At this point, most states have passed legislation that allows nightclubs to offer bottle services. These are the services where a customer, or customers, pays for the use of a table, a dedicated waitress, and full bottles of liquors and other alcohols. Since the mark up on full liquor bottles is significantly higher than the mark up on individual shots of the same alcohol, nightclubs are scrambling to offer these services in their clubs.
Those that oppose the sales of bottle services contend that the purchase of a full bottle of alcohol brings far too many issues to be worthwhile. There are some that say if a patron or group of patrons buys a full bottle, they will feel pressured to finish off the bottle, since it cost several hundreds of dollars. Even spit up amongst a party of several people, the quantity of alcohol consumed may be too much for some to handle as they drink down their paid for bottle.
Others are a little more practical in their approach of the subject of overindulgence. Logically, a bartender who is stationary as they serve drinks from behind the bar is far less likely to notice a customer who is at risk of being over- served. They may have only served this customer one or two drink during the entire night.
A customer who is looking to drink heavily will know to go to different bartenders throughout the night to avoid suspicion. They will also have their friends buy the drinks and bring them back. This way a bartender sees a more sober patron, when the reality is someone out in the club is having way too much to drink.
A bottle service, on the other hand operates under the premise that there is one dedicated employee working the table for the entire duration. It is their responsibility to pour the drinks and the shots. It is also their responsibility to maintain a close eye on who has had how much to drink. They also need to be able to speak up to cut someone off if they are having too much.
One of the best tools a waitress working a table has are bottle locks, like the EASy Bottle. These bottle locks help the waitress to control the flow from the bottles. Even if she turns away for a minute to refresh mixers or get another bottle, no one at the table can access the liquor until they come back.
The EASy Bottle locks are caps that fit over the tops of the bottles for product denial. There is a key that unlocks the caps very quickly. Just a quickly the caps can be reattached after the pours are completed. The keys are small and very nondescript which makes it easy for the waitresses to have on hand, or tuck into a small pocket of their uniform or outfit.
In the end, using these locks is a great resource for your club to maintain their standards. They are also great tools to help convince any naysayer that bottle services can be controlled through the use of the right tools and resources.
For more information on Bottle Caps, Bottle Lock, Bottle Locks, EASy Bottle or Bottle Services in your Nightclub please contact us at Bottle Service or call 1.770.426.0547
All of the most prominent nightclubs, bars and venues in New York, Chicago, Miami, Atlanta, New Orleans, Dallas, Denver, Phoenix, Albuquerque, Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, Virginia Beach, Washington D.C., and Las Vegas use Bottle Services for their best clientele. Don’t let your nightclub miss out on this VIP experience.
At this point, most states have passed legislation that allows nightclubs to offer bottle services. These are the services where a customer, or customers, pays for the use of a table, a dedicated waitress, and full bottles of liquor and other spirits. Since the mark up on full liquor bottles is significantly higher than the mark up on individual shots of the same alcohol, nightclubs are scrambling to offer these services in their clubs.
Those that oppose the sales of bottle services contend that the purchase of a full bottle of alcohol brings far too many issues to be worthwhile. There are some that say if a patron or group of patrons buys a full bottle, they will feel pressured to finish off the bottle, since it cost several hundreds of dollars. Even spit up amongst a party of several people, the quantity of alcohol consumed may be too much for some to handle as they drink down their paid for bottle.
Others are a little more practical in their approach of the subject of overindulgence. Logically, a bartender who is stationary as they serve drinks from behind the bar is far less likely to notice a customer who is at risk of being over- served. They may have only served this customer one or two drinks during the entire night.
A customer who is looking to drink heavily will know to go to different bartenders throughout the night to avoid suspicion. They will also have their friends buy the drinks and bring them back. This way a bartender sees a more sober patron, when the reality is someone out in the club is having way too much to drink.
A bottle service, on the other hand operates under the premise that there is one dedicated employee working the table for the entire duration. It is their responsibility to pour the drinks and the shots. It is also their responsibility to maintain a close eye on who has had how much to drink. They also need to be able to speak up to cut someone off if they are having too much.
