While previously working as an agent, my location was seeing an increase shrinkage from theft in our liquor department and needed to tackle the issue of bottle security. The store I was working in was one of many locations for a national corporation and based on shortage and locality we had been classified as a “low-exposure” store. Consequently, merchandise protection strategies such as EASy Bottle and bottle locks were not available to our location, which were reserved for “high-exposure” stores.
Due to the absence of a bottle lock solution, liquor bottle security incidents were occurring daily. One subject regularly came into the store on her lunch break to drink a couple of bottles of high-priced wine before returning to work. A group began targeting Hennessy liquor, which disappeared off the shelves and into their pant legs and jackets. My team dedicated our efforts to reducing this loss even if the company wasn’t providing us with solutions from Alpha security. We performed perpetual inventory of “hot” liquor items twice a day and spent the majority of our shifts monitoring the aisle via CCTV.
Our efforts resulted in the reduction of theft in the liquor department, but other departments were now seeing an increase. There just weren’t enough agents to dedicate their shifts to sitting in front of monitors and staring at the cameras of high theft areas. I believe our liquor bottle security dilemma could have been avoided had the company been willing to provide all of its stores with EASy Bottle bottle locks, a theft solution from Alpha security. Whether a store is able to have a security team on its payroll or not, a bottle lock prevents the item from being opened before they are removed at the point of sale. With this peace of mind, store personnel can keep their merchandise on an open display without worrying about bottle security.
Visit the Loss Prevention Store to purchase EASy Bottle bottle locks by Alpha Security.
For more information on Alpha Security, Bottle Lock, Bottle locks, Bottle Security, liquor bottle security, or EASy Bottle contact us or call 1.770.426.0547.