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I went to a Home Depot in Seattle a couple of days ago looking for an electric chainsaw (not a Milwaukee). It’s a bit of a drive and I wanted a particular model

I went to a Home Depot in Seattle a couple of days ago looking for an electric chainsaw (not a Milwaukee). It’s a bit of a drive and I wanted a particular model, so I checked the site for stock before going .. they had eight so off I went. When I showed up the chainsaw was nowhere to be found, and after looking high and low and triple checking their inventories, the rep said he figured they must have walked. He mentioned a similar figure saying that over $800k of merchandise had disappeared from that aisle (yard equipment) in the last year. I think it’s real. After the experience repeated itself at a second store, I looked on OfferUp and found the exact chainsaw “new and unopened” at about half the retail price. I ended up going to a third store before finding one that actually had the tool in stock. That one had installed a makeshift rig of steel bars in front of their stock, and a rep had to physically follow me to the register and watch me pay for it. There are videos in the Seattle reddits of brazen thieves going into stores and walking off with whatever they like. It’s bad enough for the big box stores, imagine being a small business trying to survive that environment!

mschuster91 5y ago
> It’s bad enough for the big box stores, imagine being a small business trying to survive that environment! I'd guess that small businesses aren't as targeted by organized thieves as "big box" stores are: 1) They're smaller in size which means the likelihood of getting spotted by a staff member during a theft is higher 2) The amount (and diversity) of available goods to steal is lower 3) "Big box" stores don't have people carrying guns, their staff has a "don't intervene, we're insured anyway" policy drilled into them, and this is known. A small shopkeeper however? A thief can't reasonably know if the shop owner has a firearm under their desk or will get confrontational if stopped. > After the experience repeated itself at a second store, I looked on OfferUp and found the exact chainsaw “new and unopened” at about half the retail price. The really interesting thing is: why does the police not "follow the money" and take out those advertising likely-stolen tools for sale in the open?
- drak0n1c 5y ago
  Regarding your last question, the city has for a while now decided not to prosecute shoplifting cases. Here is an article from 2018 about the phenomenon. It has gotten worse since then and the open street bazaars of stolen goods have grown much larger. I’ve decided to move to greener pastures a few months ago, but during a company event when I traveled back the CVS next to the hotel was brazenly shoplifted from the two times I stepped inside to buy essentials. https://www.kiro7.com/news/local/tonight-at-5-pm-on-kiro-7-overwhelmed-with-shoplifters-underwhelmed-by-city-s-response/875696437/ https://www.kiro7.com/news/local/tonight-at-5-pm-on-kiro-7-o...
- retSava 5y ago
  1) many thieves doesn't care. The most brazen ones simply fill up a large sportsbag or similar, then just leave. They don't care if someone spots them, they win on signalling pure aggression and implicit threat of "if you try to stop me I will hurt you". We have that problem at our local food store - three guys come in, one holds the bag, one stuffs it with all the expensive meat, the third stares aggressively on any bystander. Then they just walk out of there. 2) doesn't matter as long as what they have is valuable and can be sold on easily. The thieves are not opening a store on their own.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
- orthoxerox 5y ago
  > The really interesting thing is: why does the police not "follow the money" and take out those advertising likely-stolen tools for sale in the open? Too costly to prosecute. How can you prove that this specific chainsaw has been stolen? "Yes, I am selling my chainsaw. No, I won't talk to you, officer, unless I am under arrest and I have my lawyer present." Then you arrest them and what? You need something to show the jury.
  - mschuster91 5y ago
    Why don't hardware retail shops use the same method that banks and IT retail shops use - tracking device serial numbers? When I go to the parts shop next door and buy an SSD, I get an invoice with the serial number written on it. This small inconvenience for the checkout staff should well be worth the hundreds of thousands of dollars in stolen equipment...
sandworm101 5y ago
It sounds like that store has deeper problems. They aren't checking thier stock and so do not notice a theft when it happens. That has insurance implications. Also, it suggests inside jobs. If the staff are turning a blind eye to theft, not reporting missing stock, there is a reasonable chance that the staff are involved.
- retSava 5y ago
  No implication of insiders imho - rarely do reps see exactly what is stolen and can -- that line item. Many stores do a (costly) stock inventory check once a year, literally going from shelf to shelf and counting what's there, then that is crosschecked and corrects the store inventory database.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
- ethbr0 5y ago
