16. Do your Cashiers Leave the Register Unattended? Don’t.
This is a basic Retail Theft Prevention practice that needs to be talked up daily. Cashiers should never leave their registers unattended. If they need to stock the impulse racks, or use the restroom, their register should be locked and the POS shut down and logged out. Every, single time. There should be no excuse for this not to happen, and as the CEO of your store, it’s up to you to set this standard and adhere to it. You do everything in your power to Stop Shoplifting, so take this little step to prevent cash theft.
17. Do you Leave your Backdoor Open? Close it.
Do you know how much product I’ve seen walk out of an open, unattended back door in my career? Hundreds of thousands of dollars. Back doors can be one of the biggest points of loss for any retail store. Sure, customers don’t necessarily have access to this area, but your employees DO, and newsflash, your employees will steal from you. Probably more so than your customers. In my stores, the policy is clear: If the back door is open, a manager is standing in the doorway. No deviation, no excuse. This is a part of our LP audits in store. Managers have lost their jobs for not following this very basic and very simple Retail Theft Prevention policy. It’s that important to us. It should be that important to you.
18. Are you Verifying that PO?
I don’t think I write about paper shrink enough. I have a lot to say on the topic, and I guess I’ll save it for a rainy day, but let’s talk about direct-to-store shipments. You may get a few, you may get a lot, or you might not get any at all. If you do receive product like this, it is so incredibly important that you verify the purchase order to what you physically received. Chances are, the vendor isn’t trying to get over on you, however everything is run by people, and people make mistakes. If you ordered 200 T-Shirts and were charged for that, make sure you have all 200. Little shortages add up to big dollars throughout the year. While this doesn’t directly Stop Shoplifting, it ensures that you’re not suffering losses in other forms, such as paper shrink, or lost sales opportunities.
19. Are you Rotating Those Consumables?
I hate when I buy a candy bar only to find that it expired 4 weeks ago. That’s just poor retailing. Rotating your stock is the absolute most basic retail process. I once had a girl work for me in my restaurant that just could not get it. Every night I would catch her filling the cooler with drinks. She’d put the cans from the store room in front of the ones already in the cooler. No matter how many times I corrected this, she would still do it her way. So, I fired her. It’s as important as any other policy, or Retail Theft Prevention method. Consumables usually have a short shelf-life. You can’t throw money out.
20. Do you Put Stuff Outside?
If you do, that’s OK! A lot of retailers will put product outside for several reasons. It’s either big and bulky, you have a lot of it, or you’re trying to move through it. Whatever the case, make sure that it is secured in some manner in order to Stop Shoplifting. Nothing is more frustrating than losing an entire pallet of patio furniture because it wasn’t secured. For example, if you put a line of bikes outside in the middle of the summer, that’s a great way to increase sales. Not putting a lock and chain on those bikes is an even better way to increase shrink. Using a little common sense will go a long way. If it goes outside, lock it up.
Retail Theft Prevention is important and we can help you with it. Call 1.770.426.0547 and let’s talk.
