shoplifting — Page 9

Suggestions On How To Improve Inventory

December 29, 2016 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

Each year retailers take inventory of their merchandise, counting what they have in the store, reconciling that information against sales receipts, vendor credits and receipts and markdowns. Usually the result is some amount of shortage or merchandise shrink due to merchandise that cannot be accounted for and losses due to certain markdowns and damaged products. I have in rare instances seen overages, but those are usually the result of offsets from prior year shortages often attributed to paperwork errors. The store objective each year should be to improve upon the prior year inventory result. Certainly the best case would be to have zero dollar shortages every year, but that is not a realistic expectation. I try to explain to employees that if one package of gum were to be stolen during the year, you have incurred shortage. There are steps a store owner or manager can take to work towards that yearly improvement and shoot for a zero dollar shrinkage year.

The first step to improve inventory is to look at merchandise protection strategies in the store. Are retail anti-theft devices being used to prevent shoplifting as well as employee and vendor theft? A theft prevention system includes having an electronic article surveillance (EAS) system installed. This would encompass EAS antennas at entry/exit points, EAS soft tags, labels and hard tags on as many pieces of merchandise as possible and deactivation pads and detachment tools at checkout lanes. By protecting merchandise with retail anti-theft devices, shoplifters and potential dishonest employees are deterred from trying to steal. EAS protected merchandise also activates alarms if a shopper forgets about an item on the bottom of the shopping cart that has not been paid for and a tag is not removed or deactivated. Remember, if merchandise hasn’t been paid for, regardless of the intention of the customer, it is shortage.

There are other things that a store can do to improve inventory results from one year to the next:

Consider offering incentives to employees who deter a theft through great customer service. Employees on the sales-floor are your first line of defense against shoplifting. If they are walking their areas offering assistance, they will walk upon a customer attempting to conceal merchandise, remove items from packaging or tamper with EAS tags. Offering assistance, remaining in the area and communicating with managers is an effective method of deterrence without accusing someone of stealing. An incentive for reporting this type of activity may be the purchase of a drink or putting the employee in for a weekly or monthly drawing for a $5 gift card. Be creative.
Education/Training – Make sure employees know what your inventory results are and how much was lost in the last inventory. I always made it a point to share that information and celebrate it when we had good results. Let your employees know that they make a difference. Employees also need to know how to properly respond to EAS alarms and recover merchandise without making accusations. When training is not continuous employees become complacent and begin to wave people out the door who set off an EAS alarm. Eventually that complacency turns to ignoring the alarms altogether and the system is rendered useless. Alarm activations also need to be recorded so managers can review for trends and ensure there are no malfunctions.
Make employee receipt checks and bag checks mandatory for EVERYONE. Managers should be the first to show their purchases to an employee for verification. When employees see that no one is exempt, they will not mind doing it themselves. Accountability helps prevent theft.
Have a program in place for marking merchandise that is purchased for store use. If you have to get a pack of pens from your sales-floor for office use, purchase it or account for it through a ledger and then keep the package and mark it with a date and write “store use” or put a sticker on it. It is easy for merchandise to start being used and not accounted for and it will accumulate in offices from the sales-floor. Account for EVERYTHING, even a paperclip if it is store use.
Small, independent stores may not have corporate markdowns sent to them. These stores need to evaluate their merchandise and if it isn’t selling, mark them down, but do it incrementally. Start at 10 or 15% and see if you can move it. You don’t want to lose profit margin.

Improving inventory is not an impossible task. Utilize EAS technology to deter and prevent theft. Educate and train employees and empower them with knowledge on shortage issues and how they impact it. Profit from reduced shrinkage!

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In An Economy Predicted To Improve Here Are Some Things You Can Anticipate

December 29, 2016 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

After a long and contested election cycle, a new president will be inaugurated and with this result, some experts are predicting the economy will begin to improve significantly. If the rebound is as strong as these experts are predicting retailers will be one of the beneficiaries, with an increase in customers and sales. Likewise there may also be more shoplifting activity that takes place. An increase in sales would seem to make sense given that there would be more people with jobs and potentially more money in their pockets, but why would there be an increase in shoplifting? There are a couple of possible explanations, for example during those periods when the economy is slumping retailers tend to order less merchandise. The result is shelves may stay empty longer or there may be fewer high ticket goods available for criminals to steal. Less product displayed can translate to less opportunity and opportunity is one of the necessities for a theft to take place. There is also the chance that with fewer customers in a store, employees are more readily available to offer customer service to shoppers and this is certainly a deterrent to shoplifters. One of the first recommendations I always make for improved shortage results is for a store to focus on customer service.

