Did The Grinch Steal Your Retail Christmas? 

January 1, 2019 by Leave a Comment

Wow, Christmas is over and Retailers are starting to dig out from the carnage. Unfortunately, some of the carnage is all the merchandise that shoplifters have liberated from your store. I believe that theft is actually the oldest vice around. Even older than “the oldest profession”. As long are there are two things on this earth 1-people and 2-stuff, there will be theft. Well, neither is going away anytime soon. So what do we do?  

The first thing is to make the decision to take your store back from the enemy. Putting the solution off will not fix the problem and it will get worse. The second is to implement the two proven solutions. Training and a Sensormatic system. 

TRAINING – Over the past 35 years I have heard countless retailers say the same thing. “I don’t know what I can or cannot do with or about shoplifters”. Shoplifters are no different than any other business challenge we face. Attack it head-on. Loss Prevention Systems can educate you on what you can and cannot do. But more importantly, we will take you off the defensive and put you on the offense. Now I know what you may be thinking right now. “I am not going to chase shoplifters down and tackle them!”. Well, I am glad we got that out because we do not want you to do that either. We want to prevent the loss from occurring (that’s why we call ourselves Loss Prevention Systems, Inc. What a coincidence, huh?).  

Training should cover a discussion of the problem itself, the law both criminal and civil, who shoplifters are and how to spot them before they even steal, going on the offensive with customer service tactics and more. We do this live via webinar with as many of your folks as you can pull together. I have actually found that most of the time we need to do two sessions so we do not leave the store short staffed or someone misses out. Training will help give you the confidence to attack the shoplifting scourge head-on. 

SENSORMATIC SYSTEM – “So if I am trained, why do I need a Sensormatic system and Sensormatic security labels?” Great question, glad you asked that! (sorry, I am in one of those moods) Consider this, training is only half of the solution. You and your staff can be trained up in the techniques to prevent and deal with shoplifting but you cannot be everywhere at once, even in a small boutique. Shoplifters WILL create an environment where they can steal. On top of that what you will find is that some of your “best” customers are also actually stealing from you. Yes, that good customer is buying merchandise, either small inexpensive items or even more expensive ones but they are actually stealing other merchandise in addition to that. And because they are a “best” or frequently seen customer less attention is paid to their activities. They are kind of a fixture, they hang out a bit, joke with the staff, ask questions and then…. They are simply not observed because “that’s just Sam or Wendy, they are really nice”. 

So to handle all that you will find that a Sensormatic system is actually cheaper than additional payroll. In addition to that, the Sensormatic system never takes a day off, does not call in sick or no show. The Sensormatic system is working 24/7. Actually, many of our systems actually power themselves down after you close to save on your energy bill. They automatically wake themselves up when you come in the next day. 

A Sensormatic system has two benefits. It sends a message to the thieves (real customers do not care) and prevents losses. And, of course, the tags and labels are actually protecting your merchandise and bottom line. 

So there are no more excuses. Make this year the best yet for sales you make and actually keep the margin make on the bottom line. Grinch, GO AWAY! Contact us today. We can make both Training and a Sensormatic system your reality. 

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Loss Prevention Systems For The New Year

December 12, 2018 by Leave a Comment

For a loss prevention officer, the holiday season is a hard time to be jolly when the busiest shopping season of the year brings with it its shoplifters, crime, and theft.  During the holiday season, the number of incidents involving shoplifting increases considerably, and the losses the store suffers can be devastating to their bottom line.

For any retail store in the United States and across the globe, having a loss prevention system in place or a loss prevention officer in their store can be the difference between having profits or losses during their fiscal year. 

According to recent studies, more than half of retail stores in the United States have stopped investing in their loss prevention teams or systems even though their inventory shrink rate has seen an increase in the last year.  The inventory shrink rate takes into consideration the following:

  • Shoplifting
  • Employee theft
  • Vendor fraud
  • Administrative and paperwork errors

Shoplifting theft accounts for almost 40% of the total theft a store experiences, and even though the amount an employee steals can surpass that of the common shoplifter each instance it happens, the shoplifting theft can be considerable every year.

According to many pieces of research, retail stores lose approximately $35 million a day due to shoplifting or $48.9 billion in a year. Those detrimental statistics in the retail industry are worth considering when many stores and businesses decide whether to invest in a loss prevention system or a loss prevention team to combat the shoplifting in their store.

A loss prevention system expense can be recovered within a short period of time, and if your losses are increasing each year, the time you will recoup the money invested in the system shortens considerably. 

