For a while now, there have been reports of “mass mob” thefts at retail stores in urban cities and blatant stealing by individuals in the same areas. Most of us have seen videos of these online. With the mobs, a group of people rush into a store, smash windows and display cases and run off with as much as they can carry. With individuals, the videos show people shoplifting without trying to conceal their behavior at all. They casually load up a backpack or cart with goods and then walk right out the door. They are not the least bit concerned with getting caught.
Some reasons for this increase in theft include:
- Various “defund the police” efforts and the Covid inspired labor shortage have resulted in police for being undermanned.
- Some cities have publicly stated they will not prosecute or will only minimally punish shoplifters for theft under certain dollar amounts. San Francisco is a prime example where any theft under $950 is considered a misdemeanor which may not be prosecuted.
- Thieves quickly learned during mask mandates that they could use a face mask to make themselves unidentifiable, even if they are caught on camera.
- Drug users, homeless people and organized theft rings all contribute to the increased crimes.
It has been reported that some retail stores have closed in big cities due to theft. Again, San Francisco is a prime example with Walgreen’s, Nordstrom’s and others shuttering their city locations. Other stores are now locking up more goods instead of having them on accessible shelves.
I have suspicions that some of the retail stores that closed are blaming the increase in shoplifting, but the real reasons are:
- Profitability of the store is down due to work-from-home reducing foot traffic
- Some companies opened too many stores – A Walgreens, a CVS and a Starbucks aren’t needed on every corner.
- Market shifts. Nordstroms is a department store. The department store industry has been in a steady decline for at least 10 years.
Still, I predict a crack down on crime is coming.
I worked in two retail shops and one pizza shop during my early working years. We didn’t have security guards at any of them, nor did we count on the police to deter theft.
We did it ourselves.
At the computer store, we had a few computers on display stands in the front of the store. Because the salespeople were all paid on commission, we patrolled that area constantly. If someone entered the store, one of us was immediately on our feet offering them assistance and trying to make a sale. All of our stock was located in an unmarked, limited access storage room on another floor of the building that was locked and protected with an alarm. At some point, a savvy shoplifter took advantage during a busy time to walk out with a laptop that was being setup for a client to pickup. The store manager addressed this immediately by moving the “setup” area to the back of the store and moving the counters all the way up to the front, effectively eliminating all customer access beyond an empty lobby area. From that point forward, anyone wanting to see a display had to be escorted by an employee to the back.
The pizza shop was a cash business that would appear to be an easy target for theft. We ran it with 2 employees- a cook and a delivery driver. We were never robbed in the years I worked there. We used common sense. As a driver, I kept a minimal amount of cash on me, only enough for making change. Anytime I accumulated more than $50, I ran down to the basement to hide the excess cash in a container that would only be brought out after we had closed and locked up for the night and were closing out the receipts. We did the same with the register. The most a customer ever saw in the drawer was $50 in change and bills. When we counted our cash, we did it in the back, out of sight of any potential thieves. After closing, the two of us would drive together to the bank’s night drop. I suppose we could have been robbed at gunpoint by a dedicated thief, but it never happened.
One night, there was a gang of older teens chasing another teen because they wanted to beat the crap out of him. The targeted kid ran into our store asking for help. I froze. I knew the chasers – they were bad kids and looking for blood. A few of them entered and pretended to play the pinball machine and place an order while they were eyeballing the terrified kid crouching in the corner. My boss, an Italian dude from the neighborhood, grabbed a baseball bat from under the counter and went ballistic. He screamed at the chasers, “Get the f*** out of my shop. I know what you’re doing!” The chasers tried to play it off like they just wanted some food and to play pinball so he ran around the counter with the bat to chase them out of the shop and away from out front. He wanted nothing to do with the victim, telling him to “get the f*** out of here too” but the kid was terrified. Timing was on his side because a friend of mine had just come visiting before the fracas. He thought the whole thing was an adventure. So he pulled his car around the back alley and gave the kid a ride home.
The other retail place I worked was Mailboxes Etc. We had almost no merchandise on the sales floor except for some gift cards. The only thing of value were money orders, which were locked up under the counter and accessible only to one assigned person. Nobody stole from us there. There was nothing they wanted. At night, the entire store was alarmed and locked down with security grates – likely to prevent vandalism.
My guess is that many small retail business have the same approach to security that we did. Now that shopping is almost 100% cashless, they are even less attractive targets. I imagine a lot of small retail workers arm themselves – with bats, pepper spray, or guns. I know I would.
Still, I predict local government is going to eventually do something because these videos freak people out. Honest citizens don’t want to deal with this bullish**.
There will be more police hired. There will be more prosecutions with heftier sentences.
And – it will work.
When there are no consequences, criminals will take advantage. When the consequences are more dire, they will look for easier targets.
As for organized mobs, I’m not sure how that will be resolved. I can imagine it might involve organized prevention and protection. Either law enforcement will provide it, private security will provide it, organized crime will provide it or store owners will do it themselves. Or, the retailers will decide it is not worth the price and will leave.
Either way, the problems will be solved.
What I haven’t considered in this post are long term solution societal approaches including education, mentoring, job training, social connection, etc.
I believe those are all important and valid. But, even if they do get implemented effectively, we won’t see the results before the crackdown comes.