One of the challenges facing retailers who sell clothing is trying to prevent a grab and run theft. A grab and run is about as self-explanatory as you can get. The thieves, as there are typically more than one, come into a store, pick up a large quantity of the same merchandise, and run out the door into the waiting get away car.

Usually the merchandise will be either an entire fixture arm of clothes, or all of the merchandise on a display table. We see jeans, name brand coats, and designer ready to wear being the biggest targets of these thefts.

Sometimes the thieves will load their own arms up as with as much as what they can hold, sometimes they will use the store’s shopping bags or carts to hold the massive quantity of merchandise on their way out the door.

Because these thefts are so big and obvious, the shoplifter will come in and out in as little time as possible- sometimes less than a minute total. They will have scoped out the store ahead of time to find out where items are kept. They will figure out the best place to park the escape vehicle, and they will know when your employees are most and least likely to notice them.

Visit the Loss Prevention Store to purchase Checkpoint Tags, a Clothing Alarm, Clothing Security or Clothing Security Tags to put Security Tags on Clothes and an Electronic Article Surveillance or EAS system.

For more information on Checkpoint tags, clothing security, clothing alarm, or clothing security tags how they can work with your Electronic Article Surveillance or EAS system contact us at security tags on clothes or call 1.770.426.0547

I had a recent discussion with a small business that did not know how to look for clothing losses since they did not conduct an inventory. They guessed that they were being targeted by shoplifters, partly due to the frequency of people entering their store and not buying anything, and partly because they did not use any electronic article surveillance systems either.

We knew that in order to solve the problem, we needed to have some ways to identify what kinds of thefts were taking place, and what kinds of clothing protection would be effective to stop the inventory losses for happening.

We started by taking a look at the store’s sales reports. We broke the sales down by departments and compared them to last month’s sales and last year’s. We noticed which departments were behind on their sales goals for the year, and which ones did not increase compared to last year. I explained that if they did not have the right products to sell, then they would not have a chance at meeting or exceeding their sales goals.

Next we looked for signs of theft- specifically for torn of clothing tags. We found several caches of them behind the mirrors in the fitting rooms. We also found them under some shelves in an unattended corner of the store.

Visit the Loss Prevention Store to purchase Checkpoint Tags, a Clothing Alarm, Clothing Security or Clothing Security Tags to put Security Tags on Clothes and an Electronic Article Surveillance or EAS system.

For more information on Checkpoint tags, clothing security, clothing alarm, or clothing security tags how they can work with your Electronic Article Surveillance or EAS system contact us at security tags on clothes or call 1.770.426.0547 

When I mention organized crime, or organized retail crime, many of the people I am talking to start to picture scenes from The Godfather, or a roaring twenties mob boss. Because this image is so strongly embedded, many retailers think that because no one in a fedora and pin stripe suit is stealing from them they are immune to organized retail theft.

The sad reality is that organized criminals are stealing from these stores because the owners and employees are so oblivious to what is going on. The employees are simply looking the other way, or do not realize the full extent of the theft.

In fact, many organized retail theft cases that I have worked in the past revolve around a suspect that every one in the store has seen. That is because these thieves are in the store on multiple occasions and aren’t scared of employee interaction. When I show my employees pictures of my suspects so they can let me know if they see them, the employees often are surprised because they do recognize the suspect. They see them frequently, but never suspected a thing.

The days of mob bosses and pin striped suits are gone. The new face of organized crime is one of many nationalities, both males and females, and of all groups.

Visit the Loss Prevention Store to purchase Checkpoint Tags, a Clothing Alarm, Clothing Security or Clothing Security Tags to put Security Tags on Clothes and an Electronic Article Surveillance or EAS system.

For more information on Checkpoint tags, clothing security, clothing alarm, or clothing security tags how they can work with your Electronic Article Surveillance or EAS system contact us at security tags on clothes or call 1.770.426.0547 

Does your small business keep tight controls on your cash? You probably do. You probably have register reports that tell you how much cash you should have at the end of the day. You probably also count the cash in your safe and any starting banks for your tills. You most likely have a bank deposit log for outgoing deposits, and balance that record against your account statements form the bank every quarter, if not every month. Needless to say, cash is king, and your treat it as such to avoid cash losses.

How about your merchandise? Do you keep the same level of control and ownership of the clothes you sell? Do you maintain inventory tracking and counting in addition to having clothing controls in place? You have a locking cash register, but do you secure your clothing in any way within the store?

Many clothiers do not. Merchandise and inventories are an extension of cash- your cash. Instead of taking the shape of bills and coins, this cash comes in the form of shirts, shoes and accessories.

Because you spent your carefully managed and tracked cash on purchasing your inventory, would it not make sense that you should spend as much time and effort in protecting your clothing inventory from losses?

Visit the Loss Prevention Store to purchase Checkpoint Tags, a Clothing Alarm, Clothing Security or Clothing Security Tags to put Security Tags on Clothes and an Electronic Article Surveillance or EAS system.

For more information on Checkpoint tags, clothing security, clothing alarm, or clothing security tags how they can work with your Electronic Article Surveillance or EAS system contact us at security tags on clothes or call 1.770.426.0547 

Why do we need protection for our clothing inventory? Who is going to take our merchandise? These two questions come up frequently when I consult for small businesses that are not convinced that they need clothing security.

