Unfortunately for retail stores, shoplifting is a very common problem that knows no financial capability, no physical beauty, no social status and no political power. Cases in point: talented actress Winona Ryder shoplifting from Saks Fifth Avenue and former mayor Jean Eaton jacking from Marshall Field's stores.

Fortunately, you can beat shoplifters with feng shui, signage and CCTV systems, to name a few. Just don't beat them literally lest you find yourself hauled to the courts for physical assault and liability suits, which could cost you more than the shoplifted items and the CCTV systems combined. Too bad.

Practice Feng Shui

In feng shui, you ensure that the flow of positive chi is unhampered. For the prevention of shoplifting, you have to employ similar principles in the store's layout vis-à-vis customer visibility.

You should ensure that the store's layout minimizes blind spots where shoplifters can hide items and maximizes visibility by installing convex mirrors for those unavoidable hiding spots. In fact, your sales staff should be able to see every aisle from their vantage point. The obvious presence of CCTV systems in the form of mounted cameras helps a great deal in having eyes trained on every part of the store, too.

Post Signage

This is a relatively inexpensive way to deter shoplifters. With creativity, you can fool would-be shoplifters about the presence of cameras where there are none (Smile! You're on camera); social embarrassment where there is discretion accorded to suspected shoplifters (Beware! Your picture can be posted on our Hall of Defamation); and numerous arrests where there are few (We are now on number 100 arrested shoplifters? Are you next?).

Of course, it is a very good idea to invest in even the most basic of CCTV systems to back up your claims. You never know when you will actually need the video footages to prosecute a chronic shoplifter operating within an organized crime syndicate!

Place CCTV Systems

With the nightly news broadcasting shoplifters and thieves caught on closed circuit television, CCTV can be a very effective deterrent to crime. The key is to place them in highly visible areas with signage that warn of their presence.

If you are short on funds, you can always buy real surveillance cameras with fake ones. Your average shoplifters will not be able to tell the difference, not even with fake camera domes. They will be hard-pressed to commit crime not knowing if they are in front of the real deal or the fake article. Again, a signage to the effect that cameras are everywhere is a cheap but excellent touch.

Of course, other shoplifting deterrents can be used - electronic article surveillance, guards at all entrances and low salesladies-to-customers ratio - but these mean money in technology and in manpower. If you are in dire straits (and with the economy as it is, you are not alone) the abovementioned measures are cheaper but still effective measures.

So the next time you want more stringent measures against shoplifting, you should give feng shui, signage and basic CCTV systems a go. You won't regret it but the shoplifters would regret ever trying to make a fool out of you!