I have been in the retail food industry for over 40 years and have always known about theft (both internal and external) but some recentevents made me think that the general public is probably quite naïve on this subject. I say this because when I recently apprehended ashoplifter and escorted them back in to the store I had customers approach me and say, “Is shoplifting really a problem?“
Shoplifting, employee theft, theft by organized groups or mismanagement of inventory for retailers is called shrinkage. According to theRetail Council of Canada, shrinkage for medium and large retailers (those with more than 20 employees) amounts to 1.02 per cent of totalnet sales. Nationally, it is estimated by the council that shrinkage costs retailers and the rest of us, thanks to compensating retail pricehikes, $3.6 billion a year.
If you extrapolate those figures for British Columbia, that’s more than $500 million — a half billion dollars a year being stolen from BCretailers. For the small and medium retailer, according to a Ipsos Reid survey that’s a loss due to shrinkage of $1000 per store per month.The smallest portion of this shrinkage, about $100 is due to human error or inventory mismanagement. As new inventory control systemshave become more sophisticated, that amount of “book error” is going down.
Gone are the days where the only shoplifters being caught were younger people coming and stealing gum or a chocolate bar. Nowadays it isa broad range of age groups stealing more expensive items like meat, cheese, seafood, personal hygiene items and dairy products.
In many cases these items are being stolen to re-sell and the money being used for other purposes. Recently the person we apprehendedsaid exactly that, they were going to resell the roast they had stolen.
Over the years I have heard all the excuses: “I did it on a dare,” “I meant to pay for it,” “Here, let me give it back to you,” “I need to feed myfamily,” “I’m pregnant,” “I will never do it again,” “This is the first time I have ever done something like this,” “Don’t call my parents, police,principal,” etc. My reply is always the same, “You should have thought about that before you walked out without paying for your item/s.”Our policy is to call the police for everyone we catch shoplifting. For minors this means the police will be contacting the parents. We have azero tolerance policy for this offence and you will be banned from the premises.
The advent of canvas bags, back packs and large carry bags has made it more difficult for retailers to control theft. This is why you see moreand more retailers posting signs asking that these type of bags be left at the front of the store. This may seem like an inconvenience but itis for the retailer’s and the consumers’ own protection. Canvas bags are great because it certainly helps reduce the amount of plastic in ourlandfills, but please use them to transport your purchases home, not for shopping with. Most retailers have carts or handheld baskets thatyou can use to pick up your items and transport them to the check-outs.
According to the Retail Council, about 80 per cent of retailers do end up charging and prosecuting people caught stealing in their stores,and employees caught stealing are fired and are charged about 60 per cent of the time. In almost all cases the person caught is bannedfrom the premises. There is no doubt the small independent retailer feels the pain of theft more than the larger retailer, but in any case,theft is costing every one of us in one form or another.
As the ads say: “Shoplifters, eventually you will be caught.”
