{"id":12306,"date":"2023-11-29T16:15:07","date_gmt":"2023-11-29T16:15:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lonecandle.com\/?p=12306"},"modified":"2023-11-29T16:15:07","modified_gmt":"2023-11-29T16:15:07","slug":"americas-shoplifting-problem-explained-by-retail-workers-and-thieves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/?p=12306","title":{"rendered":"America\u2019s shoplifting problem, explained by retail workers and thieves"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\n\n“While many corporations are frustrated by retail theft, they\u2019re not doing enough to try to solve it.”
…
“Some amount of shoplifting is always going to happen. \u201cShrink\u201d \u2014 retail-speak for missing inventory that may have been stolen by outside parties or its own workers, damaged, or just plain lost \u2014 is inevitable. According to the National Retail Federation<\/a>, the average shrink rate increased from 1.4 percent in 2021 to 1.6 percent in 2022. Taken as a percentage of sales, that translates to an increase from $93.9 billion to $112.1 billion in losses. That\u2019s a big number \u2014 it\u2019s also one that companies could take more steps to bring down, workers say.”  
…
“It\u2019s difficult to estimate exactly how much it would cost companies to really go after the shoplifting problem. Many retailers say that they are spending more to combat retail theft<\/a> than they have in the past. In its 2022 annual report<\/a>, Home Depot made note that combating shrink and theft and keeping stores safe requires \u201coperational changes\u201d that could increase costs and make the store experience worse for customers and associates alike. (Nobody likes the whole unlock-the-box-to-buy song and dance.)” 
…
“There\u2019s no strong consensus about what would really work, investment-wise. And loss prevention doesn\u2019t bring in revenue, it\u2019s just an expense. \u201cCorporate offices want to see profit. Marketing brings profits, the buyers bring in profits. Loss prevention, in and of itself, does not bring any profits. We just try to deter loss,\u201d says one loss prevention agent who works at a corporate office for a national retailer. \u201cLoss prevention, typically, is the most underfunded department of any company.\u201d”
…
“Companies can and do try to crack down on theft by locking items up, but unless they really have enough workers to unlock everything, it\u2019s a pickle, business-wise, not to mention an annoyance for customers. \u201cLock up your whole store and you\u2019ll never lose anything. You\u2019ll also never sell anything,\u201d says Joshua Jacobson, a loss prevention professional in California. \u201cSales are more important to a company than shopping theft.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Organized retail crime operations made up of boosters \u2014 people who steal the goods \u2014 and fences \u2014 those who purchase or receive and resell the merchandise \u2014 do actually exist, and they are difficult to combat. Stores and police departments can and do build up cases against them and make<\/a> arrests<\/a>, but it can be a bit of a game of whack-a-mole.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most workers say that even when they catch boosters in the act, they blow right past them, and they\u2019re often not allowed to say anything at all for safety reasons. That includes security staff, many of whom aren\u2019t permitted to make physical contact with thieves (some say they want to be allowed to be \u201chands on,\u201d though you can see where this could start to become a problem on multiple fronts, from liability to safety). Stolen products wind up sold in the open on the street or online on platforms like Amazon and Facebook<\/a>. In June, the INFORM Consumers Act<\/a> became law at the federal level, which requires online marketplaces to verify and disclose information on \u201chigh-volume third-party sellers\u201d in an attempt to crack down on organized retail crime. It\u2019s not yet clear how much of an impact it\u2019s making.”…
“One former booster told me he got into retail theft on a \u201cmassive scale\u201d to support a drug habit. (He\u2019s now been sober for over three months and has a regular job.) He described going to Home Depot and Lowe\u2019s dressed relatively nicely \u2014 with a collared shirt, maybe a Bluetooth piece in his ear \u2014 and asking workers to get him generators or tools down from shelves. He\u2019d put them on a cart, walk out the door, sometimes with a manufactured receipt in his hand, and get into an Uber<\/a> or Lyft<\/a> he\u2019d ordered. \u201cThe times I was stopped, I never would acknowledge the fact that I\u2019d just been caught,\u201d he says. \u201cIf it\u2019s already on the cart, I\u2019m committed.\u201d He\u2019d then sell the items to a local pawnbroker or even to a foreman on a construction site. They had to have figured out what he was up to, handing over a brand-new generator for a fraction of the cost, but they didn\u2019t ask. \u201cThey\u2019ve got to be pretty stupid not to know.\u201d”
…
“\u201cThe professionals, unfortunately, are rarely deterred, and the biggest deterrent to them is having off-duty law enforcement, which is very expensive,\u201d says Prusan, the security and loss prevention consultant. \u201cYou can\u2019t catch everybody, no matter who you are.\u201d”
https:\/\/www.vox.com\/money\/23938554\/shoplifting-organized-retail-crime-walmart-target-theft-laws<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“While many corporations are frustrated by retail theft, they\u2019re not doing enough to try to solve it.”<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

