Spider Wrap — Page 4

Don’t Discount Organized Retail Crime- Prevent Shoplifting

October 16, 2014 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

An old colleague recently sent me a news article about his city’s crackdown on repeat shoplifting offenders. In the article, the shoplifters had been stealing so much merchandise that they had enough to sell to local restaurants and corner stores.

As I read further into the article, I realized that I recognized one of the names. It was a habitual shoplifter that we had been trying to apprehend almost ten years ago. This particular shoplifter was stealing from several locations and would sometime return the items without receipt- using multiple aliases to get around our refund system.

Eventually we did apprehend her and ban her from our stores in addition to having her prosecuted. I guess that didn’t mean much to her, since she has continued with her life of crime all of these years.

What we didn’t understand at the time was that this shoplifter we had assumed was just a small time problem, was actually a major part of a local crime ring. Her entire life was dedicated to stealing product from retailers to later resell to other local businesses. She set herself up as a local distributor with lower than average pricing- making it an attractive low cost solution for these local businesses.

Visit the Loss Prevention Store for Alpha 2Alarm, Alpha 3Alarm, Alpha Fashion2, Alpha Jewel Lok, Alpha Nano Gate, Alpha Shark Tag, Alpha Spider Wrap and other retail anti-theft devices from Alpha Security to use in conjunction with your Electronic Article Surveillance or EAS system that can help you prevent shoplifting in your business.

For more information on how you can use Alpha Security retail anti-theft devices and your Electronic Article Surveillance or EAS system to prevent shoplifting contact us or call 1.770.426.0547

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Alpha Fashion2, Alpha Jewel Lok, Alpha Nano Gate, Alpha Shark Tag, Alpha Spider Wrap, Fashion2, Jewel Lok, Nano Gate, Prevent Shoplifting, Shark Tag, Spider Wrap

A Better Sell Through- Retail Anti Theft Devices

October 13, 2014 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

Every time an item of inventory is broken, damaged or stolen, a new item has to be purchased to replace the unusable one. As a result, the products that are actually sold need to pull more clout to be able to compensate for the missing item.

Of those three losses, theft is the most common, and the most financially devastating to businesses. It is more likely that a thief would steal multiple of an item, than it is to have multiple of the same items damaged. Even if they are, those can typically be traced back to a shipping problem and either the carrier or the manufacturer can be charged back, mitigating some of the potential financial losses.

Shoplifters, on the other hand, are harder to get a financial recourse from. Even when a shoplifter is apprehended, it can be very hard to charge them with prior incidents. Unless you have evidence that cannot be contested, you will only be able to claim the loss that was incurred during current incident that the shoplifter was apprehended during. That means you may have stopped the cause of the losses, but are still out the inventory from those prior incidents.

For more information on how you can use Alpha Security retail anti-theft devices and your Electronic Article Surveillance or EAS system to prevent shoplifting contact us or call 1.770.426.0547

Make Your Money Count- Prevent Shoplifting

October 10, 2014 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

Before you start to look at electronic article security systems and other inventory security, you need to have an idea of what you have and what you are missing.

When you guess at your inventory levels, stopping theft is actually only one part of your worries. You need to be concerned also with how your business capital is being spent and where that money is going.

Accurate inventory is about making sure you have the right products at the right time. I worked for a company once that only allowed bags to be purchased once a month. I am not talking about a woman’s accessory here; I am talking about the plastic bags used to by the customers when they make a purchase. It was embarrassing to run out, not be able to order more, and then tell customers they have to carry an arm full of items out without bags. It was poor customer service, at the very least.

What we later found out is that the company was spending too much money on inventory they thought they needed, but really didn’t. That tied up the funds that could have been spent on checkout bags, maintenance repairs, and inventory that was actually selling well.

For more information on how you can use Alpha Security retail anti-theft devices and your Electronic Article Surveillance or EAS system to prevent shoplifting contact us or call 1.770.426.0547

Before you start to look at electronic article security systems and other inventory security, you need to have an idea of what you have and what you are missing.

Accurate inventory is about making sure you have the right products at the right time. I worked for a company once that only allowed bags to be purchased once a month. I am not talking about a woman’s accessory here; I am talking about the plastic bags used by the customers when they make a purchase. It was embarrassing to run out, not be able to order more, and then tell customers they have to carry an arm full of items out without bags. It was poor customer service, at the very least.

For more information on how you can use Alpha Security retail anti-theft devices and your Electronic Article Surveillance or EAS system to prevent shoplifting contact us or call 1.770.426.0547

Out Of Control- Prevent Shoplifting

October 7, 2014 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

Do you feel like you are slowly (or quickly) loosing control of your business? If your stores were once profitable, but now you are having unexplained decreases in profit, or revenue, you might be having a shoplifting problem.

