Counter top shutters are also known as rolling counter shutters and rolling counter doors. The metal shades roll up and down on wheels in a bracket hooked to the walls on either side of a counter. They are made of aluminum (with clear of a color anodized finish) or galvanized steel with various coatings. Typically they are run by a manual hand crank or a motor concealed in the device, and the really simple versions just move when you push them up or down. All of them lock either automatically with passcodes or with deadbolts and keys. You can find counter top shutters at sports arenas, at pharmacies, store fronts, parking garages, liquor stores, gun stores, gas stations, and at pawn shops. They are an attractive solution for openings that can be about as wide as twenty feet and as tall as nine feet.
Pawn shops, as opposed to vending shops at sports arenas, need a lot of security. The loans that are provided only average about one hundred and fifty dollars each, but there are a lot of them. That means a lot of cash in the drawers. Pawn stores are places where people look for “short term solutions without having to sell the farm,” said Rick Harrison, owner of the Gold and Silver Pawnshop in Las Vegas, Nevada, and star of the television series “Pawn Stars” on The History Channel. Pawn stores buy merchandise sometimes but usually they give collateral – based loans. The customer brings in something valuable (the collateral). The pawn shop might buy the object outright, but typically they keep that object, provide a loan, and keep the collateral until the loan is repaid (and that includes all of the interest). Here are the top three reasons for a pawn shop to have a counter top shutter:
1. Gaps in Crime Insurance Coverage.
Your business insurance might not cover all of the criminal activity that could occur in a pawn store. Crime insurance provides coverage for several forms of theft including employee dishonesty (also known as fidelity), disappearance (of inventory and other property), robbery, and burglary (breaking and entering with the intention to commit a crime). If you purchase insurance for your pawn shop that covers those first three but not burglary, you may find yourself out of luck if your store is broken into. However, let’s say that even though you overlooked the all important aspect of having insurance for burglary, but you were smart enough to invest in counter top shutters. The shutters might protect your merchandise even when the burglar manages to get through the windows and doors!
2. Concealing the Most Valuable Merchandise.
Pawn stores always have valuable things behind their counters. Not just cash but also expensive jewelry, unique coins, firearms, expensive tools and high quality musical instruments. If you have a pawn shop, everything you want to sell to potential customers is also on center stage in the store. It is all right where the employees can see it, where the customers can see it, and, of course, where potential criminals can see it.
Shutters mask other things, too. They can conceal your employees’ belongings such as purses, wallets, and clothing. An employee could be busy worrying about protecting your merchandise and end up leaving their own valuables unattended! Counter top shutters can also block customers from seeing other important security features. Those include the television screens that show the security camera feeds, and the hidden silent alarm button or switch that employees can discretely touch when a robbery is in progress. Additional employees or even security specific personnel can be hidden behind shutters. Most models have an option to adjust how wide or narrow the shutters are. Gaps between them that are pointed at a forty five degree angle allow employees to look out from behind the counter without the person outside being able to see in.
Unlike a glass or plastic window, a counter top shutter will conceal what products are behind it. Unlike a door, the shutters are easy to install and can be done without professional assistance. In addition, they also maintain ventilation. Air is not sealed out. It can pass through the minute partitions in the shutters. Like both a window and a door, a counter top shutter will keep the merchandise and cash secure while also providing insect and pest other control. This goes along with the need for ventilation. The partitions that allow the fresh air to come in also lets the bugs get out.
3. Additional Security.
A counter top shutter is an extra layer of protection for your pawn store. Yes, you lock the doors. Yes, you lock the cash registers. Yes, you lock the display cases with the unique coins and gold and silver bracelets, rings, and necklaces. But no matter how many layers of security you have in your pawn store, it never ever hurts to have yet another one. Another barrier that the thief has to fight through means more time for the police to arrive to protect your property. It means that the potential criminal might not even try to get through that barrier because he does not even know for sure if there is something valuable behind it on account of the fact that he can’t see it.
Because of gaps in crime insurance, the need to conceal merchandise and cash registers, and the additional layer of security that is always helpful and necessary, buying a counter top shutter for your pawn shop should definitely be at the top of your company’s to do list in 2015!
Are you looking to install counter top shutters for your business? Call us at 718-614-0616 or e-mail info@nygates.com for more information. You can also visit www.nygates.com.
Remember – we’re always available to answer your call.
