My first reaction, No kidding Dick Tracey!. This is nothing new, this has ben going on much longer than companies want to admit or companies want to do anything about. And here's why.
The company I worked for in 1978 had an in house loss prevention(lp) department. At that time they were high tech. A separate room in the back of the store , cameras facing all of the doors and all of the registers and these huge black domes hooked to the ceiling throughout. If you looked real hard you could see the camera inside and see it moving back and forth.
When an employee thought that someone was trying to steal something we would go to a phone not near the perpitrator and call security. We would describe the person, not having to worry about any type of profiling, and within seconds 2 or three lp people would be down, coming in from all angles. They would then follow them, and if they did steal they would take them away in handcuffs. Thats right handcuffs! We would cal it the Frankenstein walk of shame.
Our hands as sales associates would be clean, we went back to doing what we were hired to do. That would be selling.
I do remember one associate getting caught for stealing at this company, she claimed she was putting the money in her pocket to go get change. Yet the store was closing and she never filled out a change request form. Mmm! I don't think that is done anymore, not even when you just have to go change large bills in the back safe. OOOPS! Now everyone knows where the change is kept. You know it used to be a secret.
Now back to, why employee's steal!
First, they were never taught right from wrong, where that begins you decide! Second when they did something wrong as a child they were never punished for it, I don't mean chinese torture, I mean punished, grounded, phone taken away, maybe not sent to their room where the latest technology is, but maybe to the basement to clean it. They are a generation of no responsibility, no accountability, And who do we blame? Again, you be the judge of that.
Stores made it easy for employees to shoplift because the lack of responsibility and accountability and it falls on both parties shoulders. That's right I blame both parties.
As for the stores, they buy LP equipment, sensors, cameras etc but they do not use them. Either they are off or when they go off when your walking through no one takes the initiative to go and see why.
As far as sensors are concerned, DEAR STORES, SAVE YOURSELF THE MONEY!
Every good thief and employee knows how to pop them off, cover them or manipulate the system to get out of the store. Take the 10,000 minimum that its going to cost you in unused equipment and put it towards LP awards for employees, if they catch a shoplifter, and if they turn in an employee stealing double the reward!
Now, back to why employees steal, Because they can! Empowerment is a great thing for companies to allow, however, empowerment and just letting them do things because no one else wants to, or the managers too busy doing(what I don't know) in the back room is not empowerment.
In my day, the only one who could turn the key to do a return, adjustment or any kind of void was a manager. Now everyone can do it, hence register fraud! And what did that take, no time at all, a manager stopping hat they were doing, coming t the register with their keys, that were on their wrist(not left on the counter) and turning to void mode or return mode. If there was a void the employee had to sign and state why and so did the manager. At the end of the week, employee numbers would come up on a report that stated who had returns, adjustments, exchanges, voids and he total number of transactions and dollars worth. Over a certain percent or dollar amount, they were written up, if it continued, they were fired! That simple!
Today we do not fire, we cut hours! Which in turn causes more employee theft. Now they are mad at you for limiting their hours, now they will steal.
I could go on and on about all of the different reason why employees steal, but I have to say the main reason is because the stores allow them. Now they don't come right out and say "I'm going to hire you only if you steal from me" but they do say, here are your job responsibilities, we have a great team, you'll like it here, you get to wear our clothes. But they don't say, this is a job, you'll work hard, you'll be held responsible for you actions while working and you'll be held accountable for them too! Maybe if stores started out with that, then let them know all of the fluff, they may be better off. And oh yes, a little more than minimum wage to deal with the public is a necessity!