The introduction of a loss prevention system in the store allows your employees to dedicate more time with the customers entering your store, than attempting to catch the shoplifter. The system also allows your store to be protected and send a message to the shoplifters. Shoplifters know where and which stores to target.  If you are a store that doesn’t prosecute shoplifters or doesn’t have a loss prevention team or system, you are vulnerable and can become the target store for many of these shoplifters.

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Employees are harder to find should this impact the way you conduct seasonal hiring?

October 31, 2018 by Leave a Comment

As of September 2018, the national unemployment rate is down to 3.7% according to ncls.org. As a retail store owner thinks about what this means for you in terms of trying to hire to fill job openings including seasonal hiring for the holidays. With an employment rate of 96.3% that leaves a sparse workforce as a hiring pool. I have read articles by those who think that with a dwindling number of people seeking work employers are going to have to forego pre-employment background checks. They seem to believe that the need to hire outweighs any baggage the job candidates bring with them.

     Not only are employment background checks being called into question for the reasons stated above there is also a school of thought that pre-employment drug screening may be a bad idea. This line of reasoning includes the limited availability of candidates in the workforce but also suggests that the increased legalization of marijuana use in some states is negating the reasons for having applicants take the tests.

     When taken together think about what it means to the retail employer. Store owners are required to rely on the information supplied by a candidate to make hiring decisions. Screening consists of the responses of the candidate to your questions during an interview and perhaps a couple of recommendations from their list of references. How confident are you in the references provided? Do you know if they are going to be honest about the character of the person you are considering for the job? How many of us really put down a reference who we think will not speak well of us? You also bet on the roll the dice whether your new hire is a drug user. Fail to a drug screen and the chances increase for accidents and even theft. Both theft and accidents can be costly in the long term, whether the employee is a seasonal worker or regular hire. Employee accidents can result in workers compensation claims. Accidents involving a customer as a result of an employee’s negligence can result in a lawsuit against your business.

     The question you need to answer is whether it is worth changing your hiring practices to ramp up your seasonal staffing needs? The short answer is no, you should not modify or change tried and true methods of hiring. Those methods help you bring in new help and reduce your exposure to safety and shortage risks. Pre-employment background screenings can be tailored to meet the criteria you want them to assess so you may review what you are screening for and eliminate some of the categories that may not be as important for a part-time worker. For instance, if a driving record check is part of your normal pre-employment screening is that necessary for someone who will work in your stockroom for a few months? You might not really need to validate someone’s education level if you are only hiring them for the season and they do not intend to apply to stay after that.

      Likewise, a credit history, criminal background check, and review of the sex offender registry are the minimum three searches I recommend every store owner require of applicants regardless of the amount of time they will work for you. The credit history should be checked in case your prospective employee is in dire financial trouble. He/she may see this job as a means of extricating themselves from their problem. The criminal history should be checked because it could include everything from assaults to theft. You don’t want someone prone to violence working around other employees or customers and have them lose control. Nor would you want a convicted thief working around merchandise and/or cash. The sex offender registry check speaks for itself. You are responsible for the safety of all of your employees and your customers and the risk of hiring a person on the sex offender registry is too great to consider.

     Seasonal hiring may be a bit more of a challenge when the economy is strong but it is no reason to discard proven methods of shortage reduction. Holidays also tend to be times of increased safety issues. Drug testing and pre-employment screenings are an effective means of maintaining a safe work environment. Don’t lose sight of the fact that there are a lot of people who are looking for a seasonal job simply for a little extra spending cash. There are also young people looking for that first job experience and a paycheck. You may have to find new ways to get the word out about your positions but don’t fret, there is always an honest person looking for a job (or a second one).

     

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Combating Shoplifting In Your Business

October 18, 2018 by Leave a Comment

One of the most prevalent crimes in the United States is shoplifting.  While many state governments and lawmakers have taken a strong approach to combat shoplifting, it is a battle that keeps the retail industry checking their loss prevention measures, and their ability to combat this crime.

According to the National Association for Shoplifting Prevention, (NASP) the retail industry loses approximately $35 million per day. Even when advances in technology have aided the loss prevention team in combating this crime, figures about shoplifting has shown an increase in the average inventory shrink rate to 1.44 percent. 

The average shrink rates take into consideration shoplifting, internal theft, vendor or merchant errors and administrative errors.  And although shoplifting accounts for more than a third of the losses, internal or employee theft is pretty close behind.  An employee that is using the cash register as their personal piggy bank, or an employee that steals merchandise worth hundreds of dollars in one incident can be as detrimental as the shoplifter entering the store and stealing merchandise from the shelves.

