You needn’t be a financial consultant to know that Black Friday is the far and away the biggest shopping day of the year, with sales from brick and mortar establishments totaling well over $13 billion on Black Friday in 2015. For retailers in the Orlando area , you have a long list of potential problems; earlier opening times, crowd control, shoplifting, employee theft, trampling, brawls, frustrated shoppers, customer confrontations and more. These issues are a headache that eats away at your profit margins. Even worse, a major incident on your premises can lead to a lengthy legal battle and financial trouble long after the holiday season is a (bad) memory.
Black Friday Store Security in Orlando
Black Friday is the day in which your store is the busiest, the day your store associates are the most distracted, the day your fitting rooms are the most unorganized, the day the crowd is the most agitated and the day the police are the busiest. All of this amounts to one of the most hectic and dangerous environments a store owner will ever see (until 365 days from now).
On Black Friday, as your store begins to fill up, dishonest shoppers and untrustworthy seasonal employees will see it as a more appealing place to take what they’d like without stopping to pay the bill. According to reports by Business News Daily, U.S. retailers are expected to lose over $9 billion dollars from crime this holiday season, mostly from employee theft and shoplifting.
Throughout the holidays, U.S. retailers will lose $4.7 billion through employee theft, $3.8 billion though shoplifting and $400 million through vendor and distribution, according to a new study by the Center for Retail Research.
ESS Global Corp has been providing Black Friday store security in Orlando for all types of merchants, for both small businesses and the national chains. Here are just a few of the major challenges we help you overcome.
Customer Safety and Crowd Control – The majority of deaths and injuries incurred on Black Friday is either due to folks trampled in stampedes and/or crushed in crowds, or they were affected by pepper spray. Simply dealing with these epic, massive crowds on Black Friday is challenging for any business. In addition to controlling the biggest crowd of shoppers all year, an increased Black Friday security presence will help to ensure the safety and security of your customers, as well as your valued customers.
Customer Shoplifting and Employee Shrinkage – With these increased massive crowds, stores of every kind are much more vulnerable to theft, especially in light of your staff being overwhelmed attempting to provide service to so many people. Sadly, statistics show that employee theft is more active during the holidays as well. While your regular employees may be loyal, you also are most likely to have seasonal help that also knows that come January, they won’t be collecting a paycheck anyways. Employee theft skyrockets because there is so much sales activity for store owners, managers and supervisors to keep tabs on. While a store security presence doesn’t guarantee that your Black Friday sales will be completely free of all shoplifting and shrinkage, a visible security force certainly helps deter this unwanted activity.
Discourage Organized Retail Crime (OCR) – Organized Retail Crime are a collection of professional criminals that go into high gear during the holidays. These people will take hundreds or thousands of dollars worth of your merchandise, without a doubt be a hard set to catch, require hours of your time, and sometimes be dangerous for a store owner to detain. Everyone wants to catch these people; the chains, small business owners, the police and the FBI, all classify these criminals as the biggest animal on the shoplifting food chain.
Hire security for Black Friday
Hiring an ESS store security guard for Black Friday store security in Orlando is a great way to help ensure the day goes smoothly, and vastly reduces shoplifting and shrinkage. Just the act of having a visible security presence is enough to prevent many would-be shoplifters. ESS Security also helps protect the safety and security of your customers as well as your employees. Depending on the size of your business, it may be necessary to take on more than one security guard in order to ensure that the majority of your store is under observation and surveillance.
ESS Global Corp has been providing Black Friday store security in Orlando for years.
Give us a call for a free consultation.