Honor among thieves may be the first rule of retail theft, but apparently the second is real men don’t steal pink wine. [level-members]
All kidding aside, it seems, at least according to recent Australian crime data, that retail thieves just aren’t into pink wine.
The most frequently stolen item was bourbon; it was five times more popular than cash among thieves and 200 times more popular than rosé wine.
We know bourbon is hot, but hotter than cash?
All this as a preamble to pointing out that you should be aware of what you’re losing to shoplifting and employee theft. The losses can be considerable. Clearly, you shouldn’t stock your bourbon and whiskey near the door.
You should also educate your employees on handling thefts in progress – with rule number one being to never risk personal injury for ANY merchandise. (And rule number two should be not to ever make accusations unless you’re 110% certain.) Non-confrontational is the way to go, giving your potential shoplifter an out and an easy way to save face, if possible.
Regardless, you must track your losses so that you can be sure they’re not growing, and to be sure you don’t have an employee theft problem. The simple act of tracking “shrinkage” can go a long way toward preventing it.
One last humorous note from the Australian report: “DVD and CD players were among the least popular items with just six and four thefts respectively.” Even crime can’t halt technology’s march forward. [/level-members]