Shoplifters, which amount to one in every ten people that walk in your door, are stealing from you. Why are you allowing it? It is so simple to prevent shoplifting . Do not wait any longer and let even more of your hard earned money slip out the door. To stop shoplifting you need to address the following points:

• Your Attitude! If you believe that you can’t prevent shoplifting then you won’t. Shoplifters are criminals that steal if YOU give them the opportunity. You will never stop every single shoplifter. But you can create an environment where your good customers like being in your store, visiting with your employees and purchasing your merchandise. At the same time shoplifters will find that the environment is very hostile to them. This is true even if both a good customer and a shoplifter are standing next to each other.

 

• Your Environment – Customer service is the key. Customer service is the foundation weapon you use to prevent shoplifting . Customers love it, like it can’t get enough of it. Shoplifters hate it and will actually avoid customer service. A good customer that has entered your store is looking for help. That’s why they are there. They enjoy being noticed and paid attention to. In many cases that is why they are in your store as opposed to a large retailer where customer service is basically non-existent. Shoplifters need privacy to steal, don’t give it to them.

 

• Tools To Help – We know that even with the best customer service provided by trained highly motivated employees that you cannot be everywhere at once. The shoplifter knows that to. So if they can create a distraction or slip away then they have you. Not unless you have an Electronic Article Surveillance (EAS) system. Your more vulnerable merchandise is tagged or labeled. If the shoplifter is able to conceal the product it will trip the sensors at the doors when they try to leave.  But this will ONLY work with a combination of good customer service and EAS.

Don’t let your hard earned sales or merchandise walk out the door with out payment just because of your attitude or lack of preparedness!

For more information about Electronic Article Surveillance, shoplifting or shoplifting training contact us at prevent shoplifting or call 1.770.426.0547

Depending on the part of town in which you do business it may be slightly more difficult to prevent shoplifting than in others. The socioeconomic status of the surrounding area can seriously dictate the criminal propensity and moral ineptitude of your patrons. For example, several months ago I happened by a young man who was so busy stuffing merchandise down the front of his pants that he hardly noticed me. After my detective and I stopped him outside the store we realized why – the guy was higher than a bald eagles beak.

He sat in the office nodding in and out of consciousness and rambling incoherently until the police arrived and took him away. 2 weeks later he returned to the store. Once again he was high and smelling like a cross between a Grateful Dead concert and an angry mule. Once again he was arrested, but this time it only took 3 days for him to return. In all we had this young man arrested 7 times. It became evident that this tactic was not going to work with this individual. He had no fear of arrest or prosecution so it was nearly impossible to prevent shoplifting in his case.

Finally, we circulated a picture of the young man to every manager, clerk and security guard in the building with instructions to contact loss prevention the moment he was spotted. At that point we simply denied him entrance to the store and immediately escorted him off of the property. After several attempts he finally figured it out and no doubt took his shoplifting endeavors elsewhere. In cases of the drug addicted, extreme poor or mentally challenged the threat of arrest and prosecution is not enough to deter them. It is in these cases that it may become necessary for you to think outside the box in order to prevent shoplifting .

For more information contact us: prevent shoplifting or call 1.770.426.0547 Atlanta Georgia

There are many ways to prevent shoplifting and a good loss prevention plan will include a multi pronged approach.  If you have ever visited a Best Buy you probably remember seeing a staff member at a station between the entry & exit doors who greets shoppers as they enter and watches them as they exit.  This is a loss prevention security staff member. Staff are expensive and in the down economy employees are likely the first to go due to that being the largest share of overhead expenses.

So how do you use technology to prevent shoplifting from happening?  Installing an EAS system like checkpoint systems will be a major deterrent to shoplifters.  The presence of the system is noticeable from outside most stores since they are installed at the exit entry ways and shoplifters simply would rather move on to a store that is unprotected than wrestle with trying to defeat a system or setting off an alarm.

How the checkpoint system works is by detecting tags that are pinned on to merchandise or labels that are applied to merchandise.  When the security tags enters the antennas the alarm goes off alerting staff to an issue…without having to have a person standing there all store hours.

