Saw something interesting at a Dick’s sporting goods last holiday season. The staff at the registers were worked up and I listened in as I entered the store. There were four teenagers who had egged the place cracking eggs in a dozen different spots in the store. They were being held by the store manager and a few police. As I entered the manager had them go up to the back office. The cashier told me people steal all the time and walk out of the store with the goods but these kids crack a few eggs they are in bigger trouble. Basically I was led to believe their parents would find out they had caused some trouble.
That might make a good theft team tactic! Distract all the staff with eggs, while the rest of the team steals stuff and slips out of the store during the few moments of egg chaos.
1 Like
Retail today just walk with the stuff. No one will stop you.
It is boggles my mind.
Those dumbies were ruining their Christmas. LOL
As stores struggle with retail crime, a Walgreens pharmacy in San Francisco has appeared to chain up its freezer section in an attempt to thwart shoplifters.
Chains have been spotted in front of freezers at the Walgreens location on Geary Boulevard and 15th Avenue in the city’s Richmond District. Store workers said Monday that they made the move within the past two weeks.
According to employees, the store sees more than 20 shoplifters every day, with items such as pizza and ice cream being cleared out every single night.
DB2
Obviously this isn’t a long-term solution. The store will probably close. People in SF can get their prescriptions and sundries via mail order instead. Hopefully the criminals don’t start stealing off the Amazon, UPS, and FedEx trucks, because then that service would also have to be removed from SF.
2 Likes
Article in the Financial Times concludes the organized retail crime pandemic is now over. Mostly because it never got started in the first place.
Archive link:
Starting in late 2022, mentions of theft shot up 80 per cent on earnings calls, according to AlphaSense, and the National Retail Federation warned that “unprecedented” levels of shoplifting had pushed losses to an all-time high of $112bn…
…But despite some dramatic footage of smash and grab heists, evidence for a wider problem proved thin. The “unprecedented” 2022 losses added up to 1.6 per cent of total US retail sales, a return to the 2019 average loss rate after a dip in 2021.
Much of the kerfuffle now appears to be rooted in loose talk from retail executives who needed a scapegoat for falling profit margins, amplified by overheated commentary and politicians eager to look tough on crime.
5 Likes
Let’s not forget a dollop of old-fashioned racism.
—Peter
3 Likes