The bright side of clothing security flaws

February 27, 2012 by

It’s not an ideal situation, but you’ve got to be kidding yourself if you don’t admit that the occasional security tag on clothes is missed. While we try hard to ensure total accuracy, it can be difficult to be 100% all the time. Fear not, there is a bright side to this situation. Recently while watching cameras in my store I observed a subject with a large bag browsing the denim. What tipped me off that this subject was suspicious was that the subject wasn’t just browsing for the right size or color; they were looking for the pairs that didn’t have checkpoint tags attached. After further observation I observed the subject concealing the merchandise and I was able to apprehend and recover our merchandise.

Checkpoint tags are not easy to defeat by the average shoplifter. However everybody knows that as our technology in clothing security advances, so does the professional shoplifter advance. Yet again, there is a bright side! A few weeks ago two individuals came into my store with bags from another retailer. The subjects began grabbing a large amount of merchandise very quickly and we barely had a chance to clear the fitting rooms before they got in. There was no time to get a detailed list of what they grabbed and they paid no attention to if the merchandise had clothing security tags or not. They must have known a way to remove the tags so that they didn’t set off the clothing alarm at the exit. All we knew was that they went in with about 30 items. When they came out it was tough to know for certain, but their bags seemed a bit larger. We rushed to the fitting room to find it a mess with about half the stuff they went in with. The biggest sign we had to know that they had stolen was the pile of about 10 clothing security tags hidden under some of the merchandise. After apprehending the subjects we were able to recover our merchandise and identify some professional shoplifters that had been terrorizing the area for some time.

The ideal situation is for clothing security to protect our merchandise from theft every time. But the bottom line is that everything can be defeated, and the key is to use the flaws of security tags on clothes to your benefit.

Visit the Loss Prevention Store to purchase a clothing alarm or clothing security tags.

For more information on Checkpoint tags, clothing security, clothing alarm, or clothing security tags contact us at security tags on clothes or call 1.770.426.0547

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She Was Given a Chance

February 24, 2012 by Leave a Comment

There are never enough words to describe the betrayal of trust from an employee who is stealing from you. I recently concluded an employee theft investigation regarding one of my store managers. This one was pretty rough considering all we had done for her.

I am convinced that this employee’s theft did not begin until about a month ago, when her husband lost his job. She started out great as an assistant. She talked all the time about how much better she could be as a store manager. She would give examples of how she could improve a store. So we let her have her chance.

After a few months, her new store’s performance started to slide. After many conversations, she was finally put on an action plan. I guess about three weeks later her husband lost his job. Maybe that was the last straw. She was clearly over her head.

We started to notice a severe lack in following procedure in her store. An associate was eating a snack at the register. When asked if it was paid for, they told us that the manager said to go ahead and eat she’d ring it up whenever she had the chance. This was a common practice.

We then started our employee theft investigation. Turns out that the associates were eating, a lot, and not much of it was being rung up. The manager was also carrying a new BIG purse. We started to run our reports, and sure enough there she was. This wasn’t just a case of employee theft; she was also doing fraudulent refunds.

The end result was that she thought that she could take advantage of the trust we had given her. When times were tough, she just helped herself. She gave the rest of her store loose reigns, so they wouldn’t notice her own violations.

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

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The Tagging Party

February 24, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Have you ever heard someone say, “It was a great idea in theory”? Well that, all too often, is the thought process with RF security tags. They are a wonderful resource to help stop shoplifting. Unfortunately, without proper execution RF security tags won’t do much. They have a very limited level of effectiveness if the RF security tags are left sitting in a basket back in a corner of a stockroom.

 Checkpoint security tags were designed to be out in the open. They are best when they are actually attached to a piece of merchandise. This is what sends the signal that you are going to stop shoplifting in your store.

 A best practice to adopt regarding your Checkpoint security tags is to have a standard on how and where they tag should be attached. Will they go on every pair of jeans or just ones over a certain dollar amount? Should the tag be attached on the bottom right or left leg? How often is this standard reviewed – yearly? Post inventory?

 Now that you know how and what, get a group of associates together for a Tagging Party. This is where you, as a group, actually put the tags onto your product. It will advance the quality of your staff in a few ways.

 They will know what you expect from an execution standpoint.

 They will know where the tags are, so they can deactivate them at the POS.

 They are enjoying the success of a group instead of a mundane chore of an individual.

