How much clothing do you think a shoplifter can steal from your store in one incident? A purse filled with items? Perhaps a shoplifter could get away with a large shopping bag full of merchandise? The reason I ask the questions is that if a store owner or manager isn’t thinking about it, the inclination can be to think of a shoplifter as a person stealing a couple of items and getting away with it. If people are only stealing a couple of items, addressing clothing security may not seem to be a significant problem. Sure, no one wants people stealing from them, but the solution seems to be more of a hassle than just letting a few items get out the store, right? Wrong, theft impacts a store a lot more than just the loss of a few items at a time. It’s also easier than you might think to prevent clothing theft by using clothing security tags.
Clothing security tags prevent theft through visual deterrence when they are placed in a location on an item that makes it visible. For example, Checkpoint tags hanging from the cuffs of shirt sleeves will be seen by the customer who walks up to the garment while it is on the rack. A tag hanging on the waistband of a pair of dress slacks will draw someone’s eyes to the security tag and they will recognize what it is. Checkpoint tags also activate electronic article surveillance alarm antennas if someone attempts to walk out of a store with a piece of merchandise which has the tag attached. This makes tags a physical deterrence to theft as well as a visual one. A shoplifter may try to roll up an item, place it in a purse or bag and walk out through the doors, but hidden or not the sensor can still read the tags.
Another aspect of using clothing security tags that make them an easy theft prevention tool is that they are not difficult to use. The two piece design means they are quick to attach to garments and fasten. There are also options available for clothing to be source tagged by the vendor, saving your store time and payroll by not having to use store personnel to do the tagging process. From a merchandise branding point of view, source tagging also ensures uniform placement of tags, making it easier for cashiers to not hunt for tags at the point of sale. Tags are also re-useable so you are not constantly purchasing new ones on a regular basis.
I mentioned previously that many store managers and owners only think about the shoplifter as a petty thief and therefore, while a pain in the neck, their impact to the bottom line is negligible. I would like to share one of my experiences from my years as a Loss Prevention Manager. I had two young ladies in our store pushing around shopping carts, one containing a baby stroller box, the other a diaper disposal box. They were shopping in children’s clothing and then the young misses department. I noticed that they were stopping every so often and then some of the clothes would be gone. Their activity continued so I turned my full attention to them and as I watched, I began to see they were filling the boxes with the clothes. It turned out they had removed the contents of the boxes and left them somewhere else in the store and were box stuffing. How much did my petty shoplifters have stuffed in their boxes? The two had filled over $500 in clothing in one box and $300 in the second box. Some of the merchandise was tagged, but most was not since we did not use Checkpoint tags on clothes as much as I would have liked. The system did work and the alarm did activate, however we already were watching so the two were apprehended. Smaller stores probably cannot afford store security so clothing security may be the only way to have an opportunity to recover merchandise from thieves.
Shoplifting is no joke and it frequently involves more that an item or two in a bag or worn under clothing. Clothing security should be taken seriously and investing in Checkpoint tags can help make a significant improvement to store profitability.
Clothing security is important and we can help you with it. Call 1.770.426.0547 and let’s talk.
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