How can you prevent or combat shoplifting in your store?

Training – One of the best measures for the prevention of shoplifting is training the loss prevention team and management of the store to spot and react accordingly when witnessing a theft. If a theft is happening and a trained employee is a witness to the incident, merchandise can be salvaged and the shoplifter can be apprehended without having the incident escalate to violence.

Hiring – Background checks before hiring an employee can save you time and money.  An employee with a clean employment record can be hired and trained and become an asset to the business right away. According to the 2014 Industry Training Report, small companies with less than 1,000 employees spent an average of $1,238 per training per employee that year. If the new employee is not properly checked or interviewed, the company might lose money and labor that eventually translates into loses for the business and their ability to grow.

Customer Service – The research regarding this important area in the retail industry is unanimous in their findings.  Better customer service means less theft.  Not only that, but better customer service translates into more profits.  Happy customers can be an asset to any business.  Good PR can mean more sales, more customers and more profits.

Shoplifting System – Installing a shoplifting system in your store is part of a solution to the problem, not a whole solution by itself.  The system will discourage thieves and employees from taking merchandise out of the store without paying, and that is an advantage you cannot do without.

If you are interested in installing a shoplifting system, training your personnel, or using background checks to perfect hiring, call us.  We are a company dedicated to providing stores and other businesses the tools necessary to succeed.

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We Installed A Sensormatic System. Our Shoplifting Problems Are Over, Right?

October 1, 2018 by Leave a Comment

NO! not yet. Before we begin patting ourselves on the back you must remember that your Sensormatic System is only part of your shoplifting solution. Your Sensormatic System will protect your merchandise however, many shoplifters are determined and will try to steal anyway. The Sensormatic System itself is a deterrent. Its mere presence will dissuade many shoplifters.

There are TWO PARTS to the shoplifting solution. Loss Prevention Systems, Inc. (LPSI) did not invent them, we simply perfected them both. So in your case:

✓  Sensormatic System installed by Loss Prevention Systems.

 √ Staff training by Loss Prevention Systems. LPSI includes FREE anti-shoplifting training with every Sensormatic system you purchase from us, as often as you reasonably need it.

Let’s discuss the training to teach your staff how to deter shoplifters. First, we have to get our heads straight about your Sensormatic System. The system is there protecting your tagged merchandise 24/7. It is critical to have but you must realize that to fully stop shoplifters, the first line of defense must be customer service. Shoplifters hate customer service. They do not want you near them and need privacy to conceal your merchandise even if only for a moment.

We want to teach your staff to approach every customer and at a minimum greet them. Did you know that over half of all shoplifters are classified as “impulse” shoplifters? An impulse shoplifter is someone who has entered your store and will only shoplift if you give them the opportunity. Many studies over the years have shown that most impulse shoplifters will not shoplift in your store, during that visit if they are properly greeted! Wow, that means that if you or your staff greet them when they walk in the door with a verbal greeting such as “welcome to xxxx” and as important use good eye contact that it is likely that the impulse shoplifter will not steal from you during that visit! So you have put a serious dent in your shoplifting losses by just greeting customers.

Of course, greeting customers also helps us to achieve higher sales. It gives the legitimate customer a chance to ask a question and makes them feel more at home. Think about it, good customers love customer service, shoplifters hate it. Customer service everyone to death and increase your sales and reduce your shoplifting losses all with one technique.

 

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It’s getting darker earlier: how to keep customers and employees safe

October 1, 2018 by Leave a Comment

Now that fall is upon us it is getting darker earlier. These hours of darkness can bring unique challenges for retail owners. Have you ever considered that it is your responsibility to help keep customers and employees remain safe while they are on your property? It may make sense that you are responsible for employee safety but you are also obliged to help keep customers safe as well. This includes your parking lot and the exterior areas around the building. How do you do this? What do you have to protect against? Good questions and hopefully we can provide you with answers to those questions and suggestions to make your business safer.

     What is it that you need to protect against as the daylight hours become shorter?

  • The potential for robberies increases in the hours of darkness.
  • Slip/trip/fall accidents in the parking lot can increase when it is dark as hazards are more difficult to see.
  • Car break-ins can increase.
  • Working at night can have an impact on your employees.
  • The risk of violence can increase.

