I have been working in retail for a LONG time now, the majority of those years being in Retail Loss Prevention. Even today as I work in the sales and customer service side of retail, I still draw on my Loss Prevention experience to prevent shoplifting. Just the other day I had an opportunity to stop someone from stealing a cell phone case. This wasn’t just an ordinary case, this has a built in charger that plugs into the mini-port on a phone so it can charge while still in the case. I began watching the suspect when he knelt down in the phone accessory aisle and began picking up phone cases. He reminded me of someone I had stopped from stealing phone cases a few weeks prior to this. As I watched the suspect for a few minutes I noticed that the guy was avoiding the cell phone cases wrapped in Alpha Spider Wrap.
The Alpha Spider Wrap is a retail anti-theft device that secures around a piece of merchandise. The device has wires that extend from a housing unit and are wrapped around an item and secured together with a clip. The units have tamper alarms that are set off if someone cuts one of the wires. the noise from the alarm is loud enough to be heard across a store, alerting employees to a possible theft in progress. The Alpha Spider Wrap also activate electonic article surveillance antennas if a piece of merchandise that is protected by a wrap is carried out of a store. The antenna alarms activate and employees are made aware a theft is taking place. Staff respond to the alarm and recover merchandise, OR in many cases, the alarm scares the thief and they drop the merchandise.
The “shopper” in my situation was looking at cell phone cases and examing them and then he started to take them out of the packages. While doing this he also looked around and appeared to be trying to make sure no one was watching him. He did finally seem to settle on a case and he removed it from the package. He put the package down then palmed the case in his hand and stood with his hand at his side next to the front pocket of his shorts. Based on experience I knew what he was going to do as he took one last glance around the store. I walked towards him and asked if the cell phone case in his hand was the one he wanted to purchase. The “shopper” was clearly startled and fumbled over his words as he tried to tell me he was making a decision about the case and if it was what his daughter needed for her phone. I engaged him in conversation as I would anyone else and at the same time picked up the empty package for the phone. He asked about the price of it and I scanned it and found it was almost $70.00. My friend was shocked, why he thought it was on clearance for about $6.00. After several minutes of conversation my customer said he might be back and met up with a woman he was with and they walked around for several minutes and left together. Because of our conversation, I believe this was the same person I stopped from shoplifting previously.
As I put the case back in the package I was surprised it was not protected with an Alpha Spider Wrap like other phone cases that were a few dollars more in price. As it turned out, the case my customer had his eye on did not fall into the price range of those that our company protects with retail anti-theft devices. Because of a few dollars difference, we almost experienced a loss due to a merchandise theft strategy that is not very flexible. It is my contention that retail anti-theft devices work, they just have to be used in order to do the job. In my opinion, setting a “price point” as a basis for protecting an item is not necessarily the best way to prevent shoplifting. Protect ALL of your products and you will see your merchandise shortage decrease significantly because of their ability to deter theft.
Invest in retail anti-theft devices such an Alpha Spider Wrap and you will prevent shoplifting. As you stop theft you will see your profit margin grow and your store in-stocks improve, allowing merchandise to be available to paying customers.
The Alpha Spider Wrap are important and we can help you with it. Call 1.770.426.0547 and let’s talk.
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