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How to Stop a Thief
9 Tips for Thwarting Shoplifters
By Phillip M. Perry
It’s a quiet crime. Sometimes the only evidence is a missing pair of jeans or a
vacant display shelf. Shoplifting, though, can do a big bang on your bottom
line.
“If your store runs at a 10-percent profit margin and someone
steels a $5 item, you have to make $50 in sales to recover the loss,” says Doug
Rector, president of Northwest Loss Prevention Consultants in Renton, Wash.
Shoplifting is bound to increase, given the current difficult economic
environment and the approaching holiday season.
Although you can’t
eliminate shoplifting, you can reduce it. Here’s how.
Tip 1: Interact
With Customers
The best way to reduce shoplifting is to chat with your
customers.
“Shoplifters want to maintain low profiles,” explains Rector.
“They do not want to be noticed. Train everyone on your sales team to approach
all customers with a ‘Hi, I will be here if you have any questions.’ That will
be an excellent deterrent.”
Sound simple? Maybe. But it’s easy to
overlook.
Tip 2: Watch For Telltale Behavior
Shoplifters
often give themselves away by their actions. Rector suggests you quickly
approach and offer some friendly assistance to any shopper who:
- Remains in one aisle for a long time
- Repeatedly glances left and right, as if to spot observers
- Wears a heavy coat in warm weather
- Repeatedly returns to the store without buying
Tip 3: Balance
Merchandising With Security
Here’s a way to eliminate shoplifting: Lock
up your goods in glass cases. Too bad your sales would go south fast. Your
legitimate shoppers want self-service, and they want it now.
“There is
always a battle between ‘I want to sell it’ and “I don’t want to lose it,’”
points out Howard Levinson, president of Expertsecurity.com in Norton, Ma. “But
the smart retailer will keep both merchandising and security in mind when
changing the layout of a store and setting up new displays.”
Levinson
offers these tips for balancing attractive merchandising and safety
- Keep display racks at eye level. Tall ones create hiding places for thieves.
- Mount mirrors to provide sight lines into hidden areas such as blind alleys
in the back of the store.
- Adjust lighting to eliminate shadows that are attractive to a thief.
- Position items by size. Put big ones on the perimeter of your display room
where you have the least surveillance. Display small, expensive items within
sight of the cash registers where you’re usually present.
- Be neat. Unkempt aisles tell shoplifters you don’t care about your
inventory. And keep dressing rooms clear of abandoned goods that offer the
sharks a real feast.
- Finesse security issues. Got a colorful rack of dresses near the cash
registers? That’s great for sales but bad for security. A thief can do what’s
called a grab and go by picking up a handful of hangers and running out the
door. Solution – rather than move the display to a less desirable area, reverse
the direction of every other hanger.
Tip 4: Look For Ticket
Switchers
Thieves love to paste tags from cheaper items onto more
expensive ones. “Look for torn tags at check out,” suggests Levinson.
A
particular problem often arises with good-better-best selections.
“Thieves will often put a more expensive item in a box with a cheaper
price tag,” says Levinson.
One solution is to seal all boxes with
security tape which can be inspected at checkout. Another is to open each box at
the cash register to make sure the contents match the label’s description.
Tip 5: Hire Temporary Help Carefully
Come the holidays, most
retailers end up searching frantically for temporary and part-time workers.
Caution often takes a back seat to necessity.
That stranger on your
staff, though, might be a career thief. Consider running pre-employment
background checks on people you don’t know, advises Rector.
“Most such
checks can be completed within 24 hours,” Rector says. They are also fairly
inexpensive, with the simplest ones costing as little as $25.
Consult
with your attorney, though, to make sure your background check doesn’t violate
federal or state privacy laws. You must only check what you need. If the hired
individual will not be handling money, for example, you might run a criminal
check but not a credit check.
Finally, don’t give new hires free rein.
“If you end up scrambling to get bodies like many retailers, consider
limiting their responsibilities,” says Los Angeles-based security consultant
Chris McGoey, who hosts the Web site
www.crimedoctor.com. “Maybe you grant them access to the sales
floor but not the stock room or the registers.”
Tip 6: Try
Technology
Consider a simple network of several security cameras linked
by wire to a monitor at your cash register. These systems can often be purchased
for under $700. Google “security cameras” to find sources.
On a budget?
Pick up some dummy (nonoperating) cameras and mount them in key spots. These can
be effective, particularly with novice shoplifters. If someone is in the aisle
and asks himself ‘should I steal or shouldn’t I?’ the dummy camera can tilt
things in your favor. Cost: less than $40 each.
Consider applying radio
frequency (RF) security tags to your merchandise. An alarm goes off when
shoplifters attempt to carry stolen items through your front door. Complete
systems start at under $2,000. Google “security tags” to find suppliers.
Tip 7: Respond Appropriately To Shoplifters
So you have a
shoplifter in your store. What should you do?
Here’s a suggestion from
Rector: “Sometimes the best response is a simple ‘Can I help you find anything
else?’ That’s often sufficient to make the shoplifter drop the items and run out
of the store.”
Anything more than that can be dicey. Seek counsel from
your attorney to make sure you don’t do anything that will violate federal and
state laws. Done wrongly, confronting a shoplifter can spark a lawsuit for false
arrest. You can also be sued if the person is hurt while fleeing.
Tip
8: Get Professional Help
You can get outside assistance to help you put
together a shoplifting reduction plan.
Start with feedback from your
town’s police force.
“Make friends with your local crime prevention
officer,” advises Levinson. “An investment in a relationship with your police
pays rich dividends. They can alert you when shoplifting rings hit town, for
example.”
You can also have a private investigator visit your store and
do a survey of your needs. Fees vary by locality but typically start at $75 an
hour.
Tip 9: Use Your Secret Weapon
Remember that your goal
is not to catch shoplifters but to reduce the incidence of theft.
“Shoplifting has been around as long as retailers have been in business
and it’s not going away,” says McGoey. “The only thing that’s changed is the new
technology for helping deter thefts.”
Despite the advent of fancy
cameras and electronic tags, the secret weapon in the war on shoplifting may
well be a smile and a friendly greeting.
“The best way to stop a thief
is customer service, just like the good old days,” McGoey says.