You may think that employee and customer theft would cause most of your business’s shortage, but operational and paperwork errors can cause just as much, if not more loss. Many people may feel intimidated with the thought of performing the sometimes tedious job of sifting through invoices to discover paperwork errors, but it must be done. These seemingly small errors can build up to a much greater loss in time if they are not monitored and corrected. You may be great at preventing loss by using the best bottle security available, such bottle locks to stop products from leaving the store without payment, but if you fail to verify what’s coming into your store, you could be losing just as much money.
It doesn’t matter if all your bottles have bottle locks on them, or are protected by the entire Alpha Security catalog of products, someone should be checking the purchase order and comparing it with the invoice when the product is received. If you receive a shipment of wine that is supposed to be received as single pieces, and it is mistakenly keyed in as cases, you will be overpaying for the shipment and it will also cause your inventory will be inaccurate. So what causes these discrepancies? There are many different reasons you may have a discrepancy on the paperwork for your shipment. The company in which you receive your supply may have changed the cost of an item, and your system may not reflect the new cost as of yet, so if you aren’t looking at these details, you could be losing a lot of money. Conversely, your company may have changed the cost, and your supplier’s system may not be up to date.
Another reason for the errors could be that they are caused intentionally in order to make more money on the shipment. This is not usually the case, but it is a possibility. How closely are you looking at the items you are receiving? Are you just taking the delivery person’s word for the quantity of the items? Catching these errors should be just as important to you as bottle security for your inventory. Here is an example: You receive ten bottles of wine that have a price tag of $29.99, and the delivery person hands you a bottle to scan. You then scan the bottle, which is the correct item, and they tell you that there is a quantity of ten bottles under that particular item number. You take their word because you are busy and it would take more time to verify all of the bottles. The only problem is the driver handed you the correct bottle to scan, but that was the only bottle that was listed at the $29.99 price point. The other nine bottles you took his word for are at a $19.99 price point. You just lost $90 by skipping verification of the order.
Not all paperwork discrepancies are intentional though, most are items that are keyed incorrectly on the invoice or purchase order. A colleague of mine recently caught a mistake when he was validating the items of a shipment. He was reviewing the paperwork when he noticed that the items cost was much higher than what it was sold for in the store. Someone mistakenly keyed the wrong price into the system, and the stores where getting charged much more than they should have been. Their store was able to get the money back, and he also communicated the issue to other stores that were incorrectly charged.
For more information contact us: (bottle security) or call 1.770.426.0547
You may think that employee and customer theft would cause most of your business’s shortage, but operational and paperwork errors can cause just as much, if not more loss. Many people may feel intimidated with the thought of performing the sometimes tedious job of sifting through invoices to discover paperwork errors, but it must be done. These seemingly small errors can build up to a much greater loss in time if they are not monitored and corrected. You may be great at preventing loss by using the best bottle security available, such Bottle Locks to stop products from leaving the store without payment, but if you fail to verify what’s coming into your store, you could be losing just as much money.
It doesn’t matter if all your bottles have Bottle Locks on them, or are protected by the entire Alpha Security catalog of products, someone should be checking the purchase order and comparing it with the invoice when the product is received. If you receive a shipment of wine that is supposed to be received as single pieces, and it is mistakenly keyed in as cases, you will be overpaying for the shipment and it will also cause your inventory will be inaccurate. So what causes these discrepancies? There are many different reasons you may have a discrepancy on the paperwork for your shipment. The company in which you receive your supply may have changed the cost of an item, and your system may not reflect the new cost as of yet, so if you aren’t looking at these details, you could be losing a lot of money. Conversely, your company may have changed the cost, and your supplier’s system may not be up to date.
Another reason for the errors could be that they are caused intentionally in order to make more money on the shipment. This is not usually the case, but it is a possibility. How closely are you looking at the items you are receiving? Are you just taking the delivery person’s word for the quantity of the items? Catching these errors should be just as important to you as bottle security for your inventory. Here is an example: You receive ten bottles of wine that have a price tag of $29.99, and the delivery person hands you a bottle to scan. You then scan the bottle, which is the correct item, and they tell you that there is a quantity of ten bottles under that particular item number. You take their word because you are busy and it would take more time to verify all of the bottles. The only problem is the driver handed you the correct bottle to scan, but that was the only bottle that was listed at the $29.99 price point. The other nine bottles you took his word for are at a $19.99 price point. You just lost $90 by skipping verification of the order.
Not all paperwork discrepancies are intentional though, most are items that are keyed incorrectly on the invoice or purchase order. A colleague of mine recently caught a mistake when he was validating the items of a shipment. He was reviewing the paperwork when he noticed that the items cost was much higher than what it was sold for in the store. Someone mistakenly keyed the wrong price into the system, and the stores where getting charged much more than they should have been. Their store was able to get the money back, and he also communicated the issue to other stores that were incorrectly charged.
