A 75 page report on retail crime and theft shows that the worse levels of retail crime and theft per person are in Pennsylvania, Washington and California.
The economic impact of retail crime is profound. Retailers face increased costs for lost product, security, and labor, which lead to higher prices for consumers and ultimately, lower sales. Lower sales translate to fewer jobs throughout the economy. The result is $125.7 billion in lost economic activity and 658,375 fewer jobs, paying almost $39.3 billion in wages and benefits to workers.
Ecommerce provides a double hit. People can shop online instead of going to a physical store. Thieves an sell stolen goods via ecommerce online.
Retail theft is not a problem just in major metropolitan areas, it is pervasive across America. In fact, one factor that is associated with lower levels of retail theft is the density of retail locations.
In 2023, San Francisco’s retail hub has been called a ghost town. Half of the stores in the downtown area have closed since 2019. In the past 18 months, 22 major retailers and hoteliers have left the downtown area.
* Target announced in September that it was closing nine stores in the New York, Portland, San Francisco, and Seattle areas because of theft and organized retail crime.
* 20 major retailers have announced 2,847 stores have closed or are set to close across the US.
* Over the past two years, Rite Aid, CVS and Walgreens have signaled plans to shutter more than 1,500 stores. Rite Aid has gone bankrupt for overprescribing opoids.
Brian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science News Blog. It covers many disruptive technology and trends including Space, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine, Anti-aging Biotechnology, and Nanotechnology.
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The purchasing power of government transfer payments has shrunk with hyper inflation. The welfare class does not enjoy the life style to which they had become accustomed. Whenever they have too much month left at the end of the money they steal. Demographics matter. In Alaska or Montana people plan ahead, hunt, or fish to make ends meet. In Pennsylvania or California people rob the quick mart.
Retail theft won’t end until retailers red line the criminal demographics. Theft is the greatest labor savings devised by man. Empires and cultures were founded on theft. Today cultures of theft are shunned, boycotted, sanctioned, and red lined.
Hi Brian,
In the report you provide, it is clearly stated that for California, the authors did not use the same methodology they used for other states; they mention that they built a “California Dummy Variable” (it is stated both in Table 4 and page 11).
They say that is to fix the fact that census tracts were not comparable, but still, it is an oddly specific way to handle data…
Regards
Sounds like more of a Covid problem than anything else. You can treat your retail theft problem like a liquor shop in the ghetto. Wall off the contents and have the customer ask for what they want. You can even automate it. Install a voice-activated terminal. The customer says what they want and pay for it. The store collects and packages the contents and delivers it to the customer.
Possibly an interesting conversation.
The bigger picture being the transition from an ordered rich society into a disordered not-so-rich one.
With the hollowing out of several city cores with hybrid work schedules, increasing ‘affordable housing’ schemes in more expensive neighborhoods thus creating a crime-ridden party slum, coddling of the homeless and underachieving with undeserved housing support and no expectations of useful productivity, dismantling car infrastructure for bike lanes and no-parking high-rises, prioritizing recycling and low-carbon policies over production and growth, etc., etc.
Retail losses are just a symptom of a greater malaise and disinterest in 80s style spectacular ‘in-person’ consumerism and work-life competitiveness -for today’s- work-life detachment, distraction, and over-sensitivity. Though I don’t forsee a Detroit-style depopulation, there will certainly be a shift to reduced ‘everything’ personal engagement. Day-trading, day-drinking, day-side-gigs, and day-gaming with night work catch-up as being the daily work routine over career advancement, skill development, and innovation.
As with slacker culture from the 90s to millenium-start, a massive demographic reckoning is at hand – and AI will not be enough to re-empower us.