One of the best tools a waitress working a table has are bottle locks, like the EASy Bottle. These bottle locks help the waitress to control the flow from the bottles. Even if she turns away for a minute to refresh mixers or get another bottle, no one at the table can access the liquor until they come back.
The EASy Bottle locks are caps that fit over the tops of the bottles for product denial. There is a key that unlocks the caps very quickly. Just as quickly the caps can be reattached after the pours are completed. The keys are small and very nondescript which makes it easy for the waitresses to have on hand, or tuck into a small pocket of their uniform or outfit.
In the end, using bottle locks is a great resource for your club to maintain their standards. They are also great tools to help convince any naysayer that bottle services can be controlled through the use of the right tools and resources.
For more information on Bottle Caps, Bottle Lock, Bottle Locks, EASy Bottle or Bottle Services in your Nightclub please contact us at Bottle Service or call 1.770.426.0547
All of the most prominent nightclubs, bars and venues in New York, Chicago, Miami, Atlanta, New Orleans, Dallas, Denver, Phoenix, Albuquerque, Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, Virginia Beach, Washington D.C., and Las Vegas use Bottle Services for their best clientele. Don’t let your nightclub miss out on this VIP experience.
A High School Library is expected to operate with a certain set of standards. That typically means that there is a list of books that contain questionable material for the teenage crowd. As such, many books are banned within the school systems.
Even with the top layer of questionable content left out of the High School Library, doesn’t mean that the books that are left don’t dabble in some other taboo areas. As such, many students would rather steal a book with this content, than to take it up to a librarian and have their names documented as checking it out.
A recent report stated that in a high school library the top theft books are ones surrounding the occult, or many of the Beat writers (if the library even carries them). Because their peers, or their parents might view the reading material as questionable, these curious students are quick to shove a book in their bag and walk out the door.
When some kind of anti theft security system is in place, similar to ones used for bookstore security, the quantity of theft incidents is dramatically reduced. Students are then forced to take their chances with the bookstore security, check the book out, or read the material while in the library. Each of the three options reduces the losses for your high school library.
Visit the Loss Prevention Store to purchase Bookstore Security and Library Theft Detection System devices and your Electronic Article Surveillance or EAS system from Checkpoint Systems to stop inventory losses.
For more information on Checkpoint Systems and how they can work with your Electronic Article Surveillance or EAS system contact us at Retail theft prevention to stop inventory losses in your College Bookstores,
School Bookstores, School Libraries, High School Library, or
High School Bookstore call 1.770.426.0547
A High School Library is expected to operate with a certain set of standards. That typically means that there is a list of books that contain questionable material for the teenage crowd. As such, many books are banned within the school systems.
Even with the top layer of questionable content left out of the High School Library, doesn’t mean that the books that are left don’t dabble in some other taboo areas. As such, many students would rather steal a book with this content, than to take it up to a librarian and have their names documented as checking it out.
A recent report stated that in a high school library the top theft books are ones surrounding the occult, or many of the Beat writers (if the library even carries them). Because their peers, or their parents might view the reading material as questionable, these curious students are quick to shove a book in their bag and walk out the door.
When some kind of anti theft security system is in place, similar to ones used for bookstore security, the quantity of theft incidents is dramatically reduced. Students are then forced to take their chances with the bookstore security, check the book out, or read the material while in the library. Each of the three options reduces the losses for your high school library.
Visit the Loss Prevention Store to purchase Bookstore Security and Library Theft Detection System devices and your Electronic Article Surveillance or EAS system from Checkpoint Systems to stop inventory losses.
For more information on Checkpoint Systems and how they can work with your Electronic Article Surveillance or EAS system contact us at Retail theft prevention to stop inventory losses in your College Bookstores,School Bookstores, School Libraries, High School Library, orHigh School Bookstore call 1.770.426.0547
When you are in the business to sell high- end liquor and wine bottles, you need more than just an everyday, run of the mill, anti theft device for your bottle security. You need something that functions as an anti theft device, and still maintains other traits important to high-end wine sales.
