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Retailers are spending millions to combat organized theft from stores

wsj.com

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Re: Retailers are spending millions to combat organized theft from stores

#91

Post by SV_BubbleTime »

floren wrote: post #30
bko wrote: post #3

> The target was no ordinary shoplifter. He was part of a network of organized professionals, known as boosters, whom CVS had been monitoring for weeks. The company believed the group responsible for stealing almost $50 million in products over five years from dozens of stores in Northern California. The story isn't about people selling stolen goods on Amazon. It's about organized theft operations. One way to stop th…

The SF city government seems to have realized that there's another way to make crime "go down": refuse to prosecute for anything, ideally make it pointless for the cops to even show up, until people stop bothering to report crime. Wow, shoplifting is at record lows!

Shoplifting is at record lows. Shoplifting is at record highs. Ah, forced perspective.

Re: Retailers are spending millions to combat organized theft from stores

#92

Post by ganoushoreilly »

baybal2 wrote: post #66
bko wrote: post #3

> The target was no ordinary shoplifter. He was part of a network of organized professionals, known as boosters, whom CVS had been monitoring for weeks. The company believed the group responsible for stealing almost $50 million in products over five years from dozens of stores in Northern California. The story isn't about people selling stolen goods on Amazon. It's about organized theft operations. One way to stop th…

A simpler way — just put all merchandise behind the glass. Any touching only with supervision of a store manager.

Sadly a lot of the more risky chains do this pretty regularly. I was in a best buy a few years ago where almost everything was behind glass. I wonder what that does to the minds of locals shopping and feeling like they're always under lock and key. It can't be healthy.

Re: Retailers are spending millions to combat organized theft from stores

#93

Post by neutronicus »

floren wrote: post #30
bko wrote: post #3

> The target was no ordinary shoplifter. He was part of a network of organized professionals, known as boosters, whom CVS had been monitoring for weeks. The company believed the group responsible for stealing almost $50 million in products over five years from dozens of stores in Northern California. The story isn't about people selling stolen goods on Amazon. It's about organized theft operations. One way to stop th…

The SF city government seems to have realized that there's another way to make crime "go down": refuse to prosecute for anything, ideally make it pointless for the cops to even show up, until people stop bothering to report crime. Wow, shoplifting is at record lows!

Baltimore, too

But the nice neighborhoods are hiring private security and in some cases threatening tax revolt

Re: Retailers are spending millions to combat organized theft from stores

#94

Post by SV_BubbleTime »

pjc50 wrote: post #26
bko wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a good point. I don't think the felony theft limit is the only consideration the deters organized theft. One obvious difference between Texas and Bay Area is Texas has a lot of guns. > In TX can You Legally Shoot & Kill a Shoplifter? The short answer is…not unless they somehow injure you in the process of committing the theft, making it a robbery. “During the process of committing the theft” would include whil…

And what happens if you check the receipt on the body and find out that the item wasn't stolen? How many years do you face for murdering a customer?

I can point to where firearms have stopped shoplifting crimes.

Can you point to where your scenario has happened?

Because I’m all for hypotheticals, so long as we admit the rarity and precedent before saying there is a problem.

Re: Retailers are spending millions to combat organized theft from stores

#95

Post by Cd00d »

nitrogen wrote: post #57
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> how the West Coast is happy driving productive people The evidence for this happening in economically-meaningful numbers is scarce. What we do see happening is those productive people disengaging from that broken society—civically, physically and emotionally.

The evidence for this happening in economically-meaningful numbers is scarce. It doesn't take numbers meaningful to California to have a meaningful effect on other states, where housing costs are massively skyrocketing due to an influx of new residents.

I grew up in Colorado, and complaints about housing costs and traffic increases due to the influx of Californians has been a constant since the 1970s. At least.

I'm going posit that it's perception more than any actual changes due to fleeing 'fornians.

Re: Retailers are spending millions to combat organized theft from stores

#96

Post by frockington1 »

swayvil wrote: post #79

UBI might fix this. Criminals, as a rule, aren't doing it for lulz. It's like the free speech problem. Don't combat the bad by trying to stamp it out. Combat it by providing a better option.

Wouldn't people just collect UBI AND steal? The article explicitly mentions that most of the people doing this are also receiving state and feral unemployment benefits

Re: Retailers are spending millions to combat organized theft from stores

#97

Post by ericcholis »

legitster wrote: post #59

A friend of mine is a manager at a Safeway. He says a typical store might lose six figures worth of product in a year. In a bad neighborhood it's not uncommon to lose over a million dollars a year. They hire security personnel, but people figure out that a) even when security catches you, they are not allowed to restrain you and b) the police do not respond to shoplifters (in certain jurisdictions they are not allowe…

Slightly adjacent, fighting credit card disputes feels the same way. A company can prove without a doubt that it's a legitimate charge, only to have the case go to pre-arbitration; which in many cases is too costly to fight without certainty of winning.

Re: Retailers are spending millions to combat organized theft from stores

#98

Post by the-dude »

nikanj wrote: post #65
floren wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The SF city government seems to have realized that there's another way to make crime "go down": refuse to prosecute for anything, ideally make it pointless for the cops to even show up, until people stop bothering to report crime. Wow, shoplifting is at record lows!

Same with bike theft in Vancouver. Nobody bothers reporting it, so the statistics aren’t too bad

Isn't there any incentive for your claim on your theft insurance?

Re: Retailers are spending millions to combat organized theft from stores

#99

Post by codezero »

nitrogen wrote: post #57
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> how the West Coast is happy driving productive people The evidence for this happening in economically-meaningful numbers is scarce. What we do see happening is those productive people disengaging from that broken society—civically, physically and emotionally.

The evidence for this happening in economically-meaningful numbers is scarce. It doesn't take numbers meaningful to California to have a meaningful effect on other states, where housing costs are massively skyrocketing due to an influx of new residents.

Prices are rising in California too, so an exodus can’t be the explanation, probably inflation and investors driving prices up?

Re: Retailers are spending millions to combat organized theft from stores

#100

Post by SV_BubbleTime »

kneel wrote: post #48

Going to CVS is a timesink now that I have to walk around and ask employees to open cases for me. Why can't they use vending machines?

Hang on, we’ve had literally thousands of years with stores where you could pick up an item and run away, but don’t.

There is now are organized shoplifting crime groups, and your solution is to design specialized vending machines for teeth whitening strips, phone chargers, etc?

I’m not saying it is a net good to deploy violence on poor people. But don’t you suppose that society would benefit overall if there were physical and clear legal consequences to shoplifting?

Or do you really want the world to use vending machines for everything? Aren’t you concerned about climate change? Where do you suppose all those vending machines would come from what how are they powered?

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