  A Home Depot has somewhere around 40,000 different products per store. The count is always wrong. It's continually updated, but it's still always wrong. Because the amount of labor cost to ensure it's accurate at all times would be a silly use of scarce resources. Sometimes it's as simple as a customer picking up an item, wandering around, and dropping it somewhere else. Sometimes it's theft. Sometimes it's an incorrect count in receiving. All of this is an average day at a warehouse store. Walmart deals with the same thing.
  - sandworm101 5y ago
    Eight chainsaws? I dont think they are lying in the wrong aisle. Powertools and other high value items should be stock checked.
    - ethbr0 5y ago
      How often? Daily? So ~15 minutes / 60 x ~360 days x ~2000 stores (US) x ~$30/hr ($20+benefits) = $5.4 M in labor costs ... and that's just to check chainsaws.
bhance 5y ago
A seriously large amount of the goods on Offerup are stolen. It's insane.
- wronglebowski 5y ago
  I do wonder how much of the modern app or second hand selling community is based on grift and stolen goods. On my local OfferUp in Philadelphia it looks like 30-40% scams(Giving away for free for my birthday text at XXX) 30-40% obviously stolen goods(iCloud locked devices). The small remaining posts are clothes and other items, finding a legitimate item for sale can be a real struggle.
hellbannedguy 5y ago
I used to be a state security guard. I was required to go to a security convention once a year. Everyone of these talks stressed that employee internal theft is bigger than customer theft on the whole. So managment steals the most, followed by the rest of the employees. This was in the 90's so things might have changed. Different entities gave the talks. I don't doubt that 800k number, but I wouldn't rule out the reoresenative of Milwaukee, or the closing managers, or security guards themselfs. Everytme I was told about employees theft, they said it's retail security's big secret. Personally, if they treated employees better, internal theft might come down! When I go into HD, and am being filmed at least 10-15 times before leaving the store; their us a part of me that feels like not paying for that M8 bolt.
- spanktheuser 5y ago
  Relevant song ‘bout how Johnny Cash ended up driving a “…49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59 Automobile.” Recorded in 1976 as domestic steel & car manufacturing tanked in the United States taking Detroit, Chicago, Pittsburg and much of the Great Lakes with it. https://youtu.be/18cW_yHo3PY https://youtu.be/18cW_yHo3PY
mynameisash 5y ago
> imagine being a small business trying to survive that environment! I was just at McLendon's yesterday outside Seattle, and while I was waiting to ask an employee a question, over the PA a came a message like, "need help up front. A couple just left the store with a bunch of stolen merchandise." So the dude bolted for the entrance. It surprised me that the announcement wasn't coded in some way (eg, "code 9 at checkout"). It made me feel quite sad, as McLendon's is pretty awesome, and I'd hate for them to disappear.
- matheweis 5y ago
  Have shopped at McLendon’s many times. Preferred them before I moved, but now they are quite a bit further. That’s terrible that it’s happening to them too, I hope they make it.
cptskippy 5y ago
> When I showed up the chainsaw was nowhere to be found, and after looking high and low and triple checking their inventories, the rep said he figured they must have walked. I've always chalked this up to poor inventory management practices. I've gone to Home Depot for first aid kits, counter tops, smoke alarms, pipe fittings, etc and had the same experience. They show X in stock but none can be found. We had similar issues when I worked at Office Max in high school, it was usually someone putting overhead stock in the wrong location because they just couldn't be bothered.
rootsudo 5y ago
The Aurora store is such a blast too, the area is something to witness right around sunset.
pvarangot 5y ago
I've talked about this with some liquor store owners in SF and also a couple that has a "cute things for your home" store. For small stores it's easier to deal with this because they, let's say, try to proactively stop theft. Big chain stores just usually have some kind of dumb policy to not do anything even though they are legally allowed even in cities like San Francisco that are notoriously anti-big-bussiness in the street. The word spreads around. For example the spike in theft on Wallgrees in SF did start when they changed their policy about a year ago. Before they changed it I saw the store manager in the Wallgreens on 23rd and Mission literally kick the shit out of people that were trying to walk out with merchandise without paying.
scruple 5y ago
> That one had installed a makeshift rig of steel bars in front of their stock, and a rep had to physically follow me to the register and watch me pay for it. Had a similar experience recently in a Home Depot when buying a power drill. The rep took the drill and handed it to the cashier and I didn't physically touch it until it was paid for.
rambojazz 5y ago
How does one rob a chainsaw without anyone noticing?
- MrMember 5y ago
  Pick it up and walk out. Depending on the store they might not even try to confront you. Depending on the city misdemeanor shoplifting might not be prosecuted at all.

