Staff Editor — Page 159

Retail security when Resources are Limited

November 2, 2012 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

I was recently brought into a new store as a loss prevention supervisor and have found my resources extremely lacking and my workload practically back breaking. The store has little in the way of available retail anti-theft devices, no retail security cameras to truly speak of, and the staff is made up of people who are either employee theft suspects or completely clueless in the way of shrink reduction practices.

I know that I am not the first loss prevention professional to encounter such a daunting situation while being assigned a store. In fact it is not the first time that I, myself, have been put into such a situation. However there are those among our ranks, usually the newer members of the profession, who might retreat when faced with such obstacles. For those in the latter camp I have two pieces of advice that might make things easier to tackle.

The first is common sense. No matter how bad things in your store might be, don’t try to tackle every problem at once. Take your issues one at a time in a priority of worst-case to easy-peasy and you’ll save yourself a ton of headaches.

Secondly, don’t let a lack of resources stop you. Rather, get inventive with what you have at your disposal. No cameras? Enforce a 100% tagging policy. Not enough staff? Let your cashiers be your eyes and ears. Improvisation is the key to solving problems.

Visit RBC Security Solutions for retail Anti-Shoplifting or retail Anti- theft Devices that can help you with your Retail Security needs like Cheap Tags and Cheap Labels. Our Electronic Article Surveillance or EAS Labels and Tags are not cheap they are inexpensive and made in the U.S.

For more information on how you can use retail Anti- theft Devices in conjunction with your Electronic Article Surveillance or EAS system to help you prevent retail theft in your business with products like Cheap Tags and Cheap Labels contact us.

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Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Anti-Shoplifting, anti-theft devices, Cheap Labels, Cheap Tags, Retail Anti Theft Devices, retail security

Don’t lose your shirt, use RBC!

November 2, 2012 by Staff Editor

Small specialty clothing stores have been the target of many things that are bad for business, the economy, slashed budgets, reduced payroll and opportunistic thieves. The owners of these businesses are frantic and are hanging by a thread attempting to keep their doors open. The inventory losses coming at the tail end of a year of dismal sales due to the slowing economy and reduced payroll was the last facet of the perfect storm. Thieves see the slowing economy as a huge opportunity to pillage businesses that during the good times have retail anti-theft devices and plenty of payroll to ensure good floor coverage.

One particular clothing store that I helped was in dire straits. The owner was on the brink of closing her doors and could not understand why her clothes were walking out the door. A quick observation of her business showed that her lack of payroll and a non functioning checkpoint system were high on the list as to the causes of the shrink. The Checkpoint system was not broken, in fact once plugged in it worked just fine; however, when she opened her doors the system was already installed. This business owner did not know how to go about turning the system on and figured that she would never need it since she only had in her opinion a small business. The main problem was this business owner was not aware of the fact that an EAS system is one of the best clothing security tools in the industry. I explained that all of the clothes within her four walls could be tagged or labeled and if someone attempted to remove them from the store the EAS pedestals would sound the alarm. She understood the fact that when there is proper signage indicating there is a working EAS system even if payroll and staff have been reduced there will still be a deterrence factor against shoplifting.

The selling point to the business owner was the fact that she could purchase inexpensive labels and tags from RBC Security Solutions to tag her products. She was also impressed with the fact that the tags and labels were manufactured here in the United States. As a small business owner she appreciates the fact that companies are able to develop and manufacture products here in the US thereby supporting local economies. Once her EAS system was activated, her employees trained on how to tag/label and respond to EAS alarms her weekly inventory category counts immediately improved, the hemorrhaging stopped. Another small business saved with the ingenuity of an American business improvising and manufacturing products that help keep businesses from failing due to high shrink.

Visit RBC Security Solutions for Checkpoint Compatible Clothing Security retail Anti- theft Devices that can help you protect your clothes and prevent retail theft in your business with products like Cheap Labels and Cheap Tags. Our Electronic Article Surveillance or EAS Labels and Tags are not cheap they are inexpensive and made in the U.S.

For more information on how you can use Clothing Security retail Anti- theft Devices in conjunction with your Electronic Article Surveillance or EAS system to protect your Clothes and help you stop retail theft in your business with products like Cheap Labels and Cheap Tags contact us.

