Christmas is only a month away. It’s an important time of year for many businesses, as consumers purchase an enormous variety of goods and services over the festive period. However, it can also be a hazardous time. Crime rates increase over the festive period. Most notably, shoplifting and other forms of theft spike dramatically over the holiday season. This makes perfect sense: hardened criminals may take advantage of the hectic pre-Christmas shopping period to hide their activities. At the same time, more ordinary people may be driven to crime by the stress and financial implications of the season. But is your business likely to be affected, and do you need to increase your security accordingly? Asking yourself the following questions may help you to decide.
1. Secure Christmas – “What type of goods do I sell?”
Businesses that trade in goods are more vulnerable than those that trade in services because they have more items of value for criminals to steal. What’s more, ordinary consumer goods are more likely to be targeted than more specialist goods. This is because they are easier to sell on or may even have personal value to the thief. If your business sells popular consumer goods, therefore, you may be targeted by thieves over the Christmas period. That means you might wish to consider tightening up on security (for example, by adding an alarm system to your premises).
2. Secure Christmas – “How comprehensive is my current security system?”
If your business is already highly secure, you probably don’t need to worry about increasing petty criminality over the festive season. However, if your current security system is quite weak, you should try to make it more robust before Christmastime arrives. If you only have security fencing, for example, you may wish to add a CCTV system and more secure access gates.
3. “Have I been targeted in previous years?”
If your business has been targeted by criminals over the festive period before, you definitely need to tighten your security, regardless of what goods you sell or how secure you already are. Past events are the best predictor of future events, so heed the warning of previous Christmases and improve your security this year.
We hope that the questions in today’s blog have helped you to decide whether you need to boost your on-site security this Christmas. Here at Zaun, we sell security fencing, CCTV and alarm systems, access gates and a wide range of other security measures. So invest now and ensure you have a safe and profitable holiday season.