Along with increased sales and the potential for more shoplifting, what are some other things you can anticipate with an improving economy? You may find you are in need of more employees to help in your store. Cash stands that may not have been very active could start to see new life as lines begin to increase. Customers don’t want to wait for service so it is important to have enough staff to meet the demand. Sales floor coverage will likely be stretched thin again impacting shopper perception of wait time. Hiring could be crucial and in an improved economy you could be fighting for talent. Don’t settle on a warm body, ensure you conduct pre-employment screenings so you can be confident that the person you hire is the right fit for your team and has no hidden skeletons in the closet.

An improving economy means more transactions and that means cash registers have more money in them and credit card swipes. Make sure credit cards are the only thing being swiped and then only during the customer transaction. More cash in a register is a tempting target to an employee who may be experiencing a personal financial crisis. Make sure your front end or cashier supervisors are doing random cash drops at the registers, taking most of the money and leaving enough in to continue ringing sales. Watch for cashiers who may be tempted to swipe a credit card and forget to hand it back to the customer. If you see credit cards lying beside a register, question where it came from and pick it up and retain it in a lost and found.

Anticipate the need to replenish shelves more quickly. During slow economic times merchandise doesn’t always sell quickly and so filling empty spaces on shelves and fixtures may have been able to wait until the next truck load of freight arrived. If sales improve as predicted it is important to have plans in place to address “holes” more quickly. Prepare to monitor for out of stocks during the day and get it refilled from your stockroom quickly. If you are selling a lot of vendor supplied product, such as soft drinks, bread, cereals and snacks, etc., partner with your vendor representatives to increase deliveries and representative visits.

If you require an increase in floor replenishment, don’t forget to protect product with retail anti-theft devices before it gets to the selling floor. Remember I mentioned there could be increased shoplifting with an improving economy. It is easy to overlook the protection of merchandise as it flows from the stockroom. I should note that I would prefer to see merchandise protected as it arrives to the store, but some stores do wait until it gets sent to the sales-floor before applying Checkpoint tags and labels.

The potential for growth in sales is exciting for retailers. Don’t miss the boat by not being prepared for it. Have a plan to meet the needs of an expanding customer base. Be ready to fill your sales-floor and don’t forget to prevent shoplifting by protecting your merchandise before it gets to the floor. Going green will take on a whole new meaning in the coming years!

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How To stop A Shoplifter?

December 13, 2016 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

Police Departments across the nation are busy this holiday season launching operations aiming at catching shoplifters. Serial shoplifters go from store to store stealing hundreds of dollars worth of merchandise from each store. Police and retailers alike have been working together to stop this vicious and financially crippling crime. Shoplifters are not necessarily from the area where they commit their crime, there are serial shoplifters that go from state to state, and from store to store, stealing as much as they can. For a retailer, the hundreds of dollars stolen from their store is a financial burden, and jeopardizes their ability to stay open for business.

For more about this and other stories, follow the links below.

How local law enforcement are working to stop organized retail crime

BUFFALO, N.Y.–

Organized retail crime is rising across the country, according to the National Retail Federation. In Western New York, local law enforcement said they’re constantly working to stop it.

“They’ll steal goods and products from various stores, sometimes taking orders,” Officer Craig Johnson, field intelligence officer for the Amherst Police Department, said. Johnson said organized shoplifting rings operate locally and even statewide.

“[They’ll go] down the thru way through the major cities, Albany, Syracuse, Rochester, Buffalo, even to Erie, Pennsylvania,” he said. HE said the thieves use stolen ID’s and credit cards to rent cars. They’ll even sometimes steal a license plate from another car to put on their rental. Then they spend hours stealing from stores, including items like clothing, medication, baby formula and even appliances. They then move on to another city by the time law enforcement is notified.

“They could be from different states. They could be from downstate New York. It’s very hard to find out that information of who these people are,” Johnson said.

Serial Shoplifters Target Burlington Stores

It was a busy day for Amanda Bean. First, she stole several hundred dollars’ worth of merchandise from a store that shares her surname — L.L.Bean. Burlington police cited her for retail theft and released her. Two hours later, Bean allegedly stole goods valued at several hundred dollars from the Skirackon Main Street. Bean was again charged with retail theft and let go.

