retail security and monitoring

IS YOUR BACK DOOR PROTECTED?

November 3, 2016 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

Ever given any thought to your receiving area and your back door? How often do you open it and walk away? Do you require a manager be present when it’s open, or do you “trust” your warehouse crew with a key? Have you ever considered that an unattended back door could not only cause shrink, but also compromise the safety of your customer and employees? If you answered yes to any of those questions, you may have a problem.

Last year around Thanksgiving, I was scheduled to receive a pallet of television sets for Black Friday. Three days before the big day and they were nowhere to be found, only my inventory system said they were received on a truck that had already been processed. That pallet was worth $7,500 so I started to panic; checking the few outside containers I had, both warehouses, the sales floor, anywhere I could think of. When I couldn’t locate them, I went to the camera system on the day that I should have received them. Sure as I’m sitting here, I saw my employee roll a pallet of TVs off the truck after watching for a little while. I saw the employee place the pallet where it should have gone, but then a few hours later, I saw another employee wheel them out the back door.

I knew instantly that they had been stolen. There’s no reason for them to go outside, and there was no reason for that particular employee to be in the warehouse. You know what else I saw? That my back door was wide open, and there wasn’t a manager anywhere to be found. Long story short, the employee confessed to stealing/reselling them. When asked how he’d known that he could get away with the crime, he stated that he always saw the back door open. Without a manager present, it became common knowledge amongst a certain group of employees that you could just walk whatever you wanted right out the back door.

Outside of basic employee theft, an unattended back door could also be an invitation to a robbery. Think about this for a minute; you’re a desperate criminal and you’ve decided that you plan to rob Store X. You’ve cased the place for a week now and learned that the safe is in the rear office, in close proximity to the warehouse. You’ve also noticed that the back door is constantly left wide-open with no one (witnesses) around. So would you: a) walk through the front door and announce a robbery for all the customers, employees cameras to see, or b) park in the rear of the store, enter through the open warehouse door and possibly catch the manager alone in the cash room? I’m no criminal, but I’d probably go with the second option.

Perhaps that is the worst-case scenario. Perhaps instead of robbing you of cash, a thief just sees an easy way to slip out of the store with large quantities of merchandise undetected? If your back door in constantly open with no one around, your regular thieves will absolutely take notice, and take advantage of it. So the next time you see your back door open, be the voice of change and help secure your store, your product and guarantee the safety of people in it.

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: Alpha 2 Alarm, Alpha 3 Alarm, Alpha High Theft Solutions, Alpha Nano Gate, Alpha Security, Alpha Spider Wrap, Anti-shoplifting training, anti-theft devices, anti-theft tags, anti-thefts devices, EAS Devices, Employee Theft, Georgia Alarms systems, Georgia shoplifting prevention, Georgia shoplifting systems, internal Audit, Loss Prevention Seminar, prevent shrinkage, racial profiling, Retail Anti Theft Devices, retail security, retail security and monitoring, security, security devices, shoplifting, Shoplifting Prevention, shoplifting statistics, shoplifting violence, surveillance

Shoplifting And The Holiday Season

November 1, 2016 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

grandma It is not surprising that CVS is once again the recipient of a lawsuit. The history of legal suits against the chain is not new. Black and hispanic shoppers are regularly profiled by the chain according to this Daily news report, and now CVS is targeting the elderly. During the holiday season, stores do hire more personnel for their store to offset shoplifting, but targeting a specific group is a violation of their constitutional rights as United States citizens. Profiling has been an ineffective practice that stores and in this case CVS keep engaging in, and which brings them no solution to the problem.

For more about this and other stories, follow the links below.

10 bizarre things Americans steal during the holidays

Shoplifting ends up costing the average consumer an extra $50 during the holiday season.

Americans tend to get sticky fingers around holiday time.

Shoplifting is a major problem for retailers around the holidays, says Ernie Deyle, the co-author of the Checkpoint Systems’ Retail Holiday Season Global Forecastreleased in October, and an industry consultant. Indeed, 37% of a store’s annual shrink loss — shrink is the revenue companies should receive minus what they do receive, due in large part to a combination of losses from shoplifting, employee theft and fraud — happens during the holiday season.

