I was talking with a retailer yesterday who caught a shopper with $60 worth of stolen stock in their bag. The shopper knocked their bag as they were exiting the store and stolen items spilled onto the floor. The shopper was a long term ‘friend’ of the business.
While it could be considered intrusive by shoppers, right now, in the middle of Christmas, would be the time to check shopper bags on exit. Even doing this just at your busiest times could be well worth it.
The excuse we are hearing from retailers in our area when the catch thiefs is that they cry they are doing it hard and wanted to get xmas presents for their family and that they have “never” stolen before, what a load of garbage they may have not been caught before but once a theif always a thief. If it is in your nature to take what is not yours then no excuses will change that. Courts and the police take a soft approach to shop lifting so there are no real concequences but it is killing small business as it is getting out of control.
Retailers work harder now then ever just to make ends meet and if you steal you are taking food out of my families mouths.
To retialers stay on the ball, your gut feeling is usually right and regular customers are just as likely to steal as the blow ins and to customers reading this and thinking I am being hard hearted take a look at the amount of businesses closing down and families losing their lifes work because theft is the final nail in the coffin.
We lost a beautiful mahogany jewel box ($200) last week and we know we lose
stock regularly but it is hard to control
and harder to catch them.
Here in SA there are no more plastic bags
and these green “environmental” bags are
just a boon to thieves.
Instead of grieving over the loss I just put
up the prices of goods to cover the loss.
It is the only way.