WASHINGTON (TND) — Retailers have lost billions, largely due to shoplifting and organized retail.
Some companies are redesigning their businesses to reduce crime and lower their profits.
According to CWB Chicago, Walgreens has only two aisles with physical goods, such as snacks. For everything else, customers need to schedule an order at a digital kiosk or in the app and pick it up at a counter.
It will not work. You’re going to lose a lot of customers,” said one customer in an interview with WBBM Newsradio.
The Washington Post reported Giant Food has hired security guards, limited self-checkout to 20 items, and is also securing certain items in its grocery stores.
In San Francisco, the city’s largest Whole Foods store, a Nordstrom store and the Old Navy flagship store have all closed.
Well, unfortunately, situations where stores either lock up the bulk of their merchandise or just abandon communities altogether are not uncommon,” said Zack Smith, attorney and manager of the Supreme Court and Appellate Advocacy Program at the foundation’s Heritage Meese Center.”
Smith said laws critics call “soft-on crime” are to blame.
So if the people who physically go into the stores and steal the goods feel that there will be no consequences for their actions, or that the consequences for them will be relatively small, then at that point the reward, “It does it,” prevails much easier for these large retailers to attract employees to their organization.”
In 2021, retailers lost $94.5 billion to shoplifting. That’s $90.8 billion in 2020, according to the National Retail Federation’s 2022 National Retail Security Survey.
“No one is in favor of jailing every shoplifter, but we are definitely in favor of disbanding rings and making it clear that you will be prosecuted for participating in these rings,” Stephanie Martz, NRF executive director and general counsel , said, “When you get to a point where it’s literally unprofitable to have a store open, that’s all you can do to justify keeping the store open that long.”
From June 27, online markets must comply with the INFORM consumer law. The new law requires more transparency from high-volume online third-party providers. Retailers hope that this will help fight organized retail crime.
A new survey by the National Retail Federation shows that 51% of consumers say law enforcement and the courts are too lenient towards people who steal from stores. Nearly two-thirds are concerned about gang-run shoplifting in their community.
