The global eyewear market is a multi-billion dollar industry. Unfortunately, some practices become the victim of optical theft, either from stealing, internal theft or sometimes, both.
A recent WO Poll asked respondents if they had ever been the victim of optical theft and if so, how they deal with it. Almost 80 percent (78%) of respondents said they had experienced optical theft; most often, customers stealing while the store is open. One-third of respondents had also reported suffering internal losses.
Almost 40 percent (39%) of respondents said they’ve had their stores broken into overnight or while the office was closed. Just over 10 percent (11%) of respondents reporting having never been a victim of optical losses or theft of any kind. Almost half (47%) of respondents said they suffer optical loss about once a year, with another 30 percent reporting loss more often than that. Just under one-quarter (24%) of respondents reported vary rarely being affected.
With such a large number of respondents noting they have been a victim of theft at least once before, how can it be prevented? Just over 80 percent (81%) of respondents say they have surveillance cameras inside to prevent theft, and about half of those also have cameras outside. One-quarter of respondents say they use reinforced entries and consistent employee training should an incident occur. Other tactics mentioned included security guards, weapons within reach and panic buttons that alert local authorities.
One respondent said, “For every patient that enters our optical department, we make them check in and we get their name and date of birth. We also tell them not to put any frames they handle back on the wall, so we can sanitize them before we put them back. This makes it easy to see if more frames are missing from the wall than are needing to be sanitized; in that case, we’ll know that patient has helped themselves to a few pairs.”
Not only is theft a financial loss, but it can bring a headache, too. Exactly half of respondents reported not even bothering filing with insurance, whether it be to avoid the hassle, deciding to take the loss or not noticing the loss until much later. Another 17 percent said their insurance “rarely” covers theft and losses, and another 17 percent said insurance only covers up to 75 percent of the loss.
Thirty-nine percent of respondents were non-OD females, and 17 percent were female ODs. One-third of respondents were male ODs and 11 percent were non-OD males.
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