IT TAKES A THIEF TO MAKE YOU THINK

By Moe Lastfogel
Director of Sales and Marketing for The Retail Observer

---

Moe Lastfogel

As I was going through some of the back issues of The Retail Observer, I found an article written by Lee Boucher that touched on employee theft and the subject Lee brought up in the following excerpt of his article still amazes me: 

“This is not a pleasant subject, but customer and employee stealing is rampant throughout big and little retail stores in the U.S. ‘But, ’you say, ‘We treat our employees just like family.’ That may be true, but families steal from each other too. 
Theft costs the retail industry tens of billions of dollars each year. Maritz Research, one of the world’s largest research firms, recently surveyed retail employees and discovered that: 

• Nearly half (48percent) of retail employees surveyed have noticed customers stealing from their employers store. 
  
• Nearly one in three (29 percent) say they have witnessed other employees stealing from their employer.

I’m sure most of you are thinking ‘Well, we have safeguards against employee theft. It isn’t happening in our company, we treat our employees fairly so there’s no reason for them to steal.’ I hope you are right, but I don’t think so. Some of you might ask yourselves why there is “shrinkage” sometimes when you take inventory. Most people that steal justify it in their minds, but I’m sure they know that stealing is wrong whatever their excuse.” —Lee Boucher, RO June 2007 

As I look back over the years and the many companies I worked for, theft was never talked about. In our industry how often do appliances just walk out the door? Well, they do, and it’s unfortunate. The bottom line is protect yourself and your profit margins, get protocols in place and constantly review them to help detour this hit to your bottom line. 

Until next time,
Moe
[email protected]

---