THE president of Giant Foods has spoken out against bands of thieves stealing groceries and warned that stores could close from the increase in retail crime. Retail theft has become a nationwide is…
I hear what you’re saying, but we’re not talking about a single-mother sneaking diapers out because she needs them or a Jean Valjean-type taking bread because they’re hungry…
This is OCR (Organized Retail Theft) where a team of 3+ people coordinate with phones, distractions, and a driver, to quickly get as many high-dollar, shelf-stable items out of a store as possible to resell on Facebook marketplace/eBay/etc. It’s typically at least $1000 per store.
If you hate large organizations, you should hate the greed of criminal rings like this, because we all absolutely pay more because of it…
EDIT: I’m just talking about what the article is referring to. I’m not saying companies don’t pass the costs on to consumers, and I’m not casting moral judgement.
As a hardcore leftist I agree with you, but as someone who works in retail and has for about 7 years, you’re really not listening.
When I first started working the sales floor I worked at a store that made roughly 60m/yr gross profit. Our shrink was at about 3.2m/yr until we installed lockboxes which got us down to about 2.4m/yr. That was in 2018/2019. I’m now at a different retailer and we didn’t have the same casual theft issue, maybe 300k/yr in shrink. Now with ORT being an issue, were up to 600k/yr in just one year at a store that makes about 35m/yr.
It’s a complicates issue that’s actively becoming a serious issue. At least once a week we get a communication about a new warehouse they found that was fencing stolen goods being raided with 300k-8m in product. This story is about a new type of crime, not about people stealing at self checkout.
Now to go slightly off topic, I think most customers are just being whiners when they complain about self checkout. Nobody complains about having to pump their own gas or dial their own number without an operator guiding their call. The real issue is the way people never saw actual benefits such as lower prices for the reduction in services. But that’s just the American guide to shrinkflation, isn’t it? Thank being said, nobody is willing to pay more to go to a store that has cashiers if Walmart is still 5% cheaper. We did this by demanding lower prices that drove out the competion that tried to compete with their “quality”.
I hear what you’re saying, but we’re not talking about a single-mother sneaking diapers out because she needs them or a Jean Valjean-type taking bread because they’re hungry…
This is OCR (Organized Retail Theft) where a team of 3+ people coordinate with phones, distractions, and a driver, to quickly get as many high-dollar, shelf-stable items out of a store as possible to resell on Facebook marketplace/eBay/etc. It’s typically at least $1000 per store.
If you hate large organizations, you should hate the greed of criminal rings like this, because we all absolutely pay more because of it…
EDIT: I’m just talking about what the article is referring to. I’m not saying companies don’t pass the costs on to consumers, and I’m not casting moral judgement.
We’d pay more anyway, they’re just butthurt that the margins are smaller. You think the prices are going to come down if the theft stops?
As a hardcore leftist I agree with you, but as someone who works in retail and has for about 7 years, you’re really not listening.
When I first started working the sales floor I worked at a store that made roughly 60m/yr gross profit. Our shrink was at about 3.2m/yr until we installed lockboxes which got us down to about 2.4m/yr. That was in 2018/2019. I’m now at a different retailer and we didn’t have the same casual theft issue, maybe 300k/yr in shrink. Now with ORT being an issue, were up to 600k/yr in just one year at a store that makes about 35m/yr.
It’s a complicates issue that’s actively becoming a serious issue. At least once a week we get a communication about a new warehouse they found that was fencing stolen goods being raided with 300k-8m in product. This story is about a new type of crime, not about people stealing at self checkout.
Now to go slightly off topic, I think most customers are just being whiners when they complain about self checkout. Nobody complains about having to pump their own gas or dial their own number without an operator guiding their call. The real issue is the way people never saw actual benefits such as lower prices for the reduction in services. But that’s just the American guide to shrinkflation, isn’t it? Thank being said, nobody is willing to pay more to go to a store that has cashiers if Walmart is still 5% cheaper. We did this by demanding lower prices that drove out the competion that tried to compete with their “quality”.