Secret Shoppers – Doing the Right Thing

It would have been so easy to not do anything. We were out of the main doors already – and the item was not expensive. It would have been so easy to just leave and then be pleased that we had got a way with it. The perfectly innocent shop lifted item.

We were in a Gigantic Wal-Mart shopping for the last minute Christmas items. It was hot and we had taken our winter coats off and placed them in the shopping cart. This pealing down didn’t happen right away as we entered the store – but within 20 minutes of our arrival. We had by that time picked up several items and placed them in the cart.

We shopped for about an hour and half. The store is at least the size of two – maybe three football fields inside. You can barely see the far wall of the store as it is so far away. It is really big!

Upon leaving we did the “self checkout” thing. This made shopping almost fun – I got to play the part of Mr. Wal-Mart Cashier. As I did the machine talked to me telling me what to do next then thanked me for shopping at Wal-Mart.

As we left the checkout aisles and started out the door we started putting on our winter coats. There below my coat was a Christmas Gift for our Granddaughter Emma. It was not in the bag of purchases, but rather lying bare, unchecked out in the shopping cart. After the hour and a half it had been completely forgotten.

The distance of placing it in the already paid for things was less than six inches. The distance of returning to the checkout and waiting in line for another free self checkout cash register or the regular line – was long and more time was needed.

I picked up the small item and returned to the cash check out area and lined up again. I paid for the item at the self check out with the machine thanking me for shopping at Wal-Mart.

I walked out carrying the new paid for item with no bag needed.

As I have thought about this small event since – no one would have known the difference as I would have gone home with the unpaid for item. No one would have ever witnessed the short trip from the shopping cart bottom to the already bagged and paid for goods. And with all the stuff that Wal-Mart has in its store – a $14.86 dollar item would never be missed! But it would be wrong.

In an article posted from Britain the following statement is made…
“Christmas losses are equivalent to a tax upon spending of £12.60 per person in the UK (or £31.40 per family) and €11.86 per head in Western Europe. Ireland tops the league for the costs of Christmas shoplifting (per head), followed by Holland, Sweden and the UK. We are fourth.

The 'credit crunch' or recession will have an effect, but will only increase theft by between 4%-9%. Important, but let's not exaggerate the impact!

Financial problems may make more people prepared carry out 'a bit of shoplifting' themselves or buy stolen goods.

55.4% of shoplifters are males, but females stole an average of £94.48 compared to the male average of £82.28.

We expect retailers and the police to catch 99,000 shoplifters this Christmas, two-thirds of them will be under 30 years.”

Stores in Canada call stealing the “Five Fingered Discount”. In 2006 in Canada they estimated that Shoplifting in Canada would cost stores $1 Billion in losses. And at Christmas it ramps up because the shoplifters can be “lost” or “hide” in a crowded store.

In one of the articles (links below) Dave Jones is quoted…
“Dave Jones, crime prevention director for the Downtown Vancouver Business Improvement Association, said there's no typical shoplifter profile at any time of year. Some are young, some are old, some work by themselves and some are more organized and work in groups.

Jones said one Vancouver store recently dealt with a shoplifting team of two women in their 60s.

"One of them engaged a store staff member in a long story about her daughter while the other one was robbing them blind," he said.

London Drugs loss prevention general manager Tony Hunt said he has dealt with shoplifters as young as four years old and as old as 85 during his 20-year career. The four-year-old tried to steal some hockey trading cards, while the 85-year-old tried to walk out of the store with about $1,000 worth of products covered up in a shopping cart.”

Imagine an old guy covering up something in his shopping cart with is coat! Can you imagine!!!???

I can.

I shudder when I see the stats and the facts that are now known. Each shoplifter thinks he or she is alone – they are the only one that does this and Wal-Mart doesn’t need the stuff.

At a recent craft sale in a ritzy Seniors Home I was told by another Crafter that Old People steal. They advise me on watching my table closely. Oddly enough I went back and checked my craft items on the table. Reports like this make me paranoid about selling.

I wonder how Wal-Mart feels?

But then there is the other side… Suppose that I had just slipped the item in the bag and then went home. Suppose that I just wrapped it up and placed it under the tree. Suppose that when Christmas morning came along – and Emma unwrapped the gift with such glee…she would then wear the item with such pride(which I know she is going to…). Suppose that I watched her every time she showed someone what Grandpa and Grandma gave her for Christmas…

Do you suppose that I might feel a whole lot of guilt from then on? I don’t suppose it – I know it!

The difference between a “Five Fingered Discounter” and the “Normal Shopper” is a secret that they live with. Each person has one. One is good and has a warmth about it. The other is the exact opposite.

I know one thing – when Emma opens the simple Christmas gift this year – I have a story to tell her about it. Grandpa cares too much for her to do something so silly.

Maybe that is the answer to shoplifting… “Caring is enough to change the world.”

~ Murray Lincoln ~

Sources:
Shoplifting Info
http://www.retailresearch.org/crime_and_fraud/shoplifting_for_xmas.php
http://www.canada.com/topics/finance/story.html?id=894647ad-83e3-4319-985e-2e12ae85cda1&k=9610

That Hat
(Click here to hear jill: "that hat " (MP3, 3:32) )

Department store windows

cashmere and corduroy

aluminum snowflakes on strings

We move to the next one

and there is the hat you want

mechanical angels all sing

Let there be peace on earth

and let it begin with me

I wish that I could buy that hat

if only I had the means

The next day I come back

alone just to take a look

the more that I look I get sad

But still I ride up

to apparels-accessories

thinking of you in that hat

Blessed be the poor like me

who never has asked for much

I’m only thinking of the joy

I’ll bring to the one I love

Right there before me

in black felt and velveteen

I feel my heart start to pound

The store clerk ignores me

for more well-dressed customers

the moment that she turns around

Hark I hear the angels sing

nobody has to know

I take the hat under my coat

and pray for my journey home

I made it home.

(From… http://new.music.yahoo.com/blogs/jill_sobule/440/shoplifting-on-christmasa-song-and-parable/ )