Editor:
Shoplifting is not something new to retail stores owners. Usually it is done clandestinely, from time to time, and is treated as a small income loss.
However, since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic crisis, which roughly started over three years ago, shoplifting in different stores in our city, but particularly targeting Walgreens stores, has become rampant.
Shamelessly, these occurrences have been executed in daylight, for several years, mostly, but not only, by homeless folks, while employees and customers alike were watching helplessly how the store's merchandise was stolen repeatedly from the shelves, quickly being stuffed in the shoplifters' bags, jackets, baskets or carts.
Those preyed-upon stores became a haven for opportunists who have become brazen in their actions, ignoring the employees' verbal admonitions. In fact, this was all the employees could do – they were not permitted, by city laws, to stop the stealing by using any physical force to oust the thieves from their workplace.
Employees who have spoken with me, told me that dialing 9-1-1 for help, in most cases proved futile. By the time a policeman showed up, the thieves were gone.
Some stores hired security guards for protection, believing that their presence will scare off intruders. Unfortunately, the security service couldn't stop the agonizing situation because security guards, by law, are not allowed to physically interfere with criminal acts. Using security services also added a financial burden for employers.
If no creative solutions will be enacted soon to curtail this growing trend of bold, open shoplifting in our essential stores, more owners will be forced to close their businesses, realizing that, paradoxically, the shoplifters have gotten the upper hand, as if they own their stores.
Nachshon Lustig
No comments:
Post a Comment