There’s more theft during the holidays for a number of reasons: Increased store traffic leads to more shoplifting, and people tend to rationalize shoplifting around this time: “It’s much easier to do so when a child’s Christmas present is at stake rather than an extra bathing suit for the summer,” the report reveals. Plus, stores tend to carry pricier merchandise during the holidays, “so even if the same quantity of merchandise was stolen, the value of the merchandise stolen is higher,” the report reveals.

Grandma and Grandpa, shoplifters? CVS thinks so

Public enemy No. 1 at your local CVS: Grandma and Grandpa.

Seven discrimination lawsuits filed Monday against the pharmacy chain in courts across the city include the revelation that a CVS “Loss Prevention” handbook warns employees that senior citizens on a “fixed income” present a “special shoplifting concern.”

Attorneys from the Manhattan law firm Wigdor LLP brought the suits on behalf of former employees arguing that the policy is “tantamount to an admission of discrimination against older customers.”

The lawyers, Michael Willemin and David Gottlieb, have testimony from 16 whistleblower ex-staffers who claim that CVS stores across the city discriminate by profiling elderly shoppers, as well as blacks and Hispanics.

CVS’s 2014 “Loss Prevention” training guide says that “each store may have special shoplifting concerns based on it’s location, type of customer, etc.,” according to court papers. Sticky-fingered seniors are listed as one “special concern,” the suit says.

Rare to have older kids join adults in shoplifting

When it happens, officers must use discretion

Adult shoplifters employ all sorts of methods. Among the most insidious schemes are those that use children as decoys or unknowing partners.

Most times, the kids in cases like these are too young to understand, let alone participate in, the crime. They are infants or toddlers under whose clothing or strollers the stolen items are stashed.

But there also is a smaller subset: adults who use older kids as outright accomplices in shoplifting. This latter problem became an issue here locally this week when Ocala police accused a woman and her boyfriend of inducing the woman’s 12-year-old daughter to help them steal clothing from the Wal-Mart on Southwest 19th Avenue Road.

The girl had the unusual distinction of being both a suspect and a victim in one single criminal experience: Police arrested the girl and charged her with theft, and then charged her mother with both theft and contributing to the delinquency of a minor.

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Shoplifting And The Police Force

October 18, 2016 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

According to many researchers, gun violence and deaths by firearms have decreased over the last twenty years. And even though mass shootings at schools, bars, and places of work have plunged the country, and communities into grief, the truth is gun violence has been declining nationwide . One of the reasons that they attribute the decline of gun violence to, is the ability of the police force to direct their workforce in the right direction. Using computers and online mediums to share information, they can direct their forces to the neighborhoods where a crime is more likely to occur. Shoplifting for the police, is not on the same level as other violent crimes, and with the resources they have, they Do need to prioritize.

Read more about this topic by following the links.

Shoplifting deemed to be a lower police priority

“All crime is not equal and does not cause the same harm. I think what the public would like us to do, and that’s my experience, they want us to be focused on the harmful crimes.’

SHOPLIFTING has been deemed a lower priority by Leicestershire Police.

The move has caused outrage among business leaders in Loughborough following concerns that over the last few months 62 crimes were reported in the town centre, mainly shoplifting.

Leicestershire Police have adopted the Cambridge Crime Index, which weighs crime in order of harm to the public. Shoplifting has scored low compared to crimes such as domestic violence and child abuse.

Loughborough Police wants to launch FaceWatch, an online shoplifting system which would save police time attending incidents and encourages businesses to fill out a crime report and CCTV over the internet.

The Echo obtained an exclusive interview with assistant chief constable of Leicestershire Police, Phil Kay, who said: “Policing has got less resources – 400 fewer officers than previously.

The Moral, Societal, and Legal Obligation for Theft Prevention

Retailers should be able to demonstrate preventive controls against theft in the workplace.

As a loss prevention professional, it is likely that you have responsibility for detecting, investigating, and resolving internal-theft cases. Doing so may support your organization’s zero-tolerance policy towardinternal theft. Many top retailers rely on their loss prevention departments to give them a competitive advantage by controlling their operational costs through reducing shrinkage and/or accident claims. Some of these retailers have made loss prevention executives officers of the company.

