protect your retail store from theft

[ivyefan]

As a retailer focusing on the problem of what's known in the industry as loss prevention, you basically have three methods at your disposal to slow the shoplifters down: (1) You can watch everyone in the store like a hawk and make sure they don't steal anything. You can do that using security guards and/or video surveillance systems; (2) You can make things hard to remove from the store by bolting them down, attaching cables, putting things in display cases and behind the counter; (3) You can use a system that attaches special tags onto everything so that an alarm goes off whenever a shoplifter tries to walk out with an item.

[m8internet]

As a retailer focusing on the problem of what's known in the industry as loss prevention, you basically have three methods at your disposal to slow the shoplifters down:
(1) You can watch everyone in the store like a hawk and make sure they don't steal anything. You can do that using security guards and/or video surveillance systems;
(2) You can make things hard to remove from the store by bolting them down, attaching cables, putting things in display cases and behind the counter;
(3) You can use a system that attaches special tags onto everything so that an alarm goes off whenever a shoplifter tries to walk out with an item.
This is a field I work in, and sadly Loss Prevention covers vastly more than just the above
Yes, a proportion is from "external theft" as outlined above, but even those measures can be circumvented!
Plus there are many, many more methods I can think of...
Finally, those are only measures relating to stock within reach of the customers

Take number 1 as an example
There are different ways to proactively perform this, as watching customers just alienates them!
ASDA call these "welcome staff", and other large supermarkets have similar schemes
Sportswear shops call them "sales staff"!
Security guards are not cost effective, as most only usually work specific hours (as I had proven recently at a meeting with M&S, who decided to swap over to employing three extra staff instead and then compared)
Video surveillance is great, if it actually works AND covers all the areas in the shop, plus it has to be of good quality, however all too often it only records theft after the event as most stores don't pay someone to proactively operate it

[dazzlingdave]

Keeping staff well motivated is akey driver we find as the biggest risk is internal !