Free Republic

“They want systemic lawlessness. They want high retail theft,“ says Seneca Scott, founder of Neighbors Together Oakland. It’s ”managed decline from eviction moratoriums, managed decline from defunding police, managed decline from $950 you can steal from stores, not being able to catch people.” “Mega billionaires are giving money to defend the police movements. The same individuals are the largest investors in AI autonomous security,” Mr. Scott said. He has been documenting how Oakland, California became, as he describes it, an “urban hellscape.” Once a progressive Democrat and labor organizer who represented thousands of union workers in California, he says woke...

San Francisco stores have quietly disabled self-checkout recently, indicating a trend in “defensive retailing” that may soon spread across the city. While innovative measures to prevent theft at Bay Area retailers have been well documented this year, the changes to self-checkout are a more recent development. The Safeway at 1335 Webster St. in the Fillmore District closed down its self-checkout area a few months ago, an employee confirmed to SFGATE. Target on San Francisco’s Mission Street also has closed its self-checkout kiosks, rotating the screens backward to make them unusable to customers, SFGATE confirmed. While Safeway and Target did not...

Retailers across New York state say there’s no end in sight to the rising epidemic of organized shoplifting rings — and warn it could lead to more store closures, increased costs for consumers and threats of violence against store employees. Store owners said they lost $4.4 billion last year as a result of retail theft — which they say adds to the urgency for Gov. Kathy Hochul to crack down. However, Hochul vetoed a bipartisan bill last week — to the chagrin of store owners — that would have created a task force to combat organized theft. ... The Retail...

Rite Aid said it will close 150 of its 2,100 US locations after filing for bankruptcy.. CVS is set to close the doors on 900 of its stores by the end of 2024.. Walgreens will shutter 150 stores by summer 2024 - leaving millions in 'pharmacy deserts' . The nation's largest drugstore chains, Rite Aid, CVS and Walgreens, will shutter more than 1,500 stores, leaving millions of Americans without access to healthcare in 'pharmacy deserts.' Rite Aid said it will close 150 of its 2,100 US locations after they filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy earlier this month. The pharmacy chain...

Over the weekend I spent a good part of one day helping a friend do some work in his garage. At one point we realized we needed a small adapter for his socket set and a few other small items so we made a run to the hardware store. Until recently there had been an Ace hardware just a couple miles from his house but earlier this year that store closed. Usually, stores don’t announce why they are closing but my friend said he believed they were having problems with retail theft. We wound up driving a couple extra miles...

AOC told the Washington Times that “a lot of these allegations of organized retail theft are not actually panning out.” “I believe it’s a Walgreens in California cited it, but the data didn’t back it up,” she said. Now, she says this in the face of numerous videos and reports of smash and grabs in Democratic cities across the country, in particular a spurt of such criminal actions in California. So, it’s fantasy to deny them. Republican lawmakers and retailers blasted AOC for denying the obvious.

A large group of teenagers raided a Home Depot in Lakewood Friday night, according to the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department. At approximately 7:55 p.m., a group of about 18 teenagers were approached by Home Depot employees at the tool section of the store located on 5000 Hardwick St. They were all escorted to the front door, when they took all types of merchandise, police said. The thieves fled in about 10 vehicles and drove away in different directions....

Liberal socialist utopias such as California are a blessing for deadbeat klepto hobos from around the world thanks to the state's lack of prosecution of shoplifting, but the same policies are becoming a major headache for nationwide retailers such as Best Buy which this morning reported that despite beating on the top and bottom line (revenues of $11.9 billion vs expectations of $11.7BN, EPS of $2.08, beating est of $1.96), its margins missed, echoing the same margin crunch theme that emerged recently with big box retailers such as Walmart.Gross margin fell 0.1% to 23.5%, Best Buy said, missing the 23.6%...

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Several high-end stores in San Francisco's Union Square were broken into late Friday by a large group of people who smashed windows, stole merchandise, and then ran to waiting cars, police said. Louis Vuitton, Fendi, Yves Saint Laurent, Burberry, and Dolce & Gabbana were all targeted, KTVU-TV reported.... ...One of the suspects was dragged from a waiting car by several police officers, a video of the chaotic scene posted on social media shows. [video links in article]

The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that four to five million Americans work in retail, with an average salary of about $27,000 per year. As careers go, retail isn't one of the most lucrative, and while there are many reasons for that, shoplifting is one of the biggest. Like any industry, salary is a calculation of other business costs and business revenue. A store buys inventory and display cases; pays rent and utilities; pays for print ads and commercials; and sells as much as it can, pricing the goods as high as the market will bear. Whether the store managers...

<p>High-profile shoplifting cases like Winona Ryder's Beverly Hills shopping spree last year and local cases of security guard assaults on suspected shoplifters give the impression that retail theft is an outside job.</p> <p>But a recent survey shows retailers lose more inventory from insiders -- employees -- than they do from shoplifters.</p>