We came across a surprising statistic on retail theft from the National Retail Federation (NRF).

The survey indicated that employee theft accounts for 43.9% of all retail theft (or “shrinkage” as we like to call it in the industry).  This would account for intentional and unintentional employee theft (which we will explain further below).  Naturally, that is a large percentage. Higher, percentage-wise, than even shoplifting!  

Almost every time we talk to liquor store owners about employee theft, the response normally is “not at my shop – my employee’s are trustworthy”. Based on the survey, that may not be fully true. But, employee’s may not be intentionally stealing. Here is how a liquor store specific point of sale systems can help prevent intentional and unintentional employee theft:

Intentional employee theft: security settings in the liquor store point of sale software will help prevent an employee from discounting the price of an item, voiding an item, taking a return, or voiding a sale without permission from a manager.  The customer display (little screen that faces the customer which shows items as they are rung up and then an overall total) that comes with a liquor store point of sale system can help keep an employee honest as well.  If the customer display says “$0.00” but the employee gives a total amount due of $124.95 then something is amiss.

Unintentional employee theft: the use of barcode labels or shelf tags with prices will eliminate the need for an employee to guess what the price may be (or for a customer to swap out price tags to try and fool the cashier into selling a higher priced item at a lower price).  Inventory control puts checks and balances in place when it comes to trying to sell a product that is out of stock. Finally, the system does tell the correct amount of change to provide since we rarely find anyone who knows how to correctly count change anymore.

Studies by the National Cash Register (NCR) and feedback that we have received from liquor store owners indicate that using a liquor store specific point of sale system will increase net profit by up to 3% by simply reducing employee theft.  That equals about $45,000 in additional net profit for a typical liquor store.  Not bad since this is only one aspect of what a liquor store point of sale system can do for you.

A rock solid liquor store point of sale system like the Cloud Retailer point of sale software for beer, wine and liquor stores can not only help reduce employee theft but also add even more to your bottom line with the use of Dual Pricing. Contact us today at sales@cloudretailer.com or 888-267-7483 for more details and subscribe to our newsletter to receive more tips and tricks to boost your business.