Walmart and it's new shoplifting policy

[serryjw]

Never saw this posted and someone told me about it today
quote......
Wal-Mart is moving away from what it called a zero-tolerance policy on prosecuting shoplifters and will now only prosecute anyone caught taking merchandise worth $25 or more, according to a published report.

The New York Times reports the change in policy, citing internal documents from Wal-Mart that say it will now only press charges against those between the ages of 18 and 64 who take at least $25 worth of goods. Formerly its policy was to press charges against anyone who took at least $3 in goods.

snip........
The paper said that the change also will answer complaints of small-town police departments across the country who have protested the previous zero-tolerance policy. At some stores police were making up to six arrests a day, according to the report, which said some departments had to hire extra officers just to handle the Wal-Mart arrests.

end quote......

http://money.cnn.com/2006/07/13/news/companies/walmart_shoplifters/index.htm

[KingFlorez]

1. That's stupid

Well, it is Walmart we are talking about

[jobycom]

10. The stupid part was publicizing it.

[Pale Blue Dot]

11. Actually, it's not.

I've worked in retail for 20 years. The far, far greater theft risk is from employees, not customers. They are right to focus on the employee theft angle (at least from a business sense).

And that is officially the last time I will ever defend Walmart.

[1monster]

16. Yeah, right. I remember when a certain retail company came in

and bought out the retail company I worked for. The first day they were there, the had one of their Loss/Prevention people come in to talk to us.

"At (name censored), we believe that everyone is a theif. If you haven't stolen yet, then you just haven't had the opportunity." :eyes:

This company ripped off their customers worse than anything I've ever seen before or since. Most of the employees that were working at the store when they took over had been their for eight to ten years... there were only about ten of us and theft was never a big problem at the store until they took over. It was the people they brought in that got into trouble for theft.

I believe that a company reaps what it sows. If they treat everyone like a theif (and also rip off their customers and employees), they are going to have more employees steal from them than if they treated their employees with a bit more dignity...

(For the record, I never stole from them, and I would not have worked for them for slightly over a year if we hadn't been in the middle the first Bush recession with no other jobs to be had.)

[blonndee]

23. "If they treat everyone like a thief..."

that's exactly right. Even before I stopped shopping at Wal-Mart after realizing just HOW BAD they really are, I had really begun to resent being treated like a criminal, being stopped at the exit with a cart full of groceries for which I'd paid less than 30 seconds before and 80 feet away so that the door person could check my receipt. It got so that I'd get nervous leaving, even though I hadn't done anything wrong. I eventually avoided going there more and more, and finally stopped entirely when I learned about how bad all-around Wal-Mart really is.

I HATE Wal-Mart. I imagine they do have trouble with employee theft as well, given the way most of them treat their employees.

[SoCalDem]

2. So shoplifters will have to watch for the "falling prices"

get more stuff and stay under the "limit"

[Blue-Jay]

3. Sale at WalMart! Everything under $25 is FREE!

[SoCalDem]

watch for the "senior 5-finger discount" over 64? It's ALL free

just don;t taken anything you can;t carry..our carry out people are older than YOU are

[DanCa]

4. Boy their stuff is so crappy they want to give it away.

Can we officially call Wal-Mart Crap Co?

[Quantess]

22. WalMart doesn't have anything I want anyway.

They don't have anything worth shoplifting.

[pnorman]

13. " Sale at WalMart! Everything under $25 is FREE!"

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

If you don't mind, I'll 'SHOP-LIFT' that!

pnorman

[Eric J in MN]

5. Exceptions

"Wal-Mart told the paper it would closely track shoplifters it did not have arrested, and would ask that they be prosecuted after a second incident. It will also seek the prosecution of all suspected shoplifters who threaten violence or fail to produce identification, no matter how much they are trying to steal, according to the report, which said professional shoplifters often do not carry ID in order to avoid arrest."

[nevergiveup]

6. This sends a great message

to our children. You can steal as long as it is not too much. Keep it under $25 and Jesus will still love you :sarcasm:

[Demobrat]

7. Six arrests per day?

Man people are getting desperate.

