December 2013 Newsletter
From our newsletter archive. Prices, specials and stock mentioned below were current when it was written and have since changed; see the shop for today’s prices or call 812-201-5900. Sections that repeat an earlier newsletter are left out.
The Countdown continues .... The Holidays are almost here!
We will be closed Dec. 24th and 25th. We will also be closed January 1st for New Years. We will be running a skeleton crew at the Indiana Office between Christmas and New Years. Many of our warehouses, however, are closed from Christmas Eve until January 2nd. We will do our best to accomodate your needs during this time frame but understand we will not be able to access all tracking numbers or ship dates with the warehouses closed.
I will be in transit to Orlando, Florida on Dec 26th but will still be answering tech calls as needed. While in Florida I will have my cell phone 812-201-5900. We are currently scheduled to be back in Indiana the 2nd week of March. If you are in Florida and would like me to stop in and see your system or your store please let me know so I can work it into my travel schedule.
Mark & Mary Fouts
Backup your computer system on a regular basis.
I always tell myself to do this and that it is important. We had been backing up our systems every month... untill we lost a months worth of data last year. We then started backing up every week, or at least the weeks that we remembered.
We had a hard drive failure and lost all the data on the main computer this month. That was kinda scary but luckily we had a backup that was a week old so we only had to look up hard copies and enter 1 weeks worth of info to get back up to normal.
Thanks for those who had to help us fill in the blanks and thanks for your patience with tracking numbers that were lost out of our system for that week as well. We are now installing an auto backup that will backup every night.
I guess you have to experience a loss to compensate. Change is inevitable, yet so hard to accept sometimes. A good backup will save you a lot of hassel with the IRS. Paper backups helped save us from the lost week of info. Get a good backup system going. There are plenty online, just google computer backup software.
If all this seems a bit complicated, recruit one of your younger sales associates to pilot this program. They are all about computers and software. Also you can call your computer repair guy, and he can even help install something like this for your peace of mind.
Backup Security Tags
1. If you are finding that shoplifters somehow pry your hard tags off and you are finding loose tags and pins shoved into pockets of other garments, use a backup tag. Put an ink tag into the black mini tag. Use the ink pin as your pin for that tag. Now if they mess with it they will get an ink mess rendering the garment un-usable to them. Trust me, this only happens once before they learn and leave them alone.
2. Have some really expensive garments? You can use backup tags. Many higher end stores will use paper labels inside a sleeve or pocket as well as a hard tag on the garment. This way if the shoplifter manages to get the hard tag off, they will still ring the system when they leave the store.
3. Don't have or can not afford security? Try a fake stop shoplifting tower (real one with no electronics that we sell for $100) and a security kit (2000 tags that do not ring current systems and a remover for $200) and start your New Year out with something to scare away the thieves. Once they see the tower and tags, they will choose to shoplift somewhere that does not have the equipment to stop them.
Don't forget we will be closed for Christmas Eve & Christmas Day (Dec. 24 & 25th) as well as New Years Day (Jan 1st). We will only have a skeleton crew between Christmas and New Years and some of our warehouses are all the way shut down from Dec 24th through January 2nd.
Tips to Stop False Alarms
No Christmas tree lights in the same breaker as the security system or within 3 foot of it. Someone called me to say they had false alarms only since they wrapped their tower with christmas tree lights. Even if not plugged in these lights can cause false alarms and keep your system from ringing tags.