As you can imagine, the type of clientele for a business that is open 24 hours a days changes dramatically as the day drifts into the evening and early morning hours. This is especially true for convenience stores and gas stations. If you own or operate a 24 hour establishment, it’s imperative to think about additional security features to protect your employees throughout the day. Incorporating a bullet resistant barrier into the layout of the convenience store or gas station is just one element to a comprehensive security plan.
If you’re considering a bullet resistant element as part of increased security measures, here are a few considerations:
Communication & Functional Considerations
Employees who work in convenience stores and gas stations need to be able to interact with the public at all times. When designing a security barrier, this has to be taken into account. The two main things that need to happy at the cash registers are talking and exchanging money for goods. If you don’t think of these things, you’ll make it hard for your employees to do their job and offer a bad service experience to your customers.
SOLUTION: If customers will have access to your building at all times, you’ll want to have a system installed that includes bulletproof glass, ballistic door, frames, and countertops. The most popular bullet resistant barrier design for 24 hour businesses is a Slider System. These barriers can be designed as horizontal sliders or vertical sliders. This allows the clerk to open and close the barrier based on the perceived threat level throughout the day. The barrier will also need a built in voice portal communication element, as well as a way to allow the safe exchange of money. You can do this with either a package passer or a currency tray.
Building Access Considerations
Another option for increasing the safety of convenience store employees is to restrict building access during off-peak hours of operation. While this might make it a bit more inconvenient for your customers, it will ultimately keep your employees safer and more secure.
SOLUTION: If you decide to lock the door at night and restrict access, we recommend incorporating a Rotary Package Passer into the design of your interior barrier. The glass surrounding the package passer should also be bullet resistant. You should also consider swapping out any exterior windows close to the passer with bullet resistant glass. If you think it’s okay to skip the interior barrier if you’re going to lock the building down at night to save money, keep in mind, there are no bullet resistant locks, so if a criminal is given enough time and compromises your business, your employee will be exposed.
There are many elements to consider when working on securing a 24 hour business. If you assume that only urban areas need to worry about the potential for violent crime, you’d be mistaken. Since most of these convenience stores and gas stations are built along freeways, criminals are able to use that to their advantage in getaway situations. If you have additional questions about how to secure your building, please don’t hesitate to contact us.
Next Steps:
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Download our Ultimate Guide to Bulletproof Glass and Bullet Resistant Barriers to gain more knowledge about them
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Read our case study about installing bullet resistant barriers in a 24 hour gas station
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