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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

#171

Post by sizzle »

sabarn01 wrote: post #143
ZeroGravitas wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In your opinion, did the multi-decade drop in American crime, regularly discussed by academics who have some tentative theories to explain it, happen or was it all faked? https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/amer...

murders are hard to fake. The rest of crime data is more subjective than people realize. I was robbed at gunpoint for 1$. I did not report the crime.

That’s really scary, over a damn dollar?!?

What was the context here if you don’t mind sharing, why one dollar and not your whole wallet? Why pull a gun?? Isn’t that a felony? Won’t police respond immediately to the report of someone threatening your life via brandishing a gun in public (more people in danger if not caught)?

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

#172

Post by Animats »

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.

Then you need more staff.

I was trying to buy some allergy spray at CVS, and couldn't get anyone to unlock the case. So I left and ordered it online from Costco, at 1/3 the price.

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

#173

Post by rconti »

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 Washington, where people were whining about Californians moving there and driving up property prices since at least the 80s, but I'm sure long before.

This doesn't prove someone's opinion that criminals are being coddled and productive people are being driven away.

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

#174

Post by nitwit005 »

ZeroGravitas wrote: post #50

This appears to be part of a long running PR campaign by large corporations that are happy to lock up poor, mentally-ill and drug-addicted people at the taxpayers expense if it lets them fear monger, while at the same time stealing from their own employees. https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/articles/... https://www.npr.org/2020/10/16/923844907/when-shoplifting-is... https://www.sfchronicle.com/opinio…

You believe that retailers secretly hate the mentally ill and drug addicts, and are engaging in a decades long nation wide secret conspiracy to get them thrown in prison?

I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that they probably just don't like people stealing from them.

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

#175

Post by SV_BubbleTime »

kneel wrote: post #136
SV_BubbleTime wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 phy…

I found vending machines on amazon, problem solved

Initially I was considering this would be farming more senseless production to China where you can feel good about the pollution because it isn’t seen, it isn’t tallied, and they won’t conform to economic policies designed to curb it. Ignoring the potential for slave labor and poor working conditions. Then you have the shipping of vending machines from China to all over the USA. Power, parts, these are made cheaply to fail so probably while more replacements than parts.

All to treat 99% of people like criminals because we lack the conviction to actually do something about a shoplifting problem.

But I have changed my mind. I was not aware vending machines are available on Amazon.

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

#176

Post by ChefboyOG »

valdiorn wrote: post #41
tyoma wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The felony theft limit for Texas is $2,500, but their retail establishments do not report massive shoplifting sprees. Clearly there is more than misdemeanor/felony classification at work here.

but in Texas, how likely is the staff or the store owner to be armed, and actually confront you? No way that would happen in California. I keep thinking of this event that happened to me in the UK, where laws are equally useless at preventing theft, and staff are just powerless to do anything about it. I chased down a shoplifter. I cornered him in an alley. He stopped, looked at me, and this brief conversation took p…

...what? The average Texan, as it turns out, isn't literally Wyatt Earp. It would be shocking if a random Best Buy manager stopped a shoplifter with a firearm—not to mention probably in violation of Best Buy's policies for handling shoplifting.

The average cashier's ability to administer lethal force is probably not a major influence on the prevalence of shoplifting in Texas.

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

#177

Post by cdot2 »

unexpected wrote: post #142
sfasf wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In a fairly liberal area of PA I saw a manager of a Walgreens very aggressively (not physically) confront a shoplifter and yell out to never come to the store again. The punk tried to respond, but ultimately cowered to the anger of the manager. In TX they'd be more intimidating, I'm sure. Unless corporate bans guns.

sorry, but in Texas, big box retailers do not use armed staff. Target, Wal Mart, CVS, Walgreens, Best Buy - I have never, ever seen a worker with a gun. As a life-long Texan, this sounds ridiculous to me. A Wal Mart employee is more intimidating, simply because they're Texan? This is not the 1850's.

You probably walk by people carrying guns every day and never notice

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

#178

Post by 908B64B197 »

ZeroGravitas wrote: post #127
neither_color wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We're approaching a strange post-empirical world where the right chart or graph can be used to justify any public policy, and often changing how the data for the chart is collected, analyzed and presented is easier than solving the issue. The collective anecdotes of thousands/millions of people can be dismissed because the chart says otherwise. Disagree that crime in your neighborhood has dropped? Just because your c…

In your opinion, did the multi-decade drop in American crime, regularly discussed by academics who have some tentative theories to explain it, happen or was it all faked? https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/amer...

It's all real.

Violent crimes had a multi-decade drop. SF is a very localized anomaly in regards to property crimes.

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

#179

Post by ctoth »

ryandrake wrote: post #120
nuclearnice1 wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You mention the meat and cheese, but the comment explicitly disavows that motive. P: I chased this guy for law and justice, not meat and cheese. Q: why did you chase for meat cheese?

He said he chased the guy out of principle, but if that were true, it follows that he'd do the same thing if the guy stole a pack of gum, which is even more insane. Even the police won't chase someone down for stealing such small amounts. He's not the police, he's not the owner of the store, he (presumably) don't even work there. He has no skin in that game whatsoever. The store has already accounted for shoplifting…

> You might argue that a store will charge higher prices in an environment with shoplifting than without, but how much does that really boil down to in terms of the customer's final bill?

This is clearly not about meat and cheese. This is about stamping out the attitude that some people have that allow them to walk into a store and just ...take stuff. This time it was from a large company. Next time it's from your house or car. What is the cost of living in a civil society where people don't routinely steal? Apparently, in a world where police are unwilling to respond it's acts like this. Thank you OP.

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

#180

Post by 908B64B197 »

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!

You can do the same thing in education by closing down magnets schools and lowering the bar for everyone...
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