 They are aware of high shrink items and can look for suspicious activity in those areas.

 Make your tagging a group effort and watch as your shrink decreases!

 Visit the Loss Prevention Store to purchase Checkpoint labels, Checkpoint security tags, and other RF labels that can help you stop shoplifting in your business.

 For more information on Checkpoint labels, Checkpoint security tags, RF labels, RF security labels, RF security tags and how to stop shoplifting contact us at RF label or call 1.770.426.0547

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Not Just for Wardrobing

February 24, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Anytime you work with clothes as a retailer you will inevitably come across a few incidences of wardrobing. Wardrobing is where someone buys an item of clothing, say a new dress or a pair of shoes. They wear the item, usually just once for a special occasion, and then return the item.

 It is frustrating to the retailer because you potentially loose sales by not having that item in stock for a true customer, but most people don’t want to buy items that look used or retagged (if price tags had been torn off).

 Hey, I even saw a lady open a bag of socks to see if she liked them, and then put them back on the shelf and grab a new unopened bag! She was the one that opened it in the first place and still didn’t want it.

 Any way, there is a product out by Checkpoint called the Shark Tag. It pins onto the front of a garment and can only be removed by scissors.  Even though it is designed to prevent wardrobing, it can also be a great retail anti theft device to prevent shoplifting.

 Attaching the Shark Tag onto items like lingerie or swimsuits may prevent an item from being concealed under clothes. You can’t very well wear a bra with a big pin sticking through your shirt with out someone noticing.

 Shark Tags are also a visible cue. Not every shoplifter knows what has an RF tag and what doesn’t. If an item looks like it has even the slightest chance of being tagged, they potentially will avoid it altogether.

 Visit the Loss Prevention Store for retail anti theft devices that can help you prevent shoplifting in your business.

 For more information on how you can use retail anti theft devices to prevent shoplifting contact us or call 1.770.426.0547 

 

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Strange tales in clothing security

February 24, 2012 by

All of us within the loss prevention field have had those moments where we question how people can prove to be so lacking in common sense or logic.

It wasn’t until around five in the afternoon last Saturday that our shoplifter du jour walked through the first floor mall entry point.  Right away the woman set off every alert signal in the profession: clothes that didn’t fit the weather, an almost immediate focus on the cameras, and she made a path for one of the most secluded corners of the first floor, which just so happened to be located next to the designer shirts.  With two LP detectives observing through the CCTV and one on the floor we bore witness to this young woman pull two empty shopping bags from her pockets and then began moving from rack to rack deftly pulling clothes from there hangers and dropping them in her bags in front of dozens of other customers, some of whom spoke out or reported her actions to store employees.  She paid no attention to the fact that there were Checkpoint tags on the items she selected.  It took her all of three minutes to get her fill and try to escape through another entrance where immediately all of the clothing security tags triggered the alarm just as two LP detectives and three local police officers converged on her.  In spite of the witnesses who pointed her out, in spite of the clothing alarms that alerted everyone to her theft, in spite of the blatant video evidence she protested her innocence and insisted we were all crazy and she would see us on the end of a lawsuit.

Right now she is facing five years in prison for the extent of her crimes.

Visit the Loss Prevention Store to purchase a clothing alarm or clothing security tags.

For more information on Checkpoint tags, clothing security, clothing alarm, or clothing security tags contact us at security tags on clothes or call 1.770.426.0547

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Why are criminal background checks important?

February 24, 2012 by

Criminal background checks are just one element of a comprehensive pre employment screening program because criminal records are just one of the many indicators that will help you determine the suitability of a candidate.

Here are few examples of criminal background checks that can help you understand how pre employment screening can protect your company.

Example #1:  Let’s say you are charged with hiring a truck driver that will deliver drugs for a healthcare facility.  The background check company you’ve hired returns unfavorable employee background check results that indicate the candidate has two previous convictions that are drug related.  If you had not conducted employee background checks on all potential new hires you may have given the keys to a drug locker to a known criminal with a history of drug abuse.

Example #2: Let’s say you run a shuttle service and one of your employees assaults a customer while in transit to any given destination.  After the incident it’s discovered that the employee has a history of violent crime but your position, as the employer, is that you did everything you could to set yourself up to make a good hiring decision before the suspect was extended an employment offer.

