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Many stores do monthly inventories with teams who come in at night. It is likely that Kroger's knows exactly how much of each type of item is missing every month.
Why would they go to all the trouble and expense of putting certain items in a more secure situation if it was the same at all the stores?
We had the same issues when I was mid level mgmt at Southland (7-11). An audit would turn up bad and we'd have to all start weekly audits on the store until we figured out the problem. What was usually the case was shoplifting but sometimes it was a bad employee. Nothing more boring than sitting behind one way mirrored glass all night.
The stores in poor areas had way more shortages than any in good areas.
Many stores do monthly inventories with teams who come in at night. It is likely that Kroger's knows exactly how much of each type of item is missing every month.
Why would they go to all the trouble and expense of putting certain items in a more secure situation if it was the same at all the stores?
Many Big Cities now have Policies where Police do not even respond to minor complaints such as shoplifting unless it's over $900.
No prosecution, no jail time.
So these stores are on their own to prevent the loss.
It also assumes a store catches someone in the act and takes action.
Loss prevention is two- prong, detect vs prevent. Technology enables stores to detect theft. At the end of the day, the store sold more non- organic meat than it had in inventory. Yet, the organic inventory was depleted. So what’s going on? Consumers are switching sticker bar codes, especially in stores with DIY check out.
Consumers “ forget” to ring up diapers.
In absence of one on one surveillance, it’s challenging to catch a professional shoplifter in the act.
There’s a Sam’s Club in an upscale area about 20 minutes from me. They employ people to eyeball an item count and compare it to the receipt, after checking out, before leaving the store. No big deal. That was not enough. Now they audit the contents of the cart to the receipt which takes forever. That was not enough. Now they contract out shoplifters- people who have stuff in carts that do not show on receipts to detect which cashiers and door checkers are allowing inventory to walk out the door.
Originally Posted by MPowering1 The Manager wasn't even quoted or cited in any way. How is he racist?
Quote:
Originally Posted by residinghere2007
Because he/she agreed to put in the store in a majority black and lower income area. The action in an of itself implies that the population of the store itself is inferior to other shoppers so require a different "handling" in regards to the methods to prevent so-called theft.
And FWIW I bet the manager wasn't the one who made the ultimate decision, but IMO he/she should have advised against it. Something like that being put up in metro Atlanta in a black, poorer neighborhood automatically will make the news and paint them as being racist. That is the way it is in Atlanta. The manager going along with it IMO is racist by association.
That's not how it works. The Manager also wasn't the final decision maker in sinking money into that store to protect their goods. Corporations have departments to analyze what the best solution is when there are problems in a store. The Manager may have had input, but it's only his store to run, he doesn't have a budget that would allow him to make a capital expenditure like this. He has to take the suggestion of those who know more than he does.
And by the way, it's NOT racist. If theft is a problem and that's the solution - that's too damn bad. Nobody is upset and whining that electric toothbrushes and razor blades are in locked cases.
See post above. There are other options versus putting in an enclosed jail-like area. Also I don't believe they steal more at that store. Without evidence stating as such in comparison to other stores, including nearby ones in wealthier black neighborhoods (where they would never stand for something like this) then it is just heresay IMO and it is believable by most of you folks in the thread because you all just are highly likely to think poor black people are criminals. On theft in particular, I've experienced every type of person trying to commit theft and shop lifting and fraud and most of them were not poor people and are usually well off so I never believe these statements since they are generic and are just said because the populace is highly likely to believe them based on prejudice against poor and black people.
The act of shoplifting occurs for a variety of reasons including perceived necessity, peer pressure, thrill, impulse, opportunity, entitlement, drugs and more.
Where it occurs and what is being lifted matters.
Under the TMI banner:
My father ( KKK member ) was a habitual shoplifter, scammer and con man. He was the guy with the coat with special inside deep pockets who always wore a hat. A trip to the grocery store usually resulted in Oreos, a bag of candy and meat stashed somewhere on his person. We hit Walgreens for OTC medications.
He would take my sister and I out to eat with some frequency and rarely did he pay for the meal. He did however always leave a big tip. Our summers were full of road trips, usually hitting race tracks and lakes. We stayed at road side motels with swimming pools. Our normal was to depart before sunrise and the bill. Obviously this was before the credit card became common currency.
Remember trips to a distant KMARTs, where he wheeled a cart full of crap right out the door without paying.
He always had some fool woman on the side who he conned until he moved onto his next victim. Don’t get me started on the slip/ fall personal injury claims.
Why did he do what he did? He was what we now call a gambling addict. Stealing, scamming, conning was all about opportunity and the thrill of getting away with it. He was never caught in the act. My sister and I would obsess over the “ what if’s” and as we got older we chose to no longer accompany him, anywhere.
The man was a Racist with a capital “R” who hated nearly everyone, who was different. There were all sorts of food products we were not allowed to eat because well, you know who made the product.
Anyway, shoplifting is an equal opportunity thing. The person walking out the door with a $500 purse at Nordstrom’s looks and behaves like she belongs in the store.
The warden is the racist manager who never even commented on the issue.
Yep. Everything is racist. Instead of getting mad at the dopes who caused this - they're going to be mad at the people who had to fix the problem. Brilliant.
I can see why nothing is fixed in certain neighborhoods. People ignore the bad behavior and criticize everyone else.
If it's so terrible, the prisoners can abandon that prison and shop elsewhere - just like the thieves will.
Yep. Everything is racist. Instead of getting mad at the dopes who caused this - they're going to be mad at the people who had to fix the problem. Brilliant.
I can see why nothing is fixed in certain neighborhoods. People ignore the bad behavior and criticize everyone else.
If it's so terrible, the prisoners can abandon that prison and shop elsewhere - just like the thieves will.
At the risk of getting involved (oh boy) I have to say that the notion of us poor urban darkies (you can take the kid out of the ghetto but can't take the ghetto out of the kid) not being upset the stores are run this way because of the savagery is absurd...which was proposed up thread. I mean, unless you too are one of the savages and not just there to buy toothpaste like I was.
I never walked around my local store (which resembled the DMZ on the Korean peninsula) and thought to myself
"Damn, they're treating us like criminals for no reason!"
No, I knew damn well why the place was structured as such long before my 25 years in loss prevention/private security and later owner of a consulting firm.
^ Like how I stuck that in there?
I didn't want to shop like that but knew it had to be done when you're walking through the aisles observing the bad behavior firsthand.
And it's complex, we're all adults. We know this.
Insurance costs, altering business models, tax breaks, etc are all factored in when a grocer decides to stay in the hood because on the other hand that location has to show a profit worthy of continued commitment to the area. I saw this firsthand when I got older and in the loss prevention business.
The grocers aren't saints in the fact that they are money makers first and foremost. That's what they do. They aren't put on this earth to be benevolent ghetto-savers. They aren't holding KKK meetings in produce after the store closes though either.
I mean, damn. Let's not go overboard.
Based on my experience (being the ghetto kid not the experience of later owning my consulting firm) I give credit overall to the grocers. Eventually my hood turned into a food desert but it took a lot to get chased out of there. A few held out to outright shots fired in the store to actual homicides. Ain't that good enough?
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