When we think of bottle security, we tend to lean more towards bottle locks. They have been proven as an effective anti shoplifting deterrent, are easy to use and to remove at the time of purchase. Many brands are slim in design to not reduce shelf quantities, thus working to maximize sales.
For many stores, using bottle locks also prevent sampling of the product. It wouldn’t be the first time someone came into a store and started to drink from the liquor and wine bottles in a store. It won’t be the last either, but the right lock will help to reduce those incidents.
Those locks, like the EASy Bottle, are a perfect fit for most liquor and wine stores. They are not, however, perfect for high- end wine sales. Those products require a completely different anti theft structure. Alpha Security, who makes the EASy Bottle, has a better lock to prevent theft of high- end wine bottles. They made the Steel Grip bottle lock.
While the Steel Grip sounds industrial and clunky, it is actually very simplistic and refined in its design. When you are looking for high-end solutions, you need not only effective security devices, but also aesthetically pleasing solutions. Anytime the aesthetics of a security device overshadows the product, customers are less likely to purchase. The luxury feel is diminished, along with the perceived value of the item in question. No one wants to spend high-dollar prices somewhere that they feel like they are walking through a dollar store.
The Steel Grip is not just a pleasant to the eye solution. The Steel Grip actually enhances the shopping experience. Many top dollar wines are expensive beyond just brand recognition. Specific vintages, varietals, and years create very unique and desirable wines. Customers are looking to these wines not simply for consumption, but also as investments and additions to their collections.
As such, the actual bottles need to be in tiptop condition. A break in the cork can allow air inside of a bottle, rendering the wine rancid and useless. A collector will want to inspect the cork to ensure the quality and condition before they make their purchase.
In some cases, the foil wraps must also be inspected. A customer might be looking for the same evidence of bottle integrity, or they might be looking to put the bottle on display. Having a noticeable tear or scrape in the foil reduces the perfection of such a collector’s item.
The Steel Grip is a minimal band that wraps around a wine or champagne bottle. There is no cap to block a customer from inspecting the cork. The inside of the band has padding on it, which will minimize the risk of tearing or catching on a foil cover. This maximizes the value a customer sees in the item, while reducing costs to the store when they have to replace a foil covering due to damages.
Visit the Loss Prevention Store to purchase EASy Bottle bottle locks by Alpha Security and your Electronic Article Surveillance or EAS system.
For more information on Alpha Security, Bottle Lock, Bottle locks, Bottle Security, EASy Bottle or Liquor Bottle Security and how they can work with your Electronic Article Surveillance or EAS system contact us or call 1.770.426.0547
When you are in the business to sell high- end liquor and wine bottles, you need more than just an everyday, run of the mill, anti theft device for your bottle security. You need something that functions as an anti theft device, and still maintains other traits important to high-end wine sales.
When we think of bottle security, we tend to lean more towards bottle locks. They have been proven as an effective anti shoplifting deterrent, are easy to use and to remove at the time of purchase. Many brands are slim in design to not reduce shelf quantities, thus working to maximize sales.
For many stores, using bottle locks also prevents sampling of the product. It wouldn’t be the first time someone came into a store and started to drink from the liquor and wine bottles in a store. It won’t be the last either, but the right lock will help to reduce those incidents.
Those locks, like the EASy Bottle, are a perfect fit for most liquor and wine stores. They are not, however, perfect for high- end wine sales. Those products require a completely different anti theft structure. Alpha Security, who makes the EASy Bottle, has a better lock to prevent theft of high- end wine bottles. They made the Steel Grip bottle lock.
While the Steel Grip sounds industrial and clunky, it is actually very simplistic and refined in its design. When you are looking for high-end solutions, you need not only effective security devices, but also aesthetically pleasing solutions. Anytime the aesthetics of a security device overshadows the product, customers are less likely to purchase. The luxury feel is diminished, along with the perceived value of the item in question. No one wants to spend high-dollar prices somewhere that they feel like they are walking through a dollar store.