While most retailers have proactive loss prevention programs, a few view theft as a “cost of business.” These retailers may or may not have resources dedicated to detecting and referringdishonest employees to prosecution. However, it is the absence of a proactive loss prevention program that is the most concerning.

Auburn’s RFID lab holds open house

While many prepared for Saturday’s kickoff of the Auburn vs. LSU football game, others explored a more scientific side of the university at Auburn University’s radio frequency identification laboratory Friday afternoon.

The RFID lab, which relocated to Auburn in 2014 from the University of Arkansas, hosted an open house Friday afternoon, showcasing the work and research done at the lab to members of the community.

Tucked away in the university’s administrative building on Glenn Avenue, the 13,000-square-foot lab houses a mockup apparel retail store, simulated warehouse and distribution center areas and more research space. The lab specializes in the implementation of RFID technology in retailers and suppliers.

Manager Justin Patton led the tour, explaining how RFID technology uses electromagnetic fields to help track tags which can be applied to almost anything. The lab works in partnership with Auburn’s colleges of business, engineering and human sciences, giving students hands-on experience.

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What’s Craving Got to Do with Shoplifting?

October 14, 2016 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

A good loss prevention plan starts with focusing on the basics. One of the basics is to monitor high risk merchandise. For a variety of reasons some items are stolen more often than others. It makes sense that they should be given extra attention and protection.

But, simple as the idea sounds, the problem is in details. Retailers can have difficulty identifying high risk goods and the reasons why they’re being stolen. Ronald Clarke – a criminologist with Rutgers University – developed the acronym CRAVED to help them identify what kinds of goods are vulnerable to theft and why.

Concealable. Items that are easily hidden (pockets, bags, purses, coats) are susceptible to theft, especially if they’re difficult to identify after concealment. Once it’s in a purse, you’d better be very sure you can prove the customer didn’t come in with that lip gloss. This is why cigarettes and baby formula are sold as they are now. They used to be out in the open, easy to remove and conceal.

Removable. For most shoplifters the item must be easy to remove and portable. There’s a reason laptops are stolen more often than PCs. It’s easier to take a T-shirt from the front of the store, rather than the back where the sales people always stand and talk.

Available. These are goods that are easy to find and commonly available. Christmas ornaments are stolen during the holidays more than any other time, including in stores that carry them year round.

Valuable. The value of the product can be monetary or status driven. Real diamond bracelets are kept in locked display cases, while the glass ones are on top. That is until they are trendy, become a target for theft, and have to be moved behind the counter until the trend stops.

Enjoyable. Many of the standard, frequently stolen products (i.e. tobacco, liquor, electronics, jewelry, make-up) are linked to personal satisfaction. They’re usually the ones which are enjoyable to own or consume. Or used for something that’s considered enjoyable to consume, such as ingredients used to manufacture methamphetamine.

Disposable. Getting rid of merchandise, without being caught, used to be a big problem for thieves. Now with the ease of selling via the Internet professional shoplifters are targeting products which weren’t easy to get rid of in the past – no more selling out of a car trunk.

Easily disposable isn’t just important for expensive items, disposable razors and batteries are some of the most frequently stolen products. They can be quickly and easily sold or bartered to neighbors, friends and family.

Some goods will always be a target for theft, while others are just a passing consumer fancy. Either way it makes employees’ and managers’ jobs easier if they know what to look for and why it’s happening. People are more willing to commit to and follow loss prevention policies if they understand why they’re needed and what they hope to accomplish.

Nicole Abbott is a professional writer who’s had over 200 articles published. She’s a business consultant and former psycho-therapist with over 20 years of experience in mental health, business and addiction. She’s a coach, lecturer, trainer and facilitator. She has conducted over 200 workshops, trainings, presentations, seminars and college classes.