mschuster91 5y ago

> It’s bad enough for the big box stores, imagine being a small business trying to survive that environment! I'd guess that small businesses aren't as targeted by organized thieves as "big box" stores are: 1) They're smaller in size which means the likelihood of getting spotted by a staff member during a theft is higher 2) The amount (and diversity) of available goods to steal is lower 3) "Big box" stores don't have people carrying guns, their staff has a "don't intervene, we're insured anyway" policy drilled into them, and this is known. A small shopkeeper however? A thief can't reasonably know if the shop owner has a firearm under their desk or will get confrontational if stopped. > After the experience repeated itself at a second store, I looked on OfferUp and found the exact chainsaw “new and unopened” at about half the retail price. The really interesting thing is: why does the police not "follow the money" and take out those advertising likely-stolen tools for sale in the open?

drak0n1c 5y ago
Regarding your last question, the city has for a while now decided not to prosecute shoplifting cases. Here is an article from 2018 about the phenomenon. It has gotten worse since then and the open street bazaars of stolen goods have grown much larger. I’ve decided to move to greener pastures a few months ago, but during a company event when I traveled back the CVS next to the hotel was brazenly shoplifted from the two times I stepped inside to buy essentials. https://www.kiro7.com/news/local/tonight-at-5-pm-on-kiro-7-overwhelmed-with-shoplifters-underwhelmed-by-city-s-response/875696437/ https://www.kiro7.com/news/local/tonight-at-5-pm-on-kiro-7-o...
retSava 5y ago
1) many thieves doesn't care. The most brazen ones simply fill up a large sportsbag or similar, then just leave. They don't care if someone spots them, they win on signalling pure aggression and implicit threat of "if you try to stop me I will hurt you". We have that problem at our local food store - three guys come in, one holds the bag, one stuffs it with all the expensive meat, the third stares aggressively on any bystander. Then they just walk out of there. 2) doesn't matter as long as what they have is valuable and can be sold on easily. The thieves are not opening a store on their own.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
orthoxerox 5y ago
> The really interesting thing is: why does the police not "follow the money" and take out those advertising likely-stolen tools for sale in the open? Too costly to prosecute. How can you prove that this specific chainsaw has been stolen? "Yes, I am selling my chainsaw. No, I won't talk to you, officer, unless I am under arrest and I have my lawyer present." Then you arrest them and what? You need something to show the jury.
- mschuster91 5y ago
  Why don't hardware retail shops use the same method that banks and IT retail shops use - tracking device serial numbers? When I go to the parts shop next door and buy an SSD, I get an invoice with the serial number written on it. This small inconvenience for the checkout staff should well be worth the hundreds of thousands of dollars in stolen equipment...

sandworm101 5y ago

It sounds like that store has deeper problems. They aren't checking thier stock and so do not notice a theft when it happens. That has insurance implications. Also, it suggests inside jobs. If the staff are turning a blind eye to theft, not reporting missing stock, there is a reasonable chance that the staff are involved.

retSava 5y ago
No implication of insiders imho - rarely do reps see exactly what is stolen and can -- that line item. Many stores do a (costly) stock inventory check once a year, literally going from shelf to shelf and counting what's there, then that is crosschecked and corrects the store inventory database.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
ethbr0 5y ago
A Home Depot has somewhere around 40,000 different products per store. The count is always wrong. It's continually updated, but it's still always wrong. Because the amount of labor cost to ensure it's accurate at all times would be a silly use of scarce resources. Sometimes it's as simple as a customer picking up an item, wandering around, and dropping it somewhere else. Sometimes it's theft. Sometimes it's an incorrect count in receiving. All of this is an average day at a warehouse store. Walmart deals with the same thing.
- sandworm101 5y ago
  Eight chainsaws? I dont think they are lying in the wrong aisle. Powertools and other high value items should be stock checked.
  - ethbr0 5y ago
    How often? Daily? So ~15 minutes / 60 x ~360 days x ~2000 stores (US) x ~$30/hr ($20+benefits) = $5.4 M in labor costs ... and that's just to check chainsaws.

