Plastic or Glass? – Bottle Services

One concern that every nightclub worries about is a physical altercation. Anytime you mix a large group of people with differing personalities, and alcohol there is bound to be some kind of conflict. The hope is that when a fight breaks out the damage is minimized and security has swiftly brought the incident to a halt.

There is also a concern that the nightclub can somehow be held liable for any injuries or personal property damage incurred during the duration of the altercation. As such, nightclubs need to be aware of anything in their clubs that are not bolted down, which could be used as a weapon. These makeshift weapons not only increase the damages but further point fingers at the club as having a role in the fight. 

Stanchions, tables, chairs, beer bottles and decorations have all been used at some point as a tool in a club altercation. Over the last decade or so there has been an increase in the use of liquor bottles, full or otherwise. This is not because of patrons hopping over bars and grabbing bottles to be used in a fight. It is because the bottles were accessible out in the common areas of the club. They were found on tables that had paid for bottle services.

There are some legislators that, after noticing the increase, have started lobbying for these liquor bottles to be banned from service. The argument is that liquor bottles are easily grasped, heavy, and because they are made from glass can do additional damage when they are broken or shattered. Glass beer bottles are similar, but because of their comparatively smaller size, are not as big of a threat. Therefore, the pending and proposed legislation surrounds only glass liquor/ wine bottles, and not glass beer bottles.

So what does this mean for nightclubs that want to serve full liquor or wine bottles during a bottle service? By eliminating the original glass bottles, an entirely new set of concerns comes into play. Clients want to see full, unopened bottles of their favorite alcohol brought to their tables. Part of the allure is to see the full bottle opened before them. It is also a status symbol to have a particular brand’s bottle sitting on their table. Since liquor bottles are designed to be recognized simply by the size shape and color of their bottles, eliminating this original packaging takes away from the draw to spending the hefty price for a bottle service.

Another key feature for clubs to be aware of if the bottles can no longer be used, is maintaining the integrity of the bottle. Without the original bottle, can a client really be sure that they are getting what they paid for? There would be an increased risk that employees might switch out lower dollar liquor for the higher priced one actually paid for. The quantity of the bottle can also be shorted by a few shots without the client’s knowledge. There is also a greater risk that the contents might be tampered with in some other way posing a risk to the client, and to the nightclub’s liability.

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.

Stop the Runner – Liquor Bottle Security

It’s called “pulling a runner,” and, although it may not be an entirely new phenomenon, it is an impactful trend that could quickly wipe out your inventory. So what is it? It’s an effort to steal as many liquor bottles as one can in one fell swoop, typically followed by running out of the store to an awaiting car, engine running, and driver with their foot on the gas. Although just about anyone can “pull a runner,” the trend tends to be among partying college-goers or teens that aren’t legally able to buy liquor, and don’t have any shady adult friends who will buy for them. The good news is that Alpha security has a solution that is likely to deter delinquents and secure your stock.

In many cases, security guards are hired to deter and detect suspicious activity. Not to speak badly about security guards, as I have been one myself; they require an ongoing investment to keep theft down. In many cases, thieves know their capabilities and exploit them. Bottle locks like the EASy Bottle provide a one-time investment and are not susceptible to the same human errors. The locks are simply placed on the top of the bottles that you want to protect, and render them un-penetrable unless the device is removed with the Alpha security magnetic key.

So, let’s imagine for a moment that you are young and foolish again (not to say that you were ever foolish). Your friends convinced you to “pull a runner.” They pull up to the store late at night in your friend’s mom’s car, make fun of you for being apprehensive about it, and finally push you out into the parking lot. The peer pressure has gotten the better of you. You walk inside, palms sweaty and head down, heading straight for the heavy liquor. You look up and see, what is this? You touch the black plastic cap, tap on it, pull it off the shelf, and give it a little tug. It’s on there pretty good. Now you pull as hard as you can to take it off; no luck. So, you figure, go for another bottle. You look around and realize every bottle of anything half-decent has one of those things on them! 

Then all of the sudden, you make eye contact with someone nearby. Did they see you? Do they know you are trying to steal? Do they know you are under age? The pressure and fear becomes unbearable! You are certain that you are going to jail! What do you do? Facing some bad-mouthing from your friends is better than going to jail! Besides, none of them were brave enough to do it anyway! No, you have to get out of there, now, before someone calls the police! You leave, empty handed, deciding to either never attempt that again, or at least to pick somewhere that doesn’t have those dang things on them!