Filed Under: Shoplifting Prevention Tagged With: Alpha 2 Alarm, Alpha 3 Alarm, Alpha High Theft Solutions, Alpha Jewel Lok, Alpha Nano Gate, Alpha Security, Alpha Spider Wrap, Anti-shoplifting training, anti-theft devices, anti-theft tags, anti-thefts devices, EAS Devices, Employee Theft, Georgia Alarms systems, Georgia shoplifting prevention, Georgia shoplifting systems, prevent shrinkage, racial profiling, Retail Anti Theft Devices, retail security, retail security and monitoring, security, security devices, shoplifting, Shoplifting Prevention, shoplifting statistics, shoplifting violence, surveillance

Preventing Shoplifting During The Holiday Season

October 13, 2016 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

October is almost half gone and before you know it the holidays will be fast approaching. The beginning of the holiday season for many people starts around thanksgiving, but for the retail industry and the small shop owner the season has already started. Security during this time of year is a challenge for the retail industry to say the least. Preventing shoplifting requires them to be aware of the new trends in technology and decide what will work for them. Will they need to hire more loss prevention personnel? Are the new cameras working as expected? Are the new hires trained and ready for the challenge of stopping a shoplifter? The challenges facing the retail industry are many, and during this time of year, shoplifting and employee theft are very serious concerns for them.

Video Surveillance Tools: Seeing the Big Picture

Before deciding on a digital video security system, learn how the technologies work.

Video surveillance systems have become a mainstay for many loss prevention programs. As the technology evolves and business needs grow more complex, loss prevention leaders are looking for solutions that are both affordable and capable of meeting the escalating demands of the business.

LP Magazine sat down with Mike Dunn, vice president of business development for BSI, to garner his expertise and insights on building effective video surveillance systems and how to get the most out of existing systems to help maximize retailers’ options and investment.

What are the primary considerations when choosing between an analog versus an Internet protocol (IP) camera system?

Before deciding on a video option, it is advisable to first understand how the technologies work, as the differences in both camera technologies and method of video transmission are critical to developing a well-planned video solution.

Shrinkage causes $123b loss to global retailers

Shrinkage is defined as losses from shoplifting, employee or supplier fraud and administrative errors.

The retail sector in the Middle East should adopt effective strategies and solutions to curtail ‘shrinkage’ to improve profitability as it caused up to $123.39 billion in loss to global retailers in 2014-15, experts say.

Referring to the latest Global Retail Theft Barometer Study conducted by Checkpoint Systems, the industry experts claimed that shrinkage, defined as losses from shoplifting, employee or supplier fraud and administrative errors, accounted for 1.23 per cent of total retail sales in 2014-15 compared to 0.94 per cent in the previous year.

Jayant Ghosh, business development manager, Checkpoint Middle East and Africa; and Ben Chua, Checkpoint product director for Asia Pacific, said shrinkage increased globally as retailers spent less on prevention and there was in increase in the type of products being targeted.

“In the US, we saw that apparel stores suffered the highest rates of shrink [2.28 per cent] followed by pharmacies/drugstores [2.25 per cent] and non-grocery retailers [1.9 per cent],” Chua recently told Khaleej Times on the sidelines of an event in Dubai.

Column: Everett boutique owner shocked by rampant shoplifting

By Kylie Sabra

Guest columnist

I have never shoplifted in my life — not even as a child.

It simply never occurred to me to take something that was not mine.

I am new to retail and I absolutely love my new life. Running ReFresh Boutique allows me to engage my artsy tendencies as well as my planning and logistical skills. I’ve lived a protected life I suppose. My professional career was in corporate marketing and communications where I dealt with a microcosm of humanity. I now find myself exposed to a far wider range of personalities, and most of them I enjoy immensely.

Then, there are the issues.

I remember how heartsick I felt the first time someone stole from me. It was an all-to-common occurrence.

I’ve been able to reduce much of the theft problem by adjusting security cameras and rearranging the store to remove blind spots and closely observing people with large bags, coats, purses and the like.

Filed Under: Shoplifting Prevention Tagged With: Alpha 2 Alarm, Alpha 3 Alarm, Alpha High Theft Solutions, Alpha Jewel Lok, Alpha Spider Wrap, Anti-shoplifting training, anti-theft devices, anti-thefts devices, Background checks, Employee Theft, Georgia shoplifting systems, Loss Prevention Seminar, Loss Prevention Seminars, prevent shrinkage, racial profiling, Retail Anti Theft Devices, retail security, retail security and monitoring, security, security devices, shoplifting, Shoplifting Prevention, shoplifting statistics, shoplifting violence, surveillance

Is Your Checkpoint System Ready for the Holidays?

