WAKE UP! It’s Time to Get Bottle Locks

When you think of bottle locks, you probably think of keeping your wine or liquor safe and secure from those sneaky shoplifters that try to get away with your product.  Most of the time, that’s exactly the case, but other times, you may be surprised to find that you have an employee theft issue, and it’s actually your own team that has been responsible for theft in your store.  No one wants to believe that their own employees are stealing from them, but when you see the signs, it’s time to wake up and take steps to reduce and eliminate the thefts.

Retail anti-theft devices like bottle locks are great for keeping your customers and employees honest by keeping the product secure, yet accessible for those wanting to read and hold the merchandise.  The benefit denial built into these devices stops thieves from gaining access to the actual liquor inside the bottle, so even if they think they can break into it, it will be literally be all over them if they try.  They also have alarms so that if someone exits the store without having them removed during purchase, the EAS (Electronic Article Surveillance) you have installed will sound at the exit door.

I can think of at least one example where a store I previously worked for could have saved a good amount of money if they invested in bottle locks to protect their alcoholic beverages.  It’s not every day that you are walking in the stockroom with a co-worker and happen upon a truly unusual find.  What we were looking for was any signs of employee dishonesty, like an empty package, candy wrapper or something similar. We really hit the jackpot on this day when we came to the end of the stockroom and started looking on the shelves.  

At first we didn’t even notice, but we then looked at the bottom shelf and there he was, sleeping on the bottom shelf with evidence of loafing and theft literally all over him.  Not only was he sleeping, but he was still holding a partially consumed, open bottle of wine.   It didn’t end there, because there was also an empty snack cake package next to him on the floor.  

After we made sure that he was still alive and breathing by calling out to him, he finally started to slowly wake up.  As he attempted to get up, several pieces of merchandise fell on the floor because he had it stacked all around him in an attempt to hide his secret space.  After that, he actually said, “Am I in trouble?” You can imagine the conversation that took place after that event.  It wasn’t over at that point though, because we still had to finish up the employee theft investigation.  We returned to the scene of the crime and found additional empty bottles of wine and other merchandise hidden under the shelf.  After looking further into the situation, we found that this was not the first time that the employee did this same thing, and no one had noticed.  The small investment needed to use retail anti-theft devices on your wine and liquor is a small price to pay for the money that you will be saving in the long run.

For more information contact us: bottlelock.net or call 1.770.426.0547