Retailers with Electronic Article Surveillance (EAS) Systems Beware
Posted: Tuesday, April 07, 2009
by Ron Pawlowski
The Retail Institute
I often speak about the effect of challenging times on shoplifting levels.
A tough economy escalates theft for obvious reasons that I have covered in the past. Many retailers have implemented expensive EAS systems to address this trend, yet unless staff are properly trained, EAS systems can actually confuse employees when professional shoplifters use these systems to their actual advantage.
They're looking for passive and indifferent staff that seldom wander away from the cash desk. Employees who live on the phone and have little control of the sales floor. Ultimately, they look for employees who handle activated gates improperly. If they establish your employees as poorly trained and do not understand the role of an EAS system as part of a total comprehensive Loss Prevention program, your store will be labeled as a viable target.
Once you are targeted by the professionals, calculated visits to relieve your store of its most precious items will become a daily event. They'll likely take advantage of weaknesses in your schedule as well, and ply their trade when management or seasoned employees may be absent.
Here are two methods of confusion that work with EAS systems that all employees must be aware of:
1) Thieves walk in with a "HOT" bag and intentionally trigger the gates. They'll make a big deal out of it and make sure employees see them trigger the gates as they enter. The thieves will comment that there must be something from another store in their bag that triggered the gates. This plants the notion in the employees'
minds that if they trigger the gates on the way out, that is was just the bag they walked in with, nothing to worry about. They may even ask you to keep their bag at cash and pick it up as they are prepared to leave. When they trigger the gates again, they'll shrug their shoulders and give you a wave as your employees smile and motion them to carry on out of the store. If they wandered around the store with the bag, new stolen goods from your store are in there. If they asked you to keep the bag, they've got something concealed on them. Either way, they used your EAS system, your poorly trained staff and confusion to lift your store of merchandise.
2) Two thieves walk in as a team but about five minutes apart and do not appear to know one another. One thief lifts the merchandise and slowly heads for the exit. The other thief gets directly behind the first one and they pass through the EAS gates together. As the gates activate, the first thief with the goods discreetly progresses out of the store while the second one stops and draws all the attention to himself. Employees never even notice the leading person leave the store with all the confusion and attention created by the second thief. The second thief is very co-operative and happily opens all his packages yet nothing he has triggers the gates again. He'll even volunteer an explanation for the "false alarm". The zipper in his jacket has done this before, maybe faulty gates, maybe some cell phone radio interference, anything to confuse the employees further. He progresses on his merry way and then hooks up with his accomplice to split up the spoils of their trade.
Lastly, environmentally friendly re-useable bags are now very popular with both grocery and general merchandise shoppers. These are sold for a nominal amount by many retailers now, and some offer foil/cloth lined insulated ones as well. For years, seasoned thieves have lined bags with foil to defeat EAS systems with equi-potential surfaces around the merchandise. Get a sample of these insulated bags from a handful of other retailers, place a tagged item in one and test them in your gates.
Does the bag defeat your system? It will depend on how much foil is in the liner.
It's critical that employees are well trained on how to deal with any gate activation and are cognizant of the tricks seasoned thieves use to their advantage with EAS systems.
Take Action Today:
1) Review these tricks of confusion with employees and increase vigilance as shoplifting escalates.
2) Retrain staff every few months and make sure that all gate activations are addressed by employees systematically to catch thieves who use these tactics. If employees examine customers who activate gates when they enter this trick can be defeated. Similarly, make sure that all customers are examined when a gate is activated, not just the one drawing the attention to themselves.
3) Check out various lined bags to determine if they defeat your system.
4) Train employees every few months to keep Loss Prevention top of mind with everyone. Continually share tricks used by professional thieves in stores with and without EAS systems.
retail, retailer, leadership, operations, shoplifting, theft, merchandise, service, selection, employees, loss, prevention
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