October 11, 2016 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

We are getting ready for an increase in customer traffic. Is your Checkpoint System ready? Are you having false or phantom alarms? Is the system working properly? Have you had your system tuned or a Preventative Maintenance (PM) conducted in the last year or even 5 years?

Here are some things to check:

Checkpoint Systems do not generally like to be decorated. Anything with metal, foil, lights, electricity…. WILL cause trouble. Don’t decorate them.
Are the shopping carts, hand baskets pushed too close? Make sure they are at least 3 feet away.
Have you re-merchandised? Is tagged or labeled product too close?
Have you re-fixture in the area near the Checkpoint antennas? If so this could cause trouble. Again, you want to keep metal fixtures at least 3 feet away.
Have you added any other equipment in the vicinity of the system? CCTV, coolers, ice machines, vending machines, etc., all can make a huge difference in your system’s performance.
DO NOT put the Christmas tree next to the system. The lights and ornaments will cause problems.
Are you powering the Checkpoint system using an extension cord? Your Checkpoint Power Supply must be plugged directly into an outlet.

Check for these and other potential issues by simply standing back and looking your system over. Checkpoint Systems are commercial grade and made to last in a retail environment. But like any other systems and hardware, you have in your store, they need some TLC from time to time. Your car’s oil needs to be changed. Would you ignore that? Our systems need PM every once in a while.

If your system has not had a PM or service in some time or possibly never, then it is time. Besides checking the system over thoroughly, we will update the systems firm wear and tune it. You may see a substantial increase in performance.

Get a PM or service call scheduled now, before your attention is taken up with the selling season.

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It’s Getting Darker Earlier, What LP Things Should I Be Doing?

October 11, 2016 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

outsidemall As a Loss Prevention Manager I always had three things I felt were my top priorities. The safety of our store employees, the safety of our customers and the protection of store property. Property in my mind always included the building (interior and exterior), equipment and merchandise. Planning and follow-up are the keys to keeping a store safe and secure. I would mention that while I broke down my focus to three top priorities, my action plans always intersected. In other words, a plan for protecting a building from vandalism with adequate, working perimeter lights also made it safer for customers who walked to a housing area behind our store. With this in mind, it is important to create action plans that are relevant, sometimes adjusting for seasons such as holidays or being prepared for weather events such as hurricanes. One change that is easily overlooked is the shortened daylight hours in the fall and winter. With darkness descending upon us earlier there are steps Loss Prevention can take to keep stores safe.

Safety precautions to take as days get shorter:

Inspect parking lot lights. If lights are burned out place a work order to have them repaired/replaced. Dark parking lots make customers uncomfortable and they may choose not to shop in your store.
Inspect building exterior lighting. These are the lights that are on the walls of the building and at the corners. Criminals tend to prey on victims in areas with poor or no lighting.
Inspect the back of the store and loading dock areas. Often this is the place where cardboard bales are kept, empty pallets are stacked and some stores maintain dumpsters. If storage has to be kept here keep the area as neat and clean as possible. Unkempt areas are attractive to drug and other illicit activities.
If your store has a storage trailer(s) located at the rear of the building, establish a time when employees are not allowed to leave the building to pull merchandise or store merchandise in the trailer. This should be no later than dusk and that may be a flexible time as the days get shorter.
Encourage employees who are leaving in the dusk to dark hours to leave with a partner. It may be that they ask for a Loss Prevention partner to escort them to their vehicle if no one else is leaving at that time. Always remember that a buddy system is the best method to prevent robberies of employees.

Increase parking lot foot patrols. Being visible makes customers feel safer and acts as a deterrent to those who may lurk in the parking lot waiting for an opportunity to grab a purse or commit a robbery.
Consider hiring a uniformed security officer or an employee to be present at the front door. They can respond to EAS alarms and conduct receipt checks, but they can also offer escorts to customers leaving the building. They may also step outside the doors to do a visual inspection of the parking lot. One store I worked at had a person who was hired to do just this and they were called a “Guest Ambassador”. This person should not be used as a back-up cashier because the tendency is to keep them on a register and they lose their effectiveness at the front doors.
Employees will go on breaks and some are smokers. If you are going to have a designated smoking area, be sure it is well lit and it should not be in a secluded area for the safety of those who may go out after dark.
Inspect any exterior closed circuit television cameras you may have on the building. Make sure they are functioning, have clear pictures, and are retaining video for at least two weeks (preferably 30 days).
Find ways to build a relationship with the police department responsible for the area where your store is located. Contact a Crime Prevention Officer and offer to assist with Santa Helper events, children’s car seat safety events, or other activities that the department is helping for community outreach. As you build a relationship, you may find more officers using your parking lot to stop and write reports or conducting ride by patrols. The more police presence, the less likely crime will occur in or around your store. This is always a bonus at night.

