At this point in time there are several known tools used by career shoplifters to bypass retail anti theft devices. As business owners and managers we have to keep up with these in order to make our retail anti theft devices still prevent shoplifting to the population at large.
One example is what is called a booster bag. If you know what to look for you can easily spot these. Booster bags are generally large paper bags with handles that you expect to find at most clothing retailers. The shoplifter lines the inside of the bag with tin foil and if a large amount of items with EAS tags are placed inside the foil boosts the RF signal from the tags to a point that it is too much for the pedestals to handle and thus causes the EAS alarm not to activate. It is important to train you employees to be mindful of customers shopping that have bags from other retailers (especially if that retailer is nowhere close to your shop). They need to pay extra attention to customers with paper bags and try to get close enough to see inside to make sure it is not lined with anything.
Additionally, I have seen a number of stores who use handheld EAS deactivators at their registers for hard tags. Personally, I recommend using flush mounted deactivators because they cannot be stolen as easily as the handhelds can. It is becoming more common to find that thieves are distracting the clerks and stealing the handheld deactivators so that they can remove your retail anti theft devices themselves. If you are going to use the handhelds then at least make sure to mount them to the register and make sure your cashiers alert you if any go missing.
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 – Atlanta Georgia
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