Since that day in April, Bean, 33, of St. Albans, pleaded guilty to the L.L.Bean theft, but her stealing apparently hasn’t stopped. She has been arrested on similar charges twice — including on October 22, while she was serving a community-based furlough for the L.L.Bean theft. All told, Bean has been arrested more than 20 times and has at least nine retail theft convictions, along with convictions for other crimes.

Downtown merchants are frustrated with frequent fliers like Bean. While other crimes such as burglary are declining in Burlington, retail theft is escalating, police say. Between 2012 and 2015, annual retail theft calls to Burlington police increased from 341 to 423. This year, the trend continued. The number of calls between January and November 1, 2016, totaled 404, compared to 374 over the same time period last year.

‘Operation Blitz’ To Target Professional Shoplifters

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — As we look to get started on our holidayshopping lists, police will be looking for professional shoplifters.

Beginning on Black Friday, more than 30 Twin Cities law enforcementagencies will launch “Operation Blitz.”

The first-of-its-kind partnership in the state will target organized retail theft and financial fraud.

Police showed WCCO how these professionals do their best to avoid detection.

Take what police say happened at a St. Paul CVS two weeks ago, when a man walked in with a gym bag and loaded it with cleaning supplies. He was out of the store in under 40 seconds.

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Avoid Being A Victim This Holiday Season

December 7, 2016 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

Happy Holidays! Or, are they really? Retailers are not the only ones that suffer from theft during the holiday season. Yes, shoplifting, employee theft, and merchant thefts occur more during the holiday season than at other times of the year for retailers, but people around the country are more and more vulnerable to theft that occurs at their front door. Have you bought anything online? Has it been delivered? There are many stories of packages being delivered, but never actually received by the recipient. Where is it? Some of them at least are at the hands of thieves that go prowling neighborhoods in search of delivered packages left at your front or side door. If you ordered something online and won’t be at home during the day, asking a neighbor to accept the package for you is not imposing, it is just neighborly. Take precautions this holiday season to avoid being the victim of theft.

For more about this and other stories, follow the links below.

Chamblee Police: Tips to Avoid Becoming a Holiday Crime Victim

Chamblee, GA, December 5, 2016 – The Post Reports – The Chamblee Police Department provides the following information on why thieves love the Holiday season and what you can do to prevent becoming a victim.

Why Thieves Love the Holiday Season

All the hustle and bustle going on over the holidays gives thieves what they want, almost as much as an unlocked bank vault and that is the opportunity to become invisible. Thieves can move through big crowds of rushed and distracted people without anyone noticing them. They can pickpocket and shoplift and when their victims realize that they have been robbed, they will have no idea who did it.

Thieves Feed on Opportunities

Thieves know that the police are overloaded during the holiday season and they take full advantage it. They thrive on the fact that the police and stores’ loss prevention staff have their hands full with amateur thieves who are hauled to jail for trying to steal from the electronics departments or waiting for the parents of teenagers who pocketed the latest video game.

In the meantime, the professional thieves are busy breaking into cars in the parking lots to steal gifts, cell phones and electronics or stalking and robbing. Some thieves prefer burglarizing homes. They spend their time walking neighborhoods, looking for houses that appear that the homeowners are away. Darkened homes nestled between neighbors with front yards bursting with holiday lights will draw their attention.

Albany police encourage businesses to be on constant crime watch

businesses should increase their vigilance, watching for crime in their stores, as shoplifting and thefts increase during the holidays.

It’s a serious issue, because a large theft in a small store could mean a merchant having to go out of business.

Chuck Roberts has owned John Ross Jewelers at his Dawson Road location for 30 years, and one reason he has been so successful is he was already thinking about criminals when he designed the shop.

“We built this store the way it’s built, to stop the shoplifting,” explained Roberts.

Police said that during this time of year, shoplifters and thieves increase their activity, because stores have more customers to hide among, and there is more on hand to steal.

“They have more merchandise available. So there will always be someone who is looking to find an illegal way to acquiring that merchandise,” said Albany Police Chief Michael Persley.

Roberts has well established trade practices to deter thieves and lots of surveillance cameras watching customers, because he has thousands of dollars worth of jewelry in his store cases, and knows crooks will go to almost any length to steal them.

