Shrinkage and employee theft cost the retail industry an approximate $42 billion a year according to recent industry studies. Businesses around the globe lose less than merchants in the United States, but the quantity lost is still a tremendous amount that put retailers in a precarious position. In the United States, the study suggest that close to half of revenue lost is due to employee theft. The retail industry is aware that while shoplifting accounts for a lot of lost revenue, employee theft can be so much more devastating for their business.
To read more about this and other topics, follow the links below.
Law column: Dealing with employee theft
Policies, record keeping can help protect employers.
There recently has been a spate of news articles regarding theft and embezzlement from Iowa cities. Former city clerks in Delhi, Garwin and Vining are all alleged to have embezzled or improperly spent hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars.
In another instance, a former city clerk in Casey was even indicted on charges of burning down City Hall to hide her alleged theft.
As the above stories revealed, an employer may not discover the crime until years after it has begun during an official audit or when someone follows a hunch or notices an irregularity. The Iowa State Auditor warned cities to “trust but verify” employees that handle money.
Public employers are not alone. One study by a national supermarket organization found that its employees were responsible for around 56 percent of supermarket thefts.
Such theft included shoplifting, taking cash from registers and/or providing unauthorized customer discounts. Theft should always be a terminable offense.
Top safety tips to prevent shoplifting
Despite the prevalence of security cameras and high-tech alarm systems, shoplifting continues to be a concern for retailers across the country, with well-versed thieves easily able to outwit these technological barriers.
For business owners this alarming trend is especially unnerving, given their reliance on stock and increasing competition from online retail sites. Rather than simply accepting theft as part of business ownership, it is important that storeowners remain vigilant, enforcing appropriate preventative measures and learning to identify some of the key signs that could give a criminal away.
Here are a few top tips to bear in mind to avoid falling victim to shoplifting:
1. Know the signs
While not all shoplifters employ the same modus operandi, a few key behavioural traits should raise the alarm. Shoppers trying not to be noticed or walking around nervously are obvious candidates, as are those who loiter purposefully, picking up and putting back the same items repeatedly.
4 Home Depot workers in Palm Coast fired after helping nab suspected shoplifter
PALM COAST — Four Home Depot employees in Palm Coast say they are shocked, saddened, and left wondering why they were fired this week after helping to recover almost $1,000 in stolen store merchandise.
Jeffrey Miller, 59, of Palm Coast said he’d been working at the store on Garden Street for 10 years when he was fired Wednesday over a November incident in which he tried to help other employees stop a suspected shoplifter.
He said his help landed an already-wanted thief in jail, but a company spokesman said the interference was against national corporate policy.
“I was really shocked,” Miller said Thursday about being fired. “I never confronted this individual. Even if I saw him in a lineup I wouldn’t be able to show you what he looked like. All I was doing is getting a license plate (number).”