OAK BROOK, Ill. -- When was the last time "counting cash" topped the list of qualities a store manager should have? That's the question at the heart of a CSP survey done recently to assess where retailers stand with safes and security technology.
"Inefficiencies in cash management" emerged as the leading concern in this area, with counting, recounting, reconciling discrepancies and making bank deposits among the many trouble spots.
"Reducing touchpoints reduces cash short and over," says Ed McGunn, president of Corporate Safe Specialists (CSS), Posen Ill., pointing out that technology can often cut the frequency an employee has to handle cash. "That [adds] to the bottom line."
CSS commissioned the CSP study, which was done this past spring and involved 186 respondents, the majority of which (73%) operated one to nine stores; 11% operated 50 or more, while 6% ran 200 or more locations.
Despite high-tech "smart" safes and partnered solutions between banks and armored-car services, respondents still focused on cash management as their Achilles' heel.
Other key findings in the study include:
- A growing problem? About a quarter of respondents believe inefficient cash handling has grown as a concern in the past year.
- Shrink still an issue. About 30% of respondents focused on shrink as a problem that is on the rise.
- Counterfeit bills. Showing up a distant third among safe and security-related issues is identifying counterfeit bills.
- Simple measures. Respondents rely on simple, low-tech measures with regards to cash management, with one of the most prevalent being low amounts of cash in registers.
- High use of business-rated safes and drop safes. These options were more likely the go-to strategy over the option of smart safes or more expansive closedloop solutions.
- Though 78% of respondents considered smart safes "very effective" for handling and managing cash, only 21% had them, with an additional but meager 13% intending to adopt such safes.
Click here, or read the full story in the October 2011 issue of CSPmagazine.
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