It's Called LOSS-PREVENTION For A Reason...

Wal-Mart is usually the one setting whatever pace in retail that it decides. This corporate juggernaut, with stores popping up more prolifically than weeds in a nicely kept lawn is taking a page from everyone else it would seem these days... And it's got nothing to do with SALES...quite the reverse. It's about what we call "SHRINK" (not to be confused with SHREK...lol), or to put it in layman's terms: SHOPLIFTING. And it's not just the crap you can jam into your pockets...oh, no. It's about flat-screen TVs (and other similarly sized items) apparently walking out the damn doors (or rolling out in carts) of the places with little, if any intervention when the alarm sounds.
Now I don't know about YOU, but this bothers me...a lot.

Face it, gas prices are causing EVERYTHING to cost MORE. And that means inflation. Trucks, planes, and trains have to get WHAT we need (or want) to WHERE we need (or want) to get it, right? And it ain't cheap any longer, folks. So when anyone take it upon themselves to relieve any store of it's merchandise, we ALL wind up paying for those items, in some manner or another, whether it's higher prices or fewer items to choose from. It costs US (the consumer) more each year.

Having worked with loss-prevention in another lifetime, I can speak from experience that EVERY store "plans" for SOME shrinkage in inventory...it's in their budget, and that's a GIVEN. There will always be some merchandise that gets lost or damaged in transit from the distribution center to the retail outlets. And stores even allow a small percentage of shrink for outright THEFT.
That's where "we" come in.
We are tasked with performing whatever needs to be done to keep that small percentage from getting larger. And we do it with merchandise tags, embedded devices that (when not deactivated) will sound an alarm when someone leaves the building, or one of our best friends...video surveillance. In many ways, we have to think LIKE a thief to catch one....that can be fun.
And it's the best way to deal with any problem...putting yourself in the other guy's shoes.

But what is Wal-Mart doing now that they haven't in the past, you ask? They are losing MORE merchandise than in years past, and the direct cause (cited by former L/P workers) is the LACK of security, due to cutbacks in staff (and here you thought they only cutback PRICES). With last year's sales about $348 BILLION, their shrink came to around $3 BILLION (which in loss-prevention terms is actually right on track and a VERY acceptable number...about 1% of total sales). And although it keeps the "bottom line" healthy in ONE respect, it makes the cost of things rise proportionally, because shoplifting hurts everyone (mostly the consumer).Still...that IS a huge chunk o' change, is it not? And it's a contributing factor to inflation. Think of it as the retail business being the hand that fits the glove of inflation...they just go so well together (unfortunately).

Now if I were a career thief, my first choice (today) would be Wal-Mart, and with good reason, as stated above. If they're cutting back security staff, they're "ripe for the pickins". It has gotten to the point where larger items are leaving the stores in larger numbers. Perhaps it's due to a $750,000 settlement made by Wal-mart to a family who "suffered" when a member stole some merchandise and was "detained" in the parking lot (they say suffocated). Maybe Wal-Mart figures let the perp go...that $600 TV isn't worth a $750K lawsuit. Well, that (imho) doesn't send the best message to ANY thief...does it? In fact it says "Go ahead and steal from us...we're not going to chase you down and hold you for the police, because we don't want to be sued again".

Where I once worked, we had an instance where L/P waited until the perp was outside, chased him down in the parking lot and wailed the piss out of him (I'd wager he thought TWICE about coming back to STEAL). And we didn't get sued. We had another time where a woman tucked CDs under her "pregnant belly" (was a balloon), and another where some of our OWN people were tossing items into old washers and dryers slated for scrap. They were all caught and prosecuted.
The system DOES work. And not one lawsuit in the bunch.
In essence, every employee in ANY store is tasked with being a security person to some degree (if they want their business to keep from being stolen out from under them, putting everyone out of a job). Besides, how much commission can you get from anything walking out the door that ISN'T paid for, hmm?

Wal-Mart is not totally out of the loop these days...they're saying they shift L/P personnel around to fit the venue (more staff for high-crime areas...less for others), and that makes sense to me. But the fact that are letting more merchandise "walk" unpaid out the damn door does bother me. I have to shill out the higher costs, as do you. And we KNOW the costs will only rise...they ALWAYS rise. One could argue that we're not talking the "high-end" products here, and they'd be correct. But stop and think of all the people that shop Wal-mart (and similar) stores because it's ALL THEY CAN AFFORD? Again, inflation rears it's ugly head.

And as we all know by now...inflation does NOT recognize the size of one's paycheck.