Worth their weight in gold

Why spend your money on the Checkpoint security systems? There are other ones out there that are just as good, right?

Not always.

One of the primary benefits of using a Checkpoint security system to stop shoplifting is their impeccable quality control.

What you are really spending your money on is the time and effort that they put into making and selling the best Checkpoint security tags that they can.

Let me give you an example. A Checkpoint security tag is a hard shell of plastic. Sometimes other companies will use thin, and easily manipulated plastic for their tags.

You can’t burn a Checkpoint security tag so it will easily melt away. You also have a seamless construction. This is good because seams break. Seams can also allow a screwdriver to be inserted and snap the pieces apart, rendering the tag useless.

Retail theft prevention is about consistency each and every time. You have to have consistent programs in place to stop shoplifting. That is what Checkpoint does, and why you pay the nominal extra price.

If you truly want to stop shoplifting in your stores, go with what retail theft prevention has worked for millions of customers nationwide. They are worth their weight in gold.

 Visit the Loss Prevention Store to purchase retail anti theft devices and your Electronic Article Surveillance or EAS system from Checkpoint Systems to stop shoplifting in your store.

For more information on Anti Shoplifting, Checkpoint Security System, Checkpoint Security Tags, or Checkpoint Labels and how they can work with your Electronic Article Surveillance or EAS system contact us at Retail theft prevention or call 1.770.426.0547

 

Map it out

One of the questions my new hires have is trying to figure out where to spend their time and energy to make the biggest impact to stop shoplifting.

The easiest way is to take the inventory reports and break down the top five or ten biggest shrink areas, and then narrow in on maybe the top 20 items in your store.

This works well if you have rather stationary inventory, one where you will sell the same items season after season, or year after year. Grocery, liquor and hardware are prime examples.

If you are looking to stop shoplifting in a store where the inventory changes frequently (clothing or boutiques) try this out.

Start with a simple chart. Take a floor plan of your store and use different colored markers for different departments. When you find evidence of theft (clothing tags, opened packages) put a dot on the map with the color of the department of missing merchandise.

This will tell you two things: 1- what type of product you are loosing, and 2- where they are taking it.

You may discover that you are missing inventory in a new department, or it might show you an area of the store that you didn’t realize was susceptible to shoplifting.

 Visit the Loss Prevention Store to purchase retail anti theft devices and your Electronic Article Surveillance or EAS system from Checkpoint Systems to stop shoplifting in your store.

For more information on Anti Shoplifting, Checkpoint Security System, Checkpoint Security Tags, or Checkpoint Labels and how they can work with your Electronic Article Surveillance or EAS system contact us at Retail theft prevention or call 1.770.426.0547

 

Can you feel the beat?

Retail theft prevention involves a fair amount of auditing. It is the formal check and balance to make sure your processes are being followed through. If your processes are accurate, then you can move on to step two. Step two is deciding if your retail theft prevention is actually working.

So how do you really find the pulse of you’re anti shoplifting activity? Is there a way to determine prior to an inventory where you are shrinking, and where your shrink is decreasing?

Yes, try running counts on your inventory. If you previously lost significant quantities of item #1234, start counting item #1234 every day. Check it against your on hands and see what comes up.

If your anti shoplifting program is working, you should have accurate counts.

If the count of what you physically can find does not match what your inventory should be, then you have a problem. By tracking these daily counts, you can determine a few things.

Is the frequency that you are missing product decreasing or increasing? Are your counts off after a shipment? Is there a specific day of the week that you are coming up short?

The answers will help you narrow down not only whether your programs work, but will give you the beat on what to do next.

 Visit the Loss Prevention Store to purchase retail anti theft devices and your Electronic Article Surveillance or EAS system from Checkpoint Systems to stop shoplifting in your store.

For more information on Anti Shoplifting, Checkpoint Security System, Checkpoint Security Tags, or Checkpoint Labels and how they can work with your Electronic Article Surveillance or EAS system contact us at Retail theft prevention or call 1.770.426.0547

A day in the life

I would like to take a moment to imagine what life would be like if I were a Checkpoint security tag. Yes, it does seem rather silly. I like to view things from outside perspectives to be able to really get a feel for what retail theft prevention is working in my stores. What better way than through the eyes of a Checkpoint security tag.

Lets start at the beginning. As a Checkpoint security tag, my primary function is to stop shoplifting. So I need to be attached onto a piece of merchandise for that to happen. That means that I am either waiting in my stockroom, or I am in a bin at the cash registers waiting to be reused.

Next I need to be fitted onto the product. It is pretty easy. Stick the pin through the item and push the hard UFO looking piece on the pin. Done! That took all of about two seconds to do.

Now I go to the sales floor with my product. Because I am firmly attached, I know that no matter how many times I get jiggled, handled, dropped, or shopped. I am not coming off.

I’ll stay here until the merchandise is purchased and I am detached at the registers with a simple pull.

Not to bad. Retail theft prevention to stop shoplifting in ways that the entire store can assist with and understand.