The Steel Grip is not just a pleasant to the eye solution. The Steel Grip actually enhances the shopping experience. Many top dollar wines are expensive beyond just brand recognition. Specific vintages, varietals, and years create very unique and desirable wines. Customers are looking to these wines not simply for consumption, but also as investments and additions to their collections.
As such, the actual bottles need to be in tiptop condition. A break in the cork can allow air inside of a bottle, rendering the wine rancid and useless. A collector will want to inspect the cork to ensure the quality and condition before they make their purchase.
In some cases, the foil wraps must also be inspected. A customer might be looking for the same evidence of bottle integrity, or they might be looking to put the bottle on display. Having a noticeable tear or scrape in the foil reduces the perfection of such a collector’s item.
The Steel Grip is a minimal band that wraps around a wine or champagne bottle. There is no cap to block a customer from inspecting the cork. The inside of the band has padding on it, which will minimize the risk of tearing or catching on a foil cover. This maximizes the value a customer sees in the item, while reducing costs to the store when they have to replace a foil covering due to damages.
Visit the Loss Prevention Store to purchase EASy Bottle bottle locks by Alpha Security and your Electronic Article Surveillance or EAS system.
For more information on Alpha Security, Bottle Lock, Bottle locks, Bottle Security, EASy Bottle or Liquor Bottle Security and how they can work with your Electronic Article Surveillance or EAS system contact us or call 1.770.426.0547
It seems like a single week doesn’t go by that I don’t get asked how to stop shoplifting by at least a half dozen managers. They are usually coming to me, frustrated by the amount of external theft they are seeing and sometimes they feel pretty helpless as they watch their hard earned money and profits walk out of the front door. I know their struggles. I’ve been in their shoes. Before I started my Loss Prevention career I was a store manager for a large retailer for several years. I was, like so many now, bound by corporate directives and store policies when it came to what I could do to protect the merchandise in my store. After all, I was the one seeing it get stolen, not the corporate folks.
The great thing about owning your own business, or working in a small retail operation is the real time decision making that can happen. In my management career in a large corporation, if we wanted to use a type of checkpoint label to secure a product, our corporate office had to first approve the idea, test the idea in a small amount of stores, develop an ROI report, make a recommendation to company management, and then, maybe a year later, we’d see the tags in store. In that time frame, we most likely lost thousands of dollars to theft. If you’re a business owner, or a manager of a smaller company, you can make a decision instantly on ways to secure your merchandise. In the past 10 years, I can recall only one time where I was able to get a decision made overnight for an idea that would help me to stop shoplifting.
It was early on in my LP career and I was investigating a large amount of loss on a several heart rate monitors. It wasn’t localized to one sku, or one store. I had an area that covered 15 stores and all stores were reporting losses upwards of $10,000 each. I did everything in my power to research the losses, since I was convinced the loss was due to theft, but Murphy’s Law intervened around every corner. The stores had recently moved the display units to an area that wasn’t covered by a CCTV camera. Additionally, this was the first time that area of the store had been inventoried in over a year. I had no idea when the losses occurred, and I had no way to review the area for suspicious behavior. At a standstill in my investigation, the losses kept pouring in each week.
With nearly $200k in product loss in a category that had sales of about half that, we had to stop the bleeding. I was able to convince my bosses to test out some different types of checkpoint tags. We used a simple tag printed with the store logo and name that would alarm if the product went through the doors without being de-activated. We deployed them in all of my 15 stores in the hopes of being able to stop the loss. After a few weeks, it was clear that by using an anti-shoplifting device, we could hold onto our product. We were still losing merchandise, but at a much, much slower pace. While we didn’t completely eliminate the theft problem, we were able to slow it down and become profitable in that category. While you will never be able to stop shoplifting altogether, with the appropriate controls in place, you will be able to reduce your exposure to easy losses.
For more information, contact us: Anti-Shoplifting, or call 1.770.426.0547
It seems like a single week doesn’t go by that I don’t get asked how to stop shoplifting by at least a half dozen managers. They are usually coming to me, frustrated by the amount of external theft they are seeing and sometimes they feel pretty helpless as they watch their hard earned money and profits walk out of the front door. I know their struggles. I’ve been in their shoes. Before I started my Loss Prevention career I was a store manager for a large retailer for several years. I was, like so many now, bound by corporate directives and store policies when it came to what I could do to protect the merchandise in my store. After all, I was the one seeing it get stolen, not the corporate folks.