Consumers beware of holiday crimes

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (WTHI) – The winter months cover a time of seasonal giving and cheer.

Unfortunately, crime doesn’t pause for the holidays.

Especially after major online shopping events like Cyber Monday.

Ryan Adamson with the Terre Haute Police Department says you have to watch out for the occasional Grinch looking to steal.

He says, “Thefts of packages increase this time of year. Somebody is at work, they get a notification on their phone that UPS, or Fed-Ex, has dropped off a package. They get home and lo and behold, it’s not there. So be mindful of where your packages are going.”

Criminals are looking for an easy steal, so what is easier than an unattended package on a door step?

Adamson suggests, “If you can have it delivered to work, do so. Or, try to have them sent to a friend’s house or a relative’s house. Just somebody that’s going to be home. Or, make it to where somebody has to sign for the package, so the package is verified that somebody is there for it.”

Adamson also says to be careful where you place your presents once wrapped.

He says, “Don’t put your gifts in plain view right in front the window where everybody can see. Don’t put your big expensive TV right in front of the window. If you’re not going to be home, let your neighbor know. Have somebody check on your house for you to make sure everything is okay.”

Unfortunately, your car isn’t safe from winter scrooges either.

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Partnership With EAS Technology And Policy

December 5, 2016 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

If you are reading this, chances are you are experiencing a shoplifting problem. Shoplifting takes a toll, not only on your stress level, but your bottom dollar. When people have a problem, they research a solution. One way to prevent shoplifting is having an electronic article surveillance system installed by a reputable company. Searching for such a company can be daunting. Shoplifting is an issue that needs to be addressed and resolved quickly. Why would you choose Checkpoint equipment from Loss Prevention Systems Inc. (LPSI?)

Checkpoint has been paving the path for EAS systems and building RF technology for over 40 years. All equipment is new and installed by factory trained technicians. Checkpoint and LPSI never sell refurbished equipment. The founder and owner of Loss Prevention Systems Inc., Bill Bregar, has over 30 years of experience in loss prevention. The small retailer may not have the resources for a loss prevention department. Our background and expertise in Loss Prevention sets us apart. Over the decades, Bill has taught and created successful Loss Prevention policies and procedures for the small retailer to send shoplifters elsewhere. Both companies partnership provide a path to decrease shrink and increase profit.

Checkpoint offers several different types of EAS systems for different situations. A favorite antenna system for small to medium retailers is the P10. This system is known as a workhorse. As part of the EVOLVE line, it has people counting capability and remote access. With an internet connection, a trained technician can access the system remotely to perform preventative maintenance and typically resolve potential issues. With its strong frame and Evolve capabilities, it will last a long time and is “future proof”.

What tips and suggestions can the small to medium retailer apply to their business? Compliance and enforcement. Create, implement and abide by policies to keep the business on track. Loss of compliance equals loss of control. Employees need a reliable example and understand what is expected of them. It’s up to you to enforce the process and standards of your business.

Combine your Checkpoint technology, people and process to prevent shoplifting. Having and EAS system is only as good as the people using it. With the right people following the right process, the technology will do its job.

Protect your business with qualified staff, effective procedures and the latest EAS technology. Take control of your success.

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TIPS TO SPOT A POSSIBLE DISHONEST EMPLOYEE

December 5, 2016 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

It’s official folks. It’s December and the year is almost over. It also means that you’ve probably hired some additional help around the store. Whether they be temporary, part-time or full-time employees, they all have one thing in common; they have the potential to steal from you. I hate to sound so cynical, but I’m a realist. With December historically being the biggest month for internal theft, I’d thought I’d share some of my tips on how to spot a potential dishonest employee.

Are they in their assigned department?

Just recently, I worked an employee theft case that I caught on to after seeing this warehouse worker spend a little too much time in the clothing department. Turns out, he was layering clothing in the fitting room stalls when no one was around. While a good manager will always encourage cross-training and the learning of other areas of the store, an employee that is always somewhere they shouldn’t be may be a red flag that their intentions are less than honest.

Break the rules much?

Do you find yourself always telling this one employee to tuck their shirt in, or put away their cell phone? Do you find that you have to keep “reminding” them of the store policies that they continue to break? While there is much to be said about the work ethic of some of today’s youth, sometimes this could be an indicator of a potential thief. I think back to every internal case I’ve ever worked and they all have the same thing in common. During the interview, when I ask do they know why they are talking to LP, most of them start rattling off the copious amounts of policies they’ve violated. People who can’t follow company rules can easily slip into theft without so much a thought. Always address store policy violations and weed out those who can’t seem to follow the rules.