[RoyGBiv]

8. Complaints of police departments ...

I'd bet my next paycheck, this is almost entirely some sort of response to small-town police departments.

I say this because of what has happened in the last several years with gasoline stations and drive-offs. Places that sold gasoline were reluctant at first to require pre-payment for gasoline, especially before pay-at-the-pump became possible, because legitimate customers tend not to like it. If the gas station across the street doesn't require it, the customer will go there. Unfortunately, this made these stations targets for those who would steal gasoline, and in order for the store to be able to claim a loss for insurance purposes, a police report had to be filed. This put a significant burden on local police, who quite frankly had more important things to do than chase down some random idiot who just stole $10 worth of gas. Is essence, the police departments were becoming a publicly funded security and investigation force for a company, usually a corporation since the larger companies were usually the worst about not forcing pay-first and filing insurance claims.

In response, city councils around the country in recent years have started passing ordinances that relieve their police force from responsibility for investigating these crimes if the stores didn't take appropriate precautions using available techniques to prevent theft, i.e. pay-first or pay-at-the-pump.

And while this isn't directly analogous to the situation with Wal-Mart, the "publicly funded security and investigation" force serving a corporation is because that's what has been happening in a lot of places. Small towns with underfunded police departments feel the burden more severely, and I would guess this might have been threatened by city councils as a hedge against new Wal-Marts coming into various towns or of finding ways to make it more expensive for those stores to stay if they didn't do something.

[serryjw]

9. You are 100% correct

according to who told me about this...NOT Walmarts choice.

[montana_hazeleyes]

20. $10 worth of gas?

Hell, nowadays they would have ran out two blocks away and got caught easily!

[RoyGBiv]

21. True ...

I got a $5 gasoline gift card for a specific station as a "bonus" for something at work and told my supervisor, "Oh, great. It'll cost me $6 in gas to get to this station so I can fill it with $5. So, basically, your "thanks" to me was to take a dollar from my income."

But small amounts are typical. Some will even hit several stations in an area, taking very small amounts in order to fill up. People stealing gasoline don't generally want to be in the gas lane too long and allow the clerks to get a good look at them. The reality is that people who do drive-offs are almost never caught, but the PR campaign and hefty punishments are still enough to make these thieves take certain precautions.

[DanCa]

12. I told you the neo con books aren't selling (nt)

[Patchuli]

14. Our crap's so cheap

we don't even care if you steal it? Within a reasonable dollar amount, of course?! :wtf:

[meisje]

15. Sweet,,, Everything under $25.00 is free!!!!!!!

[lonestarnot]

17. ewww I was just waiting for someone to give this response.

Crack me up.

[sgxnk]

18. firsthand experience

many patrol officer friends of mine have first hand experience with this stuff

fwiw, many agencies don't have to take an arrest (custodially), regardless of what walmart wants. they would have to cite the person though, if there was PC. in many jurisdictions, the discretion as to custodial arrest does not belong to the RP even if he makes a citizen arrest - which is how it should be

the logical way to handle this, which is how it is handled in some local jurisdictions, and for most major chain stores, is to train the store security to write their own reports, and the prosecutors accept them. thus, there is no need to involve the police at all, unless the shoplifting reaches felony amount

the store employee writes their own statement, and they document it on their own and forward the case to the prosecutor. all the cops do in these cases anyways is act as armed secretaries ex post facto. the entire crime is witnessed by security (not the cops), is usually on video, etc. it's a waste of resources (imo) in almost all cases to have cops respond to these cases.

for many mom and pops, the personnel are not gonna be properly trained to write their own reports for prosecutions, but in the case of walmart, fred meyer, safeway, etc. it should be a given that they are, and in many cases - they are

i have seen some stores other than walmart with a zero tolerance policy, but that's not the norm

[sgxnk]

19. to clarify

i don't have firsthand experience because i have never responded to a walmart case