The Costs Associated With Poor Hiring Decisions

June 30, 2017 by Leave a Comment

We make decisions each and every day that have consequences. We set our alarm clocks and when they go off we choose to do the right thing and get up so we have time to prepare for work properly, showering, grabbing a bite to eat, sipping a cup of coffee or two and saying good-byes to our family. It is possible we may choose to do the wrong thing, hit the snooze button and get that 5 extra minutes of sleep but there is a cost associated with it. That five minutes easily turns to fifteen minutes, showers go by the wayside, we grab the first thing we can find in the closet (or hamper), our socks wind up not matching and if we are fortunate we grab a cup of coffee in a travel cup and hope it doesn’t spill on us as we jog/stumble to the car.

Employers can make poor decisions too when they don’t take the time to hire the right person. Some of you may be familiar with a cost/benefit analysis. You probably use it when you are deciding how to run your store(s). Do you allow your inventory shortage numbers to sit at 1.5% or do you invest in a Checkpoint Security System, spending money now but reaping the benefits later in significantly reduced shrink due to theft?

Do you keep investing all of your money into one store hoping to find the formula that will increase your foot traffic or do you take the risk and open a second store in a new market and try to attract a new batch of loyal customers? Is the cost of the investment going to benefit you over time with increased sales? The same thing holds true for your hiring decisions.

When you hire the right person, all kinds of good things can happen. You may bring on a future department supervisor or assistant store manager. You might be adding that person who seems to make everyone around them smile co-workers and customers alike. Sometimes your hiring decisions result in a home run and that new employee is just a self-motivated go-getter who learns quickly and doesn’t wait around to be told what to do next. The right person offers new ideas and suggestions to help a business get better and wants to see the company succeed. Those people exist it’s just a matter of finding them by not rushing to fill positions and hiring the first person you interview.

But did you know there are hidden costs to making a bad hiring decision? Suppose the applicant doesn’t work out for you for one reason or another and you have to end his or her employment, now you have to go through the hiring process again. What does it cost to advertise the job? How much time will you spend reviewing applications, making phone calls to check on references and setting up interviews? Let’s not forget the time it takes to conduct the interviews. Once you make a hiring decision, guess what? Now you have to train your employee, investing more time and pay for the time training is taking place. Oh, and did I mention that there is a chance that the person you fired will file for unemployment? You may have grounds for termination but even if you do, you need to spend time at the unemployment office fighting the claim. The larger retailers often have a Human Resources Manager to take care of this, unfortunately smaller business owners don’t have this person and so the owner or store manager has to go to the hearing.

What are some of the other costs associated with making a bad hiring decision? A poor performer can have a negative impact on the morale of other team members. Who wants to pick up the slack for someone else? You may have hired a thief and then your cost is amplified in the shortage they are causing in stolen money or merchandise. You may find you pay for a poor hiring choice in terms of spending time on disciplinary action and all the steps you have to take to get rid of the employee.

What’s the answer for a small retailer? We can help you with pre-employment screening as a background check company who can thoroughly investigate a prospective employee doing the legwork of checking out who the applicant really is. Next, take your time in reviewing applications. It’s better to be short-handed for a while and get a quality candidate than just filling a spot out of desperation. Building a strong, reliable team may feel like it takes longer but it will pay for itself in the long run. 

     

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Smaller Retailers Retaining Talented Employees In An Improving Economy

June 30, 2017 by Leave a Comment

I remember the days when I needed to fill a position on my Loss Prevention Team and we could post an advertisement and I could easily get a dozen applications or more. Some of these applicants were talented and had extensive Loss Prevention experience and some had very little work experience at all but were looking for a job. The same thing happened when our Human Resources Manager would post job ads for cashiers, flow team or just about any position in the store, people needed work and took the time to sit at our application kiosks and apply on the spot. I’m not implying it was easy to conduct all of the interviews and sometimes the pool of prospective employees did not seem very appealing but they wanted the work and we could be somewhat choosey. The upside to this was that from a disciplinary and retention perspective, if an employee was not doing the job expected of them or they had attendance issues it was easy to go through the corrective action process and correct them right out the door. We knew we had people chomping at the bit for those positions.

