Vendor Potential – Bottle Security

January 4, 2014 by

One of the most overlooked areas of losses in a retail establishment is vendor fraud or vendor theft. Most of the time we associate vendor theft with either large box/department stores, or with high-end boutiques. The harsh reality is that vendor fraud is relatively easy to commit when a liquor store has minimal liquor bottle security, or just minimal security in general.

We see the soda vendors frequently committing fraud in restaurants or other general store situations. One of the most common ways is by falsifying the shipments. Either they don’t deliver all of the product they invoice for, or they take additional product back that they don’t give credit to the store for.

Liquor distributors are no different, especially if the individual reps work on commission. It is important to verify the manifests on each of the shipments to the actual product being received. I see situations where instead of a premium liquor being delivered, the store gets a case of well instead.

Another way the vendors steal from you is by taking back outdated product and either taking extra bottles, or by taking more expensive bottles than what they give you credit for.

If you can, use the Alpha Security EASy bottle bottle locks, for liquor bottle security, to prevent this kind of switch. The vendor can’t take the high-end goods that still have bottle locks. You can then verify each bottle is correct and that were given proper credit from the vendor.

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

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An Iron Fist – Alpha Security

January 3, 2014 by

Just because it is usually better to rule with a velvet glove instead of an iron fist doesn’t mean that is always the case. Alpha Security understands the difference between the two and when the iron fist would be more appropriate. That is why they make the Alpha Steel Grip bottle lock.

When it came to deterring shoplifters, your liquor bottle security can’t be soft. How practical would it be to politely ask every thief not to steal when they come in? How about posting a no shoplifting sign that said “pretty please with sugar on top”? pretty ridiculous (and ineffective) if you ask me.          

These are the times that you need that iron fist, or at least a steel grip for your liquor bottle security. A bottle lock is used because it is a stronger and more assertive deterrent.

The Alpha Security Alpha Steel Grip is a basic alternative for bottle locks. It is a steel band with an alarm component inside that is strapped to a bottles neck. It secures into place and stays there until a detacher key at the point of sale removes the band.

When the need for an iron fist arises, it is good to know that there are products and resources out there that show the shoplifters that you mean business. You are then free to use your customer friendly velvet glove with the rest of your customers.

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 

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Out of Bounds – Alpha 3 Alarm

January 3, 2014 by Leave a Comment

Working in a mall setting, it can be a challenge apprehending shoplifters. It was even worse before we started using the Alpha 3 Alarm products by Alpha Security for our retail anti-theft devices.

I should begin by saying that our primary goal is always to recover the stolen merchandise. Given the choice between recovering our product and apprehending a shoplifter, we will always get our product back first. It is purely a financial decision – we want to recover our financial loss. That can include everything from trying to prevent shoplifting before it happens, to apprehending  a shoplifter.

We started to use the Alpha 3 Alarm retail anti-theft device for the simple reason that it is easier to track down our merchandise. When a shoplifter steals an item, we have to wait until he exits our store before we can apprehend. Unfortunately, we now have to contend with all of the mall shoppers. If the shoplifter starts to run, they can easily get lost in the crowd.

Not anymore though. The Alpha 3 Alarm gives an audible signal that lets us follow the product, even if the shoplifter discards the merchandise along the way. We can recover our product, even if the shoplifter manages to escape.

Visit the Loss Prevention Store for Alpha 2Alarm, Alpha 3Alarm, Alpha Fashion2, Alpha Jewel Lok, Alpha Nano Gate,  Alpha Shark Tag, Alpha Spider Wrap and other retail anti-theft devices from Alpha Security to use in conjunction with your Electronic Article Surveillance or EAS system that can help you prevent shoplifting in your business.

For more information on how you can use Alpha Security retail anti-theft devices and your Electronic Article Surveillance or EAS system to prevent shoplifting contact us or call 1.770.426.0547 

 

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Working Late – Internal Theft

January 3, 2014 by Leave a Comment

Over the years, I have seen many employees and managers convince themselves that the only way to really get anything accomplished is to work an overnight shift. They complain that the customers (gasp!) are too needy and prevent them from accomplishing their tasks. While they may rid themselves of any pesky customers, we forget that it also rids them of any security measures that might prevent internal theft.