The first question is why? What they are really asking is why they should spend money on clothing security, when they might not actually need it. I answer them by explaining that clothing security is there for two reasons. One is to deter shoplifters from taking clothing and other items from your stores. The next is to stop the theft that might be taking place already, that you are not aware of.

Next we talk about who is going after clothing. Depending on what kind of clothing you carry, the attraction is different for specific kinds of shoplifters.

Some shoplifters are specifically looking for designer brands that they can resell easily on ebay, or in a flea market. Others are looking for personal usage of the merchandise. Whether they can’t afford, or simply don’t want to pay for new clothes, shoplifters often steal so they have something new to wear. Same thing goes for employees.

In any case, clothing security tags have been proven to reduce inventory shrink numbers by as much as 85 percent- more than what the cost of a system would be in most stores.

Visit the Loss Prevention Store to purchase Checkpoint Tags, a Clothing Alarm, Clothing Security or Clothing Security Tags to put Security Tags on Clothes and an Electronic Article Surveillance or EAS system.

For more information on Checkpoint tags, clothing security, clothing alarm, or clothing security tags how they can work with your Electronic Article Surveillance or EAS system contact us at security tags on clothes or call 1.770.426.0547 

In order for clothing security to be effective, you have to have a certain level of quality in your security resources and tools. I had a camera system once that spent more time waiting for a service tech to come fix it, than I did actually using the system. I ended up not relying on those cameras because I didn’t want to have to need them and then find out they weren’t working.

It was a cheap system that had been pieced together over the years. It wasn’t until we upgraded to a total camera system package did I truly feel I could rely on the cameras as part of my clothing security system.

The same thing goes with our clothing security tags. I have seen some retailers use cheaply made, and cheaply sold, clothing security tags. Boy, do these not work well for anything. If I was to look closely at the tags, I could see the actual seam in the middle of the hard shell. On some of them, the seam was actually breaking apart.

Any shoplifter with an ounce of persistence could easily pry the two sides apart with a screwdriver or other tool. Once the two sides are pried apart, the shoplifter has access to the inner locking mechanism, which is what holds the pin in place on your clothing. Once the pin is removed, the clothing security tags are rendered completely ineffective.

Visit the Loss Prevention Store to purchase Checkpoint Tags, a Clothing Alarm, Clothing Security or Clothing Security Tags to put Security Tags on Clothes and an Electronic Article Surveillance or EAS system.

For more information on Checkpoint tags, clothing security, clothing alarm, or clothing security tags how they can work with your Electronic Article Surveillance or EAS system contact us at security tags on clothes or call 1.770.426.0547 

When you diligently add clothing security to all of the new merchandise comes into the store, you reduce the likelihood that shoplifters will target your store. This is particularly important of you sell trend clothing and brands as a major part of your shrink losses can be due to theft from fashionistas who are filling their closets on your dime.

To increase the urgency and perceived need for a customer to buy more product, retailer’s focus on the next season’s incoming merchandise. Touted as the latest and greatest, customers are being lured back to by more clothing. From email campaigns to in store displays, retailer’s focus on the latest fashion to come off the delivery trucks and make sure their customers are intimately aware of what fashion trend is now in stock.

Unfortunately, these marketing lures also bring in the shoplifter who is trying to stay ahead of the fashion trends by always having the latest styles and products. The sad reality is that for those that cannot afford the clothing, they turn to shoplifting to fill their closets.

Clothing security tags prevents your store from being targeted by shoplifters. When used consistently, these security tags on clothes serve as a warning that each season’s merchandise is protected. 

Shoplifters will know that there is no point in even checking to see if the current season’s merchandise has been secured, because you are one step ahead of them.

Visit the Loss Prevention Store to purchase Checkpoint Tags, a Clothing Alarm, Clothing Security or Clothing Security Tags to put Security Tags on Clothes and an Electronic Article Surveillance or EAS system.

For more information on Checkpoint tags, clothing security, clothing alarm, or clothing security tags how they can work with your Electronic Article Surveillance or EAS system contact us at security tags on clothes or call 1.770.426.0547 

When you use security tags on clothes, as owners and managers we often focus our efforts on compliance. Did we tag all of the clothing? Are the Checkpoint Tags in the proper location on the garment? Do we have a new item that we want to enhance our clothing security with?

What we often forget about is how to train our employees in responding to alarms generated by the clothing security tags. If you had a bag in your hand, with an item inside that had a clothing security tag on it, and walked out the exit door triggering the alarm, what would your employees do?

Would they come over to deactivate the tags? Would they validate the receipt? Would they simply ignore the alarm and continue on with what they are doing?

That is where training your employees on the expectations are critical. It doesn’t matter how many times an alarm goes off, if no one responds, all of your time and effort to tag the merchandise is rendered useless.

More often than not, the reason why employees disregard the alarms is because they do not feel comfortable with how to respond. By properly training them and showing them your own example of how to respond, your alarm activations will be much more productive.

Visit the Loss Prevention Store to purchase Checkpoint Tags, a Clothing Alarm, Clothing Security or Clothing Security Tags to put Security Tags on Clothes and an Electronic Article Surveillance or EAS system.

For more information on Checkpoint tags, clothing security, clothing alarm, or clothing security tags how they can work with your Electronic Article Surveillance or EAS system contact us at security tags on clothes or call 1.770.426.0547