 Visit the Loss Prevention Store to purchase retail anti theft devices and your Electronic Article Surveillance or EAS system from Checkpoint Systems to stop shoplifting in your store.

For more information on Anti Shoplifting, Checkpoint Security System, Checkpoint Security Tags, or Checkpoint Labels and how they can work with your Electronic Article Surveillance or EAS system contact us at Retail theft prevention or call 1.770.426.0547

“How do you stop shoplifting?”

It is a simple question “How do you stop shoplifting?” Unfortunately there isn’t always a simple answer. It all depends on your product, your store, and your employees and of course your use of a Checkpoint Security System.

So what type of product do you carry? More importantly, what type of product are you loosing? Retail theft prevention revolves around matching specific products or items with specific anti shoplifting solutions. Inventory losses in accessories will need a different fix than inventory losses in power tools or electronics.

You can set your store up to enhance your anti shoplifting techniques. For example, move high ticket or high theft items farther from the doors. You can keep these same items closer to where you employees will be, like at a service counter, or wrap stand.

Your employees need to be versed on your company’s policy of how to stop shoplifting. Retail theft prevention isn’t all about apprehending a shoplifter. Nothing is more effective than your employees giving great customer service.

Of course your Checkpoint Security System should at a very minimum employ the use of EAS tags and labels. Adding in cameras and public view monitors enhance the effectiveness of the overall presentation. Just keep in mind that cameras don’t catch crooks, they only deter them.

 Visit the Loss Prevention Store to purchase retail anti theft devices and your Electronic Article Surveillance or EAS system from Checkpoint Systems to stop shoplifting in your store.

For more information on Anti Shoplifting, Checkpoint Security System, Checkpoint Security Tags, or Checkpoint Labels and how they can work with your Electronic Article Surveillance or EAS system contact us at Retail theft prevention or call 1.770.426.0547

 

Say Anti Shoplifting with Physical Security!!

Over the years of working in both large and small retailers it was always interesting to me to break down the actual shrink losses past just the dollars and overall percentages.

Frequently retailers spend so much time attending to internal theft that they forget that retail theft prevention should be applied to all forms of loss. Smaller business locations seem to be the victims of this tendency. External theft, shoplifting, can be perpetrated a variety of different ways. Regardless of the shoplifting method a business with a Checkpoint security system always has a deterrence effect upon potential shoplifters.

From various post theft interviews I have conducted over the years with shoplifters I have learned that the vast majority of thieves look for the easiest target. They avoid stores with Checkpoint systems. When the potential thief sees the pedestals at the front of the store and the checkpoint security tags attached securely to product they avoid the location like a car thief avoids a car with an alarm and/or the “club”. As one suspect stated “Why waste the time when I can go down the street and steal the same product from a company without any means of retail theft prevention?”.

Small businesses tend to believe that they either can’t afford the Checkpoint security system or that the Checkpoint system will not be cost effective. Many believe that they can handle retail theft prevention “in house” stating that their business is just too small to be on the radar of thieves. This tends to be a costly mistake. Once an inventory count has been conducted; a business owner is left with shrink loss that is compounded by the loss of the sale of the stolen product. By no means is any anti shoplifting tool guaranteed to eliminate external theft. When you buy and employ a Checkpoint system it is important that everyone on the sales team from part timers to management are trained to properly use the checkpoint security tags on specified product, audit all product categories that have been tagged, report and investigate any defeated tags and react correctly when the Checkpoint system alarm has been activated.

I have to admit in all of the companies that I worked for who properly utilized the Checkpoint systems; their shrink percentage breakdown of product categories that were tagged consistently and properly with Checkpoint security tags were always lower than other companies who sold the same product and did not use any anti shoplifting tools.

Physical security using an anti shoplifting tool such as the Checkpoint security system is a must if a business is to prevent external losses via shoplifting.

 Visit the Loss Prevention Store to purchase retail anti theft devices and your Electronic Article Surveillance or EAS system from Checkpoint Systems to stop shoplifting in your store.

For more information on Anti Shoplifting, Checkpoint Security System, Checkpoint Security Tags, or Checkpoint Labels and how they can work with your Electronic Article Surveillance or EAS system contact us at Retail theft prevention or call 1.770.426.0547

 

Saving Your Profits and Making Customers Feel Safe with Anti Shoplifting Devices

Shoplifting can put a major dent in your bottom line and these days many stores are turning to anti-shoplifting devices like EAS (electronic article surveillance) to help them safeguard their profits by deterring theft and boosting associate awareness. Retail theft prevention devices such as EAS pedestals can also provide a visual deterrent against theft, sending folks that want to steal other, less well protected stores. As an added bonus, knowing you are scaring off the criminal element gives your customers a greater feeling of personal safety and security.

As a loss prevention associate for a major retailer, I use anti-shoplifting devices regularly in my work to guard against major theft incidents like organized retail crime, where professional thieves come in and simply walk out the door with our high ticket items. Where I currently work, we use a Checkpoint security system, which consists of Checkpoint security tags, deactivation pads at the point of sale, and EAS pedestals by the doors that alarm if someone tries to carry out our merchandise.