Let’s talk work ethic

Now this one can really go two ways. First, the obvious; if you have a lazy employee, you have someone with the potential to steal from you. If they aren’t happy about their job, if they resent you or the management team, or they are simply not satisfied with life, it will show in their job performance. Poor performers almost always lead to internal theft. They couldn’t care less about anything, so why would they care if they steal a few hundred bucks worth of goodies, right?

Without sounding like I’m talking out of both sides of my mouth, I’ve also found that there are some occasions where a star employee is also doing a fantastic job of stealing from you. Everyone has that one employee that will give their heart and soul to the store. They stay late, come in early, work their off days, volunteer for projects, run the bake sale, clean the toilets and mow the lawn… granted, this is how some people are. I’m one of those people. I have often seen this trait in employees that operated some of the most sophisticated, complex and downright amazing internal theft schemes. I’m not saying that all your bad employees are thieves, and so are all of your good ones, but merely that this trait, along with any other inklings should be looked at.

Who cares when I get to work?

Poor attendance is also a great starting point when looking for dishonest employees. While some people just have a problem with being on time (present company INCLUDED), attendance falls right in line with work ethic and following the rules. Pay attention to those employees who just can’t do what’s expected.

No Money, Mo Problems

You have that one employee. You know the one. Every single store has that one employee. The one that constantly talks about how little money they have, how little hours they get and how they just can’t keep up with their bills. Everyone has financial trouble every now and then, but these employees take it to the extreme. You say, “Good morning, Susie” and Susie responds with, “well it would be good if I had more money…” Every time I have missing money in a store, I immediately have the management team point me in the direction of this employee.

Look, you could have an employee that exhibits all five of these traits and guess what? They may not steal so much as a bag of chips from you. Unfortunately, there is no loss prevention inspired crystal ball that can predict with certainty what employees will steal from you and which ones’ wont. As a manager, it’s up to you to know your employees. It’s up to you to spot those inconsistencies and raise those red flags yourself. It’s your merchandise and ultimately your profits at stake. Don’t let an employee theft ruin your 4^th quarter.

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Protecting Yourself While Holiday Shopping

December 1, 2016 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

Retailers during this time of year prepare for the holidays by hiring more people to help them in their stores with customers, and with their security as well. This is a very busy time for the loss prevention team of a retail store, shopping mall’s security, and the local police.

Shoplifting occurs inside the stores, but theft also occurs when you leave the security of a shopping mall. Parking lots around shopping malls tend to be illuminated, but is always safe to take precautions when leaving a store at night, or to make sure other customers are leaving before venturing outside by yourself. Be safe and alert this holiday season.

Police: Shoplifting doubles near holidays

As shoppers hit area stores for the impending holidays, so will shoplifters, say area police.

“It probably doubles during the peak of the holiday shopping season,” said Logan Township Police Chief Tim Mercer, referring to the number of retail theft calls the township’s officers will handle.

Mercer said officers typically get one to two calls each week, and with the increase in retail thefts also comes increases in other crimes related to shopping, such as identity theft, where people are opening up credit cards in other people’s names, and thefts from vehicles.

Most of the incidents of retail theft and other thefts occur at two highly concentrated shopping areas — Logan Town Centre and the Logan Valley Mall, Mercer said.

Stores are reluctant to talk about shoplifting, either out of a fear of calling attention to their stores and becoming targets or because they don’t want to divulge exactly how they deal with retail thefts.

Crimestoppers: Be alert this holiday season

The holidays are upon us, and Christmas shopping often means an increase in crime.

The best way for businesses to prevent shoplifting is better customer service, according to Jackson Hole Crimestoppers.

“The best defense against shoplifting for merchants is to offer attentive service,” the nonprofit organization said in a press release. “Greet all shoppers as they enter the store and show an interest in helping the patrons find what they are looking for.”

The last thing a shoplifter wants is to be noticed, the release said. “Jackson Hole Crimestoppers points out that shoplifting hurts everybody, with increased costs of merchandise often resulting to help cover losses,” it said. “Both shoppers and merchants should remain alert for such thieves.”