For more information contact us: Bottle Security or call 1.770.426.0547
Have you figured out what’s being stolen in your stores and how it’s being taken? What are you doing about it now and what will you change when the shoplifters figure out the way around that? We have a large arsenal of anti-shoplifting tactics at the company I work for now, but I’ve seen that change many times throughout all my years in retail.
First we learned to count our items and have a greater knowledge of the balance on hand. We now watch what we buy and sell more closely and compare the two figures. We’ve upgraded from having VHS recording systems in only the high theft inner city stores to DVRs in every location. The pedestals at the front doors have been upgraded to Checkpoint with the more advanced tags. Then there is my personal favorite of all, the Alpha Keepers. These things are the more valuable items in my tool-chest. They are versatile for item protection, easy for staff to use and customer friendly. If you need to step up your anti-shoplifting efforts in your business, Alpha Keepers should be near the top of your wish list.
I was in a store today that is considered a high risk location in our company. Their shrink results are notoriously bad, and the external theft is through the roof. It’s hard to retain managers and cashiers at this particular store because of the stress the shoplifters put on the staff. I was walking the store with one of the managers, and she was showing off a lot of her store’s improvements made over the past year. However, we soon came to a display that was empty except for one piece. This store has a family planning section that is in a glass case, and they are required to have a small condom section adjacent to this locked case that is accessible to customers. I asked her why the section was so empty, and she explained that those packs are stolen on average within two days of being put on display. We looked at it a moment, and I asked her what she planned to do now to reduce the theft in the section. She said she could check the section more often or better tag the boxes that she hung there. I asked her how that would really change the outcome and she didn’t have an answer. So I suggested she try to think of it a different way. These packs of condoms are the small three-pack boxes. They slip easily into someone’s pocket, and the staff has no idea who takes them. So I asked her what if she simply reduced the facings of items on this display. How about instead of twelve to fifteen items, cut it down to eight of them and put them in Alpha-Keepers. They are still visible and accessible to the customer so they meet the regulatory need, and if they are in the boxes, they do not just slip into one’s pocket very well. She looked like I had just told her the meaning of life. If your anti-shoplifting ideas stop working, you have to change them.
Eventually they’ll have to do something different at this store. The shoplifters will change their behaviors, and you have to learn to keep up with them. Take a look at your biggest opportunity and think about what you can do to make a real difference, and not just bandage your problem.
For more information contact us: Antishoplifting.net or 1.770.426.0547
Have you figured out what’s being stolen in your stores and how it’s being taken? What are you doing about it now and what will you change when the shoplifters figure out the way around that? We have a large arsenal of anti-shoplifting tactics at the company I work for now, but I’ve seen that change many times throughout all my years in retail.
First we learned to count our items and have a greater knowledge of the balance on hand. We now watch what we buy and sell more closely and compare the two figures. We’ve upgraded from having VHS recording systems in only the high theft inner city stores to DVRs in every location. The pedestals at the front doors have been upgraded to Checkpoint with the more advanced tags. Then there is my personal favorite of all, the Alpha Keepers. These things are the most valuable items in my tool-chest. They are versatile for item protection, easy for staff to use and customer friendly. If you need to step up your anti-shoplifting efforts in your business, Alpha Keepers should be near the top of your wish list.
I was in a store today that is considered a high risk location in our company. Their shrink results are notoriously bad, and the external theft is through the roof. It’s hard to retain managers and cashiers at this particular store because of the stress the shoplifters put on the staff. I was walking the store with one of the managers, and she was showing off a lot of her store’s improvements made over the past year. However, we soon came to a display that was empty except for one piece. This store has a family planning section that is in a glass case, and they are required to have a small condom section adjacent to this locked case that is accessible to customers. I asked her why the section was so empty, and she explained that those packs are stolen on average within two days of being put on display. We looked at it a moment, and I asked her what she planned to do now to reduce the theft in the section. She said she could check the section more often or better tag the boxes that she hung there. I asked her how that would really change the outcome and she didn’t have an answer. So I suggested she try to think of it a different way. These packs of condoms are the small three-pack boxes. They slip easily into someone’s pocket, and the staff has no idea who takes them. So I asked her what if she simply reduced the facings of items on this display. How about instead of twelve to fifteen items, cut it down to eight of them and put them in Alpha-Keepers. They are still visible and accessible to the customer so they meet the regulatory need, and if they are in the boxes, they do not just slip into one’s pocket very well. She looked like I had just told her the meaning of life. If your anti-shoplifting ideas stop working, you have to change them.
Eventually they’ll have to do something different at this store. The shoplifters will change their behaviors, and you have to learn to keep up with them. Take a look at your biggest opportunity and think about what you can do to make a real difference, and not just bandage your problem.
For more information contact us: Antishoplifting.net or 1.770.426.0547
Having employees that you can trust is one of the most important objectives of running a successful business. Knowing that you can count on them while they are not supervised to accomplish tasks on time, to manage your stores, and to complete projects is what keeps your business successful. Employee theft is one bad side effect of poor hiring decisions, but having an employee that isn’t trustworthy can damage your business in more ways than you might initially expect.