For more info on how to use technology to prevent shoplifting go to Loss Prevention Systems

 

Ok, so the title is a little misleading. Realistically speaking, there’s no way to prevent shoplifting completely, but there are a number of proven methods that can reduce your susceptibility to shoplifters. First, there’s identifying the shoplifter. They come in all shapes, sizes, colors and ages but there are certain things to look for to help you identify them. Be aware of people wearing excessively baggy clothes or heavy coats when the weather is relatively warm. Beware of oversized purses or backpacks, especially if they appear to be flat or nearly empty. There’s a decent chance the owner intends on filling it with your merchandise.

Keep an eye on your fitting rooms if you have them. Criminals know that they’re one of the few places in the store where you won’t have surveillance. So, limit the number of items a person is allowed to bring in and post a fitting room attendant whenever possible. Be aware of your high risk merchandise. Usually particular brand names, trendy styles or items tend to grab a shoplifter’s attention. Make sure that you too are aware of the trends and pay close attention to the location and accessibility of those items. You have to be proactive and stay one step ahead in order to prevent shoplifting in your establishment.

Restrooms, like fitting rooms, are someplace where criminals know there will be no surveillance. So, be mindful of any individuals attempting to take merchandise into the restrooms with them. Lastly, instruct your associates to greet each and every customer with a warm and open demeanor. Ask if they need assistance and let them know they will be nearby if any questions or concerns arise. I call this the “kill ‘em with kindness” method. Any legitimate customers get terrific customer service while any would-be thief is made aware of your constant and watchful eye. Follow these tips and they will go a long way to helping you prevent shoplifting within your establishment.

For more information contact us: prevent shoplifting or call 1.770.426.0547 – Atlanta Georgia

There are many ways retailers can prevent shoplifting in their stores.  One of the best ways is to choose your location wisely.  Have you ever wondered why some retailers don’t do well even though the store concept is great?  Sometimes it’s all about location; well it’s the same with shoplifting prevention.  Let’s look at some location ideas that can help keep shoplifting to a minimum in your stores.

If you have a choice, choose a store front that is located inside a mall versus on the outside street.  If a thief wants to have a quick exit, it will be harder for them to lift merchandise and escape through a mall than directly into a vehicle waiting on the street corner.

Choosing a store front a bit of a distance away from a city center will also help prevent shoplifting .  Stores located right in the heart of the city are higher crime areas than the suburbs.  This increases not only the criminal activity in the area, but shoplifting in particular.

Not only will the actual store location help prevent shoplifting , but the location of your check out register in the store will also be a deterrent if placed in the right location.  Ever wonder why retail outlets always have their checkout stands at the front of the store?  It is a proven fact that stores where individuals must pass the register to exit have a lower shoplifting rate than stores with registers located in another area.

Help prevent shoplifting by keeping your store clean, tidy, well-lit and clutter free!  Need help prevent shoplifting ?  Contact us or call 1.770.426.0547.

With the volume of shoplifting at tens of millions of dollars every day Retailers are always under attack. In my 30 plus years of loss prevention I have never found a retailer that is immune to shoplifting. Prevention is the key. If you wait until the shoplifter steals and then apprehend you are losing money and time. You will not be able to stop them all. The only way to prevent shoplifting is have a two-fold process.

First, you must know who and what you are dealing with. Many retailers I have spoke with think they know what a shoplifter looks like. The fact is that shoplifters for the most part look exactly like the rest of your customers. Just because you have caught a few shoplifters and they look a certain way only means that this is the type of person YOU are looking for. You cannot focus on a persons “look”. Not that I have anything against profiling. But to solve the problem you need to know what a shoplifter thinks and does. The only way to accomplish this is training from experts for you and your employees.

Next, You must have a store environment that speaks a message to the shoplifter of “deterrence”. Many retailers think that methods to prevent shoplifting with discourage their good customers, far from it. In fact most good customers do not see your theft prevention programs in place. They look past them because they do not apply to them and they are simply not there to steal.

So what is this prevention program? It consists of several key elements. These include: Your real commitment to stopping shoplifting, strong pre-established policy and procedure, employees trained in customer service, an EAS system such as Checkpoint Systems and possibly CCTV.

