SMASH & GRAB: Rampant Retail Theft Bogs Down U.S. Economy While Elites Do Nothing
They are probably laughing as BILLIONS of dollars get sucked out of the retail industry. Is anyone going to make an effort to stop this? | PLUS: Unsafe & Ineffective - new victims
Since 2020—retail theft has skyrocketed.
We’ve all seen the videos—like this one:
Last week I posted a Note on some financial numbers recently released from a well-known retail chain:
Those are jaw-dropping numbers—and Dick’s is not the only store suffering from theft.
Retailer Dollar General is expecting major financial losses in its most recent quarter, which it is attributing to retail theft.
The retailer's gross profit fell 126 basis points compared to last year, which Dollar General has attributed to "lower inventory markups and increased shrink," with shrink being a retail term to describe the loss of inventory through various means, such as theft. "Markdowns and inventory damages" were also cited as a factor in the retailer's losses.
"The shrink environment has continued to worsen," Kelly Dilts said Thursday during the company's second-quarter earnings call. "We now expect approximately $100 million of additional shrink headwind since last quarter's call."
“Shrink” is a term in the retail business that represents loss of profits due to theft, employee mistakes, etc.
The Dollar General national chain of stores serves predominantly lower income customers. The rich aren’t being affected by the DG thefts. Well, unless they own stock or the company.
All this rampant retail theft is a huge factor why the U.S. economy continues to stagnate.
This economic red flag hasn’t received enough attention—although I’m seeing an uptick in news coverage the last couple of weeks.
As the Herald reported, Retailers Association of Massachusetts President Jon Hurst estimated that local businesses are losing about $2 billion a year to “organized criminal theft activity.”
“A number of companies have reported the effect of this organized criminal theft activity on their bottom line,” Hurst added. “We’ve certainly seen more of this organized stealing, and this smash-and-grab.
“Stores have actually closed,” he said. “You can only keep a store open for so long when you’re losing money on it.”
The bigger picture is worse: a National Retail Federation survey last month showed retail loss is nearly a $100 billion problem around the country.
“Criminal gangs prey on stores, going from New York City up the coast to Boston and to Portland,” Hurst said.
“It happens all the time where stores are targeted,” he added. “It isn’t just the big chains; they also hit mom-and-pop stores, stealing jewelry, watches, designer items.”
Big box stores such as Walmart, Target and Walgreens have lost millions to theft, with store closings in cities from San Francisco to Chicago following suit. Los Angeles retailers have suffered through smash-and-grab robberies of luxury stores in broad daylight.
Pick a city or state with unabated retail theft, and you’ll find “store closing” signs going up.
So far, politicians are not taking the plague of smash and grab thievery seriously.
Stores are telling their employees to stand back and allow thefts to occur. Those workers who do try to stop a thief are routinely fired.
Smash-and-grab robberies are happening in broad daylight at stores throughout California and no one seems to be doing anything to stop them.
Two weeks back, a Nordstrom store in the west San Fernando Valley area of Los Angeles was attacked by a flash mob of 30 to 50 masked thieves.
They made off with armloads of designer merchandise valued at an estimated $60,000 to $100,000.
Online video of the robbery showed metal-and-glass display shelves sliding along the floor as the thieves dragged expensive handbags, still attached to anti-theft cables, toward the exits.
The previous week, a gang of thieves helped themselves to about $300,000 worth of goods from a Yves Saint Laurent store in a shopping mall owned by the recent candidate for LA Mayor, Rick Caruso.
And last Sunday, two robbers carrying trash bags ran into a Nike store in East LA and strolled out with shoes and other merchandise.
From store employees to police to prosecutors, the response to these smash-and-grabs seems to be, “Not much I can do about it.”
What is California Governor Gavin Newsom doing about it?
Currently, Newsom is working to turn a portion of San Quentin State Prison into a rehabilitative center that looks and feels like a college campus—complete with a coffee shop!
The Democratic governor wants to remake San Quentin, where the state performed executions, into a model for preparing people for life on the outside — a shift from the state’s decades-long focus on punishment.
Yeah, that’ll fix things.
2. 12-Year-Old Boy Dies After Collapsing During Gym Class: 'It's Not Right'
3. Julius Poppinga dead at 17: Son of Packers Super Bowl winner dies
Leave a news tip: breakthenarrative@protonmail.com
Single donations to News Detectives: https://buymeacoffee.com/MatthieuLumiere
Notice that its always ‘little nigga gang-bangers’ robbing the mall’s?? Every fucking time.
But now DHS says that Wetback Mexican Cartels are behind the MALL organized robberys
Who knew the at the little nigger kids in CALI were all puppets on a string owned by Mexican drugs lords (CIA);
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/open-border-blowback-report-warns-cartel-run-theft-rings-supercharge-americas-retail
All is BULLSHIT, certainly flooding illegals over the border, and the fact that its no longer possible to have a ‘better life ‘ in USA without stealing shit and reselling on EBAY, its just a simple fact that if your not dealing drugs or re--selling stolen shit then you ain’t going to be living the ‘american dream’