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SELECT product_code, item_sku, count(*) -- where product code is "B" blacks buy or "W" whites buy "B" both
FROM loss_to_theft
Group by product_code, item_skew
HAVING loss_date BETWEEN 01-Jan-2019 AND sysdate and count(*) > 0
ORDER BY count(*) desc
And you've written how many corporate loss prevention databases and presentation layers?
In 25 years of doing analytics, I have never seen a product database, datamart, table etc that coded products based on race of customer. In fact, outside of HR tables where they keep demographic data on employees and contractors, even in stuff like massive mobile data dumps on entire regions or nationally, race rarely pops up outside of what everyone can simply grab from the Census and other generic sources that give percentages according to zip code/county/state/etc. And in those cases, you never look for correlations in order to prevent or hamper sales, but always and forever what correlations can predict more sales, more customers, etc.
Same for customer databases, datamarts, tables. Race demographics, in my 25 years of experience, never make it into customer tables. Given that all data warehouses boil down to Customers, Products and Sales, and I have worked in the DW gig for 25 years, across 5 different industries and in global, publicly traded corporations who have to expose their data collection to auditors....if your theory on collecting race data in order to "just be mean!" to black people had any merit, someone like me would have run across it at least once in all that time, looking at all those tables and databases, etc. That maybe any of the black, Indian or Chinese developers I worked with in all those years might have noticed it and said WTF? I actually worked with a Korean girl who was a serious SJW super-lib, and in the 6 years we worked together, if such race based data collection for the purpose of discrimination was happening, I guarantee someone like her would have pounced on it like a dog on a raw steak.
So weird, that in a work lifetime of dealing with collecting, analyzing and presenting corporate sales/customer/product data to shareholders, bosses, employees, investors and customers...that I never ran across these dimensions that exist specifically for loss prevention to discriminate. Odd thing that, when everywhere I work generally gives me access to virtually all data they have that isn't "HR eyes only."
How?! We can't live in a world were every time a black person is inconvenienced or upset it's racism. As someone else mentioned ink cartridges tend to be locked up as well. So how can it be racist at all, there are no under tones.. it's just simple facts.
You're actually doing the black community a disservice. By calling EVERYTHING racism you're taking the true power away from that word, it becomes watered down.
How?! We can't live in a world were every time a black person is inconvenienced or upset it's racism. As someone else mentioned ink cartridges tend to be locked up as well. So how can it be racist at all, there are no under tones.. it's just simple facts.
I am telling you for a fact, LP databases don't have info on who, other than asking if it is an employee, just what.
What gets reported stolen the most, at which stores, etc. The only demographic about WHO that I have ever seen is IS_EMPLOYEE. Because a ton of theft at retailers is perpetrated by the employees. Ask any person who ever owned or managed a bar.
Yeah...but I got a lock on the lithium batteries...PLUS a lock on hair care products, and you don't.
Certainly I do. If for whatever reason I decide I want to buy one of those products, I have to go find a manager with a key, just as you do. (And given that you're a man, I doubt you're buying many beauty products, so how much effect is this policy really having on you?)
Quote:
Originally Posted by Indentured Servant
Its racist in EFFECT, even if not by intent.
And if the black beauty products aren't locked and the store has to raise prices on them to offset the increased loss due to shoplifting, leading to them costing more than the other beauty products, that's going to be racist in effect, too. Black women, who on average earn less than white women, now have to pay more for their beauty products than the more affluent white women do. Of I suppose we could just raise prices incrementally across the entire store's inventory (instead of just on the specific items being stolen at high rates) so black beauty products aren't being singled out - but since blacks on average earn less than whites do, that still winds up being racist in effect, as the higher prices disproportionately hurt them.
Seems to me your anger is better directed at the thieves whose actions prompted this policy, as it's their actions which have caused the whole problem in the first place.
If the store is in a 'middle to upper class white area'...NO, the products are not locked up.
It all depends on where the store is located. In general, the same products are stolen, no matter where the store is, but there is a huge difference in how the stores deal with it.
Then why are my razors locked up that I buy? Because people will steal them whether they are white, black, brown, purple or green.
There are race issues in this country no doubt. But issues like this distract from the real issues & for some people who are on the fence with how big of a problem racial issues are. They stop caring when things like this become an issue or cartoon characters with a dog being a cop is taken off the air.
People like you probably think that every white person who is against Confederate statues being taken down is racist & that's just not true. They recognize that it's a slippery slope to what's next. I.e. George Washington & Jefferson being branded as racist slave owners so we should take everything down they are responsible for. It doesn't matter of slavery was legal in the 1700's.
But keep trying to go so far with this issue instead of reaching common ground & you'll see the result.
Your statistics don't say a thing about WalMart's loss prevention data inside their own stores. If you were privvy to that data, why certain products are locked up would be quite clear.
Let me write the basic query for you:
SELECT item_sku, count(*)
FROM loss_to_theft
WHERE loss_date BETWEEN 01-Jan-2019 AND sysdate
ORDER BY count(*) desc
I guarantee you a query that looks almost identical (minus the dimension data) to the one above powers a daily/weekly/monthly report that the Loss Prevention bosses at WalMart look at on a pretty routine basis. And they probably have a break even number where the cost to lock stuff up, the maintenance of the anti-theft systems, and the possible loss of customers from negative publicity is LESS THAN the cost of what is being stolen. And I bet that rule is baked into the same report and fires some color coding or other visual indicator trigger on the report.
How do I know? Because at my last 4 employers, I have created the database for loss prevention analytics and created the reporting systems for them. One of my easier tasks really, since LP is so straightforward with its rules.
And I bet you dimes to donuts that if you run that simple query above, the black beauty products are going to be at or very near the top of the result set.
Data says no such thing. In fact, according to HR guidelines which I work within when building stuff like Loss Prevention databases, the data is about the stores and the items, not the perpetrators of theft. Loss prevention data tells a tale by SKU and count, by store, state, region, etc. You don't need to know a thing about WHO does the stealing for good LP, you simply need to know WHAT is being stolen the most.
If any product is locked up that makes you go "huh, wonder why that is locked but Item X isn't?" then I guarantee a simple query like the one I wrote would answer it with only asking item and location data, and never ever knowing anything about perpetrators. In fact, I don't recall ever putting data about the people committing theft into a database, doing ETL of that data from anywhere that such data may exist or even being told such data is even collected. Stores don't care about that for LP...just what is stolen the most, and what is the break even on locking it up versus leaving it on the shelf.
I know nothing about Walmart but can tell you about H-depot and Low*s where I have part timed, as well as been a witness to a lot of shoplifting. You are correct in your analytics for not just shoplifting but sales as well... those high end cameras I'm sure can see you f*rt. I have seen them- better than the prisons. I agree that in certain stores somethings walk more than others, but its NOT just black products.
My post is about not pin pointing to just one product because its what black consumers may use! It's about that systematic spin trying to find blame on blacks that I am against, as this thread-- By quantitative analysts, Whites steal more money in total- than blacks- their crimes total in the BILLIONS.
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