     Another benefit for the store in a struggling economy was that good employees were fairly easy to retain. There wasn’t a lot of competition looking to hire new area or department managers. Talented employees also knew that they were probably going to get the maximum available hours and were sure of their position within the store. Going to another business had risk associated with it since there was no guarantee they would be getting the same hours or enjoy the management. While the employee may not have cared for all of the managers in our store, the managers’ styles were a known quality to the employee.

     Today the economy is improving and it is getting harder to hire and retain talented staff. Many national retail chains are now starting their employees out at $9 and $10 an hour. It is difficult to compete with these kinds of wages for entry level positions and for a small retailer, the choice could be hire at the rate but the cost of doing so is a reduction in the total number of employees you can keep on your team. If you are successful at bringing on an employee at minimum wage, how do you retain the talented employee who may be drawn to greener pastures on the other side of the fence? What can the small, independent store owner do? Let us offer some tips that can help you keep the great employees you can’t afford to lose:

  • Show your appreciation. It may seem silly but people want to know they are pleasing their manager/boss. Your store may be too small to have an employee of the month, it doesn’t work well when you only have a small number of people working for you. That recognition loses its value fairly quickly. Buying a drink for someone from a soft drink machine or bringing in pizza or snacks is always well received. It shows you’re thinking of them.
  • Get to know your employees and even learn something about their family. If something happens with their family member that they are proud of, like a child graduating from high school, give them an opportunity to tell you about it. If they have a sick family member or even a pet express your sympathy, maybe even suggest they take a day or two off to care for that person or pet.
  • Consider buying a small gift card of $10 or $20 every once in a while to a fast food place or a movie theater. Don’t necessarily make it in conjunction with any specific activity the employee did for you or any special sale they made. Do it at randomly and maybe place it in a “thank you” card with a note letting them know you appreciate their hard work.
  • Speaking of “Thank You” cards, there aren’t a whole lot of things that mean more than a hand written note mailed to someone’s home expressing gratitude for the service they provide to a company.

If a monetary bonus is in the budget following a successful inventory or prior to a holiday, like a Christmas bonus, it can go a long way to employee retention. A small bonus for someone making minimum wage can make a big difference for them.

It is hard for a small retailer to compete against the big companies, especially in retaining talent. That doesn’t mean it’s impossible. Demonstrate loyalty and appreciation for the people who make your company successful and they will return the favor.

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Shoplifting, Employee and Vendor Theft: Is There A Solution?

June 28, 2017 by Leave a Comment

Employee theft, shoplifting, and vendor theft are problems that the retail industry faces every single day without a clear solution. The billions of dollars lost to these crimes is a constant problem for retailers, and the losses have to be accounted for someplace else, and they need to make them up somehow to minimize their losses.  The amount of sales retailers need to cover any losses is significant and not easy to do. Is preventing the loss the first step to stop the crime? Read more about this topic by clicking the links below.

Wage Theft and Shoplifting: Same Cost, Different Deterrents

A massive force is deployed against one, but not the other. (Guess which.)

ach year, shoplifters steal roughly $14.7 billion worth of goods from stores. (So says the Retail Theft Barometer.) Each year, employers steal roughly $15 billion from their workers by paying them less than the minimum wage, according to data from the Economic Policy Institute.

The treatment of these two kinds of crime, however, are completely different.

Many more resources go into trying to deter, detect, and punish the guy trying to pinch a video game system off the shelf at the local big-box store than into the grand theft the store itself may be perpetrating against its own employees—even if the retailer is taking millions of dollars from workers’ paychecks. It’s one more way that the economic crimes of the powerful are treated far less seriously than the transgressions of those with less power.

Task force teaches businesses how to thwart fraud, theft

The enormous number of ways criminals can defraud shoppers and business owners requires increasing awareness about how to combat their efforts, Greenwich police detective and state financial crimes task force member Mark Solomon told attendees of a Monday panel on how to combat identity theft and retail fraud.

“It’s a constant cat-and-mouse game — there’s always a vulnerability criminals will learn to exploit,” Solomon said during his presentation. “It’s not if (criminals) do have our information, but how many times over they have it.”

Due to its wealth and slowness to adopt more secure credit card technology, the United States has become a prime target for cybercrime and fraud, according to Solomon and his co-presenter Christopher Riley, resident agent in charge of the U.S. Secret Service’s Connecticut financial crimes task force.

Employee retail theft soars says new report

​When it comes to insider theft and employee dishonesty, the news is not good for the nation’s retailers. At least that is what Mark Doyle, president of Jack L. Hayes International, one of the leading loss prevention and inventory shrink control consulting firms in the world, confides as the group announced the results from their 29th Annual Retail Theft Survey this week.

The 23 large retailers who were surveyed comprise 16,038 stores across the country with over $370 billion in sales in 2016 and they reported 438,000 incidents of shoplifting and employee theft where suspects were apprehended. A staggering $120 million was recovered by retailers from these thieves.

“The five-year trend shows a continued increase in employee theft in both apprehensions and recovery dollars.  This past year is the first decline, which was very minimal, in both shoplifting apprehensions and recovery dollars. In four of the past five years both shoplifting and employee theft apprehensions and recovery dollars have increased, and in many cases, this is with a reduced loss prevention/asset protection staff.  The losses are real and the theft problem is only getting worst,” says Doyle.

 

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Employee Theft and Shrinking

June 21, 2017 by Leave a Comment

It is not surprising that employee theft and shoplifting increases every year.  With online “chat rooms” where shoplifters share their “methods” and the many ways they can get away with shoplifting, it is not surprising the losses across the globe are reaching staggering amounts. 

In 2013, the losses due to shoplifting amounted close to $16 billion globally, a 34% increased over the previous year.  The National Retail Security Survey revealed that in 2015 retail lost an approximate $45 billion due to shrinking, up by more than a billion from the previous year.

What are the expectations for 2016, and 2017? What will the losses amount to this year?

For more about this and other informational topics, follow the links below.

Employee Theft on the Rise According to Latest Retail Survey

Major retailers lost over $44 billion in thefts by customers and employees according to Jack L. Hayes International’s annual Retail Theft Survey.

Wesley Chapel, Fla. — Jack L. Hayes International, a leading loss prevention and inventory shrinkage control consulting firm, has released its 29th Annual Retail Theft Survey.

According to the survey, 438,000 shoplifters and dishonest employees were apprehended in 2016 by 23 large retailers who were able to recover over $120 million from the thieves.

“In 2016, dishonest employee apprehensions increased almost 10%, with the dollars recovered from these dishonest employees up nearly the same amount (9.3%). While shoplifting apprehensions and the dollars recovered from these shoplifters decreased ever so slightly, 0.2% and 0.9% respectively”, says Mark R. Doyle, president of Jack L. Hayes International.

According to the survey, one out of every 27 employees was apprehended for theft from their employer in 2016. The total number, 53,786, is an almost 10% increase compared to last year.

Over $42 million was recovered from dishonest employees in 2016, up 9.3% from 2015.

Survey participants apprehended 384,296 shoplifters in 2016, a slight decrease of 0.2% from the prior year. The average shoplifting case value in 2016 was $203.18, a slight decrease from 2015 when the value was $204.57.

Exclusive Retailer Survey: Tackling Shrink 2017

C-stores may suffer from a bundle of cash-related issues, but tech-driven solutions are on the way.

One of the show-stopping numbers from the musical “Cabaret” includes the famous refrain, “Money makes the world go ’round.”

But money also makes the world of convenience retailing complicated. And problems such as cash miscounts, sticky-fingered employees and lack of data around dollars can stop the show for eager-to-perform operators who have to devote valuable time and resources to solving these snags.

To help shine a spotlight on the currency concerns c-store retailers face, CSP and Technomic conducted their seventh-annual cash-management report, commissioned by FireKing Security Group (complete results below). Finalized in March, the study surveyed 175 convenience operators who make or influence choices related to cash flow, banking and cash management in their stores. Thirty-seven percent of respondents operate one store, while 63% operate two or more locations.

Results from this year’s study reveal big concerns—and opportunities—for retailers’ cash-handling practices.

The Amazon Approach to Groceries Won’t Replace Stores

It’s a model that could thrive in dense, affluent areas. Most areas are neither dense nor affluent.

​For a certain kind of urban professional, Amazon and Whole Foods are brands that define the consumption of staple goods: the weekly trip to pick up cheese, produce, maybe some pasture-raised organic beef; and the nice UPS man dropping off everything else, from toilet paper to truffle oil. On Friday, those folks learned that they are facing a future of truly one-stop shopping: Amazon.com Inc. plans to acquire Whole Foods Market Inc. for $13.7 billion.

But what about the rest of America? Well, if you happen to work for rival grocery chains, the news is not good. Competitors from Costco to Kroger to Dollar General saw significant chunks knocked off their market capitalization. Other casualties may include Walmart, the $15-an-hour minimum wage (Amazon is aggressively experimenting with cashierless stores), and the rather unique corporate culture that drives Whole Foods.

 

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Can High -Tech Prevent Shoplifting?

June 14, 2017 by Leave a Comment

The causes for shoplifting are varied and the solution to these issues are not yet answered.  Many people shoplift because of a mental issue, while other shoplift because it is easy and profitable for them.

The National Association for Shoplifting Prevention states that shoplifting has become one of the most prevalent crimes committed in the United States every year.  Shoplifting though is viewed by many of the  people committing the crime as an issue of no importance, or one that does not affect the communities or the people around them.

For a retailer, the issue of shoplifting is a big problem that cost them billions of dollars every year.

For more about this and other issues, follow the links below.

Police give tips to prevent shoplifting

Albany police said the number of shoplifting cases usually increases during the summer, so they’re working to keep local businesses safe.

Police held a meeting for their business watch group on Thursday and shared tips to prevent shoplifting. Some of those include using and testing alarms and video surveillance systems regularly and leaving lights on at night to discourage burglars.

Police said businesses should also communicate with their neighboring shops and with police to share information and surveillance video.

Store Security Turns High-Tech to Prevent Shoplifting

That five-finger discount will kill your bottom line. With $45.2 billion lost to retail theft in 2015, some stores — hoping to avoid the estimated tens of thousands it costs to employ a two-person security team — are turning to higher tech solutions that don’t need to be paid overtime. Technology like facial recognition software that keeps an electronic eye out for known shoplifters can be tough for small independent retailers to afford. But proponents say it doesn’t just catch shoplifters, it discourages them in the first place.

There is more to shoplifting than meets the eye

​Last week The National reported that a 29-year-old Macedonian woman, a tourist visiting Dubai, was sentenced to two months in jail. She was arrested in January for attempting to steal lingerie, perfume and lipstick from the Victoria’s Secret store at Mall of the Emirates. She admitted the charges, but in her defence she claimed that she didn’t know why she shoplifted. “I have money, but I steal,” she told her prosecutors.

The UAE is home to some of the world’s largest shopping malls; it also has one of the highest per-capita retail shopping centre densities in the world. It makes sense, in this context, to understand why people shoplift. Globally, billions of dollars are lost each year to shoplifting. So understanding its causes and consequences and trying to find cures are good for business.

In the case of the tourist, we might never know, for sure, why she decided to stuff her handbag with goodies from Victoria’s Secret. More generally, however, psychology and those concerned with consumer misbehaviour have advanced many ideas about why some people shoplift.

 

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Alpha High Theft Solutions Blending With The Checkpoint Label

June 2, 2017 by Leave a Comment

As many of you know Alpha High Theft Solutions was acquired by Checkpoint Systems many years ago. Checkpoint has encouraged Alpha’s brand growth and innovation. Alpha has produced the best high theft solutions, hands down in the industry. Innovations like Spider Wrap, Keepers, Bottle Locks, Cable Locks, Shark Tags, specialized hard tags literally protect billions of retail products worldwide.

As the largest nationwide Checkpoint Dealer we have watched and even helped with the research and development of some of these products.

It comes as no surprise to Loss Prevention Systems and many of you, that the Alpha High Theft Solutions name is being blended into Checkpoint High Theft Solutions. From the inside, the accounting and management functions have been the same for some time. But this has been accomplished slowly and carefully over time. The Alpha DNA is still there, stronger than ever.

When we at Loss Prevention Systems met recently with Checkpoint High Theft Solutions, we clearly saw the Alpha DNA. In fact to us it seems that it is even stronger than ever. We were shown new products, some we cannot discuss yet, as they are still in development with R&D and will be real game changers. The scientists and product specialists at Checkpoint overwhelmed us with the new items they are working on.

These are concepts that are becoming reality other companies have never even thought of. The application of science is, well, amazing. As soon as they give us the green light we will begin rolling them out to you. Maybe even a few lucky LPSI Retailers will get to test and evaluate some of these new game changers.

