Retailers howled about theft last year. Why not now?
text.npr.org
text.npr.org
https://www.techdirt.com/2023/10/31/the-retail-theft-surge-t...
https://apnews.com/article/national-retail-federation-organi...
It's also may be because retailers have been closing stores in high crime areas.
The small business owners I know talk about an increase in theft. They're getting squeezed between increased costs from their supply chain (inflation), increased commercial rent (commercial real-estate bubble), lower sales, and vandalism/theft.
This is all an availability heuristic, but it looks like small businesses are getting hammered right now on all fronts when they need to be rebuilding after surviving the COVID lockdowns.
Its not just retail theft either. I'm seeing an increase in stuff going missing around neighborhoods. Things getting taken from side yards. Cars getting robbed in the middle of the night. People driving off from garage sales without paying.
Whether the numbers agree with what I see, I don't know, but it definitely feels like people are taking stuff that isn't theirs at a higher rate.
And, when it comes to theft, there are definitely signs that we are moving closer to a low-trust (zero-trust) society. That isn't desirable IMO.
My grandparents grew up in a high trust society. Until recently, they never locked their doors. Their neighbors would stop by their house and just walk in. "The door is always open" literally meant their door was always open, just come in and say hi.
Low trust societies try to think through all the ways people are going to screw you over and try to stay one step ahead. Merchandise is all behind lock-and-key. Cameras/tech track every product through the store to make sure its paid for. Etc.
On the street, a low trust society means people aren't willing to help. People aren't empowered to step in to maintain trust when things go sideways. People don't intervene when you're getting robbed. People don't stop and ask if you're okay when you're slouched against the wall on the sidewalk. People don't perform CPR because of liability.
Low trust societies suck. They're dangerous and scary.
It feels like we are losing the community structures that enable high trust societies to function. That's not really the world I want to leave to my children.
A lot of these retailers also replaced cashiers with self-checkout machines and reduced the number of staff in-store. Both of these moves seem to reflect a high trust society. I'm not sure a company could claim both "we're unable to trust the customers anymore" and "we're making it so people shop at our store without encountering a single employee".