“Some amount of shoplifting is always going to happen. \u201cShrink\u201d \u2014 retail-speak for missing inventory that may have been stolen by outside parties or its own workers, damaged, or just plain lost \u2014 is inevitable. According to the National Retail Federation, the average shrink rate increased from 1.4 percent in 2021 to 1.6 percent in 2022. Taken as a percentage of sales, that translates to an increase from $93.9 billion to $112.1 billion in losses. That\u2019s a big number \u2014 it\u2019s also one that companies could take more steps to bring down, workers say.” <\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

“It\u2019s difficult to estimate exactly how much it would cost companies to really go after the shoplifting problem. Many retailers say that they are spending more to combat retail theft than they have in the past. In its 2022 annual report, Home Depot made note that combating shrink and theft and keeping stores safe requires \u201coperational changes\u201d that could increase costs and make the store experience worse for customers and associates alike. (Nobody likes the whole unlock-the-box-to-buy song and dance.)” <\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

“There\u2019s no strong consensus about what would really work, investment-wise. And loss prevention doesn\u2019t bring in revenue, it\u2019s just an expense. \u201cCorporate offices want to see profit. Marketing brings profits, the buyers bring in profits. Loss prevention, in and of itself, does not bring any profits. We just try to deter loss,\u201d says one loss prevention agent who works at a corporate office for a national retailer. \u201cLoss prevention, typically, is the most underfunded department of any company.\u201d”<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

“Companies can and do try to crack down on theft by locking items up, but unless they really have enough workers to unlock everything, it\u2019s a pickle, business-wise, not to mention an annoyance for customers. \u201cLock up your whole store and you\u2019ll never lose anything. You\u2019ll also never sell anything,\u201d says Joshua Jacobson, a loss prevention professional in California. \u201cSales are more important to a company than shopping theft.\u201d
\nOrganized retail crime operations made up of boosters \u2014 people who steal the goods \u2014 and fences \u2014 those who purchase or receive and resell the merchandise \u2014 do actually exist, and they are difficult to combat. Stores and police departments can and do build up cases against them and make arrests, but it can be a bit of a game of whack-a-mole.<\/p>\n

Most workers say that even when they catch boosters in the act, they blow right past them, and they\u2019re often not allowed to say anything at all for safety reasons. That includes security staff, many of whom aren\u2019t permitted to make physical contact with thieves (some say they want to be allowed to be \u201chands on,\u201d though you can see where this could start to become a problem on multiple fronts, from liability to safety). Stolen products wind up sold in the open on the street or online on platforms like Amazon and Facebook. In June, the INFORM Consumers Act became law at the federal level, which requires online marketplaces to verify and disclose information on \u201chigh-volume third-party sellers\u201d in an attempt to crack down on organized retail crime. It\u2019s not yet clear how much of an impact it\u2019s making.”<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

“One former booster told me he got into retail theft on a \u201cmassive scale\u201d to support a drug habit. (He\u2019s now been sober for over three months and has a regular job.) He described going to Home Depot and Lowe\u2019s dressed relatively nicely \u2014 with a collared shirt, maybe a Bluetooth piece in his ear \u2014 and asking workers to get him generators or tools down from shelves. He\u2019d put them on a cart, walk out the door, sometimes with a manufactured receipt in his hand, and get into an Uber or Lyft he\u2019d ordered. \u201cThe times I was stopped, I never would acknowledge the fact that I\u2019d just been caught,\u201d he says. \u201cIf it\u2019s already on the cart, I\u2019m committed.\u201d He\u2019d then sell the items to a local pawnbroker or even to a foreman on a construction site. They had to have figured out what he was up to, handing over a brand-new generator for a fraction of the cost, but they didn\u2019t ask. \u201cThey\u2019ve got to be pretty stupid not to know.\u201d”<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

“\u201cThe professionals, unfortunately, are rarely deterred, and the biggest deterrent to them is having off-duty law enforcement, which is very expensive,\u201d says Prusan, the security and loss prevention consultant. \u201cYou can\u2019t catch everybody, no matter who you are.\u201d”<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.vox.com\/money\/23938554\/shoplifting-organized-retail-crime-walmart-target-theft-laws<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[744,1269],"class_list":["post-12306","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article-share","tag-crime","tag-shoplifting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12306","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12306"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12306\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12307,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12306\/revisions\/12307"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}