Retailers with Electronic Article Surveillance (EAS) Systems Beware

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.
It all starts when a seasoned professional team of thieves cases your store.
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.