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Filed Under: clothing alarm Tagged With: Cheap Labels, Cheap Tags, Clothes, Clothing Security

Hollywood Trends are High Theft Priority

October 31, 2012 by Staff Editor

Celebrities set the trends. If Lady Gaga sings about her Michael Kors handbag and how “you” can’t afford one, her fans will be sporting the pricey bags soon after. At around $350 a pop, not everyone will be able to shell out the cash for one.

Along with handbags, Michael Kors designs watches, clothes, wallets and fashion jewelry-all at high-end prices. Knowing what brands are hot in the media world can set you a step ahead of the game. Using retail anti-theft devices and paying particularly close attention to the activity occurring on the sales floor near those sought after brands can help deter theft.

Another fad-brand in the celeb world is True Religion, a high-fashion jean brand that is commonly targeted for theft. Lucky Brand has also been made famous by celebrities and is highly desired. Most brands that the rich and famous boast about are unaffordable to the average consumer and therefor more likely to pose a problem of theft.

Whether you run a big box store or a specialty boutique, it is integral to know your brands and add extra retail clothing security tags where needed.

Visit RBC Security Solutions for Checkpoint Compatible Clothing Security Anti-theft Devices that can help you protect your clothes and prevent retail theft in your business with products like Cheap Tags and Cheap Labels. Our Electronic Article Surveillance or EAS Labels Tags are not cheap they are inexpensive and made in the U.S.

For more information on how you can use Clothing Security Anti-theft Devices in conjunction with your Electronic Article Surveillance or EAS system to protect your Clothes and help you prevent retail theft in your business with products like Cheap Tas and Cheap Labels contact us.

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Filed Under: clothing alarm Tagged With: Cheap Labels, Cheap Tags, Clothes, Clothing Security

Checkpoint systems can only do half of the work.

October 29, 2012 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

As much as one would like to think that all you need for retail theft prevention in a store is buying a Checkpoint security system it just isn’t that simple. As good an anti-shoplifting measure as Checkpoint systems are they don’t function as the be-all, end-all device in the game of loss prevention. Instead it serves to supplement you, the store manager or loss prevention team, in your bid to stop shoplifting.

Don’t think that this blog is meant to dissuade anyone from actually procuring a Checkpoint security system; it isn’t. The truth of the matter is that I am simply attempting to enlighten the readers to the facts: there is no such thing as the ‘absolute power’ in retail theft prevention. There is no super-device, no magic arrow to solve ALL your shoplifting problems. It is YOU who has to determine what suite of equipment best assists your staff and fits to your store’s layout. It is YOU who has to decide what provides the best coverage of your products and entry points.

Even if Checkpoint systems could do almost everything on their own, they would be nothing without human oversight. Even the best of systems can be defeated by determined thieves so it is up to us, the humans who can make decisions to go on the evidence before us. At the very least, these systems provide us with a set of stop-gaps that allow us to ward of less determined criminals and create obstacles to slow down the much more ‘seasoned’ ones.

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

Filed Under: antishoplifting Tagged With: checkpoint security system, Checkpoint security tags, checkpoint systems, retail theft prevention

Check your References!

October 29, 2012 by Staff Editor

So you have a candidate for a job sitting before you. He is well dressed, his resume is glowing, and his work history is a perfect fit for your company’s needs. As the interview progresses he says everything you could ever want to hear, answering each question flawlessly and without hesitation.

Usually when something is too good to be true it is.

An example would be at an automotive service center attached to one of my stores. It is a part of the company that suffers from a high turnover rate for a variety of reasons too long to list here. At this particular center, the employee attrition rate was so high that the center manager had given up on performing thorough background checks and went by what he saw in front of him. He was trying to fill vacancies which were crippling his ability to keep the center viable.

One day an applicant sat down with him for an interview with a resume that said he was capable and experienced as a technician and the references listed all gave him amazing reviews.

Less than a week into this individual’s career at the center he was tasked with performing a belt replacement on a car; something he claimed to have experience with. The engine blew within seconds of being started. The individual had never done a belt change before and ‘just winged it’. Because of the incident a background check was done and it was found he had never worked ANYWHERE he had claimed and his references were all personal acquaintances posing as former supervisors. These were all details that could have been easily discovered with pre-employment screening.

Basically the moral of this story is if the center manager had requested an employee background check per company policy, or even used one of the company background check experts he could have avoided hiring the fraud and kept himself from getting fired for his mistakes.

