An inconvenient truth
/
One grocery chain is fighting hard to keep stores open despite rampant shoplifting and an uptick in violence forcing many retailers to leave major cities across the country.
Giant Food, which operates 165 supermarkets in D.C., Maryland, Virginia and Delaware, has taken multiple measures to combat theft and keep stores safe, according to a report in The Washington Post. That includes limiting store entrances; hiring security guards; restricting the number of items at self-checkout stands; putting less high-value items on shelves; and securing razor blades in containers that make noise if opened.
Company president Ira Kress said he's seen theft rise at least "tenfold in the last five years" and violence increase "exponentially."
…. A consumer and retailer industry expert said that retailers will continue to leave cities as it has become difficult for them to maintain a profit with organized retail crime and theft at an all-time high.
"We’re seeing the highest level of organized retail crime and theft ever," Lakshman Lakshmanan, senior director in Alvarez & Marsal’s consumer and retail group said in the Post report.
Who in these cities is responsible for such crime? Upper East Side matrons, ganging up and raiding Tiffany’s? Orthodox Jews from Williamsburg? Chinese-Americans coming up from Mott Street? Palo Alto suburbanites zipping down to Frisco in their Teslas to smash and grab 10 boxes of Pampers and a dozen pairs of Nikes?
I think not. