Would you leave your lawnmower out in your driveway overnight? Would you leave your cash drawer and safe open during the day? Then one needs to ask why you would leave your easily concealable and highly trafficable expensive merchandise with nothing but a peg hook to protect it. There is no doubt that you want to have it visible and highly accessible to your customers or they won’t know it is there and it will not get sold. However, if it is made too accessible it will also be readily available to the shoplifter or the organized retail criminal. During my career I have tried to ensure that loss prevention did not become sales prevention by partnering closely with operations and merchandising and recommending solutions such as Alpha Keepers to help protect merchandise without making it unavailable to the consumer.
A recent report by the National Retail Federation reported that shoplifting overtook internal theft as the number one loss source for the first time in 24 years. It was also disclosed that the items responsible for most of those losses are easily concealable, high-dollar merchandise such as razor blades, health and beauty products, and small electronics. Alpha Keepers makes the “Protect” line to help secure this highly sought after merchandise from the random shoplifter and even more importantly from the criminal enterprise who is targeting your merchandise for resale. Protect razor blades will secure and alarm your razor blades, which are easy to remove from your store otherwise, and once removed become easily resold. Protect electronics is a line of Alpha keepers design to do just that: protect electronics. Your small electronics such as high dollar flash drives are easily concealed on the person unless they are in a secure keeper that has its own alarm and must be opened by your cashiers once sold.
I remember opening up a new big box electronics store and shortly after opening begin experiencing a rash of shopliftings of camera SD cards and video games. We had a strong closed-circuit television system of over 400 cameras and were able to do video history reviews to identify what was occurring and when. We finally apprehended him with 20 SD cards in his pocket and four video games secreted in his cargo pants—the haul from one day only! He had hit us on 10 prior occasions and we were fortunate to do a historical investigation and go to his home and serve a search warrant to recover our merchandise. The point of my story is that we did not have Alpha keepers such as protect electronics on our merchandise and our merchandise walked out right in front of our 400 eyes. Needless to say, if you go in that store today, you will find Protect electronics Alpha keepers on all the high-end easily concealable merchandise.
It is up to you now. Are you going to let your merchandise sit out in the open so you make it easy for your customers but also make your store an attractive spot for shoplifters and organized crime or are you going to use protect electronics or protect razor blades from Alpha Keepers to secure your merchandise while making it attractively presented to your customers? If you do the former, your numbers will be included in the new numbers being reported by the National Retail Federation next year. If you do the latter, you will be sending the shoplifter and organized criminals out the door and away from your store. If it was my lawnmower it would be in the garage and if it was my merchandise it would be in Alpha keepers.
For more information on Alpha Keepers contact us or call 1.770.426.0547
Bottle Service – 5 WC blog 26
Nightclub – 5
EASy bottle – 4
Protect Profits From Pricey Premiums – Consider The Benefits Of A Bottle Service
Bars and nightclubs are high energy, fast paced environments. But like any business, they have their own unique challenges and risks associated with them. Because they sell alcohol, the potential liabilities club owners and even employees face can be a little intimidating. No business owner wants to have to contest a lawsuit, but in today’s litigious society, there always seems to be someone seeking to make a quick buck. This is not to infer there are not legitimate claims out there, but many lawsuits are trivial and looking for that fast settlement. So what can an owner do to protect his or her interests and still run a profitable club or bar? Why not take a look at the advantages of starting a bottle service that includes Alpha bottle locks to minimize liabilities?
Unfortunately where alcohol is served, there is a strong likelihood that at some point someone will become too intoxicated and a fight will break out. If a nightclub has a bottle service option, a well-trained serving staff can monitor alcohol consumption by the parties they are serving. How so? This service provides customers who purchase it, special treatment and a dedicated server. The level of service purchased determines the number of and type of bottled alcohol beverages they will be served. The bottles come with bottle locks, such as the Alpha EASy bottle guard, that can only be opened with a key held by the server. The server controls the amount of alcohol consumed by members of a group and can determine if an individual may have reached their limit and can stop serving that person. Think of the benefit to your nightclub if you could cut off alcohol to patrons before they hit a level of intoxication that might contribute to a fight.
Starting and running bars and clubs costs money. One must invest in a building, equipment, merchandise (in this case primarily alcoholic beverages) and staff. While nightclubs have the potential to bring in significant profits, there are expenses that have to be controlled or those profits will quickly dwindle away. Insurance is one of those costs required for any business, but the bar and club owner have to be sure to have coverage for more than just liability coverage. Do you have property insurance to cover damages due to broken property if a fight breaks out? Furnishings, glasses, signs, even the exterior of the building such as landscaping need to be covered. If, as mentioned above, your wait staff is trained to identify customers who are becoming too intoxicated they can use their customer service training and control of the bottle lock key to cut off drinks to a patron who may start a fight, become involved in a fight, or simply start falling into things and breaking them. Prevention can save you on insurance by not having to file claims.
