America’s biggest retailers say organized retail crime has grown into a multibillion-dollar problem, but the effectiveness of their strategies to solve it and the validity of the data overall have come into question.
Over the last several years, companies such as Home Depot, Lowe’s, Walmart, Best Buy, Walgreens and CVS have been sounding the alarm about organized bands of thieves who ransack their stores and resell the goods on online marketplaces.
They’ve poured money into theft prevention strategies, such as plastic cases, metal detectors, motion-sensing monitors and AI-powered cameras, and have warned if the problem doesn’t improve, consumers could end up paying the price.
“Theft is an issue. It’s higher than what it’s historically been,” Walmart CEO Doug McMillon told CNBC in December. “If that’s not corrected over time, prices will be higher, and/or stores will close.”
However, the problem isn’t as clear-cut as retailers and trade groups have made it seem.
Studies from the…
2023-03-18 07:00:01
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