The tips are not exhaustive, there are other ideas you may think of as you create a plan specific to your store and location. By being proactive and establishing a plan that will keep your store safe as the nights get longer, you will protect your business and your reputation and as a result drive up sales.

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: Alpha 2 Alarm, Alpha 3 Alarm, Alpha High Theft Solutions, Alpha Jewel Lok, Alpha Nano Gate, Alpha Security, Alpha Spider Wrap, Anti-shoplifting training, anti-theft devices, anti-theft tags, anti-thefts devices, EAS Devices, Employee Theft, Georgia Alarms systems, Georgia shoplifting prevention, Loss Prevention Seminar, Loss Prevention Seminars, Loss Prevention Training, Periodic inventory, Prevent Shoplifting, prevent shrinkage, Retail Anti Theft Devices, retail security, retail security and monitoring, security, security devices, shoplifting, Shoplifting Prevention, shoplifting statistics, shoplifting violence, surveillance

LP tips for hiring seasonal help

October 11, 2016 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

Hiring seasonal help for the holidays is much different from when a company hires to fill a position or two during the “regular” times of the year. During what I have traditionally called the 4^th quarter, seasonal help is being brought on board for the express purpose of having enough staff to meet increased customer traffic. These employees are hired with the knowledge they will probably lose their jobs at a specific time. During the rest of the year, an employee is hired with the expectation the position is a permanent job, in the sense it is long-term not necessarily part-time vs. full-time. This means there are certain considerations that an employer must think about as they hire seasonal employees:

Do I have time to complete a background check or drug tests as I do with regular employees?
What date am I going to release my employees from service?
Do I tell the employee in advance what the termination date will be?

I am going to provide some guidance from a Loss Prevention perspective and hopefully make your decision making a little easier.

As a Loss Prevention Manager I participated in the seasonal hiring process, both interviewing candidates for the store and conducting mass orientation for new hires. One of the issues I saw was that when hiring started early enough, background checks could be conducted. This required the Human Resource Manager to begin the seasonal hiring ramp up in August, to prepare for a start date in mid-September to early October. When the process was started too late, people were sporadically interviewed and hired in twos and threes. I do not believe there was proper pre-employment screening done at those times. This meant we brought in people who we really did not know. Yes, a criminal can slip through the cracks during regular hiring, however I saw many more thieves hired during the last quarter of the year. I believe this was due, in part, to a less thorough screening process because the store needed “people”. Drug tests were always conducted and we did not hire anyone who failed. Do not compromise on this, even during the 4^th quarter.

Should you set a release date for seasonal help in advance and should you tell your seasonal help what the exact dates of employment will be or should you leave it ambiguous? There are two schools of thought on this. One argument is that in fairness to the employee they should be told the starting and ending dates. It allows them time to prepare to look for work as they near the end of the seasonal appointment. The other argument and the one I prefer is to leave it a little vague, using an end date like “mid-January”. This serves two purposes. If you set a specific date of release, you are more or less obligated to end the employment then. The issue is that if you lose too many employees before the end of the 4^th quarter and you need time to recover the store and prepare for the coming year, will you have enough staff to do so? Second, if your employee is a thief, and they know the exact end date they may use this as the day they are going to do the most damage and then be gone. When there is not a clear cut deadline, you can release them in that date range and avoid the chance the employee will make that final “hit”. I am not dogmatic on either philosophy, there are reasonable perspectives on both I just prefer to improve the odds for the employer.

One other thing I used to see during the hiring of seasonal help was the use of the quasi-promise, “If you do a good job, we may keep you on at the end of the season.” I saw many people hang onto this statement and become very discouraged when they were released. You may very well make offers of continued employment to workers after the holidays and that is fine. I believe in rewarding hard work. You may even make it clear to a group of new hires that you tend to keep some people after the 4^th quarter is over, but don’t offer it as a dangling carrot.