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

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: background check company, Background checks, criminal background check, employee background checks, pre employment screening

The Real Cost of Bottle Loss

October 29, 2012 by Staff Editor

Retailers are scrutinized for their profits like never before. Whether a company has to report to franchise owners, shareholders or investment firms, someone is always looking at the bottom line profit. In the case of anyone who does alcohol sales, the cost of losing even one bottle is astronomical.

First you have to look at the cost of the bottle lost. Then you have to start adding up how much it would be to replace that bottle. It’s not just the price of a new bottle; there are many other associated costs.

You have to add up the margin loss on the first bottle, and the cost of any manager or employee to investigate that theft. Don’t forget the labor cost of checking inventory on hands to reorder the correct amount of product. There are labor costs to receive, unload and merchandise the new bottle, all overhead costs such as taxes, electricity and rent…. The list can go on and on.

While using products like EASy Bottle Bottle Locks by Alpha Security’s can be an initial investment, the long-term price of bottle security pays for itself in the end.

To use this type of bottle security, labor is only used once to apply the bottle locks. To detach the bottle locks takes only a moment of time at the POS. It is much quicker than trying to figure out what happened to a bottle of alcohol. Long term payouts with a short-term investment always make prying eyes happy!

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 Locks, Bottle lock, Liquor Bottle Security, EASy Bottle or Bottle Security and how they can work with your Electronic Article Surveillance or EAS system contact us or call 1.770.426.0547

Filed Under: Security Tagged With: Alpha Security, bottle lock, bottle locks, bottle security, easy bottle, liquor bottle security

Are You Seeing Every Facet with your Clothing Security?

October 29, 2012 by Staff Editor

Having a clothing alarm in your store is obviously the best clothing security device you can employ. That being said the system is only as good as the people and policies that work and are enforced within those same four walls. Being a multi unit loss prevention manager allowed me to see how good or how bad a clothing alarm could work depending on the store staff. In the good stores the employees were trained from day one on the importance of clothing security, how to place security tags on clothes, how the clothing security tags functioned and how to properly react to a clothing alarm.

Knowledgeable store managers understood that having a Checkpoint system was a benefit that if worked with properly could reduce the store’s shrink. They also understood that the weakest employee would be their weakest link in shrink reduction. An inept employee could have negative effects on the clothing alarm system in a number of ways; for example, they could improperly place security tags on clothes causing damage to the product or offering little or no deterrence to the potential shoplifter, they could simply forget to apply the checkpoint tags and they could improperly react to a clothing alarm by overreacting or not reacting at all. The good store managers are always on top of training and auditing compliance of the consistency and proper application of the checkpoint tags.

One of my stores was constantly having issues with attempts and successful defeats of the clothing security tags. This is a huge red flag that there are much larger problems within the store. I immediately called my district sales counterpart to review and crunch some numbers. We sat down and reviewed inventory counts as well as daily, weekly and monthly sales trends and quickly realized that shrink was trending up and sales were trending down. I knew this would be the case but I wanted my sales partner to be there when I put the two trends together so that he could see how I came about that conclusion from a few defeated checkpoint tags. In an attempt to defeat security tags on clothes you bring a lot of attention to yourself as well as make a lot of noise. Having this many repeated offenses within one store told me that the staff was not employing good customer service and had become task oriented as opposed to paying attention to their surroundings and more importantly to the customer. I invited my sales partner to sit in the LP office and watch the performance of his staff. Within an hour we had concluded that indeed a mass training effort was needed, and as a side note he helped me and one of my store detectives apprehend a shoplifter who had cut a couple checkpoint tags off of some shirts and stuffed them down his pants.

My sales partner could not believe we had found poor sales numbers and poor customer service practices as a result of finding defeated clothing security tags. I explained to him that the checkpoint system is helpful on many levels and every piece if studied can give you insight as to the entire business not merely loss prevention. From that point on we shared a great partnership that opened many insights for both of us into either side of the business.

That type of partnership allows for deeper understanding of business decisions that on the surface you with which you may not agree. Clothing security is imperative and necessary but one must never forget to utilize every facet of the checkpoint system. I always tell my peers never doubt what a checkpoint system can do for your business.

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

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Checkpoint tags, clothing alarm, Clothing Security, clothing security tags, security tags on clothes

Management can Create Employee Theft

October 29, 2012 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

Employee theft, also known as internal theft, causes close to fifty percent of all retail business loss. In thirty years of conducting employee theft investigations, I am still shocked by how little common sense is taken into consideration in theft prevention.