Training must be on going. Simply doing it once and thinking you have solved the problem is wrong. You have to reinforce it several times a year. You must insure that all new employees are trained. Another issue is to really have your employees on board with your on-going attack on shoplifting. They have to support it.

For more information contact us at prevent shoplifting or call 1.770.426.0547 – Atlanta

To prevent shoplifting you must first understand the problem. Take a look at these shoplifting statistics as compiled by the good folks at the NASP.

• More than $13 billion worth of goods are stolen from retailers each year. That’s more than $35 million per day.
• There are approximately 27 million shoplifters (or 1 in 11 people) in our nation today. More than 10 million people have been caught shoplifting in the last five years.
• Shoplifting affects more than the offender. It overburdens the police and the courts, adds to a store’s security expenses, costs consumers more for goods, costs communities lost dollars in sales taxes and hurts children and families.
• Shoplifters steal from all types of stores including department stores, specialty shops, supermarkets, drug stores, discounters, music stores, convenience stores and thrift shops.
• There is no profile of a typical shoplifter. Men and women shoplift about equally as often.
• Approximately 25 percent of shoplifters are kids, 75 percent are adults. 55 percent of adult shoplifters say they started shoplifting in their teens.
• Many shoplifters buy and steal merchandise in the same visit. Shoplifters commonly steal from $2 to $200 per incident depending upon the type of store and item(s) chosen.
• Shoplifting is often not a premeditated crime. 73 percent of adult and 72 percent of juvenile shoplifters don’t plan to steal in advance.
• 89 percent of kids say they know other kids who shoplift. 66 percent say they hang out with those kids.
• Shoplifters say they are caught an average of only once in every 48 times they steal. They are turned over to the police 50 percent of the time.
• Approximately 3 percent of shoplifters are “professionals” who steal solely for resale or profit as a business. These include drug addicts who steal to feed their habit, hardened professionals who steal as a life-style and international shoplifting gangs who steal for profit as a business. “Professional” shoplifters are responsible for 10 percent of the total dollar losses.
• The vast majority of shoplifters are “non-professionals” who steal, not out of criminal intent, financial need or greed but as a response to social and personal pressures in their life.
• The excitement generated from “getting away with it” produces a chemical reaction resulting in what shoplifters describe as an incredible “rush” or “high” feeling. Many shoplifters will tell you that this high is their “true reward,” rather than the merchandise itself.
• Drug addicts, who have become addicted to shoplifting, describe shoplifting as equally addicting as drugs.
• 57 percent of adults and 33 percent of juveniles say it is hard for them to stop shoplifting even after getting caught.
• Most non-professional shoplifters don’t commit other types of crimes. They’ll never steal an ashtray from your house and will return to you a $20 bill you may have dropped. Their criminal activity is restricted to shoplifting and therefore, any rehabilitation program should be “offense-specific” for this crime.
• Habitual shoplifters steal an average of 1.6 times per week.

For you to prevent shoplifting you need more than a hope and then trust to luck. Shoplifters will clean you out if you are not proactive. Training and knowledge of how to spot and approach is key.

For more information contact us at prevent shoplifting or call 1.770.426.0547

Information and statistics provided by the National Association for Shoplifting Prevention (NASP), a non-profit organization; www.shopliftingprevention.org.

Maybe what is holding you back in your quest to prevent shoplifting is your own attitude. Many retailers need to look with in before they invest in any equipment such as CCTV. If your attitude is not one of attacking your shoplifting problem through customer service then you do not have a good foundation to build on. Any equipment you add will simply be an investment that does not fully pay off.

Customer service is the primary tool to prevent shoplifting . Customers love customer service, shoplifters absolutely hate it. The beauty of this is that the more you do the better your sales. Think about it. If your staff is aggressive with quality customer service, by knowing the products you sell and are not afraid to approach each and every customer you will increase sales and as important “add on sales”. For example if a member your staff is assisting a customer who is purchasing an electronic device that takes accessories are they discussing the good and bad points of those items. Are they making recommendations and offering those additional items?

