Shoplifting on rise in tough times
Store clerk Summer Johnson knelt in front of a rack of leather jackets inside the Blanding Boulevard Jagmania outlet and used anti-theft tags and security chains to connect them together.
“We double-team ’em,” she said as she linked the jackets into a hanging chain gang.
To steal one of the $240 coats, a shoplifter would have to cut the chain and disable the security tag that would howl if it passed the detector by the front door.
The security measure is just one way retailers are reacting to shoplifting, a crime that has expanded from individual thieves who steal for personal use to include organized gangs that market their booty online. Sorry times in the economy also figure to attract first-time pilferers.
Earlier this year the National Retail Federation said 68 percent of retailers have identified or recovered merchandise that was being illegally sold, up from 61 percent the year before. A lot of the goods were ending up online, where thieves can maintain some anonymity.
The Retail Federation survey found stores hit by organized crime rose from 79 percent to 85 percent in a two-year period. The thievery means customers ultimately take the hit with the higher cost of some merchandise.
