A Nisa Local store owner in Luton has reported a significant drop in shoplifting within a year after installing retail security system Chirp-protect.
Retailer Barry Patel was struggling with shoplifting of high-risk items like baby powder, steaks and coffee in one of his stores. The store was losing over £250 each month to shoplifting.
He first installed Chirp-protect in February 2024 and has been quite an improvement in the situation.
The system comes with a hub above the door, a deactivator behind the counter and a range of tags to place on products.
The alarm lets the staff knows that someone is approaching the exit with an item that has not been paid for. Alarm also gets activated if somebody tampers with the tag on the shop floor.
Patel says, "Since tagging these products, we have seen a significant drop in shoplifting including zero theft of baby powder.
"The tags are reusable, so we ordered additional tags following the initial install to protect an even wider range of items, maximizing the system’s effectiveness.
"Now, not only has that loss significantly reduced, but the tags act as both a visual deterrent as well as alarming in situ if they are tampered with or if they try to exit the store without first being deactivated first, and even better they continue to alarm outside the store!
"This system is simple, cost-effective, and does exactly what it’s supposed to do. I couldn’t be more pleased with the results!," Patel adds.
About 20 million incidents of theft were reported last year, with incidents of violence and abuse climbing to over 2,000 per day.
Earlier in March, BRC-Opinium survey data showed how retail crime is touching unprecedented levels, stating that one in fours Brits have seen shop theft in stores while the same ratio has also witnessed abuse of a store staff.
There are stark differences between cities in the UK. Customers in Nottingham saw the most shoplifting, with just under a third (32 per cent) of people witnessing an incident.
London followed close behind at 29 per cent, followed by Southampton (28 per cent) and Leeds (26 per cent), shows BRC data.