The great thing about owning your own business, or working in a small retail operation is the real time decision making that can happen. In my management career in a large corporation, if we wanted to use a type of Checkpoint Label to secure a product, our corporate office had to first approve the idea, test the idea in a small amount of stores, develop an ROI report, make a recommendation to company management, and then, maybe a year later, we’d see the tags in store. In that time frame, we most likely lost thousands of dollars to theft. If you’re a business owner, or a manager of a smaller company, you can make a decision instantly on ways to secure your merchandise. In the past 10 years, I can recall only one time where I was able to get a decision made overnight for an idea that would help me to stop shoplifting.
It was early on in my LP career and I was investigating a large amount of loss on a several heart rate monitors. It wasn’t localized to one sku, or one store. I had an area that covered 15 stores and all stores were reporting losses upwards of $10,000 each. I did everything in my power to research the losses, since I was convinced the loss was due to theft, but Murphy’s Law intervened around every corner. The stores had recently moved the display units to an area that wasn’t covered by a CCTV camera. Additionally, this was the first time that area of the store had been inventoried in over a year. I had no idea when the losses occurred, and I had no way to review the area for suspicious behavior. At a standstill in my investigation, the losses kept pouring in each week.
With nearly $200k in product loss in a category that had sales of about half that, we had to stop the bleeding. I was able to convince my bosses to test out some different types of Checkpoint Labels. We used a simple Label printed with the store logo and name that would alarm if the product went through the doors without being de-activated. We deployed them in all of my 15 stores in the hopes of being able to stop the loss. After a few weeks, it was clear that by using an anti-shoplifting device, we could hold onto our product. We were still losing merchandise, but at a much, much slower pace. While we didn’t completely eliminate the theft problem, we were able to slow it down and become profitable in that category. While you will never be able to stop shoplifting altogether, with the appropriate controls in place, you will be able to reduce your exposure to easy losses.
For more information, contact us: Anti-Shoplifting, or call 1.770.426.0547
It is already that time of the year again: the air is cooling, the day is ending earlier, and the leaves are falling from the trees. It is a beautiful reminder of what is right around the corner—the holiday shopping season. Whether this excites you or terrifies you, it also means that there is going to be a large influx of shopping traffic. In order to meet the demands of the season’s shoppers, everyone is hiring seasonal employees to help them get through the holidays. To make sure you stay in the black, it is important to avoid hiring seasonal employees who are only there to commit internal theft, taking not only their paychecks, but a lot more than you bargained for.
Seasonal hiring decisions tend to be made in a rush. With all of the other preparations for the season, including increased levels of merchandise stock, preparation auditing, and other seasonal tasks, hiring the right seasonal employees tends to be an issue that is put on the back burner. In order to save time conducting employee theft investigations, it is wise to spend some extra time screening your seasonal employees, and ensuring they are a good match for the job.
I have been working in retail loss prevention for many years. Each year I witness the large influx of seasonal associates. There are sometimes so many that I don’t even get a chance to learn their names before they are gone. Not only do we see a very large increase in external theft and shoplifting during this season but each year, we see a great amount of employee theft—usually from seasonal employees. So what can these employees do to damage your business? After all, they are only hired for a few months; how much damage can they do?
The answer is: a lot. Last year, the business I work hired a new cash-handling associate on a seasonal basis. Within the span of one week, she was able to steal over three-thousand dollars from the registers before we caught on to her. Luckily, we were able to identify the employee theft and resolve the incident before she could quit, which she had planned to.