Why Did CVS Employees Hide and Call the Cops When These Men Asked for Sliced Cheese?

Let’s kick this off with a Choose Your Own Adventure scenario. You’re a CVS employee who has just been stopped by a customer and asked whether the store carries sliced cheese. Do you A) shake your head no, but direct him to the refrigerated items anyway, B) show him a wide variety of shelf-stable snacks instead, or C) freak out and hide from him in a locked room in the back of the store?

If you selected C, you probably work at the CVS in Richmond, Virginia’s Carytown district. According to Ricky Berry, he and his roommate, Philip Blackwell, went to that particular drugstore on Thursday night to pick up a package of sliced cheese. The two of them asked an employee where to find the cheese and, after telling them that the store didn’t carry it, the evening took a turn toward the WTF.

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Be an Effective Manger This Holiday Season – Prioritize Sleep

November 9, 2016 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

The holiday season is officially under way and your stress level is about to go into overload. When we’re overly stressed bad things happen to us mentally, emotionally and physically: headaches, digestive issues, eating too much, concentration problems, decreased impulse control, increased emotional sensitivity, poor planning ability and sleep disturbances.

The goal for a lot of people in retail is to “just get through the holidays” with the least amount of difficulties and stress, which is a reasonable objective. So, what can you do to achieve your objective? The number 1 thing you can do for yourself and your employees (as well as family, customers and friends) is to prioritize sleep.

Getting enough high quality sleep is a crucial biological need. A short term sleep deprivation of just 2 weeks can lead to memory loss, inability to focus and poor decision making skills. A long-term deficiency can cause an increased risk of heart disease, obesity and depression.

There are many things you can do to make a difference in the quality and quality of your sleep. But, one of the biggest is to stop your harmful electronics’ habits — starting now to relieve holiday stress. Poor management of electronic devices is one of the biggest problems people have in falling and staying asleep.

Our bodies produce melatonin at night to help us fall and stay asleep. A cool, quiet and dark room triggers your body to release it. The light and noise from computers, Kindles, TVs, phones and other devices interferes with this process.

The guideline is — don’t use any device 1 hour before bedtime. It gives the melatonin time to work by eliminating all the light, stimulation/aggravation and noise. It’s estimated that people who leave on even 1 device get at least 30 minutes less sleep a night than those who turn them all off. Also, they wake up more often and are more restless.

It’s important to create a good sleep routine and getting control of your unhealthy electronics’ habit is a place to start. In fact, it might be all you need to have increased energy, a better memory, improved physical well being, stronger coping skills and a calmer mood.

After all, your employees won’t care or remember what cookies you baked for the holiday party. But, they will care and remember that you were short of temper and long on criticism because you stayed up too late searching on-line for the perfect recipe.

Nicole Abbott is a professional writer who’s had over 200 articles published. She’s a business consultant and former psycho-therapist with over 20 years of experience in mental health, business and addiction. She’s a coach, lecturer, trainer and facilitator. She has conducted over 200 workshops, trainings, presentations, seminars and college classes.

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Shoplifting During The Holidays

November 8, 2016 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

As a retailer, your holiday season has started. During this time of year, retailers big and small profit from a big and busy holiday season. With the honest shopper, this is a season that retailers look forward to. It means more sales for the retailer, and hopefully more profits as well. For every retailer, preparing and training their loss prevention personnel during this holiday season is also paramount, it can mean thousands of dollars lost to shoplifting if personnel are not properly in place, or trained. Knowing what items are most likely to be stolen can help your loss prevention team take preventive measures to ensure they are not easily snatched.

For more about this and other topics, follow the links below.

10 Things Shoplifters Love to Steal During the Holidays

It’s a $6 billion problem for retailers.

Retailers like to call the holiday season the Super Bowl of shopping. Shoplifters feel the same way.

According to a recent forecast by Checkpoint Systems, shoplifting as a percentage of sales spikes during the holiday season as thieves (including many retail employees) gravitate to pricier items as more shoppers come into stores.

The holiday season, which kicked off last week, generates 34% of annual sales for retailers, but 37% of their annual “shrinkage,” which is inventory loss for whatever reason—from supply chain inefficiency to employee theft to shoplifting. The latter two account for the bulk of shrinkage.

Shoplifting is $6 billion problem for retailers during the holidays.