In doing this they will find out quickly if this person is a customer or a shoplifter. A shoplifter will react completely differently. A shoplifter will resist the attention and all though some legitimate customers will do the same an experienced and alert employee will notice differences such as a lack of interest in the product being purchased and indifference about price.

So what does the employee do at this point? If they have developed a feeling that the “customer” is possibility a shoplifter it is not the time to back off. If the person is resisting more customer service then they should stay in the area being very visible. This will frustrate most shoplifters. In most cases the shoplifter will simply move on to an easier target, probably your competitor.

But at the same time your store will earn a reputation as the place that provides customer service that is above and beyond. This will spread by word of mouth. Friends will tell friends. The same thing will happen with shoplifters. Shoplifters talk and will share this information. The shoplifters themselves will be a positive part of your program to prevent shoplifting .

Contact us at prevent shoplifting or call 1.770.426.0547 or in Atlanta 770.426.7593 for more information.

Some people should not be allowed out in public unsupervised. This shoplifter is one of them. You have to see the humor in it though. This is a great idea to prevent shoplifting !

Bad luck for shoplifter
(Jun. 24)

A suspected shoplifter who evaded loss prevention officer at a Home Depot in southeast San Diego was apprehended after he ran into a throng of two dozen police officers gathered for a public service event, according to an article in the San Diego Union-Tribune.

The 21-year-old suspect, who was not named in the article, ran out of the store’s parking lot and made a right turn, running in the direction of a gathering of 25 officers, including members of a SWAT team, who had gathered at a school safety event at a YMCA. A radio dispatcher had already alerted the officers, who filed outside, weapons ready, to intercept the suspect.

The merchandise was later recovered in a brown bag, which the suspect discarded along the way.

 

Imagine the look in the shoplifters face when he runs into the SWAT team!
I love it, prevent shoplifting with the SWAT Team and a couple dozen other officers,

For more information contact us at prevent shoplifting or call 1.770.426.0547

 

Studies have shown that of the three groups of shoplifters, which include; impulse, amateur and professionals that the first two, impulse and amateur shoplifters can be significantly deterred with a customer service greeting. The idea goes like this: The shoplifter along with every other customer is greeted as they enter your store with a “May I help you” or “Can I help you find something” will cause many of the shoplifters in these two groups to not shoplift during that visit. In other words they have been noticed. This a well established tool to prevent shoplifting .

But many retailers do not have the labor to do this. Another concept that plays into this is a Public View Monitor (PVM). A camera is pointed at the entry door and the picture is displayed on a monitor usually twenty inches or larger that is mounted so that the customer sees them self enter. This gives the shoplifter a similar effect. They assume that they are being recorded and that the store has more cameras including hidden ones.

PVM’s can be configured in two ways. A standard camera and monitor or a camera that is built into a monitor. The latter give a clean hi tech look. The camera is hidden in the unit and thus gives the customer the idea that more cameras including hidden ones are in place. Most of these units are suspended from the ceiling out of reach.

Another idea takes this a step further. PVM’s are also put into high theft areas such as health and beauty, tools, clothing accessories… As the customer walks into the area they see themselves on the monitor.

Several brands of Public View Monitors will also display marketing information on them and have a motion detector built into them. When a customer walks within a short range of the monitor it switches to live mode. Otherwise, customers in surrounding areas can see specials or sales that are ongoing. They could also be configured to play brand information. Imagine that your vendors pay for the right to play their brand videos. Your vendors can help pay for your program to prevent shoplifting .

When looking for a PVM also consider several other options. Since the units need to be on when your store is open, get a unit that has a timer or scheduler on it. This way it will turn on and off based on the hours that you program into it and will not be running after hours.

And because the Public View Monitor will be on quite a bit consider a unit that is more “green” and consumes less energy. Typically conventional tube type TV’s are more power hungry. A flat screen is not only less energy thirsty but also presents a much better appearance. Space for the PVM must be considered also. Make sure that the unit is not too large and look out of place. Once set up this is an automatic program to prevent shoplifting .

For more information on Shoplifting or Public View Monitors contact us at prevent shoplifting or call 1.770.426.0547. Loss Prevention Systems, Inc is an Atlanta based company.