So, maybe not every kid is going to be as wholesome as you were when you were young and foolish. Yes, there will maybe be a few who try to take the bottle anyway. Most likely, they will be older and more experienced thieves, who are a little bit more brazen. After taking a bottle and not being able to drink it, they probably will pick some lower-hanging fruit the next time. On the whole, though, placing bottle locks on your liquor is one of the best investments you can make from losing that expensive liquor and saving your bottom line.

For more information contact us: Liquor Bottle Security or call 1.770.426.0547

The Best Kept Secrets of Retail Theft Prevention

Everyone loves a good story about how a bad guy got caught. They love to hear the exciting details about how the crook crept into the store swiftly, sweat beading on his brow, as he ran to those high-end handbags, picked up the entire rack, and started running out the door when, WHAM!, the store security and police tackled him to the ground, placed him in handcuffs, and carted him off to jail. The good guys got the bad guy, the bad guy goes to jail, and justice is served, right? Well, if you are lucky enough that the goods weren’t damaged, that the criminals didn’t escape with the merchandise, and that you even have store security, that can possibly be the case. If not, you may be fighting an ongoing battle of theft; a battle that is very difficult to win by constantly chasing the mouse with a broom.

The idea is not to bludgeon the bad guys—it is to thwart the thieves with sound retail theft prevention strategies that will disinterest them from stealing from your store. Here are some of the best kept secrets in the world of retail to stop shoplifting.

Floor Stock Limitations may not be the first thing you think of when implementing an anti-shoplifting strategy but they can be the difference between being in the black and receding into the red. It is important that your floor stock is varied to allow shoppers to browse for the product that they want to ultimately purchase, but beware; large stacks of clothing or piles of product are enticing to belligerent boosters. Know your sales volume and which products move more quickly than others. Do your best to meet the demands of sales, but not to exceed stocking the floor beyond what is necessary.

Protecting your product—including security devices like checkpoint security tags will further deter thieves from choosing your business as their next target. These devices not only create a physical feat for the criminal to surmount, but also a psychological psych-out that will make them think twice about stealing. If they have to damage the goods to get the goodies, it will make the take less desirable to them. Using full-fledged checkpoint security systems, which might include electronic article surveillance, checkpoint tags, and other checkpoint labels, is one of the safest ways to ensure retail theft prevention.

Associate awareness and training concerning the best anti-shoplifting tactics is an essential component for a competent plan to stop shoplifting. It is imperative that employees learn how the thieves think by being trained to look for odd behaviors in suspicious shoppers, and how to react to them in an appropriate and safe manner. This loss prevention training might include how to detect red flags like looking at the ceiling, looking at people more than products, double-selecting merchandise, and other tricks of the trade. Depending on your company’s policies, the best reactions may include contacting police, customer-servicing the suspect, or various other possibilities.

Whatever the case may be, employees should be trained to have their wits about them during business hours.

So, now you’re in the know and the cat is out of the bag. There is no need to be swatting your broom, trying to catch that mouse with the cheese already in his grasp. No more cheese than necessary, more rat repellant, and a few well-trained felines will keep the pests off of the porch. Implement these trade secrets, and keep your profit in your pockets.

For more information contact us at Retail Theft Prevention or call 1.770.426.0547

A Historical Outlook- Retail People Counter

When a store sets its budget many different aspects are taken into account. You look at both last years sales budget and actual, and then you try and forecast the increase you would like to see for the coming year. Based on that information, you take into account inventory needed to support those projected sales and the payroll needed to execute the daily tasks. By adding in historical data from a retail people counter, you can more accurately pinpoint how the current year should flow.

Just as looking at last year’s sales information gives you a rough guide to follow when preparing for this year’s sales, a retail people counter provides a loose guideline for how to effectively staff your stores. You might be able to see more clearly where you lost out on potential sales the year before. By comparing sales data, with the retail people counter report, and your allocated payroll, you have a much clearer picture of what was working in the last year, and what did not.

Now that you have a better picture, you can more effectively plan out your yearly budgets. You can look for those lost sales and better staff based on the customer counts. You can look to market sales and advertisement around slow times to help drive customer traffic into the stores, maximizing your advertising dollars. You can make sure when you do run ads, you can staff accordingly to support the customer needs, based on data from the retail people counter, as well as maintaining proper stock and inventory levels on the sales floor. Nothing looses a sale faster than the product being kept in a stock room because you do not have enough employees working to go back and get the merchandise out.

Using Physical Security Measures to Prevent Shoplifting – Part 3

Well, we finally made it to part three of my mini-series on steps you can take to prevent shoplifting in your store. We’ve discussed using customer service and how installing cameras can help deter would-be shoplifters. An important piece a lot of retailers fail to utilize are proper physical security measures. There are tons of anti-shoplifting devices on the market. Depending on your store and budget there is has to be a cost effective solution to any problem you are having with loss. 

