Mar 30, 2008

The Cost of ShopliftingBy Toni WhittTelegram.com

Sarasota, Fla.— Retail theft used to get little attention — and retailers were just fine with that.

Little press meant that potential thieves could not figure out how to steal from them and that the public would not learn that most of the theft was done internally, or that theft is widespread throughout the industry.

But Dan Doyle has spent the past few years talking about it with everyone who would listen: other retailers, law enforcement and even the public.

As a spokesman in the retail loss prevention industry and the former chairman of the National Retail Federation’s Loss Prevention Advisory Council, he has brought the issue to the forefront and helped change attitudes that retail theft is a petty crime and that teenagers who shoplift are the typical perpetrators.

“There was this fear that the media would uncover our dirty little secrets,” said Doyle, the vice president of loss prevention and human resources for Bealls Inc. of Bradenton, Fla. “But now we want the public to know about it, because they’re paying for it. They pay $400 to $600 a year more for merchandise because of retail theft.”

The extra money is not just the cost of markups to cover the losses, but also the cost of insurance, electronic tags and in-store cameras. “All of that stuff comes at a price,” Doyle said. “We want the public to be angry about it.”

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