I never realized just how much alcohol was shoplifted until I worked for a short time in a grocery store. It seemed like every day, a few times a day, my LP team was making an alcohol related shoplifting stop. Even working in a big box retailer that had all the latest liquor bottle security measures, people still found a way to steal booze. It was incredible, and incredibly frustrating. I had one shoplifter that was a pain in my side for weeks. 

Every bottle of top shelf liquor was secured with bottle locks, but that only slowed the thieves down. I’ve seen shoplifters break the glass bottle necks, bring in pliers, use blow torches…. Anything to remove the lock. One night, I received a frantic sounding call from a cashier who said someone had just stolen from her register. Thinking it was a cash robbery, I ran to the front and called every manager in the building. Once up there, we learned that an individual had stolen a few bottle of vodka. 

His scheme was pretty straight forward. He would bring the two bottles of vodka to the cash register, where the cashier would scan the product, then remove the Bottle Lock. Once the security device was removed, he would grabbed the two bottles from the counter and run out the door. Thinking this was just a onetime event, we chalked it up to a loss and went on about our daily business. This guy hit us 10 more times in the next week. I was disgusted and fed up with him, as well as the cashiers. We had in fact posted pictures of him in the break room, talked about the method, but our cashiers still were an area of vulnerability. 

Having seen enough loss, I made the choice to take away the bottle lock removers from the line cashier registers. If someone purchased some top shelf product, they had to walk over to the service desk, once it was purchased, in order for it to be removed. It wasn’t a burden, as the service desk was near the exit and it only took a second. After we implemented this, our same shoplifter came back to the store. When the cashier scanned the product, she totaled his transaction. He asked her to remove the locks, and when she told him he had to pay first, then go to the service desk, he ran out of the store, never to be seen again. Eventually, we went back to the removers at every register, but mandated that the cashier accepts payment first. Since then, we haven’t had any problems from this particular theft scheme. 

For more information, contact us: Bottle Lock, or call 1.770.426.0547

As retailers, three things usually matter to you. Your sales, your payroll budget and shrink. Each of those are controllable expenses that can make, or break any store. If you don’t have sales, then you don’t have money coming in, which causes a reduction in your payroll allocation, which can further hinder your sales. On top of all of that, you have to worry about shrink, which can also negatively affect your sales and contribute to lost wage hours. While I am no expert in building sales, I do have a particular set of skills that get me through life. Those skills give me leverage to stop shoplifting, and make life a nightmare for those people who want to steal from my stores. If you steal from my stores, I will track you down. I will find you, and I will throw you in jail. 

One of the easiest ways to you can prevent theft is to simply lock everything up, close your doors and don’t let customers in. You would probably have to find another job soon, but hey, at least you don’t have losses from shoplifters. That’s just not a reality though, and in today’s world it’s an ever increasing struggle just to keep merchandise on our shelves for our legitimate customer’s to purchase. When you think of external losses and shoplifters, you probably go straight to dishonest customers. Think about this for a minute… How many outside vendors come into your store on any given week? Contractors to fix broken things, janitorial services, outside vendors to assemble product… the list can go on for hours in some cases. Do you ever think about the losses these groups could be causing? You can have all the latest anti-shoplifting devices on the market, but a person with inside knowledge of your store can still create significant losses. 

Very recently I investigated a contract worker at one of my store locations. Our company outsources general floor maintenance to a third party. These guys and girls come in a few hours each morning and evening and clean the stores. They have access to offices, warehouses, stock rooms, etc. I began finding defeated checkpoint hard tags in supply closets every so often. Since there is really no reason for those tags to be in there, I figured I had an internal theft problem. The mistake I made was assuming it was a store employee, completely overlooking the maintenance crew. I tried for weeks to pin point the employee and I couldn’t. I didn’t know what was being taken, and I could find no evidence of any employees entering the areas where I was finding the tags. Again, I was overlooking the obvious. 

As luck would have it, one day I came it early to work on a case and as I was coming in, I noticed that the maintenance team was leaving for the day. As they exited the store, the checkpoint security system activated. I watched as the manager waived them through without a second thought. I asked the manager about this and he stated that they “always beeped” when they left and he figured it was something on their floor equipment that was setting off the alarm. Frustrated at the manager, I began reviewing video. It wasn’t long before I was able to make a substantial case on this crew. They were hiding apparel merchandise inside their equipment and simply walking out. We’ve since implemented an exit inspection policy for all vendors/contractors, and I encourage everyone to do the same. 

For more information, contact us: Anti-Shoplifting, or call 1.770.426.0547

If you were shopping in a grocery store and witnessed Meat Theft would you report it?  What about theft of baby formula or other foods?  I was in my local grocery store recently, looking in the meats section for an idea for dinner, and there were two young men next to me, chatting and shopping as well.  I just happened to notice one of them pick up a very large pack of expensive premium hotdogs.  (I only payed attention because I would never buy those because of their high price.)  I kept shopping, but when I glanced back at the guys, neither of them were holding the pack of meat.  They did not have a cart or basket and they definitely did not put it back because there was still a space where they had taken it from.  

I know this particular independent store uses some Anti-theft tools.  There are the obvious Checkpoint Pedestals at the front end.  They have items in their small HBA section, like body washes and face creams, protected in Alpha Keepers.  (Considering these days grocery stores are trying to be a one stop shop for their communities.)  But I also know they have not gotten around to using any types of tools on the food items, like Checkpoint Labels, that are specially designed to stop Meat Theft.  To me it is a little crazy to have no product protection on a pack of high dollar steaks or a leg of lamb, but it’s not my store.  I did know, however, that if those two guys went out the front door, there would be no alarm to alert the employees, and I was not about to just let that happen.  

Part of me did wonder why the guys were choosing to steal the pack of meats anyway.  What if they were actually just hungry and didn’t have any money?  What if there were children to feed?  Of course, I am fully aware of the more likely answer to “why” they did it.  Meat Theft, just like any other theft in any other business, is driven more by greed and impulse.  If I really thought the two guys were stealing because they were hungry and had no money, I would have simply stopped them and offered to buy it for them myself, to keep them out of trouble.  But anyone could tell that was not the case for these two.  The most probable scenario is that they were invited to a cookout and had been told to bring something, so they picked up the biggest and most expensive pack they saw.   The original plan may been to buy it, but a case of sticker shock caused them to go with plan B.  

I personally know the manager of this particular grocery store, along with several of the cashiers, so I definitely went to the front and told them.  As the two guys walked past, even the store staff could plainly see the poorly concealed package outline under the guy’s shirt.  The manager walked up and stopped them and just held out his hand.  They both dropped their heads and immediately handed it over, without even a single word.  Meat Theft averted, and hopefully a lesson learned.

For more information contact us: 1.770.426.0547 or Antishoplifting.net