How Corporations Enable Property Crime--And Use it to Fuel a Self-Serving Panic

[WhiskeyGrinder]

https://theappeal.org/corporations-property-crime-theft-shoplifting-panic/

To that effect, CVS, Walgreens, Target, and several other big retailers have spent the past few years manufacturing a particularly audacious panic, claiming hordes of shoplifters are forcing them to shutter stores. But there is little evidence that such theft has reached an unprecedented crisis: Police data suggests there has been no major increase in shoplifting, and even the stats from the National Retail Federation—a corporate advocacy arm—contradict the story. Many of the ballyhooed store closures turned out to be preplanned; the crime story seems to have been calculated to cover for mismanagement.

But retailers have plowed ahead with this narrative anyway, armed with a now nearly ubiquitous anti-theft tool that usefully doubles as a PR weapon: plexiglass. While stores have long kept small, expensive items like saffron or razors under lock and key, many of the largest retailers have started securing everything from body wash to Oreos, forcing customers to flag down employees to open cases. Retailers insist it’s the only way to curb supposedly rampant theft, even though it drives customers nuts. And that might be at least part of the point.

The encase-everything-in-plexiglass strategy is a win-win for retailers. Most importantly, it doesn’t appear to threaten their bottom line, at least according to Target’s CEO. And while it may lead to consumer frustration, retailers likely know they can leverage this outrage in favor of the tough-on-crime policies they’ve long sought. Americans have been conditioned to respond to structural problems by blaming individuals while happily ignoring the role of corporate influence and governmental retrenchment. So when news outlets fill fear-mongering segments with images of empty store shelves and locked-up products, it seems almost tailor-made to elicit a specific reaction: This wouldn’t happen if those thieves were in prison!

The campaign has already paid dividends, with several states passing laws in recent years ratcheting up punishments for shoplifters. These measures have gained traction even as research shows that harsher penalties aren’t correlated with lower rates of shoplifting—in fact, caging someone only increases their odds of recidivism.