Shoplifting is an extremely common problem that affects every retailer and shop at some point. Depending on how bad the theft is, how rapidly or how high of a dollar loss per incident, makes a difference in how fast you can respond to preventing theft.

Sometimes, when losses are of a small dollar per incident, it makes it harder to track or identify where the problem is coming from. You end up racking your brain to find out why your inventory numbers are off, or why revenue is starting to take a slight decrease.

If you are experiencing minimal shortages, it could take several months, or even a year to determine that theft is taking place. In that amount of time, all of the small losses add up to a bigger financial decrease. Preventing theft takes a look at ways to prevent even the smallest of losses before they become a big problem.

For more information on how you can use Alpha Security retail anti-theft devices and your Electronic Article Surveillance or EAS system to prevent shoplifting contact us or call 1.770.426.0547

Preventing theft takes a look at ways to prevent even the smallest of losses before they become a big problem.

For more information on how you can use Alpha Security retail anti-theft devices and your Electronic Article Surveillance or EAS system to prevent shoplifting contact us or call 1.770.426.0547

Not Quite The Right Size- Alpha Spider Wrap

October 4, 2014 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

On a recent consultation, I was talking to a small business owner who wanted to add colognes and fragrances to their product assortments. They thought it would be a great way to increase their ticket averages, and not needing significant retail space to merchandise the product effectively. The question was which of the Alpha Security products to use.

This particular group of stores was already using the Alpha Security Alpha Spider Wrap to secure several of their other boxed products. What they wanted to know was if they could use the same Alpha Spider Wrap to protect the boxes of fragrances. Since the wraps are designed for boxes, the business wanted to save some money by using the retail anti theft devices that they already had in stock.

Even though it sounds like it should work, I cautioned against it. The Alpha Spider Wraps are much bigger than what will work effectively for these small boxes.

I recommended using the Alpha Security Keeper Boxes. There are several styles to choose from, and the Keeper Boxes are designed specifically to prevent shoplifting of fragrances and cologne products.

For more information on how you can use Alpha Security retail anti-theft devices and your Electronic Article Surveillance or EAS system to prevent shoplifting contact us or call 1.770.426.0547

Even though it sounds like it should work, I cautioned against it. The Alpha Spider Wraps are much bigger than what will work effectively for these small boxes.

I recommended using the Alpha Security Keeper Boxes. There are several styles to choose from, and the Keeper Boxes are designed specifically to prevent shoplifting of fragrances and cologne products.

For more information on how you can use Alpha Security retail anti-theft devices and your Electronic Article Surveillance or EAS system to prevent shoplifting contact us or call 1.770.426.0547

Move The Marker Forward- Retail Anti Theft Devices

October 1, 2014 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

Many retailers, in an effort to reduce operational expenses, have started to employ fewer full time employees and more part time workers. While this move makes initial financial sense for many small businesses, it does not always move the marker forward in the challenge to prevent shoplifting.

Part time employees might make for a better financial situation, but this is generally a case of you get what you pay for. Because part time employees are less likely to have guaranteed hours or might not be eligible for benefits, they are also less likely to be truly engaged in your business.

Retail anti theft devices are more likely to be used inconsistently when the responsibility falls onto part time employees. It is a tedious task of applying them, and then removing the retail anti theft devices during the check out process. They simply do not care if a customer is inconvenienced by an alarm or if they actually contribute to prevent shoplifting incidents.

While I am a firm believer that all employees need to be held to the same accountability and responsibility standards, it is critical to your business that full time or more engaged part time employees need to gate keep the process to ensure its success.

For more information on how you can use Alpha Security retail anti-theft devices and your Electronic Article Surveillance or EAS system to prevent shoplifting contact us or call 1.770.426.0547

Eliminate The Nest- Retail Anti Theft Devices

September 29, 2014 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

We have all seen the signs of shoplifting safe havens. When you look under shelves, or tables you can find a mass of torn of price tags, or sometimes locate hoards of merchandise that a shoplifter is ferreting away to steal later on when they think the coast is clear. To prevent shoplifting from these back corners, you have to find a way to eliminate these kinds of shoplifter nests.

While the obvious solution is to open up these back corners and areas, it is not always practical (or physically possible) to try and remerchandise the entire store to eliminate them. Another, more practical solution is to use the Alpha Nano Gate. This retail anti theft device is designed to fit into small spaces, or back areas of a store that lend themselves to shoplifting nests.

