Shrink controls and Antishoplifting action planning have been at the top of my priorities list since I have been in the retail pharmacy business for almost fifteen years. I worked at the same store for about seven years before transferring to a different location. Last week I got a call from one of my former employees. The first thing out of her mouth was “We just got hit again”. I asked if it was the same lady, and she said it was.
The Setting: A small pharmacy out in the middle of nowhere. The store has additional space with about ten aisles of over the counter medications, cosmetics and health/beauty aids. No other businesses within a mile either way. Easy access to a couple major highways, one of which leads to an interstate.
The store used to be in a strip mall, but relocated a few years ago to this building. Since there is no competition close, the store is quite profitable and popular with the surrounding neighborhoods. Unfortunately it also became a very popular target for professional shoplifters, or as we call them: “boosters.” The booster activity has ramped up in the last couple of years since I left that location to work at another one about twenty minutes away. They were bothersome when I was there, but we identified their targets, and put Antishoplifting measures into place. Most of those tools are still being implemented even now.
All of the razor cartridge refills are merchandised in Alpha Keepers. Brand name teeth whitener kits are kept in them as well. Plus our company has a standard list of items that each store is required to tag with Checkpoint Labels at the time of delivery. These ideas work, and over time have almost put a stop to the rampant theft in many categories. But the boosters have learned and changed too. Now they have new shopping lists, and they have decided to go after the low hanging fruit rather than the usual higher retail items. This store has been hit four times in the last month, and each time the same one or two women come in and wipe out the shelves.
It doesn’t seem that any of the staff’s Antishoplifting efforts have worked so far, so now we have to figure out what is going to stop them or we have to catch them.
The problem the staff is having is that they keep coming on different days, at different times, in different vehicles, alternating which woman comes in or stays in the car, or they both come in but separate, and they keep stealing from different sections. First they wiped out all of the deodorant body sprays. Next time they took every box of sensitivity toothpaste. Then they went after salon hair care items. This last time they went back to the toothpaste section and cleaned out the shelves again. They average less than five minutes in the store, but they have gotten away with about $700 worth of inventory in these four hits.
It is very frustrating for them to discover these wipe-outs over and over, but the staff is fully aware they can’t just wait and hope it stops. The employees know what the thieves look like, and they are definitely changing their Antishoplifting plans and utilizing different tools so they can get the advantage back in their court. I have faith in them and I am patiently waiting for the call from my former assistant saying “We got them!”
If your store is experiencing this type of maddening theft over and over, there are steps you can take to stop it in it’s tracks.
For more information contact us: 1.770.426.0547 or Antishoplifting.net
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