Is your club insured for liability that covers dram shop laws? These laws hold bars and clubs liable if they serve a person that is intoxicated and that person injures a third party, which may include car accidents. Making bottle service an option in your club may help to limit this risk. Trained staff who may suspect a member of the party they are serving has had too much to drink they can keep the EASy bottle lock on and prevent further service. They can partner with management to make arrangements for a taxi, or they can work with a party leader to ensure there is a designated driver who can get the patron home.
Use of EASy bottle locks can also protect a bar or club owner against employee theft, another concern when looking at property insurance. It is not a pleasant thought to consider that your employees might steal from you, but it happens and in a club without controls in place, employees could easily hide bottles and leave with them. Having an EAS system and using EASy bottle locks, you can deter employees from leaving work with your product, since the lock will alarm at the antenna. As long as you have key controls in place, employees will not be able to get the caps off if they were to get a bottle home. Lose too many bottles and you may have to file property loss claims against your insurer.
Taking steps to minimize insurance claims, by using bottle service in your nightclub and Alpha locks on your bottles can reduce your expenses. Fewer insurance claims leads to more money in your pocket. See if bottle service might be the right fit for your club.
For more information on bottle service contact us or call 1.770.426.0547
Bars and nightclubs are high energy, fast paced environments. But like any business, they have their own unique challenges and risks associated with them. Because they sell alcohol, the potential liabilities club owners and even employees face can be a little intimidating. No business owner wants to have to contest a lawsuit, but in today’s litigious society, there always seems to be someone seeking to make a quick buck. This is not to infer there are not legitimate claims out there, but many lawsuits are trivial and looking for that fast settlement. So what can an owner do to protect his or her interests and still run a profitable club or bar? Why not take a look at the advantages of starting a bottle service that includes Alpha bottle locks to minimize liabilities?
Unfortunately where alcohol is served, there is a strong likelihood that at some point someone will become too intoxicated and a fight will break out. If a nightclub has a bottle service option, a well-trained serving staff can monitor alcohol consumption by the parties they are serving. How so? This service provides customers who purchase it, special treatment and a dedicated server. The level of service purchased determines the number of and type of bottled alcohol beverages they will be served. The bottles come with bottle locks, such as the Alpha EASy bottle guard, that can only be opened with a key held by the server. The server controls the amount of alcohol consumed by members of a group and can determine if an individual may have reached their limit and can stop serving that person. Think of the benefit to your nightclub if you could cut off alcohol to patrons before they hit a level of intoxication that might contribute to a fight.
Starting and running bars and clubs costs money. One must invest in a building, equipment, merchandise (in this case primarily alcoholic beverages) and staff. While nightclubs have the potential to bring in significant profits, there are expenses that have to be controlled or those profits will quickly dwindle away. Insurance is one of those costs required for any business, but the bar and club owner have to be sure to have coverage for more than just liability coverage. Do you have property insurance to cover damages due to broken property if a fight breaks out? Furnishings, glasses, signs, even the exterior of the building such as landscaping need to be covered. If, as mentioned above, your wait staff is trained to identify customers who are becoming too intoxicated they can use their customer service training and control of the bottle lock key to cut off drinks to a patron who may start a fight, become involved in a fight, or simply start falling into things and breaking them. Prevention can save you on insurance by not having to file claims.
Is your club insured for liability that covers dram shop laws? These laws hold bars and clubs liable if they serve a person that is intoxicated and that person injures a third party, which may include car accidents. Making bottle service an option in your club may help to limit this risk. Trained staff who may suspect a member of the party they are serving has had too much to drink they can keep the EASy bottle lock on and prevent further service. They can partner with management to make arrangements for a taxi, or they can work with a party leader to ensure there is a designated driver who can get the patron home.
Use of EASy bottle locks can also protect a bar or club owner against employee theft, another concern when looking at property insurance. It is not a pleasant thought to consider that your employees might steal from you, but it happens and in a club without controls in place, employees could easily hide bottles and leave with them. Having an EAS system and using EASy bottle locks, you can deter employees from leaving work with your product, since the lock will alarm at the antenna. As long as you have key controls in place, employees will not be able to get the caps off if they were to get a bottle home. Lose too many bottles and you may have to file property loss claims against your insurer.
Taking steps to minimize insurance claims, by using bottle service in your nightclub and Alpha locks on your bottles can reduce your expenses. Fewer insurance claims leads to more money in your pocket. See if bottle service might be the right fit for your club.
