Shoplifting policies at grocery stores vary, and in this day and age when loss and shrinkage accounts for losses in the billions of dollars, grocery stores are doing whatever they can to prevent shoplifting.
Giant stores do have a shoplifting policy, but they will not disclose it to the public. Employees of Giant disclose that they are not told to pursue shoplifters at the store. Stores vary in terms of how much additional security they use to counter shoplifting, and most of them are mum about how much security you are actually exposed to when shopping at their stores.
This article talks about shoplifting policies generally and should not be construed as legal advice. If you have been caught shoplifting, you should consider contacting a local attorney.
What is Giant grocery stores’ shoplifting policy?
Many employees report that they are told not to pursue shoplifters, since the company wants to make sure its employees are safe and they don’t want to make any false accusations of shoplifting.
This doesn’t mean that a person who has been observed shoplifting will not be arrested by law enforcement or detained by store personnel.
In some cases, if you are caught shoplifting you will be asked to return the items and sign a statement.
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Will Giant arrest you for shoplifting?
Some shoppers have reported that when they were detained for shoplifting at Giant they were detained and asked to sign a statement and return the goods.
In some cases, the company has said they will contact the shoplifter for further instructions after the fact, but a great deal of time passes before any further contact is made (if at all).
Other shoppers have reported that they were followed out of the store after shoplifting, but no further action was taken at that time.
In many cases, the police are not involved, though more and more stores are seeking increased law enforcement to prevent shoplifting.
Do grocery store employees pursue shoplifters?
It depends on the policy of the store. In most cases, grocery store employees would need to be sure a theft had occurred before they would pursue a shoplifter.
In addition, grocery stores want to protect their employees from any incidents that might happen when pursuing shoplifters.
No one wants their employees, customers, or the shoplifters getting hurt. This could also subject the store to liability.
Do grocery stores keep track of shoplifters?
It is likely that if you shoplift, your image has been caught by security cameras. It is difficult to tell how many cameras a store has (many of them may not be visible), and security footage can last forever.
Using facial recognition software, a grocery store can keep a record of each time you enter the store and your activities.
In some cases, a store may flag you if you enter the store again. The penalty might differ–you may be asked to leave, or your membership may be revoked. In some cases, law enforcement will be contacted.
If the store gets enough footage of you, they may turn it over to law enforcement and press charges against you, using the video footage as evidence of multiple episodes of shoplifting.
Can grocery stores post pictures of shoplifters?
Yes–and they do. If you shoplift but don’t get caught by law enforcement, don’t expect that you won’t see your picture on social media and get accused of theft.
In this day and age when security cameras capture everything and anything that can be posted on the internet, stores are using social media to track down thieves–or to put other retailers on notice that a person may be a thief.
Some local papers are also posting pictures of shoplifters on their online pages, hoping that community members can identify thieves and possibly provide information to law enforcement.
Some stores even get the word out in old school fashion, posting pictures of shoplifters in the store along with a record of what the person stole. For some stores, this acts as a deterrent to would-be shoplifters.
Will they track you down for shoplifting?
It really depends on the store’s policy and the evidence. But they can track you down if they want to. It is possible that if a store doesn’t catch you one time, they are keeping the evidence to establish a pattern.
Keep in mind that a store can press charges at any time within the statute of limitations for shoplifting, which varies depending on where you live.
If you were caught shoplifting and returned the items, you still may get notices from attorneys in the future. If you think you need legal advice for shoplifting, make sure to contact an attorney.
Is shoplifting a problem?
Some large retailers report that shoplifting losses can be in the hundreds of millions of dollars year over year.
By some estimates, shrinkage accounts for losses of around 1.4% of the amounts of purchases in a given year. This amounts to an overall problem of around $94.5 BILLION of shrinkage a year. For some companies, the losses are in the 2-3% per year range.
Not all of this is due to shoplifting. It is estimated that around ⅔ of this number is actually due to other factors such as employee theft or other inventory losses.
Keep in mind that grocery stores operate on very low margins, so for every item that is stolen, the store will have to make up the cost of the item somehow–often by raising prices.
Is shoplifting getting worse?
There has been a lot of press in recent years about shoplifting becoming a debilitating problem, with retail stores threatening that if something isn’t done about the problem, they will have to raise prices or close stores.
Shoplifting has been a problem ever since shoppers have been able to select their own products from shelves in retail stores, though some factors cause shoplifting to increase in certain years.
Currently, shoplifting has become attractive because goods can easily be resold online at high prices due to inflation and supply chain disruptions.
In addition, staffing shortages at stores mean that it is harder to detect and prosecute shoplifters.
In addition, the use of self-checkout machines adds significantly to the occurrence of shoplifting. In some cases, shrinkage occurs whether the customer intends to steal the merchandise or not.
What is the most common item stolen from grocery stores?
Meat
Meat and seafood tend to be the most common items stolen because there is a good market for them and they can be easily repackaged so that they can’t be identified as stolen goods.
In addition, butcher items tend to be expensive, prompting some thieves to pay for cheaper goods while stealing meat.
This can be especially common at stores that have self-checkout lines.
Cosmetics
The second most common item stolen is makeup and other cosmetics. Cosmetics are fairly easy to resell online, and their small size but high prices make them easy to steal for a profit.
Alcohol
Like with cosmetics, the small sizes of alcohol bottles make them fairly easy to steal, and the high prices make each theft more profitable. Alcohol is also stolen for personal use.
Conclusion
Many retailers nowadays use more sophisticated surveillance such as multiple security cameras and loss prevention agents in order to prevent shoplifting.
Gone are the days when store employees and security guards chased down shoplifters in the parking lot.
Generally, this is to protect the safety of the customers and employees of the stores.
That being said, stores can still confront a customer about shoplifting and can contact law enforcement or press charges against a customer who is caught shoplifting.
Giant stores also release store security footage to news outlets and social media outlets in order to try to identify and follow shoplifters and to put other stores on notice.
References
https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/18/business/retail-shoplifting-shrink-walgreens/index.html