Shoplifting, Essay Example

In the aim of monitoring shops for the possible occurrence of shop lifting incidents, it could be realized that it is important for an operator to pick one that would best fit his resources and the manner by which his business is being run. At present, there are six primary shoplifting prevention measures followed by several organizations. The said six approaches are to be discussed herein as follows:

• The Two-way mirror approach is a designed mirror condition wherein the administrator sees through the window of his office while everything is occurring outside the said area. This would only work though on wide-open spaces where the shop is likely designed under a good condition of spacing between shelves which would make it easier for the administrator through the distances of the shelves clearly and know what happens within each division accordingly.
• Video monitoring approach is more high tech and most likely adapted by organizations operating on large shops. The scope of the videos being connected and synced into a central server makes it easier for the administrator to monitor everything straight from his office.

• The security officer presence is a common condition and likely a protocol among all shop operators. For safety measures, security officers stand as guards in all possible openings of the shop to check the people coming in and out of the establishment making sure that no one comes out stealing anything and no one comes bringing any dangerous item that might jeopardize the protection and security of the people within the establishment.
• Training store employees is a common approach among most establishments. However, it could be realized that such contingency could be questioned since store employees are also asked to attend to customer needs at the same time which means they ought to apply multitasking approaches that would enable them to assist clients while also looking through the security of the store premises.
• Monitoring fitting rooms in apparel shops is important. This however would involve several ethical measures especially directed towards the privacy of the clients as they try on the clothes.
• Merchandise tracking aims to improve inventory practices of shops hoping to eliminate the possibility of losing products along the way [especially in the process of product transfer from the sources towards the shop].

Among these approaches, it could be noted that the most common combination used by modern establishments today is the security officer presence along with video monitoring. The reason for this is that the security officers are trained separately and the uniformed individuals outside and even at times inside the stores gives a sense of control and protection towards the security of the people coming in and out of the establishment. It could be realized though that this is not enough hence the application of video monitoring approaches is being given attention to. It could be noted that somehow this does allow the administrator to have direct visual presence on all the areas of the establishment. This makes it easier for him to take note of everything happening and be able to manage how to respond to shoplifting occurrences immediately. Other collaborative approaches are also deemed effective. Nevertheless, the partnership between security officer presence and video monitoring has been considered efficient in giving the administrators power over the situations that are occurring in their shops therefore protecting themselves accordingly from shoplifters.