Posted on 08/01/2005 4:28:48 AM PDT by nuconvert
Retail Gangs: A New Breed of Thieves
By Margaret Webb Pressler,/Washington Post Staff Writer
Sun Jul 31,2005
At CVS, the diabetic test strips and the perfume are now behind locked glass cabinets, with a bell to ring for service. Nearly all over-the-counter medicines are behind plexiglass panels that customers must reach over to get their Advil or Pepcid. And most razors and refills are in clunky, noise-making dispensers that won't let you put back what you take out.
The new displays are part of a larger effort by chain stores to combat what has become a significant problem for the retail industry: organized theft. Retailers say rings of habitual shoplifters are proliferating nationwide, but particularly in urban areas such as Washington, where retailers and malls are packed close together and there is easy access to highways.
"We're seeing an incredible amount of activity from organized retail theft gangs from the New York area all the way down into Richmond," said Robert Wade, vice president of loss prevention for Hecht's.
Losses from organized retail theft have topped $30 billion annually, triple what they were a decade ago, according to the National Retail Federation, leading to higher prices, frequent out-of-stock problems and a more cumbersome shopping experience for consumers.
Companies are spending millions of dollars on security systems to tackle the shoplifting rings, from software that tracks patterns of theft regionally, to complicated fixtures that prevent the removal of multiple packages at one time. Retailers are increasingly using racks that lock for a period of time after one unit is taken, cabinets that beep if they're open too long, and hangers that lock to a jacket or suit. Some of the nation's biggest retailers, including Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Target Corp., Lowe's Cos. and Limited Brands Inc., have formed organized crime divisions
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Once again, the actions of criminals affect us all. You have to travel awhile to find a place where you can get gas without prepay or credit/debit...even in daylight. We are all presumed to be thieves due to the scum of society.
Too bad they can't lock onto the perp's jacket and hold him 'til police arrive!
But then again...maybe it doesn't matter if the police arrive:
"I'm going after a guy right now that's been arrested 56 times," Walgreen's Biggs said. "I've got to put together a case that can show this isn't your typical little shoplifter."
The day after making that statement, Biggs called back to say he had just arrested the same shoplifter for the 57th time.
URBAN? You mean this is mostly and URBAN phenomenon?
Hhmmmmmm.........
Gee, could it be because 40 years of judicial activism actually increased criminal activity?
It costs about $45,000 a year to keep someone in prison, roughly equal to the tuition at an Ivy League school.
Your right but do college kids get cable?
When she move to Kansas, my step-daughter complained that in Virginia "feminine supplies" had anti-theft devices in them. I explained, "That's becauser people are stealing these products. duh!"
Yo, Winthrop got shanked in my advanced semiotics seminar by one of those deconstructionists. It's on. Be out on the quad after crew.
It's not just in the market chain. It's also in the work area where one works.
I had a real nice coat stolen from the work place coat rack. Then I caught a woman wearing my light cpo coat that she had taken off the coat rack without permission. It was just pure luck that I caught her. There after I locked my coat to the coat rack with a bicycle chain lock. Other employees laughed at me until those that laughed had theirs stolen as well.
I think in all, about six or seven real good coats where stolen in about as many weeks.
The work place didn't do anything about the thefts, the lockers were too small to put a coat in and you had to leave your coat on the coat rack as they weren't allowed in the work area.
My local grocery loses between $20,000-25,000 per month to shoplifters.
I wonder what the numbers would be for a Super Walmart?
Don't forget the judicial system that either doesn't punish or simply slaps on the wrist. In addition, the criminal in America is given food stamps (or credit cards), medical care, housing and subsidized programs for a range of services. Only in America do we underwrite the lives of the criminals that destroy us internally.
Buy a garment lock. They've been standard for furs for years...
Forget the system!!!Off record hire someone to beat the thief senseless....maybe break his legs.... burn any possessions...A great advertisement to other scumbags as well.
I remember in Korea the Turks never had any theft from any of their supply stations. Reason? They impaled a farmer caught stealing and left him to rot on a pole for all the locals to see. Horrible?....Yes...But it worked wonders.
I wonder if the self-checckout lines are adding to the problem.
PG county is VERY heavily Democratic going somthing like 80+% for Kerry. Wonder if there's a correlation?
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