First of all, employees can steal. This seems like an obvious comment, and most business owners are aware of employee theft. Background screening and following up with references is the best line of defense to avoid people that will take advantage of you, but it is often overlooked. Likewise, even when hiring someone based on a trusted employee’s recommendation, they should be thoroughly screened to protect your merchandise and cash assets. It doesn’t take much time for a corrupt coworker to do some serious damage; taking a large quantity of cash and disappearing, or slowly taking merchandise here and there for just a little while. However, they can threaten more than just your inanimate assets.
Egregious employees can damage the workplace environment by stealing from their fellow associates. This type of internal theft doesn’t directly damage your profitability, but should not be scoffed at. When honest employees cannot feel like they and their belongings are safe and secure at work, they are likely to move onto another job. Not only that, but their word of mouth may have an impact on your ability to hire new talent, and even keep shoppers out of your store.
Finally, perhaps one of the worst situations to be faced with is the employee that will steal from your customers. Although it would be boldly brazen for a customer to steal physical assets from customers, some find it worth the risk to compromise customer credentials. What is being referred to here is credit card fraud and identity theft—also technically a “data breach” by the standards of some organizations.
Honestly, it can be quite easy. Employees are put into a position of trust not only by managers and business owners, but also by customers. With a trusting customer processing a transaction at your store, and a crook behind the counter, it is possible for them to write down credit card numbers, text them to sketchy friends, and attempt to use the customer’s account to fund fraudulent shopping sprees. Sound far-fetched?
There are a number of incidents with which I am personally aware involving waiters and waitresses doing that very thing when taking customers tabs to the register. A particular ring would use a skimming device that was installed into the card-swiping terminal by an employee, taking and logging credit card numbers as they were swiped. The team would then turn around and make new, fake cards with those numbers. Another woman simply swiped cards into her smart phone, using a tool anyone can buy for roughly twenty dollars at the local electronics store.
The sad fact is that it is not hard for questionable people to steal financial information from those they are serving, especially when they are put in that position of trust. That makes it all the more important to protect your customer base and your business reputation by hiring smart, and keeping internal theft, in all of its forms, out of your business.
For more information contact us: Employee Theft or call 1.770.426.0547
Having employees that you can trust is one of the most important objectives of running a successful business. Knowing that you can count on them while they are not supervised to accomplish tasks on time, to manage your stores, and to complete projects is what keeps your business successful. Employee theft is one bad side effect of poor hiring decisions, but having an employee that isn’t trustworthy can damage your business in more ways than you might initially expect.
First of all, employees can steal. This seems like an obvious comment, and most business owners are aware of employee theft. Background screening and following up with references is the best line of defense to avoid people that will take advantage of you, but it is often overlooked. Likewise, even when hiring someone based on a trusted employee’s recommendation, they should be thoroughly screened to protect your merchandise and cash assets. It doesn’t take much time for a corrupt coworker to do some serious damage; taking a large quantity of cash and disappearing, or slowly taking merchandise here and there for just a little while. However, they can threaten more than just your inanimate assets.
Egregious employees can damage the workplace environment by stealing from their fellow associates. This type of internal theft doesn’t directly damage your profitability, but should not be scoffed at. When honest employees cannot feel like they and their belongings are safe and secure at work, they are likely to move onto another job. Not only that, but their word of mouth may have an impact on your ability to hire new talent, and even keep shoppers out of your store.
Finally, perhaps one of the worst situations to be faced with is the employee that will steal from your customers. Although it would be boldly brazen for a employee to steal physical assets from customers, some find it worth the risk to compromise customer credentials. What is being referred to here is credit card fraud and identity theft—also technically a “data breach” by the standards of some organizations.
Honestly, it can be quite easy. Employees are put into a position of trust not only by managers and business owners, but also by customers. With a trusting customer processing a transaction at your store, and a crook behind the counter, it is possible for them to write down credit card numbers, text them to sketchy friends, and attempt to use the customer’s account to fund fraudulent shopping sprees. Sound far-fetched?
There are a number of incidents with which I am personally aware involving waiters and waitresses doing that very thing when taking customers tabs to the register. A particular ring would use a skimming device that was installed into the card-swiping terminal by an employee, taking and logging credit card numbers as they were swiped. The team would then turn around and make new, fake cards with those numbers. Another woman simply swiped cards into her smart phone, using a tool anyone can buy for roughly twenty dollars at the local electronics store.
The sad fact is that it is not hard for questionable people to steal financial information from those they are serving, especially when they are put in that position of trust. That makes it all the more important to protect your customer base and your business reputation by hiring smart, and keeping internal theft, in all of its forms, out of your business.
For more information contact us: Stop Employee Theft or call 1.770.426.0547
