Reduce The Opportunity To The Shop Loss

A lot of robberies, armed robberies, shoplifting and employee theft that take place because an employee or customer found a vulnerability. Many times they talk to people about this vulnerability. Most of the time it is just an innocent comment, during a gathering of friends, an honest employee (or dishonest employee) might discuss how easy it would be for someone to steal from your business.

Reduce The Ease To Rob A Shop Which Without Security Control

They might talk about how much cash is kept in the drawers, how all of the purses are kept near the back door and the back door is never locked. Then, someone in the group tells one of their friends about your vulnerability and the plan is hatched. This is real. The majority of theft/burglaries can be traced back to an employee who intentionally or unintentionally talked about a weakness in your security or an opportunity to score big. A shoplifter who finds an easy mark, will tell their shoplifting friends. An employee might innocently tell a friend about how easy it would be to rob the place and how much cash is on hand at what time.

Reduce Shoplifting

Shoplifting is most frequent when the targeted environment is safe to shoplift without getting caught. By having cameras, the risk to the shoplifter is very high. They don’t like the high risk and move on to another store. Shoplifting is reduced immediately.

There were two convenience stores on an intersection. When one of stores got a camera system the other had to get one immediately. He said, “Once you got a system, they all were robbing me blind! It used to be that half would steal from you! Now they all steal from just me!”

Reduce The Employees’ Ill-use Staff Discount

When you have a camera system and access control system in place, your staff will talk about how every inch of the business is covered with video. Any robbers or employees who are looking to steal will be concerned about the risk associated with the theft. Put stickers on the front door announcing that you have a camera system, the robbers will be concerned. The majority of people will only steal if there is the opportunity to steal. Cameras take away opportunity.

Anyone stealing from you now has to work hard to deceive you. If you have cameras covering all exits, counters, cash registers and the places inventory is kept you will almost eliminate employee theft, giveaways and free or discounted items.

When you discuss your policy and procedures regarding your employee discount policy, reinforce that they cannot use the employee discount for friends and family. Tell them to be careful when they use their employee discount because your camera system tracks each sale made. You would hate to see someone get fired because they had a lapse of judgment. By using your employee discount policy as the example, they will also figure out that you are watching for giveaways and theft.