4 ms·

> “organized retail crime” cost retailers $719,548 per $1 billion dollars in revenue. So less then 1%. With all the extra inconvenience they put on paying cust

> “organized retail crime” cost retailers $719,548 per $1 billion dollars in revenue. So less then 1%. With all the extra inconvenience they put on paying customers to combat this, I thought this was a much bigger issue.

throwaway0a5e 5y ago
A huge fraction of that 1% is probably concentrated in a few locales that have some nonstandard law enforcement policies enable repetitive shop lifting to be a viable source of income for the low level people in the scheme that actually take the stuff so while it may be a small percentage overall it likely makes a large impact on the viability of the many stores in those areas. Their power tools are probably an outsize contributor to their overall profit margin so if there's something they really don't want being stolen it's those.
- blacktriangle 5y ago
  So California
chadash 5y ago
Home depot has an 11% profit margin. It's not a Google (30% profit margin) or an Apple (26.7%) that prints money. So it cuts into 9% of profits, which is pretty significant.
- Kye 5y ago
  ~$3 million out of ~$4 billion profit just in the first quarter of 2021 is still not worth this.
  - MattGaiser 5y ago
    It is per 1 billion in revenue or 95 million per year.
    - Kye 5y ago
      You're right. Doesn't change the point. It's not worth the harm that was done by the law.
      - djrogers 5y ago
        What law?
jrm4 5y ago
One wonders if "plans to" is simply "plans to?" It would be really cheap to just sponsor this article and then just not do it; like putting the alarm system stickers on your house, but not actually getting the system...
dangrover 5y ago
Margins can be low in some kinds of retail. Not sure how it stacks up for Home Depot
three14 5y ago
Without the (old) extra inconvenience, it would probably be higher than 1%. Also, it could be that this mechanism substitutes for some of the previous anti-theft measures, so it's hard to use the $719,548 figure to conclude anything about whether this would be cost effective.

throwaway0a5e 5y ago

A huge fraction of that 1% is probably concentrated in a few locales that have some nonstandard law enforcement policies enable repetitive shop lifting to be a viable source of income for the low level people in the scheme that actually take the stuff so while it may be a small percentage overall it likely makes a large impact on the viability of the many stores in those areas. Their power tools are probably an outsize contributor to their overall profit margin so if there's something they really don't want being stolen it's those.

blacktriangle 5y ago
So California

chadash 5y ago

Home depot has an 11% profit margin. It's not a Google (30% profit margin) or an Apple (26.7%) that prints money. So it cuts into 9% of profits, which is pretty significant.

Kye 5y ago
~$3 million out of ~$4 billion profit just in the first quarter of 2021 is still not worth this.
- MattGaiser 5y ago
  It is per 1 billion in revenue or 95 million per year.
  - Kye 5y ago
    You're right. Doesn't change the point. It's not worth the harm that was done by the law.
    - djrogers 5y ago
      What law?

jrm4 5y ago

One wonders if "plans to" is simply "plans to?" It would be really cheap to just sponsor this article and then just not do it; like putting the alarm system stickers on your house, but not actually getting the system...

dangrover 5y ago

Margins can be low in some kinds of retail. Not sure how it stacks up for Home Depot

three14 5y ago

Without the (old) extra inconvenience, it would probably be higher than 1%. Also, it could be that this mechanism substitutes for some of the previous anti-theft measures, so it's hard to use the $719,548 figure to conclude anything about whether this would be cost effective.