In closing, prepare early for the holidays. Give yourself time to conduct pre-employment screenings, hire the right people and get them trained in time for your peak season. They will better serve your customers and you will have more time to determine who the cream of the crop is that you would like to keep on your team. You will also reduce the chance of hiring someone who will steal from your business.

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: Alpha 2 Alarm, Alpha 3 Alarm, Alpha High Theft Solutions, Alpha Jewel Lok, Alpha Nano Gate, Alpha Security, Alpha Spider Wrap, Anti-shoplifting training, anti-theft devices, anti-theft tags, Background checks, EAS Devices, Georgia shoplifting prevention, Georgia shoplifting systems, Loss Prevention Seminar, mobile POS loss prevention, Periodic inventory, prevent shrinkage, Retail Anti Theft Devices, retail security and monitoring, security devices, Shoplifting Prevention, shoplifting statistics, shoplifting violence, surveillance

Using Technology And Training To Stop Shoplifting

September 28, 2016 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

It is evident that small businesses and big retail chains have problems dealing with shoplifting and employee theft. Technology that helps them prevent shoplifting is an investment that their store cannot refuse. But, having the technology that helps prevent shoplifting is only a small part of the solution. Having employees trained and knowledgeable should be a big part of their strategy to prevent shoplifters. Do they know the steps to take when apprehending a shoplifter? Are they knowledgeable about the rights, and store policies regarding shoplifters? Technology can certainly help, but training your employees is a big part of the solution to stop shoplifting in your store.

Creepy Mickey Mouse arrested for shoplifting

That is one goofy mugshot.

A 22-year-old female tourist inside a Mickey Mouse outfit was busted in Germany for trying to steal nail clippers and a bottle of shampoo — and hiding the pilfered goods in her gigantic head, according to Central European News.

Police in the southwest city of Kaiserslautern released the suspect’s mugshot, erring on the side of hilarity and the woman’s privacy.

“The good news for Disney fans is that Mickey Mouse has been released from prison,” according to a spokesman for regional police in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate.

How to prevent shoplifting: 10 ways to protect your retail business

Every week there’s a new story – someone has tried to shoplift something in brazen or bizarre fashion.

Whether it’s the well-known trick of trying to secrete something away in a bag or under clothes, or something more devious, like the people who set up a fake company hiring ‘mystery shoppers’ and ordering them to steal, there are those out there who will try to pull a fast one on you.

With that in mind, these are our top 10 tips for preventing theft, and what to do if you do fall victim to it.

10 tips to prevent shoplifting

1. Know how to spot a shoplifter

One of the first things to prepare yourself and your employees for is how shoplifters are likely to behave. That way you’ll be able to spot them more easily and hopefully be able to stop them.

If someone is planning to shoplift from you, they may well display the following behaviours:

Attempting to avoid being noticed
Looking nervous, sweating or becoming flushed
Picking up and putting back the same items repeatedly
Paying more attention to what’s around them than the product in their hand or on the shelves in front of them
Wearing large coats, even in hot weather, or carrying large bags

Of course, this behaviour doesn’t necessarily mean that someone is planning to steal from you, but they’re signs worth looking out for.

Security Cameras with Facial Recognition: A Game-Changing Technology for Retailers

Retail security systems with facial-recognition technology are becoming more prevalent in stores.

EDITOR’S NOTE: This article is based on the experiences of a well-known retailer who implemented a facial-recognition security camera system. Because of the potential value of this technology to the retail industry as well as the critical issues surrounding its deployment, the executive who leads this initiative approached the magazine to offer his insights on the condition of anonymity. Therefore, the names of the individual and the company have been changed.

“We’re seeing shoplifters—known shoplifters—come up to us and ask permission to buy something.” Is this some kind of loss prevention Twilight Zone, or the delusions of a loss prevention associate who has spent too many hours watching surveillance video? No, this is everyday life in stores at a leading retailer who has recently deployed a facial-recognition system. And it’s just one of the changes that have led the company’s head of LP to call facial recognition a game-changing loss prevention technology.