Checkpoint has evolved into inventory control solutions not just shoplifting electronic article surveillance solutions. When we couple that with Loss Prevention Systems actual loss prevention experience in both the shoplifting and employee theft arenas, you have a powerful partner to help you achieve the profitability you want and deserve. Our real world live training is included on every system we sell, as often as you need it, for the life of your Checkpoint System, FREE of charge.

Loss Prevention Systems includes even more. We are there to help protect you from the bad guys. Shoplifters, employee theft, robbery, burglary, pre-employment investigations, pre-employment interviewing, vendor fraud are threats to your very livelihood. We have personally dealt with all of these for large and small companies alike. A single store owner can have the same loss prevention programs that the big box stores have with Loss Prevention Systems and Checkpoint Systems High Theft solutions.

But rest assured the Alpha brand is alive and well and living in Checkpoint High Theft Solutions. It courses through everything we do and stand ready to help you with. There are exciting times ahead for retail loss prevention and security so stay tuned for more information.  

And remember that if you hate shoplifters and theft as much as we at Loss Prevention Systems, please share this with your retail friends.

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Tips To Counter Website Advice For Potential Shoplifters

June 2, 2017 by Leave a Comment

There seems to be an advice website or YouTube video for nearly everything these days. Want to know who to call for home repairs? Need information about a car before you buy it? Looking for someone to date? Yes, it’s all on the internet, I’ve even completed some plumbing repairs and small vehicle repairs with the aid of online videos. Unfortunately, while there is a lot of help and good information on the world wide web, there are also sites that purport to be “informational” only but the information they provide supposedly tells people how to shoplift. What I find even more irritating is that some of these theft websites allegedly are written by former Loss Prevention personnel. The information they give is sometimes too accurate and could cause problems for a retailer who isn’t informed themselves on how to prevent thieves from stealing from them.

     Here is some ‘information’ that is published on the web and our advice can help you fight back against these shoplifter websites.

  • Website: Carry money with you, no money makes it hard to say it was spontaneous.
    Loss Prevention Systems Inc. (LPSI) Advice: It makes no difference if the shoplifter has or does not have money. Treat all shoplifters the same and be consistent in prosecuting within whatever your policies say.
  • Website: Carry a bag but don’t place anything in it. It may get you off the hook if they can’t find anything in it.
    LPSI Advice: Store Loss Prevention or Managers should never be stopping a suspect if they don’t know where the concealment took place and what was concealed. If you don’t know and didn’t see it, smother them with extensive customer service.
  • Website: Security does not go looking for poorly dressed people. They may pick on you out of boredom but they anticipate professional shoplifters will dress up a bit. Wear whatever you want.
    LPSI Advice: Loss Prevention professionals who do the job right look for signals that may indicate someone is going to shoplift and the types of clothes worn. Are the clothes unseasonable? Is the person wearing a bulky coat when it’s warm outside? Is the person in a known high theft area? Does the person avoid customer service from employees?
  • Website: If you get caught don’t act tough or be a smart “arse” (sic), cry, bawl, beg them not to call the cops, that your kids will be taken by CSV (child services).
    LPSI Advice: Always be consistent. Don’t play favorites and don’t do “favors”. Not applying the rules equally to everyone can actually get you into legal hot water. If there are children with the shoplifter there is nothing wrong with allowing them to call a family member or close, trusted friend to pick up the children. Often shoplifters who have no record of shoplifting have been caught before they were just released and not prosecuted. See how that works?
  • Website: Look for younger, or less ‘affluent’ associates who may turn a blind eye if they see you shoplifting.
    LPSI Advice: Train ALL of your associates on the importance of customer service and the necessity to report all suspicious activity. Perhaps initiate a reward program for employees who can demonstrate they have prevented a theft. This may be done if they can show clothes with torn off tags or an anti-theft device that was being tampered with and the associate walked up and disrupted the thief. Maybe it’s a fitting room attendant who finds merchandise hidden that a shoplifter was going to try to take into the fitting room. Age of an employee should never be a factor.
  • Website: Most employees at places with EAS (electronic article surveillance) door alarms (towers) view them as an annoyance instead of as an asset. If someone does respond to an alarm they are usually only allowed to ask you if you “forgot to pay for something”. They cannot threaten to call the police. There was no evidence.
    LPSI Advice: Ensure all associates are trained on appropriate EAS alarm response. Waving goodbye or saying, “It’s okay” is not appropriate. Employees should be asking politely for receipts and then looking for dates, time stamps, and verifying the items on the receipt are the items being carried out. If a discrepancy is found a manager should be called over. If nothing is found in bags or in the shopping cart, there are additional steps to take in order to determine the cause of an alarm.