You see, it is not just about keeping a door locked or having retail anti-theft devices that prevent employee theft. It is having another set of eyes on them to keep an employee honest.

When you have an associate or a manager insisting on working overnights, you might want to look at a few things first. Ask why they are unable to be productive during the day. Are they unmotivated and disgruntled? Well, then that employee probably is a prime candidate for causing internal theft. It might not be the best idea to leave them unsupervised at night.

If you do let them work overnights, make sure you do your best to control the situation. Can you set a perimeter alarm so the building is secured while they are working? That is an alarm that only responds when an exterior door is opened, but not the motion detectors on the inside. That way someone else locks the employee into the store for the night. Barring a medical emergency, they would stay inside until someone unlocks the door the next morning. If anything seems strange along the way, don’t hesitate to start an employee theft investigation.

For more information on employee theft, employee theft investigation or internal theft contact us or call 1.770.426.0547 – Atlanta Georgia

Visit the Loss Prevention Store to purchase CCTV Systems that can help you stop Employee Theft and Internal Theft problems and help with your Employee Theft Investigation.

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What Would You Admit To? – Criminal Background Check

January 2, 2014 by

Maybe it’s just me, but if I was caught committing a crime that I was later convicted of, I would tell as few people as possible. In particular, if I were trying to get my life back on track, I would definitely try to avoid telling any potential new employer to try and get a better shot at being hired. That is why Criminal Background checks are a critical part of the pre-employment screening process.

It is about having all of the facts. The more information you have, the better qualified you will be to make the best possible decisions. Criminal background checks help give you those advantages. It helps you discover if an applicant is telling the truth regarding their criminal activity.

Sometimes, an applicant may even admit to having a prior conviction, but they might down play what the actual conviction or offense was. That way they are being truthful about having a record, but are trying to make it sound better on paper than what it actually was.

Just because you find out (through the criminal background checks or the applicant’s honesty) that there was a conviction, does not mean you absolutely must reject that applicant. We built the correctional system based on the premise of rehabilitation. Some applicants will have learned their lesson and will not commit another crime.

Ultimately you can now make that decision because you truly have all of the information to make that determination.

To purchase Pre-Employment Screening Services or for more information on background check experts, background checks, criminal background checks, employee background checks or pre employment screening contact us at the background check company or call 1.770.426.0547 

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It’s The Little Things – Security Tags on Clothes

January 2, 2014 by

Just because you are using security tags on clothes for loss prevention does not mean that you can’t continue to make your product and your displays look their very best. As a merchandising manager, I have spent countless hours trying to find the balance between my visual displays and following effective clothing security practices.

To be used in conjunction with your existing Checkpoint tags are the Alpha Security Fashion2 clothing security tags. These tags are customer friendly, fashion forward, and of course a huge deterrent for shoplifters.

The biggest difference these tags have over the basic Checkpoint tags is that they are much smaller. They are also available in black instead of just a standard white. This makes them less obvious visually in your presentations, but does not conceal them completely from the roving eye of a shoplifter.

Security tags on clothes are designed to respond as a clothing alarm. They should not be a distraction from marketing or sales promotions. By making these particular tags smaller, easier to color coordinate with darker fabrics, and be overall less obvious is a huge win. Your visual presentation will not be compromised in the same way it has been for years when you use big and bulky Security tags on clothes.

Visit the Loss Prevention Store to purchase Checkpoint Tags, a Clothing Alarm, Clothing Security or Clothing Security Tags to put Security Tags on Clothes and an Electronic Article Surveillance or EAS system.

For more information on Checkpoint tags, clothing security, clothing alarm, or clothing security tags how they can work with your Electronic Article Surveillance or EAS system contact us at security tags on clothes or call 1.770.426.0547

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Point Of Sale Challenges, ROI And Benefits

January 1, 2014 by Leave a Comment

theft (13)One of the most desired mobile integration solutions in the retail industry has been the Point of sale. It is not surprising that retailers are keen to learn everything they can about this solution. The numbers are pretty clear. 66% of U.S. Smartphone owners use their phone to help them shop, and if you are not ready, or don’t have a POS solution for your business, you should.