The victim later sues your company and using public information that can be found on the internet a law firm uncovers the suspects’ criminal history.  Your argument is not going to stand up in court and an incident that could have been prevented by hiring a background check company will now potentially bankrupt your company and will undoubtedly destroy your reputation in the community.

I hope this blog has helped you understand the importance of conducting background checks on potential new hires.  Background check experts have the expertise to perform background checks and this investment will protect your interests.

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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Internal Theft: The #1 Cause of Loss in Retail!

February 22, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Many small box retailers find themselves centering their full attention on shoplifting as their main cause of inventory loss. This is a very dangerous thought process that can lead to a business crumbling. Internal theft is the largest cause of inventory loss period. I worked for, at the time, a small retailer which sold video and PC games. The business has grown exponentially since then and I have to believe that their success in part was because of their ability to change the overall thought process of how shrink occurs.

When I first started I was brought into the corporate office as a loss prevention administrator. I was dumbfounded to learn that my boss, the director of loss prevention had not one bit of loss prevention experience. In fact she told me that she was a store manager before being promoted into the Director position. My job duties were limited to reviewing daily store paperwork and pulling credit card slips for chargeback disputes (when a customer disputes a charge the retailer has to show a copy of a signed/imprinted credit card slip to win the dispute). There was no talk of employee theft investigation; in fact it wasn’t until my second week on the job until I heard anyone mention internal theft. That conversation was troubling since my boss was telling district managers on a conference call that employee theft is so minimal in the company that they should instead focus on anti shoplifting methods to control their losses.

This lead to many district managers scratching their heads but they pushed forward using ideas given by my boss. They “gutted” all their inventory, placing the games in locked drawers behind the register as well as in the stockroom. This process took the stores about two months to implement. My boss had even suggested to the district managers that once the product was secured they could cut back on their daily inventory counts since the losses would most assuredly stop. District managers who brought up the idea of conducting employee theft investigations were met with indifference. There most definitely was a slight improvement in inventory loss in some locations, however in many locations and areas of the country not only did the losses not stop, they shot through the roof.

Employees were given the access to the product in the stockroom, they had keys to the lockable cases, the product was already gutted and easily concealed, there were no bag checks conducted at the store level. Employee theft ran rampant and my boss was clueless. Fortunately I had made a few friends in the inventory control department as well as sales audit and started some employee theft investigations to nail down some of the larger internal theft cases. I was able to work closely with the district managers sharing loss trends, having them do surveillances and then surprise bag checks which ended up catching a few real time employee theft cases. I was able to successfully phone interview the suspects’ real time and obtain large dollar admissions which translated to prosecution and restitution. After about ten of these cases my boss left her position with no notice. To this day I have no idea where she went but it took at least two years for us to put together a real loss prevention team and to gain the respect of the operations sales team. Once the focus was put on employee theft as a primary cause of loss and district managers were properly trained to aid in employee theft investigations were able to cut the company’s shrink by half, which surpassed anyone’s expectations.

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

 

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If the Shoe Fits

February 22, 2012 by Leave a Comment

I have a friend who loves shoes. Anytime we go out, she spends more time checking out the shoes going by than anything else. Heaven forbid that we go past a shoe store without stopping. She is a die-hard shoe fanatic! She often jokes about how a pair of shoes would be great to have, but she would only wear them once. Maybe she should just get them and return them.

 Now, my friend has always put the shoes back on the shelf. She works in retail also and would have a serious moral breakdown if she ever even came close to wardrobing. Unfortunately, we both know that there are plenty of people out there who would not have such a moral dilemma and would buy the shoes for a one-time event, and then return the shoes.

 Checkpoint isn’t just about how to prevent shoplifting. They have retail anti theft devices that also apply to these sorts of situations. The Shark Tag is a clip that attaches with a pin to a garment. It is designed to be removed at home. The Shark Tag may not fit on every pair of shoes, but could be attached onto thin straps of dressy shoes.

 While there is no EAS on the Shark Tag (like a hard or soft RF tag), it s still a visual deterrent that unless you are planning on paying (and keeping) this product, you should just keep on walking.

 Visit the Loss Prevention Store for retail anti theft devices that can help you prevent shoplifting in your business.

 For more information on how you can use retail anti theft devices to prevent shoplifting contact us or call 1.770.426.0547

 

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Background Checks: A Business Owner’s Best Friend!!