The great thing about EAS systems, specifically Checkpoint security tags like the soft EAS tags, however, is that they can also be used to target specific merchandise that seems to come up missing more often, which sometimes changes from season to season. For instance, although theft of electronics, alcohol and fragrances might be high all the time and I might always have those products tagged with hard tags or Alpha spider wraps, the soft tags that are used with Checkpoint systems let me tag things that might be new that I think might be stolen or that are a new trend, like swimwear, drink mixes or baby formula, without investing in additional hard tags. The flexibility that I get from using retail theft prevention devices like soft EAS tags helps me more closely monitor my theft trends, keeps the criminals out of my building and helps safeguard my company’s bottom line.

Visit the Loss Prevention Store to purchase retail anti theft devices and your Electronic Article Surveillance or EAS system from Checkpoint Systems to stop shoplifting in your store.

For more information on Anti Shoplifting, Checkpoint Security System, Checkpoint Security Tags, or Checkpoint Labels and how they can work with your Electronic Article Surveillance or EAS system contact us at Retail theft prevention or call 1.770.426.0547

Don’t end the game before you even get started

One of the training tools I have used over the years with store employees is how to handle the store’s merchandise. I don’t mean how to avoid damages and move product without hurting himself or herself, or someone else (even though those are very important also!)

What I am talking about is how to move product that has soft labels as part of a Checkpoint security system. Checkpoint labels are designed to not be a customer disservice issue. They are designed to deactivate properly at the point of sale.

I all too often see stocking employees set a stack of product down at the counters of the registers. They do not realize that the deactivator pads will deactivate all of those Checkpoint labels even though there is not a sale in progress.

All of those Checkpoint labels are worthless if they have been deactivated. If the product goes out onto the sales floor from there, then the merchandise is vulnerable to shoplifters.

It’s discouraging to think that your own employees could be thwarting your anti shoplifting tools without even realizing it. A Checkpoint security system is only as good as you allow it to be. Don’t eliminate it before it even has a chance to work properly. Train your associate to understand how to keep it running.

Visit the Loss Prevention Store to purchase retail anti theft devices and your Electronic Article Surveillance or EAS system from Checkpoint Systems to stop shoplifting in your store.

For more information on Anti Shoplifting, Checkpoint Security System, Checkpoint Security Tags, or Checkpoint Labels and how they can work with your Electronic Article Surveillance or EAS system contact us at Retail theft prevention or call 1.770.426.0547

 

The glue that binds

Retail theft prevention really came into its own the day Checkpoint security systems came into being. A full Checkpoint system can encompass a very wide range of products and resources to stop shoplifting. One of the biggest components is the Checkpoint label and Checkpoint security tag.

The Checkpoint security tags and the Checkpoint labels are the glue that really keeps the entire Checkpoint security system pulled together.

Think of it this way. How good are cameras if no one is there to watch them? They are probably not very efficient.

I remember an incident where I was explaining to someone why an outdoor camera panning the parking lot could not zoom in on a license plate, when they thought that the cameras were supposed to have that capability. I had to explain that the camera could do that if someone was watching it. We were reviewing video, and could not change what had already been recorded.

What about EAS towers? Do they magically close down around a shoplifter trapping them inside until the police arrive? No. That would just be silly.

Checkpoint labels and Checkpoint security tags do stop shoplifting even when no one else is around. Most shoplifters will by pass an EAS tag or label if it is already on the merchandise they are trying to steal. No other Checkpoint system component can do that on its own.

 Visit the Loss Prevention Store to purchase retail anti theft devices and your Electronic Article Surveillance or EAS system from Checkpoint Systems to stop shoplifting in your store.

For more information on Anti Shoplifting, Checkpoint Security System, Checkpoint Security Tags, or Checkpoint Labels and how they can work with your Electronic Article Surveillance or EAS system contact us at Retail theft prevention or call 1.770.426.0547

 

Better than the rest

There is resurgence in the United States for products to be made in the USA. I have very distinct memories of television ads back in the 80’s talking about how proud the company was to be making their product right here. There was even a tag – red, white, and blue- that you could find in clothes that said, “ Made in the USA”.

I guess it has circled back around that we are looking for products to be made here. And why not? We know what we want out of a product, and we know what the quality of an item should really be. One of the downsides to having foreign made items is that they don’t always produce top of the line products because they will never have to use them.

Checkpoint security systems understand the need to make quality products that work like they are supposed to work. Take their Checkpoint labels for example. They rigorously test to make sure the Checkpoint labels work properly. They also make sure that when a label is deactivated, it stays deactivated. There is nothing worse than having a customer setting off alarms because a tag reactivated itself.

Checkpoint security systems only want the best for its products and the retailers who use them.

Visit the Loss Prevention Store to purchase retail anti theft devices and your Electronic Article Surveillance or EAS system from Checkpoint Systems to stop shoplifting in your store.

For more information on Anti Shoplifting, Checkpoint Security System, Checkpoint Security Tags, or Checkpoint Labels and how they can work with your Electronic Article Surveillance or EAS system contact us at Retail theft prevention or call 1.770.426.0547