According to a new survey published by Business.org, 89% of small business owners identified as the victims of shoplifting during 2021.
Most of the small business owners polled for the survey are dealing with shoplifters focused on smaller-value items preference for smaller-value items that can be easily concealed on the way to the exit, such as food and drink, clothing and cosmetics, although the survey found small business owners were also being robbed of money and electronics. One-quarter of the survey”™s respondents said they have dealt customers with stolen credit cards and 21% had customers doing double-duty by steal distracting cashiers with a legitimate purchase while simultaneously stealing items.
What can businesses do to protect themselves from shoplifters? Tim Phelan, president of the Connecticut Retail Merchants Associations, believed the first thing to do is change the terminology related to the crime.
“We in the retail industry no longer refer to it as simply shoplifting,” Phelan explained. “Shoplifting has a connotation in which somebody just comes in, opens up their coats, gets a CD in it and walks out. That may still be happening, but what’s more prevalent in retail ”” and has been a trend that’s been taking place for at least the last 10 years or so ”” is what we refer to as organized retail crime. It’s two or more people working in conjunction to steal merchandise from retailers, and that has been the biggest concern that the industry faces.”
Phelan noted the wave of smash-and-grab crimes that impacted Los Angeles and San Francisco last fall, with organized mobs ransacking upscale store, as the most extreme examples of these organized crime rings.
“Something similar to that that took place in Oxford during the holiday season at a grocery store,” Phelan said, referring to a November inncident involving four people robbing a supermarket by wheeling out carts full of purloined groceries.
The Business.org survey also noted that only slightly more than half of the small businesses victimized by these crimes file a police report. Phelan insisted that percentage should be much higher.
“We want to make sure we have good lines of communication with local law enforcement,” he said. “There was a time in retail in which retailers expected that there was going to be a certain amount of shoplifting, but we’re way beyond that now. With these organized retail groups, we have to take everything as seriously as possible.”
Detective Anthony Vaspasiano of the Fairfield Police Department”™s Criminal Investigation, stated that law enforcement has a better chance of apprehending those involved in retail larceny by having the most in-depth reporting of the suspects.
“What’s helpful for us is being a good witness attention to detail,” he said. “A description of what they were wearing, did they flee in a vehicle ”” the more information we have, the better because, obviously, we’re getting there most of the time after the fact.”
Vaspasiano advocated for businesses to install the most up-to-date cameras and surveillance systems both inside and outside of a business.
“We don’t run into a lot of places that don’t have it these days, but a lot of places can benefit from an upgrade,” he said.
Vaspasiano expressed surprise that the California-style of retail crime hasn”™t taken root in this region, although he recalled a burglary during the midst of the Covid pandemic when five people broke into a pharmacy and ran off with merchandise, adding that more crimes of that nature could occur in the near future.
“I think it’s probably coming,” he warned. “One of the reasons I think it’ll happen is because now that everybody has masks on, it makes it extremely difficult to identify these suspects. And that kind of flash mob mentality is overwhelming to these businesses. I think that’s what’s giving these people power to get away with these sorts of actions.”
