Debunking The Right-Wing's Shoplifting Freak-Out - All In - MSNBC

[Rhiannon12866]

Throughout 2021, the right-wing media has been relentlessly peddling a narrative about “out-of-control” retail theft. But is there any truth behind it? Aired on 12/29/2021.

[bhikkhu]

1. Theft has always been a problem, but employee theft was always the biggest thing

I worked at a department store in the 90's in LA where everyone was underpaid and struggling, and pretty much everyone was stealing from the place. The accounting term for that was "shrinkage". There was a single employee entrance that could be used, and after a few months there they had a manager more or less frisk everyone and check them for stolen shit on the way out. One guy I worked with got around that by having a friend come in and load up luggage with stuff. Then he'd sell the guy the luggage and he'd walk out the front door with it. Stuff like that was common.

The thing is that many business people think of those as the good old days. Reality is that whole chain went out of business, and it never occurred to them that maybe if they'd just paid their people a wage that let them afford food and rent it might have gone differently for them.

[Rhiannon12866]

2. Well said.

Thanks for the only sensible explanation.

[captain queeg]

3. My ex worked at a sporting goods store. They started putting electronic tags on valuable items way

back in the 80s. They instituted a lot of procedures to combat shop lifting and employee theft. She said she’d never considered stealing anything but it made her think of how it could be done. I think if an employee really wanted to steal they’d figure something out

[Rhiannon12866]

4. When I was in California, my friend and I went into a Warner Brothers store

My friend had a small daughter and bought a couple of things for her little girl. And they had those electronic tags on all the merchandise there, too. And apparently the checkout person forgot to take one of them off - so when we left the store, one of the giant sized characters flanking the entrance (Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck, I don't remember which one sounded off) started yelling at her!