What Store Managers Need To Know In Order To Save Money

If you are a store manager, then you probably receive a bonus at the end of each month. If you manage a restaurant, you are probably shorting your customers by giving them smaller portions than what the recipes call for. There is another way, however, that can make a difference in your bottom line. Consider these solutions to common problems.

• Once each month, use WD-40 (not Superlube, oil, Tri-Flow, graphite, or some other dry lubricant) and lightly spray the key cylinders and lock latches. Yes, WD-40 does attract dust; but it will not be enough to worry about. The dry film Teflon lubricants do not hold up for very long. This is twenty-three years of experience talking here.
• On a weekly basis, test your Detex exit alarms. These units are designed to keep customers and employees from exiting secretly with stolen merchandise.
• Do not allow employees to put broom handles, bricks, or other similar things between the hinge side of the door and the jamb to keep the door open. When you have something holding the door open in this fashion, the least amount of force on the door can ruin a $1000 door. Why? Because the piece of wood acts as a fulcrum.
• Keep the thresholds swept on a daily basis. Dirt, rocks and other debris often collect in the threshold and will make the door harder to unlock and lock.
• Check your door closers for slamming or leaking oil. Do this weekly. If a door slams it can break bones and sever small fingers. I fit needs adjusting, use an Allen wrench or screw driver and tighten or loosen the adjustment screws, but do so a little at a time. If there are traces of oil around the unit or dripping from the arm screw attached to the closer, replace it. This oil can cause a slip on the floor or ruin someone's nice clothes.
• Install a Don-Jo latch protector on the office door. If you have just a lever, then your employees are using a credit card to gain access.
• Check the restroom locks. Open the door, push in the lock button, let the door close. The lock should unlock itself automatically. When a customer uses the restroom and locks the lock when the door is closed, it stays locked. The unlock feature is designed so that the door cannot be locked accidentally by a person who is exiting. If needed, buy a new privacy function lever. Make it a grade 1 for durability. 
• Consider getting a lock and key system that uses hard-to-duplicate keys. Otherwise, your employees are copying keys at Walmart that end up working poorly and end up prematurely wearing out your locks.
• If the safe combination is not working every single time, or takes multiple tries in order to open the safe, have it serviced or replace it. A new lock may cost you $400 to $700. But, if the safe locks up on you, add to that $350 to $500.

Re-Keying Your Front Glass Door Swing Bolt Lock

If you have a a #2 Phillips head screwdriver and a small flat head driver, then you can re-key your own front glass door. When I say "re-key", I mean removing the round cylinder and replacing it with a new one. Go to your better hardware store, not Lowe's, and ask for a 1 inch mortise cylinder with the Adams-Rite Cam. Have extra keys made and test them. Here are the steps in the change-out process

1. Remove the lock face plate on the side of the door. Usually held in with three Phillips head screws.
2. Look for two more Phillips head screws, one at the top of the lock and one at the bottom. Loosen these just enough so that the bolt body wiggles a bit.
3. Look for two sunken flat head set screws opposite each lock cylinder. Look closely. Each cylinder will have one. (Your door does have two cylinders, one inside, one outside.) Loosen these by about three turns, just so you can grab the cylinder you are changing and unscrew it.
4. Unscrew the lock cylinder. You will notice from the new one you purchased that the cylinder is threaded.
5. Take the spacer off the old lock and put it on the new one. Reinstall lock.
6. Do note that, if you screw the lock in too far, the cam may bottom out on the Adams Rite bolt workings inside the door. If you do this, you will feel the key grind as you turn it. If it is grinding, back the cylinder off by one turn.
7. Options you can add to this job are lubing the inside of the Adams Rite and adding an anti-wrench collar in place of the standard collar.
8. Reinstall the set screws, tighten the two top and bottom screws, reinstall the face plate. You just saved yourself $70.

Anti-Wrench Collar For Commercial Front Door

No matter how you look at it, your aluminum and glass front door is a security liability; but it doesn't mean you should just sit down and accept it! In fact, there are a a number of things you can do to make this door a more secure, if not from a hardware angle, at least by appearance.

1. First, you can install physical protection on the lock cylinder. You can use a CRL Cylinder Guard, which is inserted into the door and anchored with a retainer ring behind the aluminum stile. However, this device has been known to cause interference with the Adams-Rite lock mechanism. If you opt to have this installed, make sure your locks turn with ease and that there is no grinding as you turn the key. Another guard to consider is the Keedex guard shown above. This item costs the locksmith around $7.00 and will keep a burglar from using Vice grips on your lock. In Tennessee, you may pay a locksmith around $85 to show up and install this item.
2. You can install a MAG strike protector for the narrow stile door. This device will make it harder for thieves to pry the bolt through the soft aluminum metal frame. If you have a hook bolt, a quick visual inspection will reveal this, then your door is especially vulnerable to crow bar attacks. Do know that any latch guard can be compromised with time. What you want to do, however, is make the burglar go to the next store.
3. Get an alarm and display the warning stickers. Or, just go online and get the stickers! You can also buy a stand-alone alarm unit to put on this door, like the EAX-500 by Detex. Although this device will not be monitored by an agency, if the door is breached after hours, the burglar is likely to flee.
4. Because there is no real fool-proof way to secure your aluminum glass storefront door, a good alarm must be considered, along with the lock hardware upgrades, and good lighting.