Family Dollar unveils shrink initiative

Asset protection has been given a high priority at Family Dollar where the operator of more than 8,000 stores said it plans to equip each of its locations with electronic article surveillance (EAS) equipment from Checkpoint Systems.

Checkpoint’s technology is already in 3,500 stores and the rollout, said to be one of the fastest in the retail industry, is occurring at a clip of about 120 stores each week.

“This rollout has already positively impacted our profitability,” said Julie Giblin, Family Dollar’s vp of loss prevention, “We could not be more pleased with the results and the partnership with Checkpoint, especially with the implementation speed."

Family Dollar and Checkpoint have also begun the planning process to implement a source tagging program which shifts the tagging of merchandise upstream in the supply chain to the company’s suppliers. By working with Family Dollar’s consumer packaged goods and apparel suppliers, this new program will ensure merchandise arrives at Family Dollar stores EAS tagged and shelf-ready, according to Checkpoint. Family Dollar aims to further reduce shrink and increase employee productivity by focusing time on customer-facing activities as opposed to apply tags in store.

“Teams on both sides are enthusiastically executing one of the most ambitious EAS roll-outs in the world, and are now engaging the vendor community in source tagging to deliver even greater financial benefits to the program,” said Per Levin, Checkpoint’s president and chief sales officer for merchandise availability solutions.