Planning for operating a store during extended hours of darkness can help prevent problems that could arise.  According to an Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) power point presentation, “Recommendations for Workplace Violence Prevention Programs in Late-Night Retail Establishments” one of the panels states”; “Late-night retail businesses such as convenient stores, liquor stores, and gasoline stations have experienced high homicides and assault rates”. The same power point on panel 5 goes on to mention the following as risk factors for late-night retail workers:

  • Exchange of money
  • Solo work and isolated work sites
  • Sale of alcohol
  • Poorly lit stores and parking lots
  • Lack of staff training in recognizing and managing escalating hostile and aggressive behavior

There are things store owners can do to mitigate the risks to their employees and patrons.

  • Inspect parking lots and sidewalks now for potential trip hazards. Have curbs painted yellow to make them fire lanes as well as making them brighter to reduce the chance someone trips on them. Paint parking stops or blocks a reflective white or yellow again to lower the risk of tripping.
  • Cracked or raised sidewalks should be repaired or reported to a landlord.
  • Check the parking lot light timers to ensure they turn on as it becomes dusk.
  • Inspect all parking lot lights and have burned out lamps replaced.
  • Add extra exterior building security lights.
  • If you have not installed them, have night vision security cameras set up to monitor the parking lot, sidewalks, entrances, and corners that may be out of view.
  • Install interior cameras and Public View monitors. These cameras should be at the front entrance and exits, cameras that capture activity at and around cash registers and a camera in a cash office that can see the safe and as much of the office as possible.
  • Have a cash drop at each register for $50 and $100 bills.
  • Keep register positioned away from customers so they cannot reach over the counter into the till.
  • Always have at least two people working in a store and never allow one person to close or open alone.
  • If you have two people working consider having an employee offer to watch a patron walk to their car when they leave. Patrons will appreciate it and it will make them feel safer.
  • If your credit machine accepts debit cards think about refusing cash back transactions after 6 pm. You won’t have to make as many trips to the safe to refill the register after dark.
  • Use a counterfeit bill detector for all $20, $50 and $100 bills.
  • Train each employee on how to recognize and de-escalate aggressive situations. This is also a good reason to have a second person working.
  • If you can only afford one employee at a time and your business is in a strip mall partner with a neighboring business to work together to provide mutual security/support at opening and closing.
  • Employees may get tired more easily as the daylight decreases. Be aware that it can lower their alertness while working and when they drive home. Encourage workers to be careful so they don’t hurt themselves or others.

Operating stores can be different when darkness comes along earlier. Taking the right precautions, being aware of potential issues and planning ahead can make that transition easier. Don’t take hours of darkness lightly.

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RFID Technology

September 17, 2018 by Leave a Comment

For a small business owner, bringing sales to their business is not an easy feat.  It requires lots of hard work and diligence.  For an owner or manager of a retail store, it requires a lot of hard work to be profitable and to prevent shrink and losses in their stores. 

For them, the acquisition of affordable technology and software to help them prevent losses due to shoplifting, shrinkage, clerical or merchant errors is instrumental in having a successful and profitable business.

For many years now, the increased use of technology and the benefits associated with it has been self-evident in many industries, and the retail industry is no exception.

The value and transformation technology has brought to retailers, merchants and customers have been invaluable to them and to their bottom line. Technology usage has allowed them to decreased costs while maintaining better data and solutions that allow them to target specific areas within their business.

RFID systems and software have been around for many years now, but the adoption rates have increased considerably over the last few years due the lower cost and ease of use. Still, small retailers that are struggling financially will be less inclined to invest in an RFID system or any other type of loss prevention system despite needing it most.

The cost associated with acquiring a system that will help prevent losses, and help you target issues in your retail store can help you recover the cost associated with the system within a year in many cases.

Loss prevention systems and the costs associated with them can vary considerably, but businesses have many options depending on what they want the system to accomplish. Here is a technology linked with the retail industry that may be gaining ground with many benefits associated with its adoption.

RFID technology

  • RFIDs systems usage has provided many merchants great ROI and revenue increase within the first year of usage. The capabilities of this system to provide accurate inventory to the store owner or manager of the stores has seen an increase in their revenues while providing customers the merchandise they need and want.
  • RFID technology will allow businesses across industries up to the minute data and reliable inventory data.
  • RFID technology will save expenses where inventory related labor is concerned while achieving better and more accurate inventory data.

Acquiring a  loss prevention system can be daunting in the beginning due to the financial expense the business has to go through, but it is necessary if the business wants to stay competitive and profitable.