Read more about this topic by following the links below.

Mobile POS: The Loss Prevention Challenges

66% of U.S Smartphone owners use their phone to help them shop.

80% of Smartphone owners say they want more mobile-optimized product information while they’re shopping in stores.

43% of Smartphone owners have used their mobile device while in a store for shopping purposes.

Consumers spent 6 times as much time in retailer’s app in December 2012 than they did a year earlier.

These are the sorts of statistics driving the retail-sector mobile revolution. Retailers are keenly interested in becoming more engaged with the mobile-integrated lives of their customers. At the same time retailers are embracing their own mobile devices as a kind of retail Swiss Army knife—multifunctional, powerful, yet compact and portable. With both consumers and retailers desiring more mobile integration in the retail realm, a diversity of mobile solutions has naturally emerged, perhaps most visibly the mobile point of sale.

Immediate ROI with Mobile POS

You may not know the name, but you have probably eaten a Juicys’ product.  As the leader in special event food concessions, its growing fleet needed a new system, and,  for the back office — a real-time view of sales.

Juicys, purveyor of county fair favorites  like the famous Kawabunga Corn Dog, Turkey Legs, Giant Western Sausages and the Funnel Cake Sundae, got its start in 1984 as a single-person corn dog stand. In nearly three decades, Juicys has grown from a humble corn dog stand into a massively popular outdoor dining and special event food concessions vendor.

Mobile Grill Means Mobile POS
The company is frequently on the road with its Outlaw Grill, the world’s largest mobile grill trailer. Juicys owner Brett Enright was looking for a new POS system to ring sales and provide better oversight into the company’s back office operations.

With a fleet of Juicys trucks moving constantly, Enright needed to be able to see comprehensive sales reports from each truck, from anywhere, at any time.
Ease-of-use was also a must—the system needed to be easy to set up and move. Enright had already ruled out several options: Wi-Fi systems had proven themselves unreliable and it was difficult to set up a Wi-Fi infrastructure at each stop the trucks made.

The Gift of Mobile POS

Long lines and holiday crowds can easily turn the most wonderful time of the year into the most frustrating time of the year. Today’s consumers are used to being one-click away from most items on their wish list and as they abandon their virtual shopping carts for the real thing this shopping season, retailers should be prepared to keep up with their tech savvy needs in brick-and-mortar stores. This means easy payments, fast service and exceptional customer service. One of the most successful ways retailers can create a stand-out in-store experience is through the use of a mobile point-of-sale (MPOS) system.
A mobile POS system benefits both the retailer and the consumer by creating an approachable workforce that offers improved customer experience, while simultaneously streamlining behind-the-scenes processes. A simple consumer solution such as Square or Level-Up will offer most mom-and-pop shops a solution to the increase in holiday shoppers by offering a faster and easier checkout experience. However, for large retailers considering deploying a mobile POS system this holiday season, an enterprise-grade solution is the truly the only reliable, secure option. Here are a few things retailers with a mobile POS on their holiday wish list should consider when picking out a solution:

  • Checkout Features: Consumers have more ways to purchase an item than ever before, often at the click of a button. Retailers need to be prepared to accommodate whatever form of payment a customer wants to use, especially if that company operates globally. In total, mobile POS systems should be able to handle traditional payments, including cash, as well as chip and pin, European chip and pin, RFID and near-field communication (NFC). Barcode scanners are also an in-demand checkout feature of mobile POS because they automatically activate with a simple swipe across the scanning field cutting down on the time it takes to complete a purchase.
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Unproductive Time – Loss Prevention Training

January 1, 2014 by Leave a Comment

When you have theft happening in your store, do you know what you will lose? There is more to those cases than just a simple financial loss. What about your lost productivity during the inventory replenishment process? If you have no loss prevention training, you will loose significantly more in time and productivity that what the employee theft can do in straight dollars lost.

If you have a merchandise theft case, you are increasing the amount of time you are spending replenishing your inventory through additional orders and time spent physically restocking the shelves. Can you track those losses? Can you determine where our merchandise is being lost from and how to solve it?

