Shoplifting and the Holidays

By pathwise, 24th Jan 2012 | Follow this author | RSS Feed | Short URL http://nut.bz/3-ilvgab/
Posted in Wikinut>News>Crime

Describing the effects of shoplifting on businesses

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While catching up on some news articles from the past week, I came across one that was detailing the amount of retail theft that occurs globally each year and I was absolutely amazed at the amount.

It is estimated that theft from shoplifting, employees, vendors, etc. amount to over $120 billion worldwide each year. That is more than some countries entire yearly GDP! I realize that theft occurs all the time, but I had no idea the amount was already so high and is continuously increasing each and every year!

To top it all off, guess when the highest time of year for theft is? The holiday season! In the 4 weeks leading up to Christmas it was estimated that over $2 billion in merchandise was stolen in the United States alone. While the majority of us are out there saving our money so that we can go and purchase gifts for our loved ones, thousands if not millions of thieves are out there looking for any opportunity they can get to steal what we work so hard to purchase.

It is believed that 1 in 11 people in the United States can be considered as repeat shoplifters and 75% of them are adults! So the people that are out there stealing know what they are doing is wrong and most of them don’t even need the things that they are stealing, but somehow justify to themselves that they have to steal.

This is not only upsetting to me because of the complete and utter lack of respect or character that all of these thieves obviously have for their fellow man, but it upsets me because when merchants lose money due to theft, guess who pays for it? The hard-working people that actually buy the products do because the costs of the products rise to make up for the losses the merchants suffer.

Merchants are doing everything they can to combat theft and it is estimated that they are spending over $10 billion annually in loss prevention methods and increased security, but obviously when theft is such a common thing for people to do, there is not much that merchants can do to stop it from occurring while still providing a warm and inviting establishment for those that actually pay for things.

I would have thought by now, especially during the holidays, that we as a society might be a little more selfless towards one another, but it appears that the growing trend in this world is all about self-fulfillment regardless of the cost to others.