Saw the double entendre from the Dick's Sporting Goods earnings call today. Seems to be a growing trend.
Seeing shampoo and laundry detergent needing to be locked down is kinda wild. Nevermind the bold organized theft that is increasingly being perpetrated as people walk out with carts of stolen goods uncontested.
Crime-battered retail giant Target said it expects to suffer as much as a $1.3 billion hit to its bottom line because of “theft and organized crime,” according to the company’s first-quarter earnings report released Wednesday.
I think some of these companies are using claims of rising theft to obfuscate poor performance. What I saw from that earnings transcript gave very little detail behind the shrinkage issue. While I don’t deny it may be on the rise, I’m not convinced it is driving poor margins as much as they would want you to believe.
I think some of these companies are using claims of rising theft to obfuscate poor performance. What I saw from that earnings transcript gave very little detail behind the shrinkage issue. While I don’t deny it may be on the rise, I’m not convinced it is driving poor margins as much as they would want you to believe.
Its probably '6 of 1, half dozen of the other.'
The prospect of operating 'Brick and Mortar' is absolutely brutal at the moment...
Rents go up, Utilities are through the roof, insurance is insane, common costs are skyrocketing....
The thing is, all of these costs and expenses are connected. The business has to raise rates, everyone else has to follow suit and round and round we go, where it stops nobody knows....
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The prospect of operating 'Brick and Mortar' is absolutely brutal at the moment...
Rents go up, Utilities are through the roof, insurance is insane, common costs are skyrocketing....
The thing is, all of these costs and expenses are connected. The business has to raise rates, everyone else has to follow suit and round and round we go, where it stops nobody knows....
And yet somehow, some way, the rich keep getting richer. Are we at an inflection/ breaking point yet?
If not it’s certainly coming. Rich can either decide to even the playing field and survive (they won’t) or entice a revolution. I think we all know what’s coming really.
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I admit it. I full on tried stealing a box of diapers from the WalMart. I didn’t want to, but I read about their profit increases and then had their self-checkout ‘helper’ give me the unsolicited spiel about Walmart credit cards, who carried on after a first polite no thank you. Didn’t go so well as she called me out on it before I was 10 feet from the til.
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No, no…I’m not sloppy, or lazy. This is a sign of the boredom.
Dicks missed on all of its targets revenue, sales, same store sales, profit. If they had just missed on profit one might argue that shrink is a factor. None of the companies are actually putting public values in their media reports on the size of shrink. When I worked retail 2% was typical. Unless we have evidence to support much larger numbers this sounds like deflecting to meet targets and terrible media outlets just accepting the claim.
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I generally only shop online, and it's for a pretty dumb reason.
When I find myself in a checkout lane (usually only hit a brick and mortar store for booze), there is often only 2 open. 1 express, 1 general. The line for both is probably 5 or 6 people deep.
Then there is the "other" line. The one with the 6 "automated" checkouts with 4 working. There is a store attendant there if you're lucky... and I have more sympathy for that human, than almost anyone else I encounter.
Because we're talking "lowest common denominator here". People who never trained up to check out or bag groceries. Machines that expect you to navigate a menu of produce PICTURES becuase some folks can't read. HTF would that possibly work if you CAN'T READ the menu??!? Elders who are lost. Kids who are button mashing. The infirm who literally can't lift the jug of water to scan it. The horozontially expansive, who can't fit in front of the machine.
A real "who's who" that shouldn't be in your way when you are trying to buy food.
We could talk about how the machines scream at you. How people drop all their stuff, and leave huge spillage. Or how the alarms go off all day at the doors because of some glitch (or open theft).
Or... we could just shop online. And pick up stuff at the door in PJs.
And yet somehow, some way, the rich keep getting richer. Are we at an inflection/ breaking point yet?
If not it’s certainly coming. Rich can either decide to even the playing field and survive (they won’t) or entice a revolution. I think we all know what’s coming really.
I've said it a million times.
"McDonald's is a Real Estate Holding company that happens to sell food."
"The Brick is a Financier of last resort that happens to back their loans with furniture."
The profit is had in owning and renting the property.
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I noticed that all the big stores like Superstore and Walmart are now closing at 10PM instead of 11PM.
I thought it was due to post-pandemic slowdown and that traffic was not worth operating that late but in the past these stores used to open 24 hours at seasonal times as they have stocking activities and other staff going on all hours of the day.
Lately I found out from multiple sources that its actually because enormous levels of retail theft have been occurring during the later hours and this is just the latest tactic to try to contain this. Shoplifting is at record highs. The previous measure was all the bars, gates, plexiglass, and even shutting of secondary entrances permanently to prevent entry and exit points for shoplifting (see Deerfoot Meadows Superstore).
From a Reddit post (and there are others on Reddit, RFD, and other social media):
Quote:
I work for Superstore. The main reason is the shoplifting and other crime that happens at night. We actually don't have a problem staffing the later hour, and we would actually make a decent profit (summer) or at least break even (winter) - except for the theft. Truly enormous amounts of theft is going on from about 8-11pm, with the worst happening from 10-11pm. We're not talking about people stealing here or there, or even desperate, hungry people. That's normal. We're talking organized rings of thieves that steal $500-$2000 a pop - and several of these a night. We're talking about thefts of all meat or clothing, vitamins, cosmetics, or expensive appliances. Some area drug dealers take stuff like that as payment in kind for drugs. There are also Facebook groups 100% devoted to selling stolen goods. And we're talking well-made forged receipts to "return" the stolen goods, usually for cash. When these shoplifters do get caught, arrested, and charged, they are usually back in our store within hours, trying to steal again.
