How do you make a profit during inventory?

[Evan]

- [e-mail]:

We aren't talking about the sales display shelves here, the racks which take full size unbroken down cargo on pallets go up 3 or 4 levels above the floor level sales stocked product displays... That is like two plus stories tall... The only retailers I have seen which use a similar format are Sam's Club, BJ's, HD, Lowes, etc... Where a forklift to move whole pallets around multiple storage levels rather than ladders to move individual boxes on a single level of storage is used...

BTW: the most accidents in a Home Depot usually involve the lumber aisle (bands breaking on a bundle of lumber due to someone's previous mistake with the forklift loading it onto the rack), the aisle where the bathtubs and shower stalls are stored up on the rack (one small slip there can set off a cascade of noise followed by one or two of the items on the end of the aisle falling down off the end of the open rack used there), and in the garden center area where UV light and weather cycling can deteriorate the packaging and banding on a pallet and make it spill its load when it is being moved... This is why HD closes the aisles in and adjacent to where pallets are being loaded to/unloaded from the racks... Safety first...

Its either lock up all the products or make inspection of purchases and screening the customer prior to exiting the store more invasive that it is now... Remember the locking up the merchandise is only because of the 1% of the customers who are shoplifting and it is much less invasive than having someone check your purchases and wand/pat you down prior to leaving the store...

Wal*Mart can usually find out who is stealing what items from which departments by reviewing the recorded footage on the CCTV system which blankets just about all of the interior of the store...

In HD they use a "monitor the perimeter and cash register areas only" approach because it would require many more cameras than Wal*Mart uses in their CCTV systems to cover each and every aisle between the "mountains" made by the racking systems...

~~ Evan

[Tegger]

Evan wrote in news: [e-mail]:

And Costco. Costco looks exactly like Sam's inside. Not surprising considering Sam's ripped off Sol Price's ideas to the letter.

Or put the security tag on the product itself, which is the Holy Grail of product security. That's one thing they're heading for with the RFID push.

But once the miscreant manages to leave the store, apprehending him (or her in the case of cosmetics) at a later date is /not/ worth the hassle, so they don't do it. Better to prevent theft in the first place. Actually, staff shrinkage is a much more difficult problem than consumer shrinkage.

BTW, Walmart has dropped the star. They're just "Walmart" now, one word. That yellow asterisky thing is officially called a "spark".

[Evan]

- [e-mail]:

Once things go totally RFID in retail stores I think that the shoplifters will quickly start coming up with ways to completely kill the tag, if the tag is not active it won't trigger any of the anti-theft alarms...

Once there is one standard type of equipment used for such purposes there would logically be a huge increase in the amount of shoplifting that takes place...

Shoplifters know how to block the signals on lots of systems using "booster bags" lined with tin foil and duct tape that look amazingly like a normal shopping bag on the outside...

The aggressive "take down" of those shoplifters outside the store is confined to only a small few retail chains at their highest shrink locations... Most stores out there really don't have a full-time LP presence at them all of the time to aggressively pursue shoplifters like that...

You would be surprised what a video clip of someone stealing products from a retail store can lead to these days... Unless it was the shoplifters very first time stealing and they have never obtained a government ID before, there is software out there used by police departments which can identify the person using access to DMV databases and facial recognition...

~~ Evan

[Ned Flanders]

innews: [e-mail]:

Around here video evidence means squat without uninterrupted visual contact with the subject through selection, concealment, attempted egress without payment and apprehension. All video is good for is possible identification of the scum bags so you can call them by name next time they are in the store.

[benick]

You must shop weird hours...The re-stocking crew does not start wheeling out stock on pallets until after 9:30 PM..Sometimes their is a few left at 7 AM for the day crew but are gone in an hour or 2..Sometimes the outside venders are there in the AM as well..Mostly Coke , Pepsi , ect...But to say there are pallets in all the isles half the time is being a bit over the top unless one shops very late at night....Wal-Mart will match ANY local competitors advertised price...The price over ride button is on all the computer screens at the registers and they are used sometimes , though Wal-Mart does do a VERY good job at knowing their competition and prices..The Wal-Mart world wide distribution and stock monitoring system is so good and efficient that the Pentagon has copied it as has many others...HTH......

[Tegger]

Ned Flanders wrote in news:skuzn.68308$ [e-mail]:

Yeah, that's how it is around here, too. Video cameras are mostly useful as a deterrent, not as evidence. I often wonder how many of those black globes actually contain cameras...

My experience is that most retailers are so cautious about incurring bad publicity for wrongful shoplifting-accusations that they'd rather let a suspect walk unless they're 100% certain.

There was a case in my area (Ontario Canada) recently where a newspaper staffer was accused of shoplifting in a Walmart. While shopping for shoes for her child, she inadvertently (so she claimed) put the chosen shoes in a different box, the different box having a lower price on it. They accosted her after she went through the checkout. She wrote an article about it in a local paper, but I can't find a link online, and can't remember if there was a followup.