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Low-cost Loss Prevention Tips and Suggestions

August 13, 2018 by Leave a Comment

The retail industry loses an approximate $45 billion a year due to shoplifting, organized retail crime, merchant, and clerical errors. For the small retail owner, any loss due to shoplifting puts a financial strain on their ability to do business, hire more personnel or invest and grow their business.

The competition in every industry is brutal, and the retail industry is no different.  The online option the customer has of buying whatever they need or want with the click of a button is especially hard for a small retail owner.  Their inventory and profit margins they’re dealing with are nothing compared to the big-box chains’, and any loss they suffer is particularly painful for their profits.

There are many businesses that cannot afford to invest in new technology to deter or prevent shoplifting, and they are left with the option of losing more cash and inventory or close their doors permanently, all due to this crime. But, if they cannot invest in technology, and they cannot hire more personnel, what are some low-cost options they can implement in their store to deter or prevent shoplifting?

  1. Customer Service

One of the great assets these small retail stores have compared to the big chains or online stores is the customer service they can provide to their customers.  Providing the customer with a greeting when they walk into your store and offering them great customer service has shown to decrease shoplifting and increase customer satisfaction.

A satisfied customer is also more likely to promote your business.  In today’s social network platforms, a bad experience can potentially reach thousands of customers with disastrous backlash for you and your store, but a good experience can also do the same, it can reach many potential customers that want to do business with you.  Treat your customers as a business ambassador for your business, and you will see the results in your profits.

2. Inventory

Keeping a good inventory of what’s selling and the number of items you are missing-whether they were sold or stolen-from the shelves can help you keep an accurate count of the merchandise.

Do you know at a minute’s notice what inventory you have on hand? There are software solutions that help retailers keep track of such matters, and allows them to have reports daily and online to help them make adjustments, order more inventory if necessary, and know at a moment’s notice the state of their inventory.

3. Organization

The design, cleanliness and how well your product displays are kept are important in keeping shoplifting at a minimum.  Well lit aisles, merchandise displayed properly and organized can make the shelves look pretty and the items displayed can allow you and your employees to account for the merchandise with a quick look to the shelves.

4. Diligence

Your employees are your best bet to deter and prevent shoplifting.  Research has shown happy employees are the best asset your company has for success, and in this case to deter and prevent shoplifting.  Salaries are not the only incentive your employees look for when entering a new business, treating them with respect and allowing them the ability to prove and express themselves are key to the success of any business.

Shoplifting affects every citizen and every member of society. The way you respond to a shoplifting accident and the way you treat shoplifters reflect on how you conduct yourself and your business.

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Is There A Real Difference: EAS Tags & Labels?

August 1, 2018 by Leave a Comment

You think that you may be scoring a great deal on cheap, knock-off Electronic Article Surveillance (EAS) hard tags and labels, however, over time you find that you are missing shoplifters due to poor pick rates or hard tags that are easy to defeat. Why? To make real, quality EAS hard tags and labels it takes more effort and time. The materials and sophistication of the circuit is not something that can be easily done by a slave laborer in some dark factory in a third world nation. The labels we sell are all high-quality EAS labels and tags that are both Sensormatic and Checkpoint Systems compatible.

For example, we see hard tags that can be simply pried apart with a screwdriver. Or labels that fall off when the adhesive dries up. So what standards should you be applying to both EAS labels and hard tags?

LABELS:

  • High-quality labels have a high pick rate (sensitivity) at your EAS system. Our labels have some of the highest pick rates around.
  • Quality control is critical! Not every label manufactured meets the high standards that we set. That’s why Loss Prevention Systems’ labels that do not pass QC are marked. Those labels will probably work but we suggest that you do not use them. However, every roll of our labels has 2000+ labels. How do we do that? See the next point.
  • Better value! Because the QC mark does show up from time to time, we want to make sure that you get at least 2000 labels on a roll. To achieve that target we actually add approximately 2% more labels to each roll. It is rare to have 2% marked labels on a roll and so you end up with more good labels.
  • Aggressive adhesive! When you put our label on your merchandise, it is there to stay. After about an hour the adhesive sets up and that label is not going to fall off.
  • Variety! We stock many sizes and shapes labels that are Sensormatic or Checkpoint Systems compatible. One type of Checkpoint compatible RF label you should check out is our clear label. It can be applied directly over your merchandise barcode and your scanner can scan right through it. This helps disguise the label and it does not cover up vital information such as directions on your merchandise packaging.
  • Our labels will not reactivate after they have been deactivated! When you pass our label over a quality deactivation unit, it kills the label and the label stays dead. It will not reactivate after your customer leaves the Point-Of-Sale (POS) cash register and before your front door. Cheap labels can and will do this in many cases at an alarming rate. This causes an unnecessary alarm that you have to deal with, embarrassing your good customers.
  • Most of our labels are faced with Thermal Transfer (TT) paper. That means you can print on them with your TT printer which you use to print your store pricing labels. This also helps disguise the EAS label.