For more information on bottle service contact us or call 1.770.426.0547
PREVENTING REFUND FRAUD
I’m happy to say that I’ve survived another holiday shopping season in the retail industry. We all are, I’m sure. Now that the hustle and bustle is behind us, we need to turn our attention to refund fraud, which peaks this time of year. I normally see 10-12 cases each year in the two weeks after Christmas. Why is this so?
There are several reasons why refund fraud seems to increase in popularity this time of year. I believe the main reason is that cashiers think they can mask their dishonest actions in with the copious amounts of returns being conducted. While you can be the victim of employee theft at any point in the year, this period of time is really the best opportunity for a cashier to steal thousands, perhaps without you ever noticing.
How many times will you simply take care of a customer? They are bringing back a gift and want cash, or a credit to their account in lieu of store credit. I mean, there are hundreds of people in line waiting to return an item right now. In my stores, managers make this call about 5% of time. So if, during this time of year, a manager audits a cashier refunds, they don’t really think twice if they see a refund without a receipt where cash was given back. This is where a dishonest cashier can really take you to the cleaners.
Let’s say that for every day this cashier works, they conduct a fraudulent refund (or two) for $300. The cashier figures they can get away with it for at least 2 weeks, usually when the return traffic dies down. Working 5 days a week, this cashier can skim $3,000 from you without you ever realizing it. The cashier simply processes a refund transaction on the register without a customer present and selects cash. They then pocket the cash and voila! This is one of the most common forms of employee theft.
About three years ago, I had a cashier do this to me at one of my stores. This particular cashier had memorized the manager’s key code as well as the sku number for a high dollar pair of shoes. Over the course of 3 weeks, the cashier conducted over $20,000 in refund fraud by returning the same sku for cash, multiple times a day. This wasn’t just a case of manager’s overlooking returns due to sales volume, but a control measure failure on every level. You can prevent this from happening to your store by a following a few simple steps.
Cashier supervisors should always match refund documents at the end of each cashier’s shift. In my experience, dishonest cashier will throw away the register receipt instead of entering it in with their paperwork. Missing refund slips should always be investigated. Next, any deviation in policy needs to be approved by a manager. This allows you to easily spot potentially fraudulent transactions. Last, randomly audit and count several tills throughout the day. If dishonest cashiers are holding cash to pocket later, counting their tills in the middle of the day is a great way to catch them. By implementing a few simple control measures, you can help deter employee theft and make sure your profits stay in your pocket!
For more information about Refund Fraud contact us or call 1.770.426.0547.
I’m happy to say that I’ve survived another holiday shopping season in the retail industry. We all are, I’m sure. Now that the hustle and bustle is behind us, we need to turn our attention to refund fraud, which peaks this time of year. I normally see 10-12 cases each year in the two weeks after Christmas. Why is this so?
There are several reasons why refund fraud seems to increase in popularity this time of year. I believe the main reason is that cashiers think they can mask their dishonest actions in with the copious amounts of returns being conducted. While you can be the victim of employee theft at any point in the year, this period of time is really the best opportunity for a cashier to steal thousands, perhaps without you ever noticing.
How many times will you simply take care of a customer? They are bringing back a gift and want cash, or a credit to their account in lieu of store credit. I mean, there are hundreds of people in line waiting to return an item right now. In my stores, managers make this call about 5% of time. So if, during this time of year, a manager audits a cashier refunds, they don’t really think twice if they see a refund without a receipt where cash was given back. This is where a dishonest cashier can really take you to the cleaners.
Let’s say that for every day this cashier works, they conduct a fraudulent refund (or two) for $300. The cashier figures they can get away with it for at least 2 weeks, usually when the return traffic dies down. Working 5 days a week, this cashier can skim $3,000 from you without you ever realizing it. The cashier simply processes a refund transaction on the register without a customer present and selects cash. They then pocket the cash and voila! This is one of the most common forms of employee theft.
About three years ago, I had a cashier do this to me at one of my stores. This particular cashier had memorized the manager’s key code as well as the sku number for a high dollar pair of shoes. Over the course of 3 weeks, the cashier conducted over $20,000 in refund fraud by returning the same sku for cash, multiple times a day. This wasn’t just a case of manager’s overlooking returns due to sales volume, but a control measure failure on every level. You can prevent this from happening to your store by a following a few simple steps.
Cashier supervisors should always match refund documents at the end of each cashier’s shift. In my experience, a dishonest cashier will throw away the register receipt instead of entering it in with their paperwork. Missing refund slips should always be investigated. Next, any deviation in policy needs to be approved by a manager. This allows you to easily spot potentially fraudulent transactions. Last, randomly audit and count several tills throughout the day. If dishonest cashiers are holding cash to pocket later, counting their tills in the middle of the day is a great way to catch them. By implementing a few simple control measures, you can help deter employee theft and make sure your profits stay in your pocket!
For more information about Refund Fraud contact us or call 1.770.426.0547.
