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It's really hard in my opinion since beauty products are so damn, tiny.

Reusable bags/big bags/duffel bags are always great in my idea, but however since product can easily be slipped away if your coming to steal just HBA i don't think most people would do that. Reaction how people act when they get guest serviced, bulk selection of product, there's a lot. Behavior, is also ke.y

Guest service is the KEY to deterrence.

Fragrances, nicotine gum are locked up in the long cases in my store.
 
Teenage girls.

Guests sampling items which is a no-no bc then product has to be defected which is still a loss.

Eyelashes are a big theft item.

Be present and if something looks iffy, stay in the area. Guest service them.
 
Susie said:
I just recently started in beauty and obviously one part of my job as a beauty team member is to look out for any theft and call AP. Only thing is since I'm newer to the area I'm not exactly sure what to look out for and when I should call AP. For those who have worked in beauty or who's AP what are some things to look out for and when to call AP?
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Look for people who are rapidly selecting items without looking at the price or trying it on without wanting your assistance.

Guest service is extremely important. If I see a group of teenage girls I'll never leave the aisle and offer help.
 
Fragrances that get unlocked and end sitting on endcaps or reshop carts. Make sure to lock them up asap when you find them!
 
People with lots of ways to conceal. Big bags, coats, out of season clothing. Selecting items quickly, like not really looking at what they grab. Typically people will at LEAST look at the price, or check a fragrance or something.

If they just act fucking weird, really, that can be a red flag. I think a lot of the time, people make their selection, and then conceal it somewhere else on the floor, where they think no one is watching. Then there's people who are just opportunistic. Example, teenagers shopping by themselves.

As long as you're guest servicing people, that's pretty much all you can do, aside from giving AP a heads up. I like the line, "If you have any questions, I'm here to help." I feel like that lets them know, "Yeah, I'm right fucking here watching you, dumb shit!"

You shouldn't profile people. However, I've never seen people that look like this....that haven't tried to return stolen merchandise. They aren't buying four, $20 eye creams, and then deciding to return them with a passport.
Trailer-trash.jpg
 
pinkp2ie said:
It's really hard in my opinion since beauty products are so damn, tiny.

Reusable bags/big bags/duffel bags are always great in my idea, but however since product can easily be slipped away if your coming to steal just HBA i don't think most people would do that. Reaction how people act when they get guest serviced, bulk selection of product, there's a lot. Behavior, is also ke.y

Guest service is the KEY to deterrence.

Fragrances, nicotine gum are locked up in the long cases in my store.
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Servicing only really sometimes deters if the person has already concealed. Generally, they'll just go somewhere else and do it. It's easier to watch merchandise instead of people in cosm.

To OP: Just parter with your AP team and ask what the theft trends are and what is going missing in beauty, then let them know if someone is selecting those items. Works wonders for me!
 
Honestly?

The two biggest red flags of cosmetics, in my experience, are:

Multiple selections of the same item (picking up more than one of the same lipstick, etc)

and

People who wear a profuse amount of makeup, or look extremely made up, like... bad amateur youtube makeup tutorial-style.

There are a lot of other things we watch out for, but if I see one of those things (or both), then chances are I'm gonna be keeping an eye on that person. Open/large purses are also a concern, as cosmetics are so small and palm-able. Other than that, your best bet is to make sure trending items are protected (usually Pixi, eyelashes/nailcare, LaRoche, etc) and to engage with guests often.
 
Anelmi said:
We walk unlocked fragrances to GS and the guest has to purchase it there.
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I hope you have at least double coverage. I can so easily see a team coming in to take advantage of this one.
 
Well it's not like locked fragrances are hot sellers at my store...this happens maybe once a week. Maybe.
 
We have nothing in beauty locked up besides fragrances. And with fragrances we just unlock and hand to guest. Everything else is totally unlocked. I feel like we should atleast spider wrap fragrances??
 
NPC said:
People with lots of ways to conceal. Big bags, coats, out of season clothing. Selecting items quickly, like not really looking at what they grab. Typically people will at LEAST look at the price, or check a fragrance or something.

If they just act fucking weird, really, that can be a red flag. I think a lot of the time, people make their selection, and then conceal it somewhere else on the floor, where they think no one is watching. Then there's people who are just opportunistic. Example, teenagers shopping by themselves.

As long as you're guest servicing people, that's pretty much all you can do, aside from giving AP a heads up. I like the line, "If you have any questions, I'm here to help." I feel like that lets them know, "Yeah, I'm right fucking here watching you, dumb shit!"

