Situational Background
PAK’nSAVE’s policy is to provide New Zealand’s lowest
food prices. The grocery chain, which is owned by the
Foodstuffs Group, follows a food warehouse format unique
to New Zealand supermarket shopping. Stores buy and
stock a range of everyday basic products in bulk, and doing
this in large volumes means that savings are passed on to
customers in the form of New Zealand’s lowest overall
food prices.
The chain also reduces
in-store costs, with
basic style stores
without fancy floor
coverings, extravagant
shelving or expensive
lighting. Their stores
offer a practical and
functional environment
with wide aisles, where
grocery items are
stacked on shelves
in their boxes so that
it’s easy to shop.
Customers pack their
own groceries, so as to
further cut costs.
Reducing costs by these methods enables PAK’nSAVE
to pass the savings directly on to customers, without
sacrificing the quality of products offered.
The Challenge
Mt Albert PAK’nSAVE is one of the chain’s busiest stores,
serving tens of thousands of customers weekly. Like all
grocery stores, Mt Albert PAK’nSAVE aims to minimize
stock loss through shoplifting and ‘sweet hearting’
(whereby checkout staff avoid scanning high value items in
friends or family members grocery shopping). Commonly
stolen high value items include meat, razor blades batteries,
and health and beauty products.
The Solution
To reduce shoplifting a number of Auckland PAK’nSAVE
stores use ADT Sensormatic electronic article surveillance
(EAS) theft prevention systems, including one of its busiest
stores in the suburb of Mt Albert.
In addition to video surveillance, Mt Albert PAK’nSAVE
installed the following Sensormatic solutions:
-
• Maxcalibur and Ultra•Post, which were customised
to PAK’nSAVE’s brand colours
-
• Customised signage
Thanks to the easily-concealed slim-line EAS security
labels, stock losses are down for commonly stolen high
value meat, razor blades batteries, and health and beauty
products. The labels can be slipped unobtrusively into
packaging, enabling double-tagging as a backup measure
for determined shoplifters who manage to remove one tag.
Microwaveable labels under meat tray absorbent pads have
also proven successful. The pads can not only help protect
the meat’s freshness and visual appeal, but also deliver
hard-to-defeat, anti-theft protection with acousto-magnetic
technology.
Additionally, Sensormatic’s advanced technology means
that false alarms are a rarity, thus avoiding embarrassing
customers who have not shoplifted, and preventing
unnecessary disruption to store personnel.
The Results
Mt Albert PAK’nSAVE’s management believes the store
achieved a return on its investment within six months.
What’s more, stock takes show gross profit improvement in
the two years since the EAS system was installed.
“ADT is very responsive and provides excellent service and
a great product. Using Sensormatic EAS technology has
helped to make a significant difference to our profitability
because would be shoplifters know that Mt Albert
PAK’nSAVE takes security seriously,” said Colin Sheehan,
Store Manager Mt Albert PAK’nSAVE.
Management has been impressed with the robust nature of
the EAS hardware: “The pedestals are constantly knocked
by shopping carts and probably get hit thousands of times
a year and function just as well as when they were installed
two years ago.”
What’s more, the word appears to have spread that Mt
Albert PAK’nSAVE takes security seriously, with former
repeat offenders now giving the store a wide berth.