Some Leeway for the Small Shoplifter

The New York Times ^ | 7/13/2006 | Michael Barbaro

[Ptaz]

Wal-Mart refuses to carry smutty magazines. It will not sell compact discs with obscene lyrics. And when it catches customers shoplifting — even a pair of socks or a pack of cigarettes — it prosecutes them.

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Paul Sakuma/Associated Press Customers outside a Wal-Mart store in Mountain View, Calif. But now, in a rare display of limited permissiveness, Wal-Mart is letting thieves off the hook — at least in cases involving $25 or less.

[Ptaz]

I think it's time to dump all my stock in this company. They've lost their minds. I realize it costs resources to prosecute the small shoplifter, but if you let people get away with stealing the small stuff, what do they go after next?

[theDentist]

If I steal something worth $25.50, will they still drop the charges? It's only .50 more...? How about $26? That's only a buck more... If $26 is acceptable, how about $30?

[E. Pluribus Unum]

I think it's time to dump all my stock in this company.

The Walmart stock runup plateaued a long time ago. Retailer stocks have all been flat, except for Kmart right after the issuance of the new stock. I owned the old Kmart stock, until it zeroed out.

[television is just wrong]

LOL, so if I just keep making visits and five finger discounting items less than $25.00, I will never be prosecuted, LOL, so funny, I'll have to remember that. I can save even more at Walmart......

[KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle]

Wal-Mart said the change would allow it to focus on theft by professional shoplifters and its own employees, who together steal the bulk of merchandise from the chain every year

Ouch.

[Izzy Dunne]

Weird.

My first reaction is: The NYT is announcing Wal-Mart's policy in order to promote petty theft from their stores.

Am I a cynic, or what?

[Red Badger]

Thou shalt not steal (more than $25)............

[ShadowDancer]

Frankly, I don't know why anyone would want to bother stealing anything from there. They should be giving stuff away free for just having to endure the putrid smell of stale popcorn and cheap clothes that assaults you as you walk in the door.

[Red Badger]

I doubt many of the petty theft crowd reads the NYT WYTs..........or can read for that matter......

[Izzy Dunne]

if I just keep making visits and five finger discounting items less than $25.00, I will never be prosecuted

You must have missed this part:

Wal-Mart said it would closely track shoplifters it did not have arrested, and would ask that they be prosecuted after a second incident.

[CindyDawg]

I wish they had this policy when my kids were growing up. I had a little one that put stuff in my purse. I always checked my bag at the register. I feared getting arrested over candy or cookies. Can you imagine having to explain that?

[Red Badger]

At least it doesn't smell as bad as Albertson's (dead fish)........

[rwilson99]

Absolutely stupid.

It's not the $3 pair of socks... it's the 20 other items the person will likely steal (somewhere else) that make prosecution worth it.

[guitar4jesus]

"LOL, so if I just keep making visits and five finger discounting items less than $25.00, I will never be prosecuted, LOL, so funny, I'll have to remember that. I can save even more at Walmart......"

Yep, they're really rolling 'em back now!

[Izzy Dunne]

I doubt many of the petty theft crowd reads the NYT

Well, maybe. But that doesn't discount the possibility that NYT ran the piece just to encourage theft.

Or maybe I'm a tad cynical.

[Mr Ramsbotham]

J. P. Suarez, who is in charge of asset protection at Wal-Mart, said it was no longer efficient to prosecute petty shoplifters. “If I have somebody being paid $12 an hour processing a $5 theft, I have just lost money,” he said. “I have also lost the time to catch somebody stealing $100 or an organized group stealing $3,000.”

I thought the idea was to deter shoplifters, not recover money.

[JimRed]

The NYT has to hate Wal-Mart as much as most of the left does, so naturally they'll try to hurt it!

[ShadowDancer]

I used to go to Albertson's in Clearwater all the time growing up but don't remember that smell. Of course after ten straight hours on the beach I probably smelled of that a little myself.

[theDentist]

Well, I gues WalMart is just providing Get Out of Jail Free cards.

[Peach]

Then prices at Wal-Mart will go up because stealing of smaller, less expensive items will go up.