So what is the solution? Well, there is no foolproof answer; no matter what you do, there is always some risk involved in making hiring decisions. Nonetheless, there are a number of things you can do to minimize the risk you are taking when hiring! Taking time to hire quality seasonal associates is the first step. Once they are hired, making sure they are trained well, and will not cause losses by making costly mistakes is the second component. Lastly, to minimize the risk of internal theft, make sure associates don’t work shifts alone if that is an option. Also, utilize various checks and balances, including merchandise protection, to limit any one employee’s ability to commit employee theft without another employee’s knowledge. Compartmentalizing business tasks and rotating employees through those tasks not only trains the employees well, but prevents them from having too much unchecked power.
Large corporations can sometimes absorb some losses, especially if they are small, isolated incidents as is the previous example. However, if you hire only a couple of things, it is really easy for them to cut into your profit—not to mention that you are paying them to steal!
For more information contact us: Internal Theft or call 1.770.426.0547
It is already that time of the year again: the air is cooling, the day is ending earlier, and the leaves are falling from the trees. It is a beautiful reminder of what is right around the corner—the holiday shopping season. Whether this excites you or terrifies you, it also means that there is going to be a large influx of shopping traffic. In order to meet the demands of the season’s shoppers, everyone is hiring seasonal employees to help them get through the holidays. To make sure you stay in the black, it is important to avoid hiring seasonal employees who are only there to commit internal theft, taking not only their paychecks, but a lot more than you bargained for.
Seasonal hiring decisions tend to be made in a rush. With all of the other preparations for the season, including increased levels of merchandise stock, preparation auditing, and other seasonal tasks, hiring the right seasonal employees tends to be an issue that is put on the back burner. In order to save time conducting employee theft investigations, it is wise to spend some extra time screening your seasonal employees, and ensuring they are a good match for the job.
I have been working in retail loss prevention for many years. Each year I witness the large influx of seasonal associates. There are sometimes so many that I don’t even get a chance to learn their names before they are gone. Not only do we see a very large increase in external theft and shoplifting during this season but each year, we see a great amount of employee theft—usually from seasonal employees. So what can these employees do to damage your business? After all, they are only hired for a few months; how much damage can they do?
The answer is: a lot. Last year, the business I work for hired a new cash-handling associate on a seasonal basis. Within the span of one week, she was able to steal over three-thousand dollars from the registers before we caught on to her. Luckily, we were able to identify the employee theft and resolve the incident before she could quit, which she had planned to.
So what is the solution? Well, there is no foolproof answer; no matter what you do, there is always some risk involved in making hiring decisions. Nonetheless, there are a number of things you can do to minimize the risk you are taking when hiring! Taking time to hire quality seasonal associates is the first step. Once they are hired, making sure they are trained well, and will not cause losses by making costly mistakes is the second component. Lastly, to minimize the risk of internal theft, make sure associates don’t work shifts alone if that is an option. Also, utilize various checks and balances, including merchandise protection, to limit any one employee’s ability to commit employee theft without another employee’s knowledge. Compartmentalizing business tasks and rotating employees through those tasks not only trains the employees well, but prevents them from having too much unchecked power.
Large corporations can sometimes absorb some losses, especially if they are small, isolated incidents as is the previous example. However, if you hire only a couple of people, it is really easy for them to cut into your profit—not to mention that you are paying them to steal!
For more information contact us: Internal Theft or call 1.770.426.0547
If you hadn’t realized it yet, the holiday shopping season is here! It’s been here since the day after Halloween it seems. Retailers of all shapes and sizes seem to be putting their holiday selections out at increasingly earlier times as each new year passes with hopes of attracting more sales for that ever important 4th quarter push. We all know the struggle. This time of year means more toys, gadgets and the new and hottest electronics. It’s also usually the peak time for shoplifting. So when you’re setting out those new electronics displays, or putting that new fixture full of car GPS units out this season, make sure you’re also thinking about the ways you can prevent shoplifting in order to boost your store’s sales.
It was just a few months ago that I received the list of new items my company would be carrying for the holiday season. I was quite impressed with our lineup and the deals we will be offereing our customers. Not long after seeing that list, the product started trickling into the stores little by little. We were getting high end headphones, smart watches, Blue-tooth everything and we were just displaying these with no protective features. I immediately began emailing and calling our buying divisions with concerns about potential shrink. I was stonewalled. No one wanted to hear me out and they were content with the open sell concept. Our stores are already equipped with an Alpha Security system, so it would have been no trouble at all to secure some type of protection.
