4 ms·

This is actually false. There are security guards in all the non-mom-and-pop pharmacies in Manhattan. Clearly it's worth it to pay for a guy to sit in a chair

This is actually false. There are security guards in all the non-mom-and-pop pharmacies in Manhattan. Clearly it's worth it to pay for a guy to sit in a chair by the door as a (very loose) disincentive to steal.

mrguyorama 4y ago
I don't know what to tell you then. My father was the assistant manager of our local supermarket for 10 years, after being a sub-department manager for 20. In the many years he has bragged about making that store's shrinkage the smallest in the state, including being befriended by the CEO of the international company that had a partnership with the stores in the state and eventually bought them all, he never once talked about shoplifting as a driver of that shrinkage. It was ALWAYS waste, or backroom theft, or poor stock handling and planning. This was also in a dirt poor community where small time crime was a regular thing for most people, think "White trash" area. This anecdote should clearly not be generalized to the entire country, but average retail shrinkage is supposedly around 2% which includes pretty much any reason you can think of, including someone returning a box of bricks instead of the product, a minimum wage employee dropping a bottle of soda, a customer putting the frozen peas on a random shelf instead of back in the freezer, etc. Shoplifting as something that harms a store's income is an extremely local thing IMO.
- phil21 4y ago
  > In the many years he has bragged about making that store's shrinkage the smallest in the state I have worked with a handful of amazing people like him. Taking pride in such things is great and is what I am mourning in these (risky) posts. > he never once talked about shoplifting as a driver of that shrinkage. It was ALWAYS waste, or backroom theft, or poor stock handling and planning. Agreed. Employee theft was always by far the largest form of shrinkage while I was working retail. It likely very much still is or I'd be absolutely surprised. What is not discussed is the elephant in the room. You start letting retail theft creep up like this - not just in numbers but in blatant in your face crime - you will start seeing backroom theft skyrocket. People eventually become demoralized and while it's complete anecdote I'm personally seeing it now. Eventually theft is going to become normalized if we continue down this path. Why work a $20/hr retail job when someone can walk in, take $1500 worth of product, and walk out with zero consequences. It adds up. I also cannot agree that shrinkage is not a major problem for most retail stores. A major chain can likely hide it via averaging it out, but for a mom and pop/small chain in a rough area (the type of places I worked for) shrinkage was a major factor of profitability. You have to sell a lot of candy bars to make up for a single one being stolen when you are operating at 10-20% margin. I also completely understand this is very widely distributed through the country at the moment, and I live in one of the worst off places for this sort of thing. My perception is certainly due to that fact.

mrguyorama 4y ago

I don't know what to tell you then. My father was the assistant manager of our local supermarket for 10 years, after being a sub-department manager for 20. In the many years he has bragged about making that store's shrinkage the smallest in the state, including being befriended by the CEO of the international company that had a partnership with the stores in the state and eventually bought them all, he never once talked about shoplifting as a driver of that shrinkage. It was ALWAYS waste, or backroom theft, or poor stock handling and planning. This was also in a dirt poor community where small time crime was a regular thing for most people, think "White trash" area. This anecdote should clearly not be generalized to the entire country, but average retail shrinkage is supposedly around 2% which includes pretty much any reason you can think of, including someone returning a box of bricks instead of the product, a minimum wage employee dropping a bottle of soda, a customer putting the frozen peas on a random shelf instead of back in the freezer, etc. Shoplifting as something that harms a store's income is an extremely local thing IMO.

phil21 4y ago
> In the many years he has bragged about making that store's shrinkage the smallest in the state I have worked with a handful of amazing people like him. Taking pride in such things is great and is what I am mourning in these (risky) posts. > he never once talked about shoplifting as a driver of that shrinkage. It was ALWAYS waste, or backroom theft, or poor stock handling and planning. Agreed. Employee theft was always by far the largest form of shrinkage while I was working retail. It likely very much still is or I'd be absolutely surprised. What is not discussed is the elephant in the room. You start letting retail theft creep up like this - not just in numbers but in blatant in your face crime - you will start seeing backroom theft skyrocket. People eventually become demoralized and while it's complete anecdote I'm personally seeing it now. Eventually theft is going to become normalized if we continue down this path. Why work a $20/hr retail job when someone can walk in, take $1500 worth of product, and walk out with zero consequences. It adds up. I also cannot agree that shrinkage is not a major problem for most retail stores. A major chain can likely hide it via averaging it out, but for a mom and pop/small chain in a rough area (the type of places I worked for) shrinkage was a major factor of profitability. You have to sell a lot of candy bars to make up for a single one being stolen when you are operating at 10-20% margin. I also completely understand this is very widely distributed through the country at the moment, and I live in one of the worst off places for this sort of thing. My perception is certainly due to that fact.