If an employee is taking cash, you obviously will have a very specific dollar loss that you will be looking at. What about the other losses? How about your time? How much time will you lose researching those losses? Do you know how to track your cash shortages and not only figure out which employee (or employees) is stealing from you? Will that theft case hold up in court or will it be dismissed leaving you open to further litigation?

Taking part in loss prevention training will help you with those questions. You will benefit from other’s experience in tracking and building theft cases. The loss prevention training will help give you a step-by-step process to guide you through the investigation and give you pointers on things you might have overlooked otherwise.

For more information on Loss Prevention Seminars, Loss Prevention Training, or Loss Prevention Workshop contact us or call 1.770.426.0547 – Atlanta Georgia

Visit the Loss Prevention Systems website for more information on Retail Employee Theft and Retail Shoplifting problems and view the Retail Loss Prevention Seminars, Retail Loss Prevention Training and Retail Loss Prevention Workshop we offer to help with your Employee Theft and Shoplifting problems.

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Return to Sender – Checkpoint Systems

December 30, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Our store uses Checkpoint systems for anti-shoplifting. This helps to alleviate most of the criminal element from coming into the store to start with. Next, these same tools that we use to stop shoplifting help clue us in when someone tries a fraudulent refund. They come to the cashier and try to refund merchandise that still has the Checkpoint systems tags still attached, and no receipt.

Other stores that I know of do not use retail theft prevention devices for anti-shoplifting. Since the theft of the merchandise was so easy, the store was viewed as an easy refund target within the community. They also did not have any sort of policy in place regarding refunds that did not have a receipt. As a result, refunders on almost a daily basis targeted them.

We started a policy of allowing customers three no receipted refunds within a six-month period before we declined the return. That gave the legitimate shopper an opportunity to return items that a receipt was lost, or they received the items as a gift.

The end result was that we were able to make accommodations to satisfy (instead of alienating) our customer base (usually the ones who did not return merchandise with retail theft prevention tags). For those that abused the refunds, we were able to capture data on who was doing the returns (asking for a picture ID) and track their movements and develop shoplifting cases accordingly on those suspects.

Visit the Loss Prevention Store to purchase Anti-Shoplifting devices and your Electronic Article Surveillance or EAS system from Checkpoint Systems to stop shoplifting in your store.

For more information on Anti-Shoplifting, Checkpoint Labels, a Checkpoint Security System, Checkpoint Security Tags, Checkpoint Systems, or Checkpoint Tags and how they can work with your Electronic Article Surveillance or EAS system contact us at Retail theft prevention to Stop Shoplifting in your store or call 1.770.426.0547 

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Hiding in Plain Sight – Checkpoint Tags

December 30, 2013 by Leave a Comment

A well-dressed man came into the store. He greeted and waved hello to all of the employees he came across. Because he was so outgoing and friendly, the employees completely disregarded him and ultimately did not provide customer service.

When the checkpoint tags went off at the door, the employees saw this man walking out the door with his arms piled full of clothes that had not been paid for.

Can you imagine their shock and disbelief at what happened?

Had there not been security tags on clothes the man was stealing, they never would have even noticed. The clothing alarm that made them look up to see what was going on never would have gone off.

This is a rare situation where the perpetrator was going to steal regardless of how many checkpoint tags there were. The only thing that would have stopped him was an employee actually giving excellent customer service.

By being so overtly friendly, this shoplifter was, in essence hiding in plain sight. He was counting on the employees’ dismissal in order to steal as much as he wanted. He knew that the employees were looking for someone lurking in the corners, not someone that was going to be so obvious.

This worked to his advantage since the employees ignored him as they assumed he was a low risk for shoplifting.

Visit the Loss Prevention Store to purchase Checkpoint Tags, a Clothing Alarm, Clothing Security or Clothing Security Tags to put Security Tags on Clothes and an Electronic Article Surveillance or EAS system.

For more information on Checkpoint tags, clothing security, clothing alarm, or clothing security tags how they can work with your Electronic Article Surveillance or EAS system contact us at security tags on clothes or call 1.770.426.0547

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