Everyday, retail shops in the usa lose billions of dollars of merchandise when shoplifters strike. You think visual store owners who own a shop across your street only be robbed by shoplifters, think again! Blind store owners are susceptible to shoplifters what so ever.
Imagine if you started your own little store in your small neighborhood, and you are selling vegetarian products for your neighborhood who is tired of eating meat. You have your merchandise placed on a shelf that is neat enough to enable people to buy your goods. You don’t have enough employees, but you relied on your community to help stop shoplifters from shoplifting your store. Although; you are planning to have employees work overnight as you sleep at home.
Suddenly, you discovered someone walking into your store,–claiming to buy stuff. You can’t hear someone shoplifting because, you are the only person who is running your store. You had expensive items on your shelf,–behind glass. However; your customer has told you about a shoplifter who stole your merchandise.
You decided to detain a shoplifter with a help of your community. You lock your store in place to hold a shoplifter inside. You got someone who is your assistant to question a shoplifter, and call the police. You had cameras installed to keep track of these shoplifters who were robbing your store.
The police arrived, and they arrested the shoplifter.
You sent a demand letter to tell a shoplifter to owe you damages for losses. But a shoplifter refused. This nightmare is kind of difficult to combat.
A blind store owner has a right to ban a shoplifter, or sue a shoplifter to recover from a serious loss. Like stores owned by visual owners; blind owners are most likely to get 2 times a trouble when shoplifters attack their stores. Well, I never ran my own store and sell goods before, but that applies to a local store built as a building. I was planning on starting one up in Nicodemus, Kansas, to help this neighborhood grow, and repopulate it with new citizens who want to move in.
Anyway, blind store owners are more likely to experience powerful shoplifters who often rob their stores. There’s no such project or funding to help blind store owners safely run a store, and prevent shoplifting.
I’ve learned an answer from most store owner’s flaws. Here are the following flaws what I’ve encountered as I shop at any store, and buying things like normal:
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Cameras not installed at food aisles
This is a critical flaw what I always concerned of! Shoplifters can just take food without being seen. Floor walkers can spot shoplifters like normal. But if you don’t have any cameras installed there; you can’t spot a shoplifter as fast as a bullet!
This security feature is important what so ever. You have to monitor your store, and keep customers happy.
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Items not being placed on racks dedicated to be accessed by staff
That applies to small items that can be bought by a customer like USB flash drives, cassette recorders, cheap computer keyboards, cheap mice, cheap calculators, and other easy to buy items. If you have anti-theft devices wrapped around these items; use them. Walmart is the known large store chain who uses anti-theft devices. I was inspired by these devices because, they’re useful to protect merchandise against theft. Even affordable electronics needs to be placed behind anti-theft cases. Whether if a shoplifter can take and pocket these items that are cheap to buy; this is necessary to have built-in locking devices to reduce this problem.
This is a flaw what I’ve never seen before.
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No “Varified Shoppers” Terminal
Bad stops is the known issue. But what about implementing a terminal where varified shoppers who bought items present their receipts and take a special challenge that will filter out shoplifters. For example; a customers go into a specialized arcade to varify if they’re actually buying items from a store. They take tasks to proof they’re not shoplifters by playing arcade games, or go through a hidden obstacle corse. Or ride a coin-operated ride for kids and adults like riding a plush bunny, or a plush cat. Being a varified shopper is important to help a store varify if there’s no loss from these customers. If that exists; that can help reduce all of that shoplifting.
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Easy to pocket items hasn’t been set to be only added to carts
As you buy items; you must add an item to cart, not your pocket, and not your own personal bag. Shoplifters has been doing this. If you just grabbed a cart, and put merchandise into your cart, and buy desired items, and go to a checkout counter,–and purchase your desired items chosen, you can take them home after paying. If you were just buying 1 item… always use a cart to transport items.
Store employees bag your items for you as you finish shopping. This is common for most stores around the world.
These flaws above give me the creeps if I ran a store in the future.
My thoughts of running my own store and reducing shoplifters is kind of like choosing to lock up easy to pocket items. Let’s pretend you had a grocery store where you exclusively sell meat products, and I exclusively sell vegetarian products!
If you sell vegetarian products
If I ran a vegetarian grocery store, I always place easy to pocket items behind counter,–so shoplifters won’t walk out with my merchandise without paying. Big items are sold on shelves like normal. This is necessary to help keep profits intact by 80%. This is useful if I want to maintain high profit If a customer asks me for a pack of candy for her tea party, I ask her which one you want to choose. She chooses a small pack of sour candies. I announce the price, and she hands over the money to pay for her goods. This is common in NYC, a town where I used to live. If you have items on a shelf; a customer must checkout at the register before leaving the store. If a customer has bought lots of items that are vegetarian, she can come back to the store in the future.
If you have larger items, you can sort them by price. But I prefer to keep expensive items via a high value at the monitored section of my store to keep shoplifters from shoplifting these products. They’re going to be on shelves, but they’re designed to be bought with a help of a store associate. Legitimate customers who buy these expensive items can buy them without any trouble.
If you sold meats
Some shoplifters shoplift meat products. You are most likely to experience more shoplifters. Since this is common… you have to add more security to prevent theft.
Like what we mentioned above; you have to keep easy to pocket items behind counter, or you can have it be watched over by an associate at the register. If you look around Dollar General, Aldiy’s, Walmart, Target, Kmart, Sunfresh, Pathmark, or any store chain; they sort out high profit items, and expensive items. Most expensive items are high-quality products. If your meat store is sorted like this… you can help prevent shoplifters by implementing restricted sections where a customer must ask for a product when purchasing a product. This is useful if you wanted to have more control of your goods.
Conclusion
If you are a blind store owner; always have a strategic plan to prevent shoplifting in your store. This is important to keep your store open for anyone who wanted service from you.
<p.Have you ever experienced a shoplifter causing a problem with your store?