 Recently, the company I work for saw a steady increase in losses associated with shoplifting in our pocket knife line. It’s a large store, so we have an entire aisle dedicated to every type of pocket knife you could possibly want. The losses caught the attention of the buying team when they realized that the category was no longer making a profit. Yep… we were losing more knives than we were selling. That’s a lot of knives. On any given day, stores would find anywhere between 10-30 empty packages. Did anyone buy pocket knives? It was obvious we had to do something. We were clearly bleeding and had to find a cost effective way to help prevent shoplifting in this category. 

 After trying and testing a few items, we settled on a simple peg lock. They are designed to keep the merchandise on the peg and can be released by an employee with a key. Very simple, very cheap and they worked. We installed them on the higher priced knives and within a week, we saw a noticeable decrease in losses. Now, I’d be lying to you if I told you this was the complete cure to shoplifting, I’d be lying. This move did shift our losses to the less expensive knives, but it did help protect the more expensive product. We reduced the loss to an acceptable level by using a very simple physical security measure. It didn’t negatively impact our sales and our customers seemed to understand, or not really care that we had to take additional steps to make sure the merchandise was available for them to purchase. 

Now, there are tons of tools you can use to increase the effectiveness of physical security measures in your stores and a peg lock is just an example. Every store is different and a good merchant will know what is best suited for their own stores. When you’re walking your store, walk with the eye of a shoplifter. Look at what you could easily steal and ask yourself if it’s worth protecting. While you can’t very well go and lock up every single item in your store, you can aim to reduce your high dollar losses.

While there is no single method you can employ that will completely prevent shoplifting, taking several small steps over time can help your business reduce unnecessary losses. Whether you engage your teams to promote some of the best customer service possible, install a new camera system, or use some simple physical security measures, you will definitely see a reduction in shoplifting. As retailers, we will also be fighting the battle between profit and loss, make sure you are doing your part to minimize your stores exposure to loss. 

For more information, contact us at Prevent Shoplifting, or call 1.770.426.0547

Proper Training Is The First Step – Stop Employee Theft

When your business is losing money, you need to dig deep and find out what’s happening.  Are shoplifters coming in and taking your merchandise?  Are vendors charging and crediting you correctly?  Do you have an employee that’s stealing?  That last one is typically the hardest one for business owners and managers to see.  Whether they are embezzling cash or taking merchandise out the back door, it all adds up, and you take the hit for it.  Identifying and stopping employee theft has to be a part of your business plan.

Every employee should know your policies and expectations.  Whether it is ringing up merchandise, taking the payment, or processing a refund correctly, they should all receive consistent training, and even sign off they understand and will abide by that standard of performance that you have set.  Proper training could be your number one priority to put a stop to employee theft.

I sat in on an interview of an employee caught committing refund fraud.  The store manager discovered some high dollar refunds on items returned without receipts.  When a customer returned an item without the proof of purchase, they were supposed to receive a store credit, but that was not happening when this employee was on duty with a particular manager.  The only way to override and give cash back was by scanning a manager’s card.  During the interview, he said when a certain manager on duty, they did not want to be interrupted.  Rather than be called away from their assigned task, their solution was to leave their manager card at the front register with the cashier.  At first he only used it for legitimate purposes, like voiding an item a customer changed their mind about or actual customer refunds.  After some time went by, he found he was in need of additional money for bills, but didn’t see how he could afford to make it on his current salary.  He thought about it, realized his opportunity and took advantage of it.   He felt he was in a financial crisis, and figured the company could spare some cash to help him out.  So, when that manager on duty, and out of sight, he picked out some items from the sales floor and refunded them at the register.  Then he just pocketed the cash.

Was the manager that left the card with him also responsible for that employee theft?  She claimed she wasn’t aware she wasn’t supposed to leave her card with the cashier.  She said she only left it at first if she had to leave the store, like when she went to the bank, so if he had an issue, he wouldn’t have to make the customer wait for her to return.  Then she started leaving it with the cashier during her shift so she could get her assigned work completed.  Upon checking her employee file we discovered she had been rubber stamped through her training, and there were none of the sign-offs that would indicate otherwise.  How can we leave someone in charge of our business when we are gone, if don’t give them all the tools they need to be successful?  Common sense isn’t always so common, and if we don’t share our knowledge with our employees, we can’t expect them to always get it right.  Stopping employee theft starts with complete training.

For more information contact us at Stop Employee Theft or call 1.770.426.0547