4 ms·

The stories of a shoplifting crisis are greatly exaggerated. Stores say shoplifting is a national crisis. The numbers don’t back it up <https://www.cnn.com/202

The stories of a shoplifting crisis are greatly exaggerated. Stores say shoplifting is a national crisis. The numbers don’t back it up <https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/18/business/retail-shoplifting-shrink-walgreens/index.html https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/18/business/retail-shoplifting-s...> The Great Shoplifting Freak-Out <https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2021/12/shoplifting-holiday-theft-panic/621108/ https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2021/12/shoplifti...>

toomuchtodo 3y ago
I am curious who or why this narrative is being pushed.
- cratermoon 3y ago
  It's been trotted out to justify more cops and the usual law-and-order narrative to counter things like defunding the police. The SF Chronicle suggested that it was used as cover to spin already planned mass closures at being a result of something other than just losing business. <https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/Is-shoplifting-forcing-Walgreens-to-cut-back-in-16536960.php https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/Is-shoplifting-forcin...> The Marshall Project article linked from your CNN piece suggests several forces at work <https://www.themarshallproject.org/2023/02/27/shoplifting-retail-theft-lawmakers-response https://www.themarshallproject.org/2023/02/27/shoplifting-re...>, one of which is that companies don't want to pay for private security any more and may want local law enforcement funding raised up to externalize the costs on taxpayers.
  - musicale 3y ago
    Having a private security guard seemed to discourage individual casual shoplifters, but it didn't scale well to organized groups. Some stores limit the number of customers that are permitted in the store at one time, but it's a pain when you are required to queue outside.
- injb 3y ago
  I don't think its necessarily a narrative that's being pushed. It is actually happening. I only skimmed the first of the 2 articles linked but their claims are not that strong. They say that retailers are suffering from "shrink" and no one knows what's causing it. So if no one knows the cause, then that doesn't work as evidence that it's not shoplifting. It is very obvious that brazen shoplifting is happening of a kind that hasn't been seen before. They also claim that theft as a percentage of sales has gone down. The only reason they would phrase it this way is because as an actual quantity of money, it has gone up. It might seem reasonable to expect that losses due to shoplifting are roughly proportional to sales. But it's not clear that it should be that way. I would say that we should expect the amount of shoplifting to be capped by whatever amount can be stolen stealthily. It's natural and very reasonable imo to object to people waltzing around the shop taking whatever they want and brazenly walking out the door with a smile and a wave. We are not bound to accept that just because sales have increased. The article hints that the real problem is that traditional retails are losing out to Amazon. But if that were true then sales would be down and shoplifting as a proportion of sales would surely be up, since no one can shoplift from Amazon.
musicale 3y ago
If shoplifting isn't increasing, what's the justification for the locked cases? I find locked cases to be extremely annoying. What would have been quick purchase turns into me giving up after not being able to track down an employee to unlock the case. Yet another way to make in-person shopping less appealing than ordering online. But now there are all kinds of of dodgy online sellers selling the things that used to be on the shelf, along with complaints from buyers who didn't get the thing they ordered.
- StrictDabbler 3y ago
  "Hey Smitty, profits are down at your retail locations! Why?" "Uh.... shoplifting?" "We can't have that! How can you fix it? We'll pay any reasonable amount." "Um... we could put locked doors on the shelves?" "Brilliant! Do it!" There's no conversation about how this hastens the inevitable death of retail by eliminating physical access, the one advantage it has over ordering online. When I was a kid there was a company called "consumer's distributing". They sent out catalogs. You'd come into the store with the catalog number of the item you wanted to purchase and stand in line in front of a big desk. You'd give them the number and they'd fetch the item from a warehouse out back. That's the retail model we're starting to move back towards. It's completely unsustainable.
  - mhb 3y ago
    Consumer's Distributing Ha. I barely remembered that place. It seemed braindead at the time.
porkbeer 3y ago
The crisis is the highly organized rings that perpatrate these thefts devistate those most vunerable. Even if it's not a huge amount (based on first hand experince, I think it is a huge amount), it is clearly affecting everyone. No amount of 'its really not that bad guys' is helpful.
cscurmudgeon 3y ago
Stopped reading your links when the first link below the CNN article goes to a random site that doesn't support the context. > But the retail industry’s own figures on shrink cast doubt on their claim that the problem is ballooning. Researchers say retailers may be blaming theft for losses when they don’t actually know the cause. The Atlantic link is from 2021. Are you a native to any of these cities? Couldn't a national slowdown in shoplift mask spikes in these cities? Why is this scenario not addressed or analyzed?
- cratermoon 3y ago
  These retailers are failing. They are trying to blame something else. https://thehill.com/homenews/nexstar_media_wire/4078123-walgreens-expects-to-close-150-us-stores-cfo-says/ https://thehill.com/homenews/nexstar_media_wire/4078123-walg...
  - cscurmudgeon 3y ago
    There is probably very little shoplift at Walgreens (drug store) as opposed to Walmart/Target etc (general store).