     Loss Prevention Systems provides training for managers and staff on preventing shoplifting. You can contact LPSI for information on how to approach an EAS/Checkpoint system alarm. These are simply a few tips on how to overcome the tips from these “informational” websites. Don’t be a victim to shoplifters. You can prevent theft, reduce your shortage and increase profits. Proper training for you and your managers can pay big dividends regardless of what criminals may read on the world wide web.

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Too Small A Store For A Loss Prevention Department? Loss Prevention Systems Inc. Is The Solution To Your Dilemma

June 2, 2017 by Leave a Comment

Shortage control and theft prevention for small retailers which have no Loss Prevention Associates in the store was the topic of a recent article in an online loss prevention magazine. The points were well made and much of it was directed at stores that may have district or regional Loss Prevention Managers. But the truth is there are many small, independent retailers with no affiliation to a larger company. How do these stores cope with reducing shrink and preventing theft? It could be a tough problem but Loss Prevention Systems Inc. (LPSI)has the solutions that can keep small stores keep shortage down and profits up.

     So what are the solutions for those smaller retailers and how can LPSI help?

  • LPSI offers business owners advice through the blog posts on its website. The blogs are written by professionals who have years of experience in retail management and retail Loss Prevention. They give helpful insights from their personal experiences and knowledge of how shortage occurs. These insights can often be applied to any retail environment from a local “Mom and Pop” shop to a big box retail store.
  • LPSI posts videos on YouTube. Bill Bregar, owner and President of LPSI regularly posts videos to the web site, sharing stories from his extensive Loss Prevention experiences and tying them in with tips and strategies business owners and managers can employ in their own buildings. The videos are short yet informative and interesting as Bill includes anecdotes from his time in the field.
  • LPSI’s Facebook account provides additional videos and information on merchandise protection tools like Checkpoint and Alpha security tags and electronic article surveillance towers.
  • Small business owners may not have all of the information they need on how to prevent theft from employees or from shoplifters. While they are knowledgeable on the aspects of ordering products, replenishing the stores, running point of sale terminals they may not be equipped or even aware of all the various methods that can impact shortage. LPSI offers training seminars for business owners and managers that will give them the knowledge and information they need to prevent shoplifting, dishonest employee activity, and fraud.  A store may not be able to afford its own Loss Prevention department but this does not prevent them from proactively deterring or stopping thieves. LPSI has provided training both nationally and internationally to give business owners the tools that will allow them to defeat thieves even without a Loss Prevention Department.
  • Were you aware that hiring the wrong people to work for you can lead to internal theft and fraud, poor employee morale or worse, they could be a legal liability? LPSI offers professional background check services. They can look at an applicant’s criminal history, driving record, verify academic records, check on prior addresses, and verify employment history. Will the employee be working around children or other employees? The background check services offered by LPSI can check on sex offender registries to make sure your other employees and customers are safe and secure. Our company can make sure your hiring practices are optimizing your investment in staffing your store(s).
  • Consider that retail anti-theft devices and EAS pedestals can significantly deter shoplifting crime and even internal theft. You might be thinking about investing in it but you’re not sure how much you should invest or what the impact of your investment will be? LPSI offers a Free ROI Calculator on its website. There is no obligation to use it but simply entering the amount of money you are thinking about investing in Checkpoint equipment and how much your annual sales are, you can get a quick estimate of what your savings from shortage reduction would be.

Shortage reduction and theft prevention does not necessarily require a Loss Prevention Department.

     By using all of the resources available through Loss Prevention Systems Inc. you can effectively reduce merchandise shortage. We can also assist you in making the right investments in merchandise protection that will best suit your store size and the type of merchandise you carry.  Spend some time reviewing the LPSI website and social media posts and see if WE can be meet your Loss Prevention needs.

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Who Is Your Typical Shoplifter?

May 23, 2017 by Leave a Comment

Shoplifting is a crime.  Stealing merchandise and walking out the door is a crime millions of people are doing every year.

