A simple explanation by M Fouts 800-934-7080 (ebay name sensortags) of how to tell what system you need for your store to stop shoplifters

1. What size is your doorway? 

There are a couple of different types of systems that affect what doorway they will cover.  There are single pillar towers that send a signal to the right and to the left so one tower would cover a double doorway if placed in the middle of a 6 ft opening, or a single door if placed on the side of the doorway.  You will want to put the tower on the handle side of the doorway to be more effective.  The handle side is where the customers tend to go toward, forcing them closer to the machine.  Remember though that the tower is still looking for tags on both sides (it does not know you have a single doorway only)..l.so products on the other side of the door can not be too close to this machine.

The other type system is a sender/receiver setup where one tower sends the signal and the other receives it.  This type setup is good for single doorways or smaller stores that have lots of products close to the front door.  They tend to only feel tags between the towers and at most 6 inches out to either side.  The system can be set up with 3 towers to cover a double doorway.... or streatched to 4 ft apart using a wide isle model such as a qs4000 checkpoint

2. Do I need radio freqency or acusto magnetic type towers?

Well, if you are say a clothing store, the radio frequency systems like checkpoint are very good.  They are relativly inexpensive and can be found on the used market, refurbished with a good warranty.  New this type of system runs in the neighborhood of $4000, used $1000 to $2000 depending upon the model and age of the unit.  An older model can be good especially if the electronic boards have been updated in them.  This type of system is easily tech supported by phone (look on ebay for tech support packages if you have bought a store and it already has one of these units in it.)

Acusto Magnetic towers are a bit more expensive running in the ball park of $8000 new and $2000 - $4000 used.  The problem with these units is that they must be in sinc with any other units within a football field away.  This makes it difficult because everytime someone adds a new system in the mall you will be bothered to re-sinc your machine.  Onsite tech calls for both checkpoint radio frequency and sensormatic acusto magnetic machines runs around $250 to $300 per hour with a 2 or 3 hour minimum charge plus parts.  So as you can see over time this can be costly.  It is good to cozy up with a company that can offer free tech support by phone.  The acusto magnetic systems do have one advantage...they work well close to metal.  Hardware stores, some skate board shops, bike shops etc do well with an acusto magnetic system because of the amount of metal in their environment.

3. Type of tags?  There are hard plastic tags in all shapes and sizes for apparel/clothing stores, paper labels /plastic disposable labels for pharmacies, and many acessories to attach these to items you can not put a pin into or are too metalic to put a paper label on.  The checkpoint paper labels are completely flat making them hard to recognize as security whereas the sensormatic acusto magnetic have to be raised to accomodate the metal plates inside.  They however are more narrow and work better on metal items.  The hard tags all have lanyards and clamps and things that can be used in conjunction to make them work on cords of  electronics. 

Got questions just look at our many auctions at our ebay store:  http://stores.ebay.com/Retail-Store-Security-Equipment