Last year, U.S. merchants suffered an almost 9% increase in store theft, passed on to consumers in higher prices. Crimes such as shoplifting ($15 billion), employee theft ($18.7 billion), and supply chain fraud ($6.8 billion) rose to total over $40 billion and cost the average American family about $435 in extra expense.
Most vulnerable items: perfume, cosmetics, razor blades, leather products and electronics, including the Nintendo Wii, iPods, cell phones laptops, and GPS devices. In grocery stories, thieves go after fresh meat and cheese. Most of these items are stolen for resale rather than personal use, and much of the money furthers other criminal activities. And additional operational costs affect manufacturers and distributors as well, because retailers do not have accurate inventory numbers when goods are stolen.
Retailers want tougher federal legislation to make organized retail crime part of the federal criminal statutes, so that law enforcement officers and prosecutors have more tools to jail these criminals. Repeat shoplifting already carries harsh penalties in some states, including felony charges and jail time. Impulsive teens, forgetful older folks, and people with compulsive psychological disorders can find themselves in serious trouble for shoplifting.
While shoplifting is an important problem, note that employee theft of goods costs businesses almost as much. Employee theft can vary from taking home a few pens or other office supplies to stealing of inventory from the stockroom or food from a restaurant.
What businesses crack down on employee theft? What do you think should be done?Source:
CNNMoney.com
Comments (9)
Redistribution of wealth in order to eliminate the need for people to succumb to crime to maintain a living.
Wow I never thought that it made that big of a difference, but when you put it that way.........
I understand cosmetics and razor blades, but how the fuck do you get a wii out of the store??
@schallerbrandon@xanga - No thank you. People who steal perfume, makeup, Wiis, iPods, and leather goods are not stealing so they can survive.
I'd prefer stronger penalties and more employees watching on the floor. They can create some jobs for people to patrol the store for shoplifting, like they do in Target. They can cut their losses from stealing if they were to implement that.
If there's a better chance of being caught from more people watching and stiffer penalties (store keeping a listing of offenders, banning from stores, fines, whatever), we can fix this problem and show people that they can't do it.
Well, what do you expect when God, Religion, and the Ten Commandments are trampled on. Right from wrong no longer exists and that's a scary world to live in. People are more worried about looking good then actually having a good character.
@Sammyhellsyea@xanga - You would be suprised how ballsey these fools are. I work at Walmart (although I work in the vision center, not the actual store) and they had a woman empty out a highchair box and fill it with perfumes, cosmetics and $5 DVDs. We also had someone confuse the older lady working in electronics, get ahold of her keys long enough to get the one to the game cases off the ring, and then come into the store right at closing pretendidn to be an employee. Got us for a bunch of PS3s and wiis. REDIC!
@XMyXAlterXEgoX@xanga - WOW!!!! I never realized! I always wonder about the cons of hiring the elderly...
@tigerdauphin@xanga - I dont think that is necessarily a con of hiring the elderly. I think it simply happened that way. People who do things like that are 'professionals' at what they do. They could have done it to anyone.
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