I wasn’t happy at all with this decision. I knew that these items, especially the high end electronics would attract a wide array of shoplifters, especially if word got out that we were the only store in town that didn’t have them locked up. It didn’t take long, either. Stores were reporting 5 and 6 missing a day per store. Thieves were targeting the product faster than the stores could restock the shelves. This would not be good for our 4th quarter. To close the year in the black, we obviously had to sell this product, right? It took about 3 weeks of really hard theft to convince my company’s leadership to invest in a protective tool. For our highest theft electronics, we were able to quickly get Alpha Spider Wraps into our doors.
Of all the retail anti-shoplifting devices out there, the spider wrap is probably one of the most effective tools I have ever used. It doesn’t interfere with the display and it does its job at deterring a would-be thief. As soon as we deployed them to our stores, the theft of our electronics pretty much dried up completely. There was no way a thief could get the device off of the product without attracting the attention of the store staff. Even our buyers agreed that the device worked well enough that they would include this in the cost of any future electronic purchases. In the time it took for our company to react to the theft, we had lost thousands of dollars. While a large company can absorb these losses easily, I often think of smaller stores that don’t know that these products exist. If you are a manager of a smaller store, but are plagued with shoplifting, I urge to start being more pro-active in your approach to protecting your biggest financial investment, your inventory.
For more information, contact us: Prevent Shoplifting, or call 1.770.426.0547
If you hadn’t realized it yet, the holiday shopping season is here! It’s been here since the day after Halloween it seems. Retailers of all shapes and sizes seem to be putting their holiday selections out at increasingly earlier times as each new year passes with hopes of attracting more sales for that ever important 4th quarter push. We all know the struggle. This time of year means more toys, gadgets and the new and hottest electronics. It’s also usually the peak time for shoplifting. So when you’re setting out those new electronics displays, or putting that new fixture full of car GPS units out this season, make sure you’re also thinking about the ways you can prevent shoplifting in order to boost your store’s sales.
It was just a few months ago that I received the list of new items my company would be carrying for the holiday season. I was quite impressed with our lineup and the deals we will be offereing our customers. Not long after seeing that list, the product started trickling into the stores little by little. We were getting high end headphones, smart watches, Blue-tooth everything and we were just displaying these with no protective features. I immediately began emailing and calling our buying divisions with concerns about potential shrink. I was stonewalled. No one wanted to hear me out and they were content with the open sell concept. Our stores are already equipped with an Checkpoint Security system, so it would have been no trouble at all to secure some type of protection.
I wasn’t happy at all with this decision. I knew that these items, especially the high end electronics would attract a wide array of shoplifters, especially if word got out that we were the only store in town that didn’t have them locked up. It didn’t take long, either. Stores were reporting 5 and 6 missing a day per store. Thieves were targeting the product faster than the stores could restock the shelves. This would not be good for our 4th quarter. To close the year in the black, we obviously had to sell this product, right? It took about 3 weeks of really hard theft to convince my company’s leadership to invest in a protective tool. For our highest theft electronics, we were able to quickly get Alpha Spider Wraps into our doors.
Of all the retail anti-shoplifting devices out there, the Spider Wrap is probably one of the most effective tools I have ever used. It doesn’t interfere with the display and it does its job at deterring a would-be thief. As soon as we deployed them to our stores, the theft of our electronics pretty much dried up completely. There was no way a thief could get the device off of the product without attracting the attention of the store staff. Even our buyers agreed that the device worked well enough that they would include this in the cost of any future electronic purchases. In the time it took for our company to react to the theft, we had lost thousands of dollars. While a large company can absorb these losses easily, I often think of smaller stores that don’t know that these products exist. If you are a manager of a smaller store, but are plagued with shoplifting, I urge to start being more pro-active in your approach to protecting your biggest financial investment, your inventory.
For more information, contact us: Prevent Shoplifting, or call 1.770.426.0547
