Items taken out of the store
What leaves the store without going through the till must show in the stock.
Why it matters
Some items leave the store for good without going through the till: a press send-out, a gift to a customer, a product opened for a demo. Others leave for a while: an item out for repair, a product displayed outside the store to showcase it. Those are often away for several weeks, but your book stock still counts them. If nobody logs or sets them apart, they are missing at the stocktake and inflate your unknown shrinkage, even though you know where they are. On the highest-value items, a few slips add up fast.
What often happens
The goodwill gesture. An item given at the till to please a customer, not logged.
The press send-out. Prepared by head office or marketing, taken straight from the shelf.
The demo. Products opened for a demonstration, never taken out of stock.
The repair that drags on. The item went to the repairer six weeks ago: still in the book stock, absent from the store.
The outside display. A product showcased outside the store, in a window, at a trade fair or an event, and forgotten on stocktake day.
What to do
Log every permanent exit. Press, customer, demo: in your software, with its reason.
Set temporary exits apart. Repair, display: put them apart in your software if possible, otherwise keep an up-to-date list.
Exclude them from unknown shrinkage. On stocktake day, this list explains what’s missing: these items aren’t lost, they’re elsewhere.
Centralise. One person, or one form, for all items taken out.
Review every month. And one last time before the stocktake, checking what has come back.