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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

#251

Post by rayiner »

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…

One of my observations coming from Bangladesh, where policing is pretty inadequate, is that criminal law is really there to prevent the growth of organized crime. So you have to think about crime as a system not in terms of individuals. Harsh punishment may not deter a given criminal. But it may well make it hard to recruit dozens of low level people to engage in low value illegal activity that adds up to something significant.

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

#252

Post by fnord77 »

CardenB wrote: post #220
j_walter wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That was real and everyone can agree on that based on what they see as well as the data. However you can't go to a single SF neighborhood and find people that think crime has dropped recently. There are boatloads of articles about people having their cars broken into so often they leave them unlocked because replacing windows was so expensive. Videos of people shoplifting while security stands by and does nothing bec…

??? A couple of months ago I literally saw a man get tackled for stealing ties from a high end store in SF nearby union square.

every time I go to target in the metreon, I see someone shoplifting a substantial amount of merch.

every. single. time.

usually what I see is someone with a roller luggage fill it up and then calmly walk out the door

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

#253

Post by conductr »

noasaservice wrote: post #101
conductr wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The EPI article gives some interesting & specific examples of wage theft. However, I think that term and the discussion around it gives the impression that large corporations are looking for opportunities to steal employees wages. When I skim these examples I see a few honest mistakes / bad policies but mostly small likely bankrupt/distressed companies trying to keep the wheels from falling off their business. It's l…

If employee steals from store, they're fired and arrested. If store steals from an employee, they're told to pound sand at a state level office and hope and pray that some mid-level bureaucrat looks into the issue and writes a "stern letter".

Are you advocating for personal accountability in corporate governance and management? If someone is committing fraud, they could be arrested. But a good deal of this is negligence because requiring education to start a business is silly. For the most part, the system works. Why would an employee put up with it? They have no better opportunities you say? Let’s focus on that end then.

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

#254

Post by dundarious »

rossdavidh wrote: post #168
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…

Why would they need "cover for closing stores that they were going to close anyway"? They can basically just close them, and no one's going to stop them or cause a problem. Why would they need "cover"?

They’re already lobbying for more policing and stricter sentencing, this is free PR from a gullible press, who won’t check to see that many of the store closures were previously announced with different reasoning given.

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

#255

Post by SV_BubbleTime »

Hizonner wrote: post #138
SV_BubbleTime wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Difficulty: It would take maybe, shall we say, ten thousand of your "firearms stopping shoplifting" cases to offset even ONE "innocent person getting shot" case.

Yes. This is exactly what was talking about in my previous post asking for examples to determine how hyperbolic the response was.

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

#256

Post by spfzero »

rayiner wrote: post #240
kevinpet wrote: post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm concerned about lawlessness, but if the only alternative is that $950 theft is a _felony_ that's messed up. This seems more like a case of not being able to deal with crime than lax sentencing.

Nobody will risk prison for $950 of stuff. If you make it basically a ticket, then you can easily get dozens of people to be able to steal a meaningful amount of stuff.

If you stole $950 from me, I'd want it handled as a felony. Or if a misdemeanor, that you at least got jail time (after giving my money back). I do not want people thinking they can steal with impunity. Otherwise, can I have all of the tax dollars I've spent on law enforcement returned now please?

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

#257

Post by spfzero »

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.

You should have reported the crime, because by not reporting it, you feed the people that are enabling it. You allow them to promote the idea that their policies are actually working. Then, you're more likely to have it happen to you again.

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

#258

Post by rossdavidh »

One possible scenario: more and more stores like pharmacies where there aren't as many people "window shopping" or shopping for fun anyway, therefore not much spontaneous shopping to lose out on, will become pickup-only places where you cannot physically enter the store, you can only buy online and pick up at the window. It would probably require less square footage and less direct labor.

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

#259

Post by learc83 »

kook_throwaway wrote: post #167
unexpected wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> box retailers do not use armed staff. Target, Wal Mart, CVS, Walgreens, Best Buy - I have never, ever seen a worker with a gun It wouldn't be the corporation arming the staff, it would be the staff arming themselves via a CCW/CHL. The first letter states 'concealed', so by definition you shouldn't see it. >A Wal Mart employee is more intimidating, simply because they're Texan Its less about any individual employee,…

That vast majority of retail chains would fire an employee who stopped a shoplifter with a firearm.

When I worked at Best Buy, loss prevention was very clearly instructed that using force to stop a shoplifter would get you fired.

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

#260

Post by desmosxxx »

blacksmith_tb wrote: post #192
the-dude wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

It's fairly uncommon to have insurance specifically for your bicycle, so most people would be filing claims against their renters' (if they have it) or homeowners' insurance. Given the size of those deductibles ($500 is the US average for homeowners', I would think Canada is similar [1]) lots of people would just buy another bike that costs less. 1: https://www.insurance.com/home-and-renters-insurance/home-in...

even for claims above deductible but still relatively minor (2-3x maybe?) it might not be worth it financially (in the long run) depending on your provider and any previous claims of course
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