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The shoplifting scare might not have been real — but its effects are (www.vox.com)

submitted 11 months ago by MicroWave to c/news

92 comments fedilink hide all child comments

It turns out shoplifting isn’t spiraling out of control, but lawmakers are pushing for tougher penalties for low-level and nonviolent crimes anyway.

Over the last couple of years, it seemed that America was experiencing a shoplifting epidemic. Videos of people brazenly stealing merchandise from retailers often went viral; chains closed some of their stores and cited a rise in theft as the primary reason; and drugstores such as CVS and Walgreens started locking up more of their inventory, including everyday items like toothpaste, soaps, and snacks. Lawmakers from both major parties called for, and in some cases even implemented, more punitive law enforcement policies aimed at bucking the apparent trend.

But evidence of a spike in shoplifting, it turns out, was mostly anecdotal. In fact, there’s little data to suggest that there’s a nationwide problem in need of an immediate response from city councils or state legislatures. Instead, what America seems to be experiencing is less of a shoplifting wave and more of a moral panic.

…

Now, those more forgiving criminal justice policies are at risk, in part because of a perceived trend that appears to have been overblown.

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[–] Ghostalmedia 52 points 11 months ago (3 children)

I worked in the HQ for one of these big American retailers. All in all, the product and customer experience teams know that customers hate this but execs keep siding with the bean counters over the customer.

If you want to stick it to them, just keep placing online pickup orders. Many places don’t have service fees for pickup, and it forces the retailer to hire employees to run around the store and parking lot.

Retail stores are not designed like an Amazon warehouse. Fulfilling an online order with your own employees is clunky and inefficient. Also, people who buy online tend to make less impulse purchases than when they’re inside of a Target or Walmart.

So, all in all, pick up orders cost the company more, make them less money, and force them to hire back the people they replaced with self checkout machines.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago

Bean counters = investors represented by the board

Rank and file accountants that often are associated with this term don't give a shit.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago

That's funny because the grocery I work for is pushing hard on online orders. They love it. The only logic I've heard so far is that online orders are a "guaranteed sale", whatever that's supposed to mean.

They literally tell us to set product aside and not put it on the shelf so we can sell it online instead. They are valuing online shoppers way over in store shoppers.