According to Ernie Deyle, author of the Checkpoint Systems report, shoplifters are more apt to rationalize their theft during the holiday season. “It’s much easier to do so when a child’s Christmas present is at stake rather than an extra bathing suit for the summer,” he wrote.

A Felt Artist Recreated the UK’s Most Shoplifted Items

It was likely back in the teenage years and little more than a pen or something of similar value, but many people have shoplifted at least once in their life. It’s one of those crimes that, while far from victimless, is undertaken by a large swath of society because it’s seen as no big deal (which, of course it is for the shopkeeper) and can be done swiftly and spontaneously.

It’s also undertaken for various reasons, perhaps a mini act of rebellion against consumerism; or a product of self-assessed entitlement; sometimes it’s just for thrill-seeking; and for some it’s thought of as a desperate act of necessity. It’s also the subject of a new show from British artist Lucy Sparrow, a.k.a., the Queen of Felt,at London’s Lawrence Alkin Gallery. Known as Shoplifting, the show features some of the most frequently shop-stolen items in the UK, including luxury products like Chanel No. 5 perfume, Creme de la Mer moisturizer, a Chanel handbag, and a Fabergé egg—all of them crafted in felt and displayed behind glass cabinets, to entice but prevent would-be thieves.

How stores plan to fight organized retail crime during the holidays

With Halloween over, retailers are in full-fledged holiday season mode. Which means they’re gearing up for Black Friday, holiday staff schedules, stampedes of customers… and theft. That’s right — the holiday season might bring stores a nice sales bump, but it also brings an increase in shoplifting. And retailers are stepping up efforts to crack down on the crime.

We’re not just talking about customers stealing a pack gum in the checkout line. Loss prevention specialists have their eyes on a much bigger target.

Organized retail crime (ORC) is a strategic and highly sophisticated brand of shoplifting where a network of professional thieves work together to rip off retailers. According to a survey from the National Retail Federation (NRF), organized retail crime is on the rise, with 100% of retailers saying they have been a victim in the past 12 months. Furthermore, 83% said ORC activity had increased in the past year.

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How The Changes To Shoplifting Laws Affect You

November 3, 2016 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

We have begun to see a breakdown in the protection we used to be able to depend on. Recent decisions in California and other areas are basically decriminalizing shoplifting.

These changes in the law by out of touch Legislatures are having a devastating impact on retailer’s and society as a whole. Law makers are not addressing the real problems, only the results. People are able to get away with crime and this will have a further reaching impact on future generations and our society as a whole.

But today it is causing shoplifting in those geographical areas to rise substantially, impacting the retailer’s bottom line and the consumer’s pocket book.

What are we to do? We can no longer depend on the criminal laws to protect us. The politicians have lost their nerve, their minds and the understanding on why they were elected. But the real problem is that the brave and highly skilled Law Enforcement Officers that are there to protect us all, are barely able to contain violent crime let alone shoplifting. Budget cuts, Democrats, Republicans…… are all to blame.

But you have solutions. The first is as professionals, we know that we can only depend on ourselves. So let’s solve this like any other business problem we face on a daily basis. The real solution has three elements. The good news is that you do have control of all three.

1. How vulnerable have you made yourself?

Step back and take a hard look. Or better yet ask someone you trust to do that. A friend, another business owner…… they really do not need to have any special skills. You should look at your store from the prospective of the shoplifter. If you were going to steal, how would you do it? Do you have dark areas, high shelving, hidden spots that would make the thief comfortable? Is your store unkempt, dirty and not stocked in an organized way? Shoplifters are attracted to these environments. If you are presenting that look, then the shoplifter probably knows you are not able to keep up or simply do not care. This will also breed more shoplifting as word gets around that YOUR STORE is an easy mark.

2. Equipment

I am not going to hit this one hard. You know that we sell and install the finest Electronic Article Surveillance (EAS) equipment made worldwide. Checkpoint Systems must be part of your strategy. That is why you see it in almost every major retailer.

3. Your Staff

Are they asleep at the switch? Do they care? Have you trained them how you want the shoplifting deterrence program in your store to work and what their roll in it is? This is not something you can put off. It’s like saving money in an account. You got to start. If you are one of Loss Prevention Systems Customers already, then you know this. That is why we conduct live, personalized shoplifting prevention and loss prevention training for our customers. We do this as reasonably often as you need it, free of charge.

These three elements put and keep YOU in control. But you have to start now before it gets worse. And if the trend continues, it will.

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