3 Tips For Protecting Your Retail Store During Civil Unrest
In the last few months, we’ve seen more civil unrest in the US than in most people’s recent memories. But despite how you feel about these events, if you’re a business owner in the areas where protests, demonstrations, and other gatherings are taking place, it’s wise to take some actions that will help you keep your store, your products, and your staff and customers safe.
To help you see how this can be done, here are three tips for protecting your retail store during civil unrest.
Block Access To Your Store
To give you the best chance of preparing your store for any demonstrations nearby, you’ll want to keep your ear to the ground about when and where gatherings are scheduled to take place.
When you hear that something is going to be happening near your business, Tamara D. Madensen and Gary Schofield, contributors to UNLV, recommend that you take some measures to try to control access to your location. This can be done by putting up barricades around your business, closing walkways in front of your store, and removing items near your store that could be used to cause damage. While you likely won’t be able to completely control access from those who may target your business, by taking measures that make your business harder to get to, you may increase the chances of it coming through these events unscathed.
Remove Encouraging Items Or Product
In addition to doing your best to keep any commotion away from your store in the first place, another step you can take to protect your business is to remove any items or products that would encourage people to vandalize your establishment.
According to Stephanie Pagones, a contributor to FoxBusiness.com, many businesses choose to clear their shelves of any product as opposed to trying to protect that product from potential theft. Another area of your store you should try to move to another location is anything that holds money, like your cash register or an ATM on your business property.
Hire Additional Security
As a business owner, it’s natural to want to protect your business from anyone that might cause it harm. However, in situations of civil unrest, Paul Jaeb, a contributor to The Business Journals, recommends that you never take matters into your own hands.
Rather, you should consider hiring additional security if you’re thinking that you want to have more people around to protect your business. By hiring professional security guards or others who have experience handling groups of people, you’ll have a much better chance of keeping both your business and those people safe.
If you’re worried about how you can protect your business if civil unrest starts in your area, consider using the tips mentioned above to help you with this.
