Thievery

Thursday, September 07, 2023

Today is one off from my part-time job. The very handy person, Gustavo, will be here to finish repairing the horse fence before shifting to another project.

Yesterday, I wrote about “spider wrapping” but skipped explaining what it is, and a reader has asked. The wrap is an unbreakable and uncuttable string with an alarm. The string has a lock and secures a package. Before a spider-wrapped product can be purchased, a store employee using an unlocking device must remove the spider.

In today’s retail environments, theft is a huge issue. Some of our most iconic businesses are reporting lower sales and/or closing their brick-and-mortar stores, reporting high theft rates as a key reason. The three main categories of theft are insider theft, outsider theft, and internal mistakes in the accounting of inventories.

We who work in retail focus on potential theft and carefully avoid slippages in our “accounting activities.” Those include returning customer-tossed items to their proper places, reporting broken packages with missing or empty pieces, and staying alert to customer behavior.

I’m learning that theft is a huge driver of rising prices. Stealing by individuals seems as much about personal inclinations as ring theft is about “free money.” It’s astonishing to see tossed small packages holding two screws or bolts and costing about a dollar, broken into, and having one piece missing. Who needs to do that?

It’s about human nature, stupid, and if that’s true, the thieving part is on steroids. Our pocketbooks feel it. Businesses try fighting back by putting products under lock and key, and yes, making spider-wraps endemic. Some ideas for retail’s future suggest having all products available upon request and sliding from remote holding areas in a chute. Sounds fantastic?

Dear Friends: Product locking and spider-wrapping are costly and unpleasant. Diana