February 22, 2012 by

One of the toughest things for a small business owner to do is spend money, especially when there is nothing tangible they can hold in their hands as a result of the expenditure. That is exactly the challenge I had as a lp consultant when broaching the subject of background checks. Small business owners very rarely take into account the pre employment screening process when they start the search for employees. There are many things to discuss as a consultant with a new business owner regarding loss prevention but the number one concern is ensuring the business secures a reputable background check company that employs background check experts with a wide array of experience. It is not merely enough to conduct criminal background checks you must also conduct employee background checks as well. Trying to pull an owner from the belief that a mere review of a job application and an interview is enough of a pre employment screening to the full understanding of what background checks can achieve is a monumental task.

A very tough example was the owner of a small clothing retailer with five locations located within a largely populated city. This owner had two speeds fast and stop. Trying to get him to sit down for a consultation was tough enough even though he was the one who contacted me for a LP consultation overview of his business. The main problem he had was shrink and he could not determine the source or sources of the bad inventory results. I took about a month to review all aspects of the five locations including interviewing all of the employees and management. What I found was staggering. Essentially there were five locations running five different businesses doing whatever each store manager felt was right for their own store. This included the pre employment screening process. The hiring ranged from a job application and a five minute interview to a store manager who at least conducted two interviews and called for reference checks. There were no criminal background checks, no education checks and no employee background checks. In fact no one including the owner of the business ever entertained the idea of hiring a background check company to conduct background checks for the company.

I reported my results to the owner which included my thoughts on how the losses where occurring as well as the potential solutions to the shrink problem. I told him that his losses were mostly internal and that an in depth investigation would be required to pinpoint the problem employees. There were some minor administrative issues that were easily rectified but the staffing problem was not going to be so easily put to rest. I explained to the owner that before he went and started replacing employees he needed to retain a company that employed true background check experts that would help him choose the right staff. I explained to the owner the cost of hiring and training an employee and that seemed to get his attention since he would now be losing several employees, the cost of hiring and training them and now have to hire additional employees and invest that training cost once again. We narrowed the choices down to one reputable background check company. This company offered criminal background checks from local to federal levels, educational background checks as well as employee background checks with very reasonable pricing. I was also impressed with the transparency of the company to reveal the backgrounds of their background check experts. This openness put the owner at ease to take the necessary step to put a proper pre employment screening process in place.

It took the owner about six months to sort out his employee theft issues as well as at the same time successfully implementing the new hiring process. He called it a labor of love that in the end kept him from losing his business. He is now one of the biggest proponents for small business owners to implement good hiring processes that screen potential employees before they are allowed to take position of employment.

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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Checkpoint: A Security Solution To Stop Shoplifting

February 20, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Checkpoint Systems is a premier security solutions company.  Their products have been used for years to stop shoplifting.  The company now has a full line of security devices such as: Checkpoint labels, Checkpoint security tags, RF labels, RF security labels, and RF security tags.

 When I first began my loss prevention career, there were not many options for article security.  The idea of RF label technology was not yet developed.  Checkpoint had developed and was using the Checkpoint Security Tags as a method to stop shoplifting.  While these tags did their job effectively, they were not appropriate for everyone’s business.  Seeing this, Checkpoint labels were developed.  The Checkpoint labels use RF Label technology.  These RF labels are less intrusive than the RF security tags.  They are perfect for the retailer that does not want to take away from the visual presence of the merchandise.  The RF security labels utilize Radio Frequency technology just like the RF security tags.  The only difference is the RF labels do not need to be attached to the merchandise like the Checkpoint Security Tags.  This is great for expensive easily damaged merchandise, or the retail that has non-flexible look in their store.

 If a retailer is looking for to stop shoplifting, but does not have the visual standard that the RF label excels in, the Checkpoint security tag is the right solution for you.  Having begun my career in a discount retailer, the Checkpoint Security tag was the perfect fit.  We were able to secure our merchandise and provided a direct visual deterrent to stop shoplifting.  The RF security Label is a great solution for someone looking for security and a non-intrusive device.  The RF security label will provide a retailer with peace of mind and the effectiveness of the security tag.

 Visit the Loss Prevention Store to purchase Checkpoint labels, Checkpoint security tags, and other RF labels that can help you stop shoplifting in your business.

 For more information on Checkpoint labels, Checkpoint security tags, RF labels, RF security labels, RF security tags and how to stop shoplifting contact us at RF label or call 1.770.426.0547

 

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