, without taking the time to look at prices or sizes.  Most people take a little time to choose the clothing that they want to purchase, so her actions raised some red flags.

While being observed, she tore the tag off of a purse and placed clothing items inside of it.  She then walked out of the store.

This lady was caught, but what if the loss prevention agents had not noticed her?  $100 worth of clothing would have been lost.  That may not seem like a lot, but if you consider the number of customers coming in and out of our business…if they all were behaving as this customer we would be experiencing an incredible loss. Such scenarios are not uncommon at businesses that sell clothing.

Clothing security is something that all business owners or managers should consider.  Your employees, while trained to help customers and watch for shoplifters, will not be able to watch everyone in your business all at one time.  Clothing security tags will assist your employees at protecting the very merchandise that they are hoping to sell.

Security tags on clothes are the eyes that you wish you had all over your store.  A clothing alarm is the same as having an employee right there, watching the merchandise and safeguarding it from those who wish to steal.  Clothing security tags alert employees by announcing that a theft is occurring, and are also a deterrent by simply being present.  Just as your employees are when they are helping customers.

Hiring additional help by employing clothing security will produce a great return on your investment.  Clothing security tags do not need breaks, pay raises, or vacations – just clothing to protect.

Security tags on clothes that activate a clothing alarm will shut down your shoplifting problem!

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For more information about clothing security tags or security tags on clothes or clothing alarm contact us at clothing security or call 1.770.426.0547.

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Anti Shoplifting and the manager’s priorities

March 21, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Anti shoplifting is an effect looked at by all retailers. How do we better provide anti shoplifting efforts? Day in and day out, shoplifters ravage stores across the world, negatively impacting sales and associate morale. But what can be done to create an anti shoplifting environment in your store?

A man entered a store. It was a 90 degree day, yet this guy is dressed in a bulky coat and wearing sunglasses. The manager on duty had never seen him before. In an anti shoplifting effort, he tells one of the receiving employees to “watch” this customer while he was in the store. The associate attempts to maintain his observations of the customer.

Meanwhile, the manager is at the front of the store, waiting. He does not wanna leave the entrance until this guy is gone. The store is busy. 5 cash registers are up and running and each line has more than 3 customers. There is one or two registers available, yet the manager is focused on the suspected shoplifter.

This store is equipped with a checkpoint security system, yet the manager knows he has be somewhat relaxed to the program and has not ensure the checkpoint security system is executed properly and has not managed the checkpoint labels and checkpoint tags on merchandise.

The receiving associate reports back. He hasn’t seen anything unusual yet, but the customer is in the health and beauty aisle. 1 hour goes by. The manager is still waiting unproductively at the front of the store near the checkpoint security system. Finally, the customer comes out of the aisle and stands in line. He pays for some aspirin and exits.

What a waste. This happens quite often in the retail world. This store was equipped with a Checkpoint security system, they had the checkpoint labels and checkpoint tags, yet the manager still chose to stand and wait instead of allowing the checkpoint security program to do its job.

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For more informationabout checkpoint labels or checkpoint tags contact us at anti shoplifting or call us at 1.770.426.0547

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Bottle security and the loss prevention agent.

March 21, 2011 by

Bottle security was on the mind of “Mike”, the loss prevention agent working this large store. Mike had just started his shift was he was confronted by the store manager. The manager told Mike that he felt bottle security in the store was lacking and he didn’t have enough payroll to execute the bottle security program as the company expected.

Mike is a well versed loss prevention agent. He enjoys his work and put all efforts into providing solid support for the store he works. Mike knew the store manager had a tight payroll budget but also knew the store manager was a little inexperienced in managing programs and staff. Bottle security was in the forefront of this manager mind, he was more concerned about the District Manager coming in and screaming about sales and his performance.

Liquor sales were suffering in this store. After looking at the recent performance and sales report, it was clear to Mike that the liquor dept suffered from poor sales.  Walking the liquor aisle, he immediately realized not one high theft liquor item had a bottle lock attached. A simple bottle lock would keep the item on the shelf longer than no bottle lock. Mike went in the back and grabbed a box of EASy bottle locks. EASy bottle locks and caps were designed specifically to help prevent and reduce theft and loss. Here, the manager was lacking in clearly explaining the need to his staff. Mike grabbed a store associate from the back and explained to him how to apply the EASy bottle locks and caps. The associate quickly understood the need and was able to cleanly install the appropriate EASy bottle locks onto the liquor bottles.

Mike brought the manager over to the liquor aisle and explained to him the program and showed him what his associate was able to do with EASy bottle locks, and what the store could expect from this form of bottle security.

