From The Richmond News - December 11, 1991
Retailers Battle Shoplifting Epidemic
By Randy Hallman
Peter Berlin interviewed thousands of shoplifters to put together a profile to help retailers know whom to look for. This is what he came up with:
The shoplifter is you and me. Your mother, or your best friend. A lawyer, or the lawyer's wife with credit cards in her purse. A kid from a rough neighborhood. A little old lady. Grandpa.
In short, there is no profile. Says Berlin: "The only distinguishing characteristic of the shoplifter is that he shoplifts." Often.
About 1.3 million such incidents were reported nationwide in 1990, according to the FBI. Berlin - executive director of Shoplifters Anonymous, based in Jericho, N.Y. - says the reported cases are just a fraction of the total. He cites a survey that indicates that more than 20 million Americans shoplifted last year.
Industry groups estimate the cost to American retailers at $50 billion. With profit margins razor thin in these perilous economic times, merchants are loath to lose even a penny.
To that end, retailers are looking for ways to halt a steady rise in shoplifting offenses. In this area, the Retail Merchants Association of Greater Richmond is observing the Christmas season with 30-second television spots warning of the life-changing misery that ensues if you arc caught pilfering.
One spot shows a handsome, college-bound high-schooler furtively pocketing a pair of sun-glasses. He's caught, and we last see him in a cell, handcuffed and in anguish, as a voice says, "Don't reach for trouble."
Different stores attract different kinds of shoplifters, and their owners resort to different methods to stymie the thieves.
At the Glass Boat Ltd., a gift shop in 6th Street Marketplace. owner John Hyatt
and
assistant manager Shannon Marjenhoff take the polite approach.
They were losing costume jewelry rings - as many as seven in one day - from
their try-one-on display. The solution? A small hand lettered sign on the display:
"Please Don't
Steal Our Rings. Thank You."
"It worked:' says Ms. Marjenhoff. "I guess it confronts people's morals. The other thing we do is try to establish eye contact and show interest in every customer. That's just good service, but if somebody's nice to you, maybe you'll give up the idea of shoplifting, if you ever had the idea in the first place."
Berlin says the Glass Boat's shoplifters are probably, like the vast majority, "non-professional" _ stealing for reasons other than to make money. The pros, on the other hand, go into a store with a plan.
That's what Ronald B. Harrison deals with at Marketsports Inc., his sporting
apparel shop
on Broad Street downtown.
"You don't think it's planned?" asks Harrison. "This time of year they're taking orders before they come in here. It's totally premeditated."
Harrison's approach to shoplifting is simple: catch and prosecute. Once he chased a shoplifter on foot. When Harrison started losing ground he stopped a passing car, hitched a ride, then got out half a block ahead of the fugitive. The thief, stunned to see Harrison up ahead and coming at him, dropped the goods and ran the other way.
Harrison didn't catch that shoplifter, but when he does catch one, he prosecutes.
Every
time.
"1 think the message is out that if you get caught in this store, you're going to court. Retailers have got to do that. Why should the police go to the trouble to make arrests if we don't back them up?"
Tim Stuart, loss-prevention manager at Sears, Roebuck and Co.'s Regency Square
store, agrees with Harrison. When Sears catches a shoplifter. it prosecutes
almost every time. The store has a staff trained to spot shoplifters, and, Stuart
says, more than 40
hidden cameras.
"We get shoplifters age 8 to 80," he says. "We might make an exception at one or the other extreme - just call parents or family members and ask the shoplifter not to come back _ you can temper judgment with mercy. But for the rest, if the evidence warrants it, we prosecute. In 99 percent of our cases, the evidence warrants it."
The threat of prosecution is effective, Berlin says, but some shoplifters are hooked.
"We hear the same story over and over again," he says, "Shoplifters don't need what they steal. They often don't ever use what they steal. Shoplifting is a response to something grief, anger, depression, anxiety.
"The act of shoplifting creates incredible tension ... and the thrill of getting away with it gives a physical high that pushes everything else aside. Later there may be guilt, and questions _ 'Am 1 crazy?' Most people will give it up, but some don't. Of those who do shoplift, 13 percent do it every single day."
Shoplifters Anonymous, Berlin said, offers psychotherapy referrals and educational materials to help shoplifting addicts face their problem. The group's number, if you need help, is (800) 848-9595.
Beats a couple of the other eventualities offered by a life of shoplifting -
trying to outrun a shopkeeper, or waiting for a lawyer to come get you out of
a jail cell.