For example, I conducted an investigation where $5000 in forged business checks were cashed. It turned out that the stock of checks was unsecure in an office supply room. The janitor’s stole 20 checks from the middle of the stack, waited a while and then began to cash them. These checks should have been secured in a locked cabinet with strict controlled access. The checks should have been logged out and issued to the person that processes them.

We drop our guard because it is “more difficult” to do it the right way, however the only way to employee theft by doing it the “right way” not the easy way. The key is “prevention”.

Another excuse we say is, “Oh I trust that person, and they would never do that”. When a management person says that, they are basically saying that they have no business common sense.

Another case I worked on involved employees that stole hundreds of thousands of dollars in product from a warehouse they worked in. They had keys to the warehouse that contained millions of dollars in merchandise. The alarm system was not reporting when the doors were being open and closed. So coming back at night and loading up a truck was not a problem.

Employee theft, or internal theft, lurks around every corner. You have to be actively watching for it to prevent it. Internal theft will not go away or stop on its own. In fact it will get worse. Get your policy manual off the shelf, dust it off, update it and make sure people understand that this is your companies “business bible”, live it, enforce it! This doesn’t mean that it never changes. As your business changes your policy and procedures should change.

Learn this and more in our Loss Prevention Seminar and Loss Prevention Workshop.

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.

Filed Under: Seminar Tagged With: Employee Theft, Loss Prevention Seminar, Loss Prevention Seminars, Loss Prevention Training, Loss Prevention Workshop, shoplifting

Don’t turn your studs into duds

October 29, 2012 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

Alpha Security has a new line of retail anti theft devices. They are called Jewelry Lok and are probably one of the best new resources out on the market to prevent shoplifting.

Some of the problems faced with stud earrings are that they are small, so a shoplifter can easily conceal them. With traditional jewelry cards, it only takes a shoplifter a second to take the backs off and pocket a pair of stud earrings.

Beyond shoplifting, I have seen customers (or children) take only one earring off a card, drop it and not be able to find it. This renders the earrings virtually unsaleable.

The Jewel Lok is a quick three-step process to secure your stud earrings to the card preventing shoplifting, loss, and damages.

First you take the backs off of the earrings and put them in a well thought out holder on the Jewelry Lok. Next you hold the earrings in place while sliding the lock over the posts of the studs. Step three- snap it in place, and voila! Your studs are secure.

Removal is just as simple. Place the card over the detacher, lining it up with the “ears”. Pull straight up on the card, so you don’t bend the posts. The Jewel Lok stays in place. Next, reattach the earring backs and you are done!

Visit the Loss Prevention Store for retail anti theft devices 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 retail anti theft devices and your Electronic Article Surveillance or EAS system to prevent shoplifting contact us or call 1.770.426.0547

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Jewel Lok, Prevent Shoplifting, Retail Anti Theft Devices

Clothing Security Methodology

October 29, 2012 by Staff Editor

If you have a retail store that focuses on selling clothes you should be made aware of the fact that clothing security is much more than simply picking out a few retail anti-theft devices and thinking you are all set. In truth you have to do everything from picking the anti-theft devices to ensuring the clothes are placed in an area of the store that makes them less vulnerable to potential shoplifters.

Store layouts are key in protecting your assets. For starters; placing the clothes as far from the entrance as possible ensures that they are less likely to be the target of ‘grab-and-dash’ types of theft. Then, ensuring that there are very visible cameras or other forms of surveillance devices helps make the thieves think twice when targeting said items. Finally, the biggest issue in clothing security is protecting items going into a fitting room. Not all places can afford to add it to the payroll, but I cannot proclaim the value of a continuous fitting room attendant enough. A physical presence of a store employee is an almost surefire way to keep people from using your fitting rooms to steal items from your store.

Visit RBC Security Solutions for Clothing Security Anti- theft Devices that can help you protect your clothes and prevent retail theft in your business with products like Cheap Tags and Cheap Labels. Our Electronic Article Surveillance or EAS Labels and Tags are not cheap they are inexpensive and made in the U.S.

For more information on how you can use Clothing Security Anti- theft Devices in conjunction with your Electronic Article Surveillance or EAS system to protect your Clothes and help you prevent retail theft in your business with products like Cheap Tags and Cheap Labels contact us.

Click here for your Free Sample of these new Cheap Tags and Cheap Labels for your Clothing Security needs!

Filed Under: clothing alarm Tagged With: Cheap Labels, Cheap Tags, Clothes, Clothing Security