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For more information about Alpha Security or bottle lock or bottle locks or liquor bottle security contact us at Bottle security or call 1.770.426.0547

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How to Prevent Shoplifting

March 21, 2011 by Leave a Comment

If you should happen to be the lucky guy/ gal charged to prevent shoplifting within your organization the first thing you need to understand is that there are 2 different kinds of shoplifters. The first kind of shoplifter is the amateur; the teenagers, housewives, etc. who browse through your store and seize the opportunity to steal where and when it arises. The second kind of shoplifter is the professional. Often referred to as “boosters”, these people come into your store with the sole intention of shoplifting. They may utilize special clothing or techniques to accomplish this task.

In order to prevent shoplifting in amateurs you simply need to make the task more difficult. For these people stealing is a crime of opportunity. Eliminate the opportunity and you’ll eliminate a large portion of the crime. You do this by utilizing EAS or ink tags, posting fitting room attendants, putting up signs that read: “This store is monitored by CCTV” or “Shoplifters will be prosecuted”. Anything that reminds them that someone is watching and that you are aware of the threat of shoplifting will usually serve as a decent deterrent.

When it comes to the professionals you will need to be a little more aggressive in order to prevent shoplifting. They too will seek out the easy targets, however, they’re aware of the measures used by most stores and they adjust their patterns accordingly. Establish a presence on the sales floor and teach your associates what to look for (i.e. long coats, booster pants, etc.). Be sure to aggressively prosecute all cases to the fullest extent of the law. Professionals have a network and they communicate. If they believe they can talk their way out of jail, or police contact, there is no risk and they will come back again and again. It is vital that you maintain awareness of the 2 kinds of shoplifters in order to prevent shoplifting in your stores.

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For more information contact us at Prevent Shoplifting or call 1.770.426.0547

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Preventing Employee Theft – Atlanta Georgia

March 21, 2011 by Leave a Comment

“One cannot be betrayed if one has no people.” This is one of my favorite quotes from one of my favorite movies. However, in the real world a business needs people to survive, and for this reason employee theft will always be an issue. The trick is to identify it as quickly as possible and eliminate the culprits. Studies show that companies with fewer than 100 employees tend to suffer the worst losses due to employee theft. The reason for this is 2-fold. A smaller company usually has far less money to spend on anti-theft controls, and a smaller company is also far less able to absorb the loss than a larger, more profitable one. Therefore, if you run a smaller business this is especially important to you.

Background checks are a vital part of doing business today. Nobody want to accept the fact that someone you’ve selected to fill a trusted role in your organization may be stealing from the till or slipping merchandise out the back door, but it happens. So it is in your best interest to perform comprehensive background checks on all new hires to include criminal, credit and drug screenings. Don’t assume that you can throw money at the problem either. Well-paid employees are just as likely to commit employee theft as your minimum wage workers. A quick look at the news involving the Enron scandal and the Bernie Madoff debacle should show you that greed has no cap.

Work with your employees to develop a plan to discourage employee theft. When people feel they have a vested interest in the company they are far less likely to view you as “the man” and more likely to see you as a partner and a friend. Everyone wants to stick it to “the man”. Only a real heel robs from his friends. Create a clear, consistent and comprehensive policy regarding theft with no room for error or false interpretation and you will be one step closer to preventing employee theft.

For more information about corporate fraud investigation or corporate fraud investigator or employee theft investigation or internal theft or white collar crime contact us at Employee Theft or call 1.770.426.0547 – Atlanta Georgia

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Clothing security is your best bet against high shrink

March 20, 2011 by

Clothing security has been the topic of discussion by many softline retailers over the past years. How can we better protect our merchandise, how can we better provide clothing security?

Over the years theft trends have increased, demanding more of a dedicated need for clothing security. Merchandising high theft clothing items without any form of clothing security is a dangerous move.

Several years ago, I was working a large department store as loss prevention manager. I had a staff of loss prevention agents that helped me provide security tags on clothes. Yet even with loss prevention agents working for me, we still had a leak of merchandise. We had to identify what was being lost and what we could better do to prevent future occurrences. Our solution… increase security tags on clothes. Until then, we had only been putting security tags on clothes that were over a certain dollar limit. This was a good practice but ineffective are truly controlling a larger portion of the stores losses. We identified which types and brands of merchandise were being mostly taken. We lowered the price point for the security tags on clothes and we followed up with the execution of the clothing security program.

As we monitored the results over the next few months, we could really see the impact clothing security tags had on preventing and deterring potential theft and loss. Not to mention, we were able to explain to the store manager the benefits of clothing security tags and how effective beneficial clothing security tags were to his store and the business. Although he knew of clothing security tags, he saw no benefit earlier with clothing security tags only on high ticket items. Now, with security tags on clothes, our jobs became much easier.

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For more information about a clothing alarm contact us at clothing security or call 1.770.426.0547

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