Over the years there have been numerous physical and procedural safeguards put in place to reduce loss prevention. Thirty-five years ago, the “ink tag” was introduced to retailers. The concept is genius–attach a device to a garment that, if tampered with, will release and indelible ink onto the garment; thereby, ruining any benefit of stealing the garment.
Since most people who shoplift do so for personal use or the economic benefit of selling the item(s) on the street, this “benefit denial” approach has been shown to be quite effective. These ink tags can be tied into the merchandise inventory alarm control system, so that if the thief tries to steal the garment so they can remove the ink tag elsewhere, the alarm will trigger.
Read more about the history and evolution of the ink tag at Loss Prevention Magazine here: