Staff Editor — Page 170

One, two, three

September 3, 2012 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

With so many great retail anti theft devices out there to prevent shoplifting, it can get kind of confusing understanding the nuances of each type of product.

I wanted to give a quick overview of the different stages of EAS alarms to include 2 Alarm, and 3 Alarm products.

At the most basic of levels, all EAS products (soft and hard tags) regardless of form are equipped with a level one alarm. It means that the alarm will go off at the front doors when the retail anti theft devices passes trough, if they are not deactivated or removed first.

That seems simple enough.

Next comes the 2 Alarm. These are products that are a little more complex. The alarms are for higher ticket or higher theft items that need a little bit better of security. A 2 Alarm product will emit an audible alarm if the device is tampered with. So even if the EAS is not near a doorway, the alarm will sound if someone tries to remove the device.

A 3 Alarm EAS tag is the highest and most involved form of retail anti theft devices to prevent shoplifting. A 3 Alarm will do what both a one alarm, and a 2 Alarm product will do. The best part is that the 3 Alarm will continue to emit that penetrating audible alarm for a full ten minutes after the product has left the store.

I hope this helps clarify the differences for you.

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: 2 Alarm, 3 Alarm, Prevent Shoplifting, Retail Anti Theft Devices

Doing your part

September 3, 2012 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

Retail security goes beyond anti theft devices. It is about creating a comprehensive anti shoplifting strategy for your store. You have to know how to use the EAS tags and labels to your advantage. You also have to know what else to do to protect your inventory.

Having the tools and resources available to do your job makes things a lot easier. Knowing how to use them to your advantage makes an even bigger impact.

Do your employees know to look for and deactivate every tag on every item that they ring up? Is it more widespread practice that your employees try to guess and consequently pick and choose which items they attempt to deactivate?

When EAS tags and labels are not properly deactivated, false alarms result. If your employees don’t take the time to remove the EAS devices, why do we think they would take to time to respond to an alarm?

Shoplifters watch for unanswered alarms. That’s one of the reasons they target a store over another one. Setting the standard for 100% deactivation will further the overall effectiveness of your anti theft devices.

Visit RBC Security Solutions for Checkpoint Compatible Anti-Shoplifting or Anti- theft Devices that can help you with your Retail Security needs 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 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 Labels and Cheap Tags contact us.

Click here for your Free Sample of these new Checkpoint Compatible Cheap Labels and Cheap Tags for your Retail Security and Anti-Shoplifting needs!

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Anti-Shoplifting, Cheap Labels, Cheap Tags, retail security

Tell-Tale Behaviors

September 3, 2012 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

Employee theft accounts for the majority of shortage in any store, as they have more access to the company’s assets than a shoplifter. Just like shoplifters show tells, associates can display them, too. Sudden changes in an associate’s behavior should warrant suspicion of internal theft. Someone who seems overtly friendly, complains about their financial situation or that they are underpaid or an associate that has friends and family visit the store often, are some things that wave a red flag.

As an LP professional, I encountered an associate who frequently complained to fellow coworkers that he was unhappy at home and couldn’t make ends meet. He told everyone who would listen. Then, this same associate came into work with a high-end set of $200 headphones and a new MP3 player one day. He continued to complain about his financial situation. Within the same week of his first shopping spree, he came in with a designer belt which he gloated about, showing everyone the receipt in which he paid $400 cash.

This information triggered my awareness and I decided to begin an employee theft investigation on him. We posted a covert CCTV (Closed Circuit Television) camera above the register in the department he normally worked in. After a few weeks of surveillance, we caught the associate red-handed stealing cash from the register. When questioned about the theft, he admitted that he made duplicate receipts for customers who were paying with large amounts of cash. He used those receipts to void the transactions later at his register and pocketed the money at the end of his shift.

Being observant of associate behaviors may lead to a case of employee theft and having a reliable CCTV system in your store can play an integral role in conducting 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.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: employee theft, employee theft investigation, internal theft

Three cops and one robber

September 3, 2012 by Staff Editor

Our latest apprehension involved a lady who came into our store with a huge purse on her shoulder. It looked almost like a bag you would take to the beach, but was rather empty looking.

She went around the store collecting random clothes, a few shirts here, a pair of shorts there, and even a pair of socks.

Sure enough, she took her haul and went to the back corner of the store and stooped down. Quick as a wink, she shoved all of the clothes into her purse and stood back up.

The purse, now full of odd bulges, seemed to weigh her down as she headed towards the door. Since she left the anti theft devices on, she set the alarm off on her way out.

When we went to apprehend her, she started swinging her big bag at us. A customer saw, and called 911 telling them about a fight in progress.

Almost immediately, no less than three squad cars showed up in our parking lot, and quickly subdued our shoplifter. We got our product back, and she got a trip down to the station.

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 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 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 Labels and Cheap Tags contact us.

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

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

Are Bottle Locks the Solution to Liquor & Wine Theft?

August 31, 2012 by Staff Editor

If you own a liquor store you know all about shoplifting. But you may not know about all the prevention techniques and bottle lock items available. During good times or bad, shoplifters will steal from you. Liquor stores also have another problem related to shoplifting. There are individuals that will enter the store, open a bottle of you best, drink some then put it back on the shelf. This issue is really no better that when a thief removes the merchandise from the store.

There are several things you should consider to combat these thefts. This is a multi-stage solution. First is greeting the customers when they enter the store. Why do you think that major retailers have a “greeter”? Well-established studies have shown that if impulse and some amateur shoplifters are greeted when they enter the store that they will not shoplift during that visit. This is because that in their mind they have been seen and no longer blend into the crowd. I like to stress that this should go beyond the “Hi, welcome to ___” statement. I believe that if possible they should be asked if you could assist them in finding something. This adds more interaction and clearly establishes that they have been noticed. Of course this is also very good customer service for your good customers. Remember, customers love attention shoplifters hate it.

