[OldMissileer]

But the ease with which stolen goods can be sold on the Internet has meant a bigger role for organized crime rings, which also engage in receipt fraud, fake price tagging and gift card schemes, the police and security experts say.

My daughter makes some of her college money working at a Victoria's Secret store.

There is a gang of Hispanics who travel the north-south corridor from Florida to NY who steal thousands of dollars worth of VS stuff.

My daughter's store got hit by them not too long ago and they stole over two grand in underwear.

Between the under-manning to save money and the lax policies on shoplifting, no wonder VS stuff is so expensive.

[informavoracious]

...no wonder VS stuff is so expensive

I KNEW it wasn't because of the large swaths of fabric required in the manufacture of Victoria's Secret undies!

[Oatka]

Between the under-manning to save money . . .

There's the rub. The managements' short-sighted "save via payroll cuts" comes back to bite them time and again. There have been numerous times in various stores where my wife and I have walked out because there wasn't a clerk in sight. We've even paged them and no one showed. Despite all the cameras and "stiff enforcement" the stores brag about, the shoplifters still have a field day.

On one occasion when I worked nights at Wally-World, the maintenance guy found 72 (that's right) empty CD and DVD cases in the men's washroom. Now you know the guy had to make multiple trips to do that, but no one would have known that they were even missing until inventory time.

Another time the State Police returned TWO plasma TVs that some perps had stolen (no door greeters at night). The theft was only discovered when they were stopped by the cops in Utah. Those two tales are symptomatic