HARD TAGS:

  • Look at the seams of a hard tag. Are the seams welded together so that they are smooth and cannot be pried apart with a tool? Our hard tags have a tightly welded seam.
  • Snag clothing? Poorly made hard tags can have a rough seam that will snag your clothing merchandise.
  • Our hard tags come in a wide range of unique styles, sizes, and colors.
  • The clutch mechanism in our hard tags grabs the pin and does not let go easily. The best hard tag in the world is useless unless the tag can securely hold the pin.
  • We have some of the smallest hard tags on the market. They can not only be used for protecting many types of jewelry but can be used on any other product that you can clip it onto.

So don’t cut yourself short. You paid for and installed an EAS system; do not let your investment give you an inadequate return because you use cheap labels or tags. Interested in samples of Loss Prevention Systems’ labels and hard tags? Contact us for a free sample pack.

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Influences That Made A Difference In My L.P. Career

August 1, 2018 by Leave a Comment

In every career, there are people, places, and things that help to shape who you become in that career. A Retail Loss Prevention career is no different. My career in Loss Prevention goes back nearly 27 years. A long time ago in a department store not far away I was hired as a Loss Prevention Associate with only my military experience and a college degree in hand. I had absolutely no Loss Prevention background. There have been lessons learned along the way that shaped the way I approached Loss Prevention and the way I developed my style of working with people and managing others.

     Coming from a military police background I first approached Loss Prevention with a law enforcement perspective. Unbeknownst to me, a former supervisor of mine from my old unit was working part-time at the store to which I was applying for a job. He saw my application and encouraged the L.P. Manager to hire me. I was trained by this co-worker and the L.P. Manager who also had a military background. We formed a strong team and were very good at catching shoplifters. I learned a lot about identifying suspects and even learned some aspects of investigating an internal crime. What we didn’t do as well I learned later in my career was having a more global outlook on the role of L.P. in the store.

     A little over four and a half years later I found myself hired as a Loss Prevention Manager for another company. Because I was in the same city I brought along my police partnerships, knowledge of the crime in the area and my same perspective. I viewed the work as closely related to police work. It was in this store that I found I had to earn the trust and respect of a Store Manager who had over twenty years of experience with this company. I did not report directly to this manager but rather to a District L.P. Manager who did not get along well with the store manager. I was new to the company, opening a brand new store in a remote market and caught between these two bosses. There were a number of lessons I learned during the tenure of these two. I found there are times you have to learn how to do a delicate balancing act between two managers making demands of you and your team. I learned from the store manager to expect excellence from your team. From the District LPM, I learned to be confident in my interactions.

     After a year a new DLPM took over and from him, I learned that there is more to the L.P. business than saving money. I found out that based on my experience and degree I was hired at a much lower salary than I should have been when I was made a job offer. This new manager went to bat for me and got a mid-year pay increase for me that I had not sought and learned were rarely awarded. While I often disagreed with this supervisor over some of his directions I always respected him for what he did for me though he had only known me a brief time.  Being fair and treating people with respect were valuable takeaways from this manager that I never forgot.

      As the years went by I found my own perspective on what the role of Loss Prevention in stores should be and it changed how I interacted with the others in the store management team. I began to see our department as less a policing department and more of a shortage reduction department. That included the traditional efforts to deter and/or catch shoplifters as well as investigating dishonest employee activity. I also focused on many of the factors that impacted operational shortage, the markdown process, product out of date issues and even employee best practices with freight unloading. As I spent time in other departments I learned more ways to make an impact on overall store shortage.

     Today, my Loss Prevention experiences are used to help me drive sales and deter theft as a retail sales associate. I have carried the management skills into a library supervisor position. I also have the opportunity to provide insights into Loss Prevention and improving sales and how Loss Prevention Systems Inc. can assist businesses in becoming more profitable. As you read this article I would challenge you to look at your own career, whether it is in Loss Prevention or in retail or just in life and reflect on how you have adapted your style and who has influenced your career.

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