[rant]Grocery store theft policy[/rant]

Should I call the store corporate ops out on their theft prevention policy?

  • Nah, let it go.

    Votes: 14 46.7%

  • Oh hell yeah.

    Votes: 9 30.0%

  • Mmm, you're reading too much in to this.

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Damn. Tough question.

    Votes: 2 6.7%

  • Buy cole slaw before it becomes too expensive.

    Votes: 5 16.7%

  • Don't sweat it. Hott messes become needy under stress. Just sayin' yo. Play it.

    Votes: 1 3.3%
  • Total voters
    30
Lowflynjack said:
There's a small town in Texas, not too far from College Station, called Hearne. When Wal-Mart came to town, of course a lot of small local businesses were closed. Then the story comes out that they were closing up and leaving town. There were headlines talking about the town that Wal-Mart killed twice... once when they forced the mom-and-pop shops out of business, then again when they closed up leaving everyone high and dry.

Then the real story came out. This store had some of the highest theft rates of any Wal-Mart in the country. The employees were robbing them blind. They could not make a profit at this store.
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Thanks for bringing this one up. Part of what was happening was someone would get merchandise off the shelf, then walk to customer service. A friend would be working customer service so the customer would "return" the items for cash, and they would spit the money. Since Walmart had a no receipt needed for return policy, it was easy pickings.

Also cashiers were pocketing the cash. And when the cameras came in so did the employees complaints on privacy.

Hearne was, and still is a small town. Population in the city limits is around 4500, and about 16,000 in the county.
 
I worked for Wal-Mart for 7 years in HS and college. I've got no sympathy for them in any regard. I don't recall any problems with theft at that time though. Certainly not among employees and we didn't catch many people shoplifting. One or two a week at the most. Never an employee.

A lot of memories, not many of them good. A register was short $100 one time and the store manager spent a week interviewing every cashier multiple times, practically accusing every one of them of being a thief. Even back then I was thinking what a waste of time, and he's killing morale.
 
Tarheelpilot said:
It would be nice if businesses would just close their doors in places like you describe. Let them starve.
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"Places like [he] described" means everywhere. There is no place that doesn't have theft problems. You just suggested shutting down every store in the country.
 
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Zeldman said:
Wow....I am guessing their profit must be something like ten times the loss for them to stay open.
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Extremely unlikely. If those stores could net 10M a year then competition would swoop in that is willing to only make $5M per year and eat their lunch.

Walmart doesn't publish per store numbers, for obvious reasons, but across their entire organization one can do the math and arrive at about 2M per year net income. Maybe the store in question is above that, maybe it's below that. Hard to say.
 
172andyou said:
"Places like [he] described" means everywhere. There is no place that doesn't have theft problems. You just suggested shutting down every store in the country.
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My comment was more of a rant than an actual recommendation... I thought that was rather obvious but I guess not.
 
Tarheelpilot said:
My comment was more of a rant than an actual recommendation... I thought that was rather obvious but I guess not.
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Yeah, welcome to the internet. Where, without the benefit of tone of voice, everything sounds like a serious comment. Also, your rant is pretty much how things have played out in some places, which made it sound more like a legitimate proposal. Anyway, yeah, if you were being tongue in cheek then we're on the same page.
 
172andyou said:
Yeah, welcome to the internet. Where, without the benefit of tone of voice, everything sounds like a serious comment. Also, your rant is pretty much how things have played out in some places, which made it sound more like a legitimate proposal. Anyway, yeah, if you were being tongue in cheek then we're on the same page.
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Indeed. I suck at the internet. Cheers
 
Thought about this thread today while reading the local news. Today in Wilmington, NC in the aftermath of Hurricane Florence a TV news crew happened on looting in progress at a Family Dollar store, the doors had been smashed and people were running in wearing masks and running out with trash bags full back to the housing project across the street. The police department issued a statement that they were asked not to intervene by store management.
 
This story came out s couple years ago:

https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2016-walmart-crime/

WalMart, apparently in some locations, was essentially subcontracting their store security to local PDs.

Municipalities were then declaring WM a public nuisance and fining them for each PD call.

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I can see, I suppose, the loss calculations. x is lost to shrinkage vs y lost to an employee punched in the throat ttying to stop someone at the door. But not even making an attempt o stop it just encourages that behavior.
 
lbfd101 said:
Thought about this thread today while reading the local news. Today in Wilmington, NC in the aftermath of Hurricane Florence a TV news crew happened on looting in progress at a Family Dollar store, the doors had been smashed and people were running in wearing masks and running out with trash bags full back to the housing project across the street. The police department issued a statement that they were asked not to intervene by store management.
Click to expand...
Really? I think if LE saw a felony in progress they wouldn't ask permission to make an arrest. . .guess they weren't on scene.
 
Let's just say that if the life boat is full, I have no problem clinging to the driftwood...[/QUOTE]

Unless the sharks bite your legs off!:)
 
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