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The top 9 shoplifted items
Retail theft rising, with more middle-class shoplifters, study finds.
It’s no surprise that, in this economy, shoplifting is up. Worldwide, retail theft grew 5.9% last year, accounting for about $208 per family.
A new Global Retail Theft Barometer study, produced by the Centre For Retail Research, found that the greatest increase in retail theft came in North America, where the rate grew 8.1%. (The highest rate of theft was in India.) The study’s authors attributed the increase in theft to the recession and also to stores cutting their security budgets. The survey covered July 2008 to June 2009.
Bruce Crumley, writing for Time magazine from Paris, talks about “one of the more surprising findings: A growing number of new shoplifters are outwardly reputable, middle-class people who are walking off with French cheeses, quality meats, cosmetics, mobile phones, clothing and other goodies that they feel they need to maintain a quality of life they can no longer afford.”
Crumley quoted Joshua Bamfield, director of the Centre for Retail Research, who said that organized criminals account for the biggest segment of shoplifters, but that retailers are seeing more middle-class thieves, too, some of whom believe they’re completely justified in stealing during the recession, even if they’re not stealing necessities. Several publications have written about the rise of middle-class shoplifting in Britain, but we didn't see any comparable reporting about middle-class theft in the United States.
- Bing: Shoplifting in America
"Though most thieves rationalize their acts, the current situation has many people feeling the entire system is broken, that politicians are too corrupt or inept to fix it, and that there's nothing wrong with stealing from these big companies and fancy stores that -- the thinking goes -- are themselves making out like thieves," Bamfield told Time. "There's a real perception among many new shoplifters that if you work hard, put money away and play the game, you're asking for someone to come along and rip you off."
And what were people stealing, you might ask?
Seth Figerman of Main Street has done a round-up of the most shoplifted items of 2009:
- Razor blades and shaving products.
- Cosmetics, especially face creams and perfumes.
- Wii and other gaming systems.
- Alcohol.
- Meat.
- Satellite navigation, or GPS, systems.
- Brand-name clothes, purses and accessories.
- Infant formula. Some stores lock up powdered formula, which is not only sold on the black market at a higher price but used to cut drugs. Who knew?
- Watches.
So there’s the list of the goods most prized (or at least the most purloined) by thieves. Any surprises? We can’t think of any situation, beyond total destitution, that would justify shoplifting, but are we just hopelessly old-fashioned?
Related reading:
I suggest that you all read this book:
Seductions of Crime by Jack Katz (UCLA Sociologist)
Chapter 2: Sneaky Thrills.
Shoplifting is not necesarily a utilitarian crime... Middle-class shoplifters are not recently stealing. It's much deeper than a simple recession...
Good reading!
<It is against Visa/Mastercard merchant rules for a business to request another form of identification when a customer pays with their card.>
It's not against the rules but they can't refuse to process the charge if you refuse the provide the additional identification.
I had an accounting professor who told me about the pro shop employee who switched rocks for bowling balls, and my own father fell on his rear-end lifting what he thought was a heavy case of wine, but what turned out to be empty bottles only.
This is old news.
Another item that people steal is food - for example, they would drink a can of soda at the store and put the empty can on different shelf, or they open a package of food (muffins, etc.) and steal one or two (probably ate right in the store) and left the other on the shelf. This is very sickening.
I have seen mothers with children went into the store, the mother would pick up a bunch of bananas, tore one apart and told her kid to eat the banana. Same thing with grapes/apples. Remember we pay for these items by weigth, not by count. So of course, whatever the children ate, those are not paid for. I don't care how hungry the children are, they can wait until the mothers are done with shopping and pay for everything. This is stealing - people.
This is for fear of being sued buy the customer for falsely being accused. When I was in college I worked in a grocery store and saw people steal so much and if you catch them in the act then you can apprehend them but only when store personnel catch them
This was 20 years ago too
I'm undergoing a dental update program including a complete root and teeth cleaning accompanied by a dental tooth bleaching. Basically, running a multi-thousand bill at this juncture. At the drugstore this week I decided to expedite the process of the bleaching and to get additional gel, since my introductory prescription is near end. I tiptoed into the Toothpaste aisle for this gel and found it priced from $7 to $43 per package. They also displayed mouthwash with whitening properties priced about $7 a bottle. More or less what I expected actually. The shock though was that the mouthwash was under lock-and-key and behind a glass partition with the $40 gel packages. I mentioned to the pharmacist assistant that the mouthwash was locked up. He just grinned.
So when they inventory the dental products, I bet the on hand will represent an amount they expect.
Saving money -- you can do it
Strategies for saving more and spending less. Here's how to build a rich nest egg one paycheck at a time.
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