patrick.net

Brick-and-mortar retail’s indisputable edge over e-commerce is that consumers can get what they want immediately, and can touch and feel the product before buying it. Rising theft—and stores’ measures to prevent it—could dull that edge.

The National Retail Federation estimates that shrink—an industry term for loss in inventory—amounted to roughly 1.4% of retail revenue in 2021, or roughly $94.5 billion. Most of that shrink is caused by theft. In a CNBC interview earlier this month, Walmart Chief Executive Doug McMillon said that if the retail theft issue is not addressed over time, “prices will be higher and/or stores will have to close.”

https://www.wsj.com/articles/shoplifting-stores-problem-11671737792

I know some girls who steal things they need when they are broke.
Always bet on black.

Is anyone buying anything in today's economy? I'm not.

clambo says

I know some girls who steal things they need when they are broke.
Always bet on black.

I know some (actually a lot) of people of both sexes who steal things they do not need and they are not broke

Always bet on elected officials

DD214 says

clambo says

I know some girls who steal things they need when they are broke.
Always bet on black.

I know some (actually a lot) of people of both sexes who steal things they do not need and they are not broke

How are you two in the company of so many thieves?

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See below. Now "organized external theft" and not "internal (i.e., worker) theft" is more prevalent in retail :-/

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https://www.wsj.com/articles/shoplifting-climbs-as-in-store-shopping-returns-ad3b8734

" Shrink rates declined in 2021 and are broadly in line with historical levels, after rising in 2020 and 2019, according to a survey of 63 retailers conducted by the National Retail Federation and the Loss Prevention Research Council. Figures for 2022 aren’t yet available.

Retailers calculate shrink differently and many don’t report thefts to the police, leading to imprecise measurements, said Cory Lowe, a senior research scientist with the Loss Prevention Research Council.

Even though shrink in 2021 has fallen back to 2018 levels, according to the survey, external theft, which includes organized retail crime in addition to regular shoplifting, has become a bigger piece of the pie. Organized retail crime, involving rings that steal from stores in bulk and then peddle the goods online, cost retailers nearly $720,000 for every $1 billion in sales in 2019, the most recent year the NRF published such figures. That was an increase of 50% from 2015, it said.

“Seven years ago, internal theft was the largest category of loss by retailers,” said David Johnston, the NRF’s vice president of asset protection and retail operations, referring to theft by employees. “Now, it’s external theft.” "

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The thieves I know are females; one was dating me and I knew her friends did the same thing.

clambo says

The thieves I know are females; one was dating me and I knew her friends did the same thing.

ZERO doubt in my mind this is another gift from the Obama Summer of Floyd riots.

Theft is waaaay up. Most stores in LA County don’t report to police or even take measures to secure the stores. Don’t let anyone bullshit you on this. Retail crime is sky high in California. Basically can walk into a store and take anything and leave and nothing will happen.

Anyone stating otherwise is a miserable leftist buffoon. Like the same morons that advocate for anarchy but when posed with the question of who will enforce gun control, they are left with no answer and mouths agape.

FuckTheMainstreamMedia says

Theft is waaaay up.

I wonder how much of that is the opportunity from the high number of self-checkout lanes.

HeadSet says

FuckTheMainstreamMedia says

Theft is waaaay up.

I wonder how much of that is the opportunity from the high number of self-checkout lanes.

It’s much more that low level crimes aren’t prosecuted since George Gascon was elected DA and consequently the cops stopped making arrests as they won’t result in court time and stores started baking shrinkage more and more into pricing. Self checkout has little to do with it. It’s like a bizarre honor system where it’s simply assumed a lot of the customers will go ahead and cheat.

FuckTheMainstreamMedia says

It’s much more that low level crimes aren’t prosecuted since George Gascon was elected DA and consequently the cops stopped making arrests as they won’t result in court time and stores started baking shrinkage more and more into pricing.

yep, costs get passed on to the kalifornia or mexifornia consumers

just makes it more expensive to live in that white liberal shithole state

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FuckTheMainstreamMedia says

the cops stopped making arrests

I'd say this is the biggie. The retailers call and the cops don't come because it's so minor in their opinion and they don't want a confrontation for petty theft and a possible incident that puts the COP in jail because the thief was black, got tased or shot over a shirt. The result is retailers will try loss prevention on their own, but most corporate policies is to not confront if they're already walking out the door with the merchandise.

We gotta police the police, but we also have to let them do their job. Until that happens nothing will change.

Also much of the theft is from employees in big box stores. That's why the get discounts when they buy stuff. That has nothing to do with being a nice employer. It's to incentivize them not to steal. Had a high school job at a big box place and loss prevention was more geared towards the employees. They legit hide behind shelves in the back inventory area and watch you. They'd move about the store all day. Plain clothes, so no uniform. Was kind of creepy but I get it.

I can see a lot more retailers shutting stores in CA and other places that have basically legalized retail theft.

zzyzzx says

I can see a lot more retailers shutting stores in CA and other places that have basically legalized retail theft.

Downtown LA has become a ghost town in comparison to where it was 5 years ago. I’m guessing 70-80% of the restaurants that were fully established by 2018 are now out of business.