bhance 5y ago

A seriously large amount of the goods on Offerup are stolen. It's insane.

wronglebowski 5y ago
I do wonder how much of the modern app or second hand selling community is based on grift and stolen goods. On my local OfferUp in Philadelphia it looks like 30-40% scams(Giving away for free for my birthday text at XXX) 30-40% obviously stolen goods(iCloud locked devices). The small remaining posts are clothes and other items, finding a legitimate item for sale can be a real struggle.

hellbannedguy 5y ago

I used to be a state security guard. I was required to go to a security convention once a year. Everyone of these talks stressed that employee internal theft is bigger than customer theft on the whole. So managment steals the most, followed by the rest of the employees. This was in the 90's so things might have changed. Different entities gave the talks. I don't doubt that 800k number, but I wouldn't rule out the reoresenative of Milwaukee, or the closing managers, or security guards themselfs. Everytme I was told about employees theft, they said it's retail security's big secret. Personally, if they treated employees better, internal theft might come down! When I go into HD, and am being filmed at least 10-15 times before leaving the store; their us a part of me that feels like not paying for that M8 bolt.

spanktheuser 5y ago
Relevant song ‘bout how Johnny Cash ended up driving a “…49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59 Automobile.” Recorded in 1976 as domestic steel & car manufacturing tanked in the United States taking Detroit, Chicago, Pittsburg and much of the Great Lakes with it. https://youtu.be/18cW_yHo3PY https://youtu.be/18cW_yHo3PY

mynameisash 5y ago

> imagine being a small business trying to survive that environment! I was just at McLendon's yesterday outside Seattle, and while I was waiting to ask an employee a question, over the PA a came a message like, "need help up front. A couple just left the store with a bunch of stolen merchandise." So the dude bolted for the entrance. It surprised me that the announcement wasn't coded in some way (eg, "code 9 at checkout"). It made me feel quite sad, as McLendon's is pretty awesome, and I'd hate for them to disappear.

matheweis 5y ago
Have shopped at McLendon’s many times. Preferred them before I moved, but now they are quite a bit further. That’s terrible that it’s happening to them too, I hope they make it.

cptskippy 5y ago

> When I showed up the chainsaw was nowhere to be found, and after looking high and low and triple checking their inventories, the rep said he figured they must have walked. I've always chalked this up to poor inventory management practices. I've gone to Home Depot for first aid kits, counter tops, smoke alarms, pipe fittings, etc and had the same experience. They show X in stock but none can be found. We had similar issues when I worked at Office Max in high school, it was usually someone putting overhead stock in the wrong location because they just couldn't be bothered.

rootsudo 5y ago

The Aurora store is such a blast too, the area is something to witness right around sunset.

pvarangot 5y ago

I've talked about this with some liquor store owners in SF and also a couple that has a "cute things for your home" store. For small stores it's easier to deal with this because they, let's say, try to proactively stop theft. Big chain stores just usually have some kind of dumb policy to not do anything even though they are legally allowed even in cities like San Francisco that are notoriously anti-big-bussiness in the street. The word spreads around. For example the spike in theft on Wallgrees in SF did start when they changed their policy about a year ago. Before they changed it I saw the store manager in the Wallgreens on 23rd and Mission literally kick the shit out of people that were trying to walk out with merchandise without paying.

scruple 5y ago

> That one had installed a makeshift rig of steel bars in front of their stock, and a rep had to physically follow me to the register and watch me pay for it. Had a similar experience recently in a Home Depot when buying a power drill. The rep took the drill and handed it to the cashier and I didn't physically touch it until it was paid for.

rambojazz 5y ago

How does one rob a chainsaw without anyone noticing?

MrMember 5y ago
Pick it up and walk out. Depending on the store they might not even try to confront you. Depending on the city misdemeanor shoplifting might not be prosecuted at all.