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'Tis the season to steal
Shoppers walk out of stores without paying for Christmas gifts and goodies
for
themselves
By Sarah Skidmore, AP Retail Writer | AP – 6 hours ago
More than spirits are being lifted this holiday season.
During the four weeks leading up to Christmas this year, an estimated $1.8
billion in merchandise
will be shoplifted from U.S. retailers, according to The Global Retail Theft
Barometer, a survey of
retailers worldwide. That's up about 6 percent from $1.7 billion during the
same period last year.
"They shoplift for Christmas gifts, they steal for themselves, for their
family," says Joshua
Bamfield, executive director of the Centre for Retail Research and author of
the survey.
Sticky fingers are common during the holidays. The crowded stores and
harried clerks make it
easier to slip a tablet computer into a purse or stuff a sweater under a
coat undetected. But higher
joblessness and falling wages have contributed to an even bigger rise this
year. People steal
everything from necessities (think food) to luxuries they can no longer
afford (think electronics or
Gucci purse).
"It's really a question of need versus greed," says Joseph LaRocca, senior
adviser of asset
protection for the National Retail Federation trade group. "People will
rationalize what they are
stealing: 'Oh, I'm feeling the economy. I lost my job.' But it's hard to
make the argument you need
a $900 handbag."
Experts say the economy's influence is largely a cop-out. They say
shoplifters are stealing for
myriad reasons this holiday season that have nothing to do with economic
turmoil. Some do it for
a rush or thrill. For others, it's about filling a void. Still others are
trying to relieve anxiety,
boredom or depression — all emotions that are particularly common during
the holidays.
"Shoplifting is generally a crime of opportunity— and opportunities abound
at the holiday," says
Barbara Staib, a spokeswoman for the National Association for Shoplifting
Prevention, a
nonprofit that provides shoplifting prevention education programs. "The
stressors that come with
the holiday will certainly help them rationalize their need for bad behavior
."
Shoplifting is surprisingly common. An estimated one in 11 Americans
shoplift, according to the
National Association for Shoplifting Prevention. It bases its information on
academic research
and information from those who are ordered or choose to enter its counseling
programs for
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shoplifters.
About 75 percent of shoplifters are adults — equally men and women — while
kids make up about
25 percent of them. More than 70 percent of shoplifters say they did not
plan ahead to steal and
they acted spontaneously.
A report from the Justice Department and Federal Bureau of Investigation
showed that there
were 1.06 million shoplifting offenses in 2010 known to law enforcement
nationwide, up from
875,191 such offenses in 2006.
It adds up to billions of dollars in losses for retailers.
Theft of all kinds — including shop lifting, organized retail crime,
employee theft and vendor
fraud — cost retailers more than $119 billion worldwide in the 12 months
ending in June, up
nearly 7 percent from the same a year earlier. That's the biggest increase
recorded by the Global
Retail Theft Barometer since it began the survey in 2007.
In the four weeks leading up to Christmas, retailers in the U.S. are
expected to lose $5 billion in
theft and other crimes. About 36 percent of those losses come from
shoplifting. Employee theft
represents about 44 percent. Vendor theft and administrative error make up
the remainder.
Several major chains declined to discuss their efforts to thwart the growing
theft in stores by
shoppers and employees. But the National Retail Federation says big
merchants are spending
about $11.5 billion a year to fend off losses.
They're trying to improve their technology, such as surveillance methods and
tagging of
merchandise with security devices. They also are working with competitors
and law enforcement
agencies more than ever by sharing more information, such as what criminals
are taking and how
they are targeting individual merchants.
Retailers' efforts are important, prevention experts say, because theft not
only costs them, but
society as a whole. Theft drives up retailers' costs and those are often
passed on to consumers in
the form of higher prices on everything from blueberries to blouses.
"I think one of the things we have to remember is shoplifting is a crime,"
says Staib, with the
prevention group. "Shoplifting is not just an economic issue, it's a social
issue."
Shop owner Travis Maynard, who has been on both sides of the shoplifting
fence, agrees.
As a teenager running with a bad crowd, he used to steal regularly — Visine
to cover up his drug
use, condiments to finish off his sandwich and even a flowering tree as a
gift for his mother. Then
he got caught stealing a Misfits CD at age 16 and changed his ways.
Maynard, 31, now watches for shoplifters at Lime Tiger Studio, a shop in
Murfreesboro, Tenn.,
where he sells antiques, vintage clothing and other items. He says he knows
the tricks and is on
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high alert when someone is lingering too long in a certain spot.
"For someone to come in and pretend to be a patron of my business and steal,
to me it's the most
disgusting thing someone could do," Maynard says. "It's one of the highest
levels of dishonesty."
____
Sarah Skidmore reported from Portland, Ore.
Follow AP retail coverage at http://www.twitter.com/AP_Retail
Copyright © 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The
information contained in the AP News report may not be
published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without the prior written
authority of The Associated Press.
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