Next we all know that you can be routinely in situations where you do not have a good employee to customer ratio. What can you do? There is other customer service and anti shoplifting techniques however, they all rely on employee actions. In this case you need items that physically secure your product. If you have a Checkpoint system at your customer doors then you have most of the problem solved. However, this may not be the best environment for just using Checkpoint labels on your bottles. Two other Alpha High Solutions products will take care of this. If you do not seem to be having issues with consumption in the store then use an Alpha Steel Grip. This bottle lock comes in several sizes and wraps around the neck of the bottle. The new Steel Grip has a redesigned coated plastic steel band that locks into a redesigned hard tag. The Steel Grip will trip the Checkpoint system at the doors.

The second is an even hotter product called EASy Guarde. This is merchandise denial product. It is a bottle lock that fits over the cap of the bottle and locks it down. There is a Checkpoint Tag built in. The bottle cannot be opened with this bottle lock on it. The EASy Guarde is clear acrylic and black. The Steel Grip and the EASy Guarde can only be removed by store employees with the special S3 key. You can learn more about these Bottle Locks at www.LossPreventionSystems.com

Be proactive and sell more, loose less and make more margin!

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 , liquor bottle security or EASy Bottle 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

Buying Online

August 31, 2012 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

I do a lot of online shopping, more than what I realize sometimes. It is so much easier to find what I want at the price I am willing to pay. Not every brick and mortar store can carry the variety of products I need for my home and my business. My husband and I even ordered our wedding rings on line.

One thing we realized in that process is there are still some things you don’t want to buy sight unseen. The diamond for my band was one of them. It was one thing to risk being potentially scammed out of a band, thousands of dollars on a diamond is completely different.

This is why I like the ability to order a free sample of anti theft devices. I don’t want my retail security to be scammed. My inventory needs protection, and these are the anti shoplifting tools I want to use.

When I look at the samples, I can gage first hand the quality of product that will be protecting the thousands of dollars worth of inventory for my store. I know I will be making the right choice and can buy on line without regret.

Click here for your Free Sample of these new Checkpoint Compatible Cheap Labels and Cheap Tags for your Retail Security and Anti-Shoplifting needs!

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Anti-Shoplifting, Cheap Labels, Cheap Tags, retail security

Losing Your Shirt: Not With RBC!!

August 31, 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 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 is payroll has 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.

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

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

Anti-theft devices and your store’s restrooms

August 29, 2012 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

Among the more perfidious methods of theft in retail environments, is a shoplifter taking their selected items into store restrooms. Just as with fitting room theft there are very exacting requirements to adhere to before executing any shoplifting apprehension involving a restroom concealment and it creates a great deal of pressure and stress for us within the Loss Prevention community; so much so that nine times out of ten we tend to avoid going after such suspects as the risk of making a bad stop is too high.

The way around this is to create a problem for the shoplifters before they even get to the ‘safe zone’ of the restrooms. Since the vast majority of items taken into restrooms already have anti-theft devices in place it is simply a matter of establishing a compatible retail security gate just before the restroom entrance. That way, should anyone try to get a tagged item into said restroom alarms would sound just as if they tried to exit the store with the same items.

Furthermore, in some jurisdictions the attempt to take unpaid product into a store restroom is akin to walking out the front doors with it and a stop can be made (with cause) when the alarm sounds. Of course you need to verify with your state and company retail security policies but if you have the ability, use it.

Click here for your Free Sample of these new Checkpoint Compatible Cheap Labels and Cheap Tags for your Retail Security and Anti-Shoplifting needs!

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Anti-Shoplifting, Cheap Labels, Cheap Tags, retail security

On Your Special Day

August 29, 2012 by Staff Editor

September is a traditionally big month for weddings. Every bride wants to look and feel their absolute best on their special day. If you have been a part of a wedding in the last few years, or work in the wedding business, then you are well aware of how completely insane some brides can get.

This insanity can often lead to completely wrong or out of character choices. That, coupled with the enormous cost of a wedding in its entirety can lead many brides (or grooms) to take matters into their own hands.

Having the perfect clothes for the bride, bridesmaids, groom, etc, is only the start. There are jewelry and accessories to think about too.

We have all seen the TV shows that watch brides tearing apart racks of dresses, and each other, to find the perfect outfit. It is no surprise that these same brides would resort to shoplifting to get the wedding item they are so desperately coveting.

If you use your common sense and add anti theft devices to your inventory, you might just stay one-step ahead of the bride who has lost all of hers.

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

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

Map it out

August 27, 2012 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

One of the questions my new hires have is trying to figure out where to spend their time and energy to make the biggest impact to stop shoplifting.

The easiest way is to take the inventory reports and break down the top five or ten biggest shrink areas, and then narrow in on maybe the top 20 items in your store.

This works well if you have rather stationary inventory, one where you will sell the same items season after season, or year after year. Grocery, liquor and hardware are prime examples.

If you are looking to stop shoplifting in a store where the inventory changes frequently (clothing or boutiques) try this out.

Start with a simple chart. Take a floor plan of your store and use different colored markers for different departments. When you find evidence of theft (clothing tags, opened packages) put a dot on the map with the color of the department of missing merchandise.

This will tell you two things: 1- what type of product you are loosing, and 2- where they are taking it.

You may discover that you are missing inventory in a new department, or it might show you an area of the store that you didn’t realize was susceptible to shoplifting.

Visit the Loss Prevention Store to purchase retail anti theft 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 Security System, Checkpoint Security Tags, or Checkpoint Labels and how they can work with your Electronic Article Surveillance or EAS system contact us at Retail theft prevention or call 1.770.426.0547

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