Many shoplifters will seek out back areas like a bathroom or storage closet that they can sneak in and out of to conceal their intent to steal. It is there that they will create their nests of merchandise and attempt to defeat retail anti theft devices like soft and hard tags.

The Alpha Security Alpha Nano Gate is a miniature EAS tower that attaches onto a wall or other stable spot. As a customer or shoplifter enters these back areas with tagged merchandise, an alarm will go off alerting staff to a potential theft issue in progress.

The Alpha Nano Gate also has a back up battery that will alarm if the tower is tampered with, to further prevent shoplifting in these corners.

For more information on how you can use Alpha Security retail anti-theft devices and your Electronic Article Surveillance or EAS system to prevent shoplifting contact us or call 1.770.426.0547

The Alpha Nano Gate also has a back up battery that will alarm if the tower is tampered with, to further prevent shoplifting in these corners.

For more information on how you can use Alpha Security retail anti-theft devices and your Electronic Article Surveillance or EAS system to prevent shoplifting contact us or call 1.770.426.0547

A Different Back, A Different Lock- Alpha Jewel Lok

September 23, 2014 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

Alpha Security Alpha Jewel Lok are hard to defeat locks that secure earrings onto the jewelry cards, preventing a shoplifter from easily stealing the merchandise. The three kinds of locks are for hoop earrings, stud earrings and French wire earrings. Each lock designed with the specific characteristics of each earring in mind.

The stud earring locks not only attach the earring to the jewelry card by securing the post on the back, but they also incorporate a “parking” area for the backs to be kept. As anyone who wears a stud earring knows, the back is just as essential as the actual earring is when you are wearing them.

The French wires attach onto the wire with a low profile design that cannot be seen from the front. This helps keep a better visual appearance for these often flashy or highly decorative earrings. Hoop earrings also need their own style of Alpha Jewel Loks. Just like the other two styles, the hoop posts are secured to the card from the back providing a secure deterrent from shoplifters.

Retail anti theft devices designed by Alpha Security to prevent shoplifting are very well thought out creating a simple and effective solution.

For more information on how you can use Alpha Security retail anti-theft devices and your Electronic Article Surveillance or EAS system to prevent shoplifting contact us or call 1.770.426.0547

Retail anti theft devices designed by Alpha Security to prevent shoplifting are very well thought out creating a simple and effective solution.

For more information on how you can use Alpha Security retail anti-theft devices and your Electronic Article Surveillance or EAS system to prevent shoplifting contact us or call 1.770.426.0547

Open Merchandising- Prevent Shoplifting

September 15, 2014 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

Each time a retailer tries to lock up their high theft merchandise behind a case, or some other form of employee control, sales go down. It has been proven time and time again from every product assortment and specialty niche that has undergone a locking solution.

That pushes retailers back to the drawing board of how to protect their product and prevent theft at the hands of shoplifters and employees. In order to not create a negative impact on sales, high theft products need an open merchandising solution.

An open merchandising solution entails a customer’s ability to pick the product up at their leisure. It allows them to read labels, feel fabrics or materials, and inspect an item up close for quality. When the customer feels like they have gathered enough information to make a purchasing decision, they buy the item.

Some customers are turned off by the prospect of needing an employee to assist them. Either they do not want to endure a barrage of questions about what they are looking for, or the customer simply does not have the time to track down an employee to get the item for them. Open merchandising allows the customer to take control of their purchase.

For more information on how you can use Alpha Security retail anti-theft devices and your Electronic Article Surveillance or EAS system to prevent shoplifting contact us or call 1.770.426.0547

Stay In Control- Prevent Shoplifting

September 13, 2014 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

Retail anti theft devices are the most notable and recognizable ways to prevent shoplifting, but did you know that basic retail operations and standards could play just as important part? What few retailers are aware of is that even with retail anti theft devices in place a store that does not follow its operational protocol is still at risk.

A shoplifter thrives on disorganization, unattended corners of a store, and a lack of employee presence. If you do not keep your store, clean, organized, and recovered promptly, a shoplifter can slip by undetected. If you have a table of jeans that are thrown about and disorganized, you have no way of knowing if something is missing. A table of carefully folded and laid out jeans is more likely to be noticed if one, or several, jeans are missing.

The same goes for high theft items that can be taken to an isolated corner. Sometimes moving a shelf or a table can create a better sightline for your employees to see what is going on. Similarly, your employees need to engage all customers. If they ignore your paying customers, you can be rest assured that they are ignoring the shoplifters too.

For more information on how you can use Alpha Security retail anti-theft devices and your Electronic Article Surveillance or EAS system to prevent shoplifting contact us or call 1.770.426.0547