I was always fascinated by the phenomena of middle and upper class people who can afford  the things they want, who felt the compulsion to shop lift. I guess it is the whole allure of the idea of getting something for nothing  while “getting over on the man” is  to blame.

by Susannah Callahan

Ten percent of Americans do it, retailers pretend it doesn’t exist and companies spend billions to stop it. And because of the retail world’s dirty little secret — shoplifting — the average American spends $423 more a year on crime-taxed products.

Last year alone, the retail industry lost $37.14 billion due to shrinkage (inventory loss), up from $33.5 billion in 2008, according to the 2010 National Retail Federation’s security survey. That amounts to about $101 million lost a day, or $4.2 million per hour. Shrinkage accounted for 1.56% of retail sales — most businesses can’t turn a profit with a shrinkage rate higher than 2%.

Still, shoplifting is still largely trivialized, viewed as a harmless, non-violent, victimless crime. Thefts go under-reported, often downgraded from a felony to a misdemeanor, and under-arrested. Most retailers remain mum about it, fearing for their reputations and bottom lines, says Rachel Shteir, author of “The Steal,” a new book about the history of shoplifting.

Twenty-seven million Americans are shoplifters, according to the National Association for Shoplifting Prevention; yet, stores only catch shoplifters one in 48 times, and inform the police only one out of every 50 caught.

It’s the only crime of which both men and women are equally guilty. Most shoplifters steal for want, not need. Razors are the most common item stolen worldwide. The Bible is one of the most widely stolen books.

Despite the incessant suck on our economy, we know very little about the phenomenon. To understand — and to properly combat it — Shteir says there must be transparency, perhaps a bit of shame. “Maybe in the future, stores will make public the details of how they deal with shoplifters, just as governments are publishing their secrets. But thus far, no Julian Assange has appeared to reveal the secrets of Bergdorf’s,” Shteir says.

Instead, “the silent epidemic grows in a medium of silence.”

Shoplifting has evolved with shopping itself. The first department stores of the 19th century were designed without security in mind — the best products placed with open, aesthetically pleasing design and multiple exits and entrances.

But by the 1960s, when “sticky fingers” and “five-finger discount” were coined, America experienced its largest ever spike in shoplifting. Incidents rose more than 150% between 1960 and 1970, with 93% more arrests.

Stores responded swiftly, adding large aisles that made it easier to spot crooks, placing the best merchandise deep inside the store and cordoning off only two or three closely manned exits. Stores hired off-duty cops, called floorwalkers, installed pinhole cameras inside the eyes of mannequins and hired detectives to sit on observation perches or hollowed out pillars.

Still, shoplifting continued to rise.

In the late ’60s, stores started adorning clothes with security tags, using radio-wave and microwave frequency. Macy’s, one of the security-tag company’s first clients, only installed tags on furs, waiting years before applying them to other departments. Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus still often don’t use sensors.

But, like any cat-and-mouse game, shoplifters adapted. Booster bags, aprons, bras, harnesses, coats, even bloomers lined with metal to deflect the security technology have become common. Shteir writes about booster pregnancies — where women stuff their underwear with goods to make it appear like a swollen belly.

Retail fraud is a far more damaging type of shoplifting, and more difficult to catch. In this scenario, a shoplifter will go to return an item in the store using an earlier receipt. Sometimes stores offer credit; others give cash.

Employees are the most common perpetrators. Of the $37.14 billion shrinkage last year, employee theft accounted for $16.2 billion, nearly half of the losses. But some experts say that it’s easier to arrest and prosecute an employee than a casual shopper, so the numbers are inflated.

Forty-six percent of retailers have increased their security budgets in 2010, according to the NRF survey. Now more advanced systems are in the works. One is a motion-sensor device that can distinguish if a customer moves like a shoplifter and alerts store employees. Another is a radio-frequency surveillance chip that can track any object from the store even to a person’s home.

The department store was invented in New York, and shoplifting, too, was honed here.

New York is among the top 10 most shoplifted cities in the country and the NYPD has a designated task force to deal with it. During Mayor Bloomberg’s tenure, petit larceny, a charge against many shoplifters, has jumped from 13,826 in 2002 to more than 35,849 in 2010. The felony threshold here for shoplifting is $1,000 — anything less is a misdemeanor. If the shoplifter is caught with a booster bag, charges are enhanced to burglary.

Still, local retailers are attractive targets for ’lifters.

[……]
The most bizarre aspect to shoplifting is the complete lack of a criminal profile.

Although long considered a female crime, men have caught up in the past 30 years. Now, both men and women shoplift in roughly equal numbers. Criminologists say that men often resell items, while women keep the items to enhance their home, families or appearance.

Income isn’t even a factor. A study titled “Who Actually Steals” says that a common shoplifter is a primary household shopper who usually has gainful employment and steals to stretch the budget.

Americans with incomes of $70,000 shoplift 30% more than those earning up to $20,000 a year, according to a study conducted by the American Journal of Psychology in 2008. “Having some money arouses desire to steal more than having little,” Shteir says. “It shows you that people steal more out of desire than need.”

In 1966, actress Hedy Lamarr was the first celebrity to stand trial for shoplifting in America, for stealing a $40 knit suit, $1 worth of greeting cards, $10 bikini underwear and an eye makeup brush at Mays Department store in Los Angeles.

Actress Winona Ryder made headlines when she was caught red-handed at Saks Fifth Avenue in Beverly Hills; former White House aide Claude Allen was arrested for return fraud at a Maryland Target; and Rudy Giuliani’s daughter, Caroline, was arrested for stealing $100 worth of beauty items at Sephora in New York last year.

Dean Martin even admitted to shoplifting in an interview with the Evening Post: “Even today . . . I steal a necktie or a pair of gloves or a pair of socks,” he said.

Age also is not a determinant. Although 40% of teens admit to shoplifting, many criminologists believe that teenagers are over-represented in studies. Among the elderly, shoplifting is the most common crime, experts say. One senior invention program in Florida, which helps the elderly navigate the legal system, said that 75% of their clients shoplifted.

[……..]

Read the rest – Klepto Nation