“We now know within seconds of a person walking in the store if they’ve previously been caught stealing from us,” says Tom Smith, vice president of loss prevention for Store-Mart. “We now know which hours of the day see the most shoplifter activity. We now know that 26 percent of the people we detain, we see again in the brand within one month, on average 13 days later. We never had a way of knowing things like this before. This is stuff that LP associates will salivate over. It’s going to be a game changer.”

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Addiction and Shoplifting

September 22, 2016 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

The retail industry loses billions of dollars a year due to shoplifting. And the small business owner that loses money due to shoplifting is a struggling business, without the resources the big retail chain has. Shoplifting, employee theft, organized crime, and even merchant theft, are major reasons why some small businesses close their doors for good. Shoplifters with a drug addiction problem are also a big problem for these businesses, because they enter their store to steal big quantities of merchandise to sell for cash to keep with their addiction drugs.

Prosecuting the shoplifter is always a hard decision for the small business owner to make, specially when they consider the financial burden attorneys’ fees will have in their business. A small quantity of small business owners choose to prosecute, but many choose to terminate the employee and deal with the loss instead.

For more about this and other topics about shoplifting, follow the links below.

It’s better to prevent addiction than cure

Addiction is powerful and destructive.

And there is no magic bullet, no magic cure.

Ask any alcoholic or drug addict in recovery and he or she will confirm that it takes perseverance and self-discipline to remain clean and sober, one day at a time, for the rest of his or her life.

What does this have to do with the American court system?

Empirically, addiction and crime go hand-in-hand. And people charged with crimes end up in court.

As a judge to whom thousands of criminal cases have been assigned, I have detected patterns when it comes to substance abuse.

A horrific crime with unspeakable allegations? Methamphetamine addiction.

Property crimes, including burglary, shoplifting and auto theft? Heroin addiction.

Domestic violence? Child abuse/neglect or animal abuse? Alcohol and methamphetamine.

DWI? Alcohol and/or drugs, both legal and illegal.

Of course, this is not an exhaustive list, just patterns I have noticed in my courtroom. Additionally, there is often an overlay of mental illness, sometimes specifically brought about by years of chronic substance abuse.

Shoplifter stole food for drugs

A PERSISTENT shoplifter who stole to fund his drugs habit was handed a suspended prison sentence and warned that if he committed another offence he was likely to be jailed immediately.

Christopher Page pleaded guilty to eight charges of theft from a shop – seven of them from the same One Stop shop in Pinehurst. The total value of the goods stolen was more than £200.

James Burnham, prosecuting, told Swindon Magistrates Court on Wednesday that Page went into the One Stop on August 5 and took six packs of steak without paying. He returned just before 5pm on August 7 and picked up washing liquids and gels worth £67.80, putting them down his trousers and walking out. The following day he was back to steal milkshakes valued at £3.

Then on August 9 he put more washing liquids, five packs of bacon, sausages, shower gels and a packet of hot chocolate worth £35.45 down his trousers and left without paying.

On August 14 he took washing liquids and the following day he stole fabric conditioner and washing capsules to the value of £13.65. “He sold the items to buy food and drugs if they were not food or were high value,” explained Mr Burnham. Ten days later he was back at the One Stop but this time he was seen hiding three boxes of Ferrero Rocher worth £19.50.

Good start in tackling gun violence-drug addiction problems

I attended two meetings recently that provided me with valuable information about problems in our community.

The Heroin Awareness meeting presented by the City of Myrtle Beach was excellent. I hadn’t realized the extent of the problem. My heart aches for those addicted and their families. Many try heroin because of peer pressure and become addicted. Others had been taking prescription meds for pain, became addicted, and then turned to heroin. Some overdose the first time they try it. Some go through many painful withdrawals before they are finally able to stay clean. Drug addicts are responsible for many crimes of shoplifting, burglary and prostitution in order to feed their habits.

I hope this Heroin Awareness program will be offered again to a countywide audience and especially students. Was the whole program filmed? If so, could it be shown in schools and community groups?

I also attended an Horry County Democratic Party Committee meeting on gun sense. We are seeking information so that we can understand how gun violence can be reduced. Horry County officers Wyatt and Conti were generous with their time and knowledge.

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