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Stopping Shoplifting in College Stores
01/11/02
Rush is the opportune time for some less-than-honest people to take advantage of a busy college store and help themselves to merchandise. But armed with manned security cameras, the college store at the University of California-Santa Barbara has been taking a proactive effort to stop its losses related to shoplifting.The store's security efforts often add up to six apprehensions a day during rush. While the system isn't cheap—the system used at the UCSB store costs approximately $80,000—Asset Protection Manager Will Wood says that it has more than paid for itself in the last five years and it has actually become a profit-making venture.
The security program includes approximately 80 cameras and 24 monitors that are manned 24 hours a day, cables (including fiber optic cable), and an EAS system. Some of the hard equipment is leased in order to keep the costs down, Wood said.
The store's Asset Protection Department also handles crime deterrence on other areas on campus—such as around the university commons and dining area—and is compensated by those campus entities for the service. "We're already here monitoring, so it makes a lot of sense for them," Wood said of the arrangement.
The security system also pays for itself through a restitution fee system that pulls in between $40,000 to $50,000 a year. A minimum $200 fee is leveraged through the campus judicial system whenever someone is caught shoplifting, Wood said.
The in-store cameras are not hidden from view, and the department maintains an open-door policy for any student who wants to see how the system is operated, Wood said. But there are other factors that help the Asset Protection Department and UCSB Bookstore prevent shoplifters. One is a live monitor placed at the entrance where people can see that they are being captured by the camera system when they come in.
During orientation, new students are shown the system when they visit the store. The local and college media have also helped out by publicizing the store's security system and mentioning it when reporting on crimes.
Items that are frequently stolen are moved to better viewing areas, and keeping the store neat also helps. The staff also use a bit of psychology to their advantage: Employees try to make eye contact and a verbal acknowledgement with every customer who enters the store.
Even though the cameras are on, the student employees hired to watch the monitors need to know what to look for when scanning for shoplifters. The staff is trained to look for the following behaviors:
- Potential shoplifters are more interested in watching the sales clerks than in looking at the merchandise.
- Groups of youths who are in the store together.
- Customers that enter with large purses, shopping bags, open packages, newspapers, etc.
- Customers wearing bulky or unseasonable clothing.
- Customers that loiter in the store, say they are "just looking," and make no attempt to buy.
- People that carry merchandise into the hidden areas of the store.
Popular items that are stolen from the UCSB store include school supplies, CDs, and DVDs. Other times, the thefts tend to run with the weather, as sweatshirts and umbrellas are stolen on cold or rainy days.
About 8-10% of shoplifters apprehended in the store are non-students, Wood said. The department has also stopped professional thieves, including one that posed as a professor and took boxes of books from the store with plans to resell them to brokers or online.
For more tips on store security and to check out how the UCSB Asset Protection department works, see their web site at http://128.111.80.86.
Related Link:
- "Loss Prevention Needed by Stores of All Sizes" (CM Bulletin, 1/11/02)
Sound Off!
Maurice Lively (info@mauricelively.com) 2/27/2008 12:30:52 PM
First I would like to say that this letter is not meant to be offensive or disrespectful, but facts prove that in spite of what the so-called experts have implemented hasn’t worked in reducing shoplifting and employee theft. Considering these problems are a $40 billion plus deficit for the retail industry a year! How in the face of these serious problems, if you are not apart of this elite system, no matter what you claim to have, no one will listen to you. This brings me to the focus of this correspondence to you. I have discovered a very uncomplicated program that will substantially reduce these problems. In fact, the mere media notification of it being implemented, petty theft will stop, employee theft will automatically diminish and professional thievery will find it harder. My immediate and only goals are to sell this information outright. Please let me hear your thoughts along these lines in the immediate future.
Maurice Lively -/- info@mauricelively.com -/- (443) 783-2017 or (410) 742-5457
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