It  costs the retail industry billions of dollars yearly, as well as the communities where these incidents occur.  Tax income that is not collected from the stolen merchandise leaves communities and many social programs unfunded and in some instances cut out altogether.

The National Association for Shoplifting Prevention (NASP) states that there is no profile of a typical shoplifter. Women and men shoplift as equally and often.

The following news stories will give you  a glance at the shoplifters for this month.  Shoplifters come from all walks of life. Profiling a person because of preconceived notions of what a shoplifter is supposed to be, is not only illegal but wrong.

Click on the links below to read more about shoplifting.

Husky Caught on Surveillance Shoplifting a Loaf of Bread, Then Returning With an Accomplice

Get your paws off the merchandise!

A Siberian husky was caught on security footage shoplifting a loaf of bread from a Dollar General store in California.

Although a store worker tried to stop the furry bandit before she escaped out the automated doors, “the suspect was able to avoid apprehension and escaped on all fours,” according to the Shafter Police Department, which released surveillance on their Facebook page following the event last week.

Police officer resigns after allegedly shoplifting by stuffing meat in his pants

DES PERES, Mo. (KMOV.com) –

A St. John police sergeant is off of the force after police arrested him for shoplifting hamburger meat at a Des Peres grocery store.

On April 21, Des Peres police say Sgt. Matthew Barthelmass walked up to the meat counter at the Dierbergs on Manchester Road. The security guard followed him, and saw him walk to the cooking supply aisle and “conceal the product inside of his waistband. He had a larger Cardinals pullover on and could not see a bulge,” read the report.

The report goes on to say Barthelmass paid for items inside of his cart, but not the meat in his pants.

He was confronted by the security guard when he was leaving.

“I asked the subject to remove the meat from his pants. He explained to me that he was a police officer for St. John Police Department,” said the report.

St. John Police Chief J.R. Morris says Barthelmass has been with the department for 10 years.

LOCAL DOCTOR ARRESTED FOR SHOPLIFTING

CULLMAN – A local doctor was arrested for shoplifting recently, according to reports from the Cullman Police Department. Mir Kwon Wu Varquez, 59, was arrested on May 10 and charged with fourth-degree theft of property/shoplifting, a Class A misdemeanor.

Police Chief Kenny Culpepper says the incident occurred at the Wal-Mart store on Highway 157.

Varquez is a cardiologist at Cullman Heart & Urgent Care, P.C.

According to Alabama Code, Section 13A-8-5, theft of property in the fourth degree is applicable when the theft does not exceed $500.

​

 

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Loss Prevention Training Seminars

May 17, 2017 by Leave a Comment

Preventing shoplifting is by far one of the major problem for big retailers. For the small retail store, shoplifting takes on a different meaning.  For those stores, shoplifting threatens their livelihood and the prosperity of their community.

Shoplifting Prevention seminars are not only beneficial for the management personnel of big retail stores, but play an important aspect for the small mom and pop stores across the country.  Knowledgable employees, management, and owners can greatly reduce the shoplifting incidents by being proactive and taking preventable measures to combat shoplifting in their stores.

Some of these preventive measures are:

1. CCTV cameras that are clearly monitored by trained personnel is an asset for every store. Positioning cameras with clear view of the aisles can deter the would be shoplifter from attempting to steal merchandise.  Spacious and well lit aisles can help prevent the theft, or at least make the theft more difficult to achieve.

2. Parking lots, and spaces around your store should be well lit.  Thieves like to inspect the place they are robbing.  Providing a well lit store can deter the shoplifter from even entering the place.

3. Do not engage in any physical confrontation with them.  The shoplifting issue can escalate and become one of life and death situation.  Remember that safety should be your first concern when dealing with shoplifting suspects.

4. Customer service has been known to deter shoplifting incidents in a store.  If your customer service is subpar, invest in the training of your personnel.

5. Facial recognition software can help you identify known shoplifters that are in a store’s database.

Preventing shoplifting incidents in your store is a difficult job that trained personnel should be specifically trained to deal with, and should be dealt with care.  There are many shoplifting incidents where there are lives lost because non-trained personnel felt they could take care of it themselves.  Lives lost, jail time,and lawsuits are some of the tricky issues stores around the country are dealing with year after year.

Training your loss prevention personnel is an investment the store, and you as an owner would benefit from having. 

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