Posted on 03/12/2010 1:33:28 PM PST by Patriot1259
Do Walmart and other retailers support the destruction of American values through their lack of willingness to stop shoplifting? How much is their lack of enforcement costing you and me? The answer appears to be YES and it's costing us BILLIONS. Last year Walmart reported that they had lost $3 billion due to theft of products. That's just at Walmart. Most retailers reported losses in the same range for their market share. Given the poor economy I would expect this year's losses to be much higher.
How is this happening? Two reasons: 1. Once a shoplifter makes it outside, they are safe from store employees trying to detain them. 2. When was the last time they asked you for an ID when making a credit card purchase?
(Excerpt) Read more at thecypresstimes.com ...
After 20+ years in Retail and upper management, I can tell people that it is not an easy task at all to stop shoplifting and other forms of theft.
Many of these theives have this stuff down to an art. The ones that are “good” and are caught do not respond well to being stopped and many times have a crew with them. The one who do go along quietly, are not the major scoring thieves.
Compund this with the fact that many DA’s will not prosecute unless the thief has made it out the door (do to the fact that until they are out the door, they still have an opportunity to pay) and the whole thing is a huge mess.
And thats a problem at a 30K square foot store. I can not imagine what it is like at a Super Wal-Mart which is easily over 200K sqr/ft.
I best of luck to all who make the attempt.
b Cool,
Mine says C I D
Most clerks would think that's your name... LOL ... Besides that, you could sign it "Donald Duck" and they would take it anyway. Heck! I've signed different names and it still goes through. I've even just "squiggled" and it goes through, and I mean, just a "wavy line".... :-)
Sitting outside the salon waiting for my daughter, I was surprised how many times the recording went off saying, “We’re sorry. . . etc.” as people waltzed out the door with carts full of who knows what. They were rarely stopped.
That is governed only by store policy. They can refuse a signed card but they will lose a customer.
“Do Walmart and others promote declining values?”
I don’t know about the shoplifting, but they support Obamacare and amnesty and other distasteful liberal notions, so the answer is yes.
During busy times, the local Walmart has a big black guy checking receipts as customers leave the store. As opposed to a little old lady - I’m sure the choice is deliberate.
There was an article back around Christmas about an incident at a Walmart with a receipt check, and a customer objecting, and things got physical.
I believe a lot of Freepers shared the customer’s objection to being treated as a potential thief.
Not to mention the lawsuit losses to the lawyers that hang around the thieves.
As I was leaving, the siren went off, lights started blinking, and the little old lady at the door started yelling “Sir, Sir”. Frankly, I just wasn’t in the mood to prove I had actually bought what I was carrying, so I just kept on walking.
Likewise for me... I've had those lights and sirens go off too and I never stop... it never makes any difference.
Heck! One time I found out that what was making those things go off was a package that I had in a back-pack that I was carrying, which was some #2 pencils... and I was carrying it around. Everytime I would go through one of those things it would go off. When I found the package and threw it away (kept the pencils, of course...), then those things stopped going off immediately.
The funny thing is that it would go off when I was "walking in" the store, too... which is kinda weird. And so, one time when it went off when going into the store, I decided to do something about it and found the package and took it out and threw it away and went back through again, and it didn't go off.
I would say that most of the time all these alarms are always false alarms for people.
They can refuse a signed card but they will lose a customer.
Well, that might be so, but I was talking about a "non-signed card" ... :-)
They were rarely stopped.
Those things are a joke with employees... LOL... I've seen employees "wave people on" when those things go off, and they're "waving them on" from about 25 feet away... :-)
I remembered Service Merchandise many years ago. All of the items on display were in locked clear plastic cabinets. You grabbed a ticket for the particular item, go pay for it and collect it at the pickup door. I bet their theft was low. I think also they are out of business.
All of the items on display were in locked clear plastic cabinets.
LOL.... that would be some sort of store... all right.
I know what I would do in that store. I would walk in, and grab an employee and say, "Follow me around, because I'm going to have you unlocking a lot of cabinets for me, so I can look at things."
And then, I would buy a #2 pencil and leave, after about 30 minutes of them unlocking and locking. Hey! "looking around" is what a shopper can do and if the shopper wants to handle the merchandise, they should be able to.
Yeah, this article is a biiiiiig stretch. I don't like the policy, but it's probably designed to head off the tort lawyers and their profit-killing lawsuits. They're the ones the author should be whining about.
They probably had too many customers that think like me. I won’t buy non-PC video game supplies from Target because they have everything behind lock and key (including $15 PSP carrying cases) and the Best Buy 2 miles away doesn’t. That whole “must get permission” lockup thing irritates me and I don’t buy anything that has that setup unless the price and size seem to really justify it.
When I read this, I wondered why they never asked to see mine. Then little ole me realized I never use a card! LOL.
First an employee has to actually see the person take and hide the item.
Next they then have to follow that person through the store to make sure the item is still on the perp and not dropped.
They have to watch them go through the register and not pay.
At that point the perp can be confronted even before they leave the store. At this point the store's security person should be onto the perp also, through code and what ever signals the employee is trained to use.
The problem here is that the employee is risking their job if it turns out they are wrong!
My wife was a greeter at the Perry,Georgia Wal-Mart for 31/2 years and got an overdose of abusive customers and non-supportive managers. I’m glad she quit,even though having another income in the house was nice. It just wasn’t worth it.
Of course it does. If you're a thief, it makes you less likely to try to use the stolen card at a retail outlet. That's the whole point.
Me too. And if a waiter or waitress fails to ask for ID, I dock their tip.
Although lately, I get cash before going to restaurants. I don't trust them going in the back with my card. My parents recently had a bunch of charges on their card shortly after visiting some Crab Shack short of place in Fort Myers. It only got noticed by security because they were in another state using the real card at the time. Seems to be some card cloning operations going on.
Your local Walgreen's will sometimes have the darndest things locked up; usually having to to with illicit drug users and their paraphernalia, I think.
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