For retailers, shoplifting may have always been a concern, but the challenge also is growing disproportionately and to potentially unsustainable levels. In New York City, reports of retail thefts have increased by a whopping 77 percent in the most recent year of statistics. Target executives released a projection that its stores would lose approximately $1 billion due to retail shrink in 2023, $500 million of which it attributed to retail crime. Many small retailers beset by theft have been forced to close their stores, but so have major retailers, including REI, Whole Foods, Starbucks, and Walmart, in cities with high retail crime rates.

Thus, the threats to retailers are clear and evident. But retail firms are not the only ones harmed by rising rates of shoplifting and organized retail crime. Both shoppers and store employees suffer too, in ways that are more difficult to quantify but still represent meaningful and troubling detriments.

For retail employees, the risks linked to shoplifting run the gamut, from discomfort to real threats to their safety. Various retailers implement different rules for their employees, such that some employees feel responsible for preventing theft, whereas others are discouraged from doing so. Requiring untrained employees to prevent theft can clearly put them at risk, especially in the face of organized crime rings that are potentially armed. But asking them not to intervene can be similarly problematic: In one well-publicized case, a Lowe’s employee was fired (though later rehired) for trying to stop a group from stealing items, and being assaulted in the process.

Even if they do not suffer physical harms, the stress of encountering frequent shoplifting can be demoralizing and exhausting for retail employees. Research indicates that when retailers tell their employees not to intervene, those employees feel helpless and targeted by criminals. They also express less pride in their work, seemingly due to their sense that they cannot perform effectively if products are just being stolen from under their noses.

A potential solution would be to train employees in how to monitor stores more closely or make their presence obvious, to discourage attempts at shoplifting. But such a solution feeds into another problem created by retail theft, namely, a shopping experience that is uncomfortable, unpleasant, and less enjoyable for customers. If retailers ask employees to follow shoppers around the store as they browse, those customers may feel unfairly judged and surveilled, which cannot create a pleasant retail experience for them. Rather, it communicates a sense that the retailer expects them to steal, which is uncomfortable and aversive.

If retailers instead or also adopt tactics like locking expensive or frequently stolen items behind counters or in display cases, they similarly undermine shoppers’ enjoyment. Especially if they are purchasing personal care items, such as condoms, pimple cream, or feminine hygiene items, customers dislike the requirement that they ask shopkeepers to unlock a case to access the products. In such scenarios, consumers are less like to linger in the store, make impulse purchases, or even complete their shopping lists. A person can only expose so many personal needs to a random checkout clerk, so many times, before the experience gets so embarrassing that they simply leave the store.

As a form of crime, shoplifting also has effects on societal levels of well-being. A National Retail Federation survey recently indicated that 53 percent of consumers perceive that, in the past several years, looting, shoplifting, and other retail-linked crimes have increased in their communities. Such perceptions are not good for individual citizens (whether consumers or employees), retailers, or society as a whole.

Discussion Questions

1. Do you have any innovative ideas for combating retail theft of shoplifting?
2. What macroenvironmental influences might explain the rising frequency of retail crime?

Sources: Pamela Paul, “What We Lose to Shoplifting,” The New York Times, August 10, 2023; Melissa Repko, “Target Expects Organized Retail Crime-Fueled Losses to Jump by $500 Million This Year,” CNBC, May 17, 2023; Nathaniel Meyersohn, “The Real Reason Stores Such as Walmart and Starbucks Are Closing in Big Cities,” CNN, May 13, 2023; The City of New York, “Combating Retail Theft in New York City,” March 2023, https://www.nyc.gov/assets/home/downloads/pdf/office-of-the-mayor/2023/combating-retail-theft-report-may-17-2023.pdf; National Retail Foundation, “Exclusive: NRF Survey Shows Majority of Consumers Believe Retail Crime Has Increased,” June 1, 2023, https://nrf.com/media-center/press-releases/exclusive-nrf-survey-shows-majority-consumers-believe-retail-crime-has