You shouldn't profile people. However, I've never seen people that look like this....that haven't tried to return stolen merchandise. They aren't buying four, $20 eye creams, and then deciding to return them with a passport.
Trailer-trash.jpg
Click to expand...

This is also a best case scenario for guest servicing, as what they are choosing won't help their ugly mugs. After taking them to toys, to show them our new Jurassic park Velociraptor masks that make noise, explain that "Life finds a way!"(Remember, Upsell!)

Next, I Suggest taking them to the Birth control/Condom aisle, and explaining to them the benefits to the Planet Earth, and all of its inhabitants, about the wonderous world where people like them, don't exist.

That said, the guy on the right has the look of "How'd you know?" as you hand him an pack of extra small condoms.
 
I don't know if this tip is useful for Beauty, but in Self-Checkout I watch out for people trying to distract me. People will come in pairs or groups and one will get my attention with (excessively) dumb, basic or off-topic conversation while the friend is up to no good.
 
Guessed Service said:
I don't know if this tip is useful for Beauty, but in Self-Checkout I watch out for people trying to distract me. People will come in pairs or groups and one will get my attention with (excessively) dumb, basic or off-topic conversation while the friend is up to no good.
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I'm instantly suspicious of a super chatty person standing by the TV wall. At wallyworld that was a guaranteed distraction scheme so their accomplice could pull a fire exit pushout
 
Ask your AP if they will share the top shortage classes in dept 052 with you. If they are anything like me, they will be delighted that a TM is actually taking an interest in AP stuff and happily share.

For theft, like other posters said, look out for things like reusable bags or rapid selection of items without regard to the color or price. When most people shop for cosmetics, they replenish what they ran out of and maybe venture out and try one or two new things. If someone is selecting every single cooor of eyeliner, something is up. A big deterrant is just acknowledging every guest, which sales floor TMs should be doing anyway.

Not all of cosmetics shortage is theft, so be on the look out for process errors that can cause shortage. I don’t know how your BRTL or ETL LOG has the BR organized, but for us, only one DPCI goes into each waco for dept 052 items. This helps cut back on BR errors. Also be on the ball with scanning outs. And this is probably obvious, but check all your trash before you throw it away for stray merchandise. We’ve had so many small cosmetics items almost accidentally thrown in the compactor, which is kinda sad lol.
 
HLN13 said:
We have nothing in beauty locked up besides fragrances. And with fragrances we just unlock and hand to guest. Everything else is totally unlocked. I feel like we should atleast spider wrap fragrances??
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Yikes. Do you have high theft rates for these items? At my store, anything that needs to be unlocked from a case must be walked to the register to be purchased when the guest is ready, never handed directly to the guest before paying.

OP, beware of people who get defensive when you guest service them. Often people will get aggressive when you guest service they if they were planning on stealing or have stolen already
 
At our store any perfumes that's are over $30 get locked in a plastic box and most of the nail stuff have security tags on then but they're a pain in the butt to get on!
 
I look for big, open bags/purses that they have wide open in their cart or keep setting down next to their shopping basket. And yeah, teenagers haha. I haven't caught anyone stealing yet, but I did make a call to AP about a lady with a big bag who was throwing a ton of stuff in her basket and opening everything to look at it. Just seemed fishy.

Also, I've noticed that if my counts are only off by 1 or so, it can SOMETIMES mean theft, but cosmetics get misplaced A LOT. I get a ton of abandons returned to me, and I find items tossed in other places in HBA as well. Or I find them in other departments myself...eyeliners left in grocery, lipstick on the ground by electronics etc. I'll often update my counts on an item and then find it later that week, haphazardly tossed somewhere that no one would see it unless they were doing a deep zone.
 
Our fragrances are in a locked case, except for the really inexpensive ones. High-ticket hair appliances are spider-wrapped, as are the Boots No. 7 "kits" (the larger boxes with multiple full-size containers inside).
Keep your eye open for opened packages with the product missing; your AP person can follow up with what's on tape. I sometimes found a half-dozen or so during a single 3-hour shift when working beauty. Our AP put a couple of dummy cameras in places where he suspected more-than-usual activity. It helped - the "cameras" were obvious, but guests thought they were being watched.
I was always told that guest servicing is very effective - your noticing a potential thief makes them hesitant.
 
Leo47 said:
Our eyelashes and eyelash glue aren’t locked up anymore and I’m not even in beauty or AP and it stresses me out
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As I was told by the Beauty TM "we don't know how to do that." three weeks later they get cleaned out almost on the daily.. They can't seem to figure out why.. 🙄
 
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