toomuchtodo 3y ago

I am curious who or why this narrative is being pushed.

cratermoon 3y ago
It's been trotted out to justify more cops and the usual law-and-order narrative to counter things like defunding the police. The SF Chronicle suggested that it was used as cover to spin already planned mass closures at being a result of something other than just losing business. <https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/Is-shoplifting-forcing-Walgreens-to-cut-back-in-16536960.php https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/Is-shoplifting-forcin...> The Marshall Project article linked from your CNN piece suggests several forces at work <https://www.themarshallproject.org/2023/02/27/shoplifting-retail-theft-lawmakers-response https://www.themarshallproject.org/2023/02/27/shoplifting-re...>, one of which is that companies don't want to pay for private security any more and may want local law enforcement funding raised up to externalize the costs on taxpayers.
- musicale 3y ago
  Having a private security guard seemed to discourage individual casual shoplifters, but it didn't scale well to organized groups. Some stores limit the number of customers that are permitted in the store at one time, but it's a pain when you are required to queue outside.
injb 3y ago
I don't think its necessarily a narrative that's being pushed. It is actually happening. I only skimmed the first of the 2 articles linked but their claims are not that strong. They say that retailers are suffering from "shrink" and no one knows what's causing it. So if no one knows the cause, then that doesn't work as evidence that it's not shoplifting. It is very obvious that brazen shoplifting is happening of a kind that hasn't been seen before. They also claim that theft as a percentage of sales has gone down. The only reason they would phrase it this way is because as an actual quantity of money, it has gone up. It might seem reasonable to expect that losses due to shoplifting are roughly proportional to sales. But it's not clear that it should be that way. I would say that we should expect the amount of shoplifting to be capped by whatever amount can be stolen stealthily. It's natural and very reasonable imo to object to people waltzing around the shop taking whatever they want and brazenly walking out the door with a smile and a wave. We are not bound to accept that just because sales have increased. The article hints that the real problem is that traditional retails are losing out to Amazon. But if that were true then sales would be down and shoplifting as a proportion of sales would surely be up, since no one can shoplift from Amazon.

musicale 3y ago

If shoplifting isn't increasing, what's the justification for the locked cases? I find locked cases to be extremely annoying. What would have been quick purchase turns into me giving up after not being able to track down an employee to unlock the case. Yet another way to make in-person shopping less appealing than ordering online. But now there are all kinds of of dodgy online sellers selling the things that used to be on the shelf, along with complaints from buyers who didn't get the thing they ordered.

StrictDabbler 3y ago
"Hey Smitty, profits are down at your retail locations! Why?" "Uh.... shoplifting?" "We can't have that! How can you fix it? We'll pay any reasonable amount." "Um... we could put locked doors on the shelves?" "Brilliant! Do it!" There's no conversation about how this hastens the inevitable death of retail by eliminating physical access, the one advantage it has over ordering online. When I was a kid there was a company called "consumer's distributing". They sent out catalogs. You'd come into the store with the catalog number of the item you wanted to purchase and stand in line in front of a big desk. You'd give them the number and they'd fetch the item from a warehouse out back. That's the retail model we're starting to move back towards. It's completely unsustainable.
- mhb 3y ago
  Consumer's Distributing Ha. I barely remembered that place. It seemed braindead at the time.

porkbeer 3y ago

The crisis is the highly organized rings that perpatrate these thefts devistate those most vunerable. Even if it's not a huge amount (based on first hand experince, I think it is a huge amount), it is clearly affecting everyone. No amount of 'its really not that bad guys' is helpful.

cscurmudgeon 3y ago

Stopped reading your links when the first link below the CNN article goes to a random site that doesn't support the context. > But the retail industry’s own figures on shrink cast doubt on their claim that the problem is ballooning. Researchers say retailers may be blaming theft for losses when they don’t actually know the cause. The Atlantic link is from 2021. Are you a native to any of these cities? Couldn't a national slowdown in shoplift mask spikes in these cities? Why is this scenario not addressed or analyzed?

cratermoon 3y ago
These retailers are failing. They are trying to blame something else. https://thehill.com/homenews/nexstar_media_wire/4078123-walgreens-expects-to-close-150-us-stores-cfo-says/ https://thehill.com/homenews/nexstar_media_wire/4078123-walg...
- cscurmudgeon 3y ago
  There is probably very little shoplift at Walgreens (drug store) as opposed to Walmart/Target etc (general store).