The early closure is also for the safety of the employees. Staff have been physically assaulted, threatened with bear spray and knives - you name it. The violence is usually from the ones on meth. Staff have to deal with overdoses constantly from the ones on opioids. Over the winter is was daily, often more than once a day. In the summer it's at least a few times a week. I used to actually love my closing shifts and look forward to them. The stealing, the violence, and the ODs now make me dread them.
They tried the greeter. They tried the plexiglass barricades. They tried barricading all the closed tills so people can't easily get past. Now they're trying early closure. I truly hope they don't have to resort to closing grocery stores in the worst neighborhoods like they do in the US.
Also, the reason for the self-checkouts always having multiple ones shut down is not because they are malfunctioning, but because policies require certain numbers of staff per self-checkout till to monitor them. There is also a full time crew in a side room watching all the self checkouts on camera.
I'm not sure what has changed in our society, likely the fallout from ever-increasing rents and inflation of food and drug addictions culminating in crime, desperation, and a general atmosphere of brazen lawlessness. There is also an ever-growing spate of organized crime utilizing flash mobs organized on social media to mass raid stores.
Last edited by Hack&Lube; 08-22-2023 at 09:39 PM.
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Dicks missed on all of its targets revenue, sales, same store sales, profit. If they had just missed on profit one might argue that shrink is a factor. None of the companies are actually putting public values in their media reports on the size of shrink. When I worked retail 2% was typical. Unless we have evidence to support much larger numbers this sounds like deflecting to meet targets and terrible media outlets just accepting the claim.
Yeah deflecting is exactly right. It’s kind of an embarrassing miss for DSG, because I think that segment is still pretty hot. They’re going to need to readjust their product mix.
And yet somehow, some way, the rich keep getting richer. Are we at an inflection/ breaking point yet?
If not it’s certainly coming. Rich can either decide to even the playing field and survive (they won’t) or entice a revolution. I think we all know what’s coming really.
If only there was some sort of middle ground to help spread the wealth around between pitchforks and waiting for the powerful to voluntarily abide by the honour system.
You’d think that in the history of mankind we would have already come up with a more reasonable solution. Oh well.
Recently I was just outside a local Save-On store when two men ran out and grabbed a young woman. Two other men rushed over to help the woman. The first two identified themselves as security so the others backed off. The security guys grabbed some stolen over-the-counter meds from her purse. They let her go. I asked why and was told that there is so much shoplifting and other calls that the police won’t come.
I'm not sure what has changed in our society, likely the fallout from ever-increasing rents and inflation of food and drug addictions culminating in crime, desperation, and a general atmosphere of brazen lawlessness. There is also an ever-growing spate of organized crime utilizing flash mobs organized on social media to mass raid stores.
I've been watching with some interest the growth of shoplifting in the States. The move from a felony to a misdemeanor is a massive step in the cause of this problem. If you know you are more likely than not going to get away with the crime, a lot of people will do the crime.
Police can't get there in time, store security can't/won't (and shouldn't) risk themselves, and it's only a misdemeanor on top of that...which prosecutors won't bother with. It's being called 'de facto legal' to shoplift these days in some States. It's doing some interesting things, and driving several businesses out of business/the area.
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If only there was some sort of middle ground to help spread the wealth around between pitchforks and waiting for the powerful to voluntarily abide by the honour system.
You’d think that in the history of mankind we would have already come up with a more reasonable solution. Oh well.
What are you getting at? Which solutions? Taxes? Unions?
I actually don’t really think either will work. I’m also not against trying them though, may as well, but, they won’t work. Human nature will find a way to corrupt and concentrate power no matter what solution is thought of. Why? Because it’s human nature.
My favorite theft story is from 2014. As a pharmacy with some food we actually sold a fair amount of cheese. Not a lot, but decent. Anyways, it's early summer and we're suddenly cycle counting out (fixing inventory) lots of cheese. We thought maybe it was being received wrong or something so we started going through all kinds of invoices and choosing to sales. Nope. We figured it must be theft, but how come so much and so fast? We're talking about $500 of cheese and bacon in less than two weeks. No one eats that much! So we start watching closer and sure enough, despite the 27°C weather a couple of guys come in with old Sun Ice jackets on and we catch them shoving their coats full of cheese and bacon. We call the cops, they find the guys and the cops tell us they'll be able to tell us more later. About a month later we find out there was an illegal cheese ring supporting a bunch of pizza and donair shops in Vancouver.
An illegal cheese ring. Jesus
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My favorite theft story is from 2014. As a pharmacy with some food we actually sold a fair amount of cheese. Not a lot, but decent. Anyways, it's early summer and we're suddenly cycle counting out (fixing inventory) lots of cheese. We thought maybe it was being received wrong or something so we started going through all kinds of invoices and choosing to sales. Nope. We figured it must be theft, but how come so much and so fast? We're talking about $500 of cheese and bacon in less than two weeks. No one eats that much! So we start watching closer and sure enough, despite the 27°C weather a couple of guys come in with old Sun Ice jackets on and we catch them shoving their coats full of cheese and bacon. We call the cops, they find the guys and the cops tell us they'll be able to tell us more later. About a month later we find out there was an illegal cheese ring supporting a bunch of pizza and donair shops in Vancouver.
An illegal cheese ring. Jesus
I used to work with a guy whose mom proudly bought stolen meat from a friend of hers
And here I thought it was just a fun bit on Trailer Park Boys
Growing Retail Theft: "Dick's Shrinkage"
