theft

They Will Be Forced to Close If Mass Theft Does Not Stop

Organized shoplifting and mass theft are having a really Grinchy effect on Christmas. Big retail giants like Walmart have no choice except raise prices and close dangerous stores. Congress, in their infinite wisdom think they can fix the whole problem with a simple wave of their legislative magic wand. They might actually put the pros out of business but nobody is holding their breath for it. Lawmakers aren’t even going to think about stopping shoplifters. Underprivileged people of color must be allowed survival theft. They just won’t be allowed to profit from it. Well, at least, not on the internet.

Organized theft on the ‘uptick’

Retail theft is in all the headlines, even liberal ones. Many retailers, the Hill notices with deliberate understatement, are noticing an “uptick in organized retail crime.” You could say that.

Thanks to “professional-scale robberies involving multiple bad actors that can span cities or even states,” Rite Aid watched $5 million walk out the door in the last year. Target wishes they were that lucky. The little uptick in Democrat sponsored anarchy has “reduced its gross profit margin by $400 million so far in 2022 compared to 2021— a number that is likely to escalate to $600 million, according to its chief financial officer Michael Fiddelke.

You could say retail theft is a bit of a problem. You could also call it an outright “total catastrophe” but nobody official wants to go that far. Not yet. Its like when the weatherman calls 100 degrees in April, “warm.” They reserve “hot” for 118 in August.

Guess who is going to be paying for all the crime. It won’t be the shoplifters. Instead, all the honest paying customers can expect to see a corresponding “uptick” in prices. Also, customers in say Philadelphia or Los Angeles may need to travel long distances, to safer jurisdictions, for their shopping needs.

The National Retail Federation is totally freaking out over the theft numbers. Insurance companies aren’t going to reimburse the losses so consumers will have to eat the difference through higher prices, if the merchants manage to survive long enough to collect them.

A recent report from the NRF reveals that “U.S. businesses experienced a 26.5 percent increase in organized retail crime incidents in 2021, resulting in $94.5 billion in losses — up from $90.8 billion in 2020.” Nobody want’s to factor in 2022 yet because they don’t have to. Those numbers would leave consumers quivering under a blanket in their safe space.

Violence and aggression up too

Not only is all the inventory growing legs and magically walking out the door, the thieves are getting violent. Along with rampant theft, “eight in 10 stores reported that violence and aggression associated with incidents increased in the past year as well, thrusting the safety of both retail employees and customers into the spotlight.” Security is pointless when the prosecutors won’t prosecute.

That sent the message to every criminal in liberal jurisdictions that they can steal as much as they please. They simply have to break it into smaller loads to fit local rules. California, for instance, sets the limit at $950 for any one load from any one store for any one shoplifter.

Congress has the magic answer to everything. The Integrity, Notification, and Fairness in Online Retail Marketplaces for Consumers (INFORM Consumers) Act. Lawmakers will require “online platforms universally” to “verify the identity of high-volume, third-party sellers to prevent nefarious actors from operating online.

The theft will disappear instantly when online platforms start “authenticating the seller’s name, tax ID number, bank account information and contact information.

Online marketplaces will suddenly “institute an additional layer of seller transparency that could effectively kick organized retail crime rings off the internet, while still empowering honest entrepreneurs to reach new markets and customers via e-commerce.

Meanwhile, the small fry shoplifters can continue to sell their booty at the swap mart and on the black market without missing a beat. The theft will continue unabated.

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