Holidays….less time, more people, more theft!

The holidays are most retailers busiest time of the year where financial goals tend to be made or lost based on a narrow scope of time. This obviously causes a huge amount of stress for both the sales operations department and the Loss Prevention department.

I worked for a small box retailer who made 60 percent of their business in a two month holiday period. This retailer bought and implemented the Checkpoint security tag system as a means to attempt to stop shoplifting. This system was very helpful since the store personnel were overwhelmed with sales and customer service issues at this time of year.

The store locations that utilized the checkpoint system the best devised a daily system to ensure all floor product was tagged with rf security labels both in the morning and at night. By no means will any physical security system stop shoplifting 100% but a properly implemented EAS system using checkpoint security tags as well as rf labels will take a huge bite out of shrink.

I remember how store locations from the same company could differ greatly in every aspect of the business thus requiring district and regional level store visits to ensure overall compliance to company policies. The same differences could be found in store locations both using the rf label system.

Part of my store visits were to first watch the location for a while to get a feel for the store’s overall compliance to sales and loss prevention protocol. It became plainly obvious that for the Checkpoint security label system to work in a store the system had to be supported by both the District Manager and the Store Manager. Failure to support the system from top management was easily pinpointed when auditing the checkpoint security tag compliance in high shrink categories as well as how the store staffs reacted to the EAS alarm system when product with rf labels were removed from the store.

If a customer walked out of the store with merchandise that had a rf label or rf security tag on it that either had not been properly deactivated or removed and the staff merely let the customer leave without batting an eye then it was usually a telltale sign that the checkpoint system was not being supported. The indifference to the system was something that had to be rectified immediately from the top down since ignoring the checkpoint label system cost the company money in both merchandise loss as well as the cost of the rf labels and rf security tags. It was imperative to have a meeting with the District Manager first and then the store manager. I would bring a breakdown of the store’s highest shrink categories and a detailed comparison to similar stores who were supporting the checkpoint system.

I would ensure the stores were evenly matched for sales volume, demographic and payroll allotment so that the comparison was fair. At this point District Managers usually understood the value of the rf security label system as well as the necessity to fully support and utilize the program. This is when as loss prevention profession I would step in to train the store manager and the staff as to proper tagging of merchandise using the rf security labels and rf security tags. I also had to train the staffs as to the importance of auditing the tagged product for consistency and compliance. Another piece to the training is to ensure every team member knows how to deactivate and remove checkpoint security tags and checkpoint security labels. The final step in training was to instruct all staff members the correct way to approach a customer when the EAS pedestal alarms sound when someone is removing product either knowingly or unknowingly still tagged with RF security labels or rf security tags.

Though the Checkpoint system can not promise to altogether stop shoplifting it was plainly evident when inventory results were reviewed that locations which embraced the checkpoint product wholly had much better overall shrink.

Visit the Loss Prevention Store to purchase Checkpoint labels, Checkpoint security tags, and other RF labels that can help you stop shoplifting in your business.

For more information on Checkpoint labels, Checkpoint security tags, RF labels, RF security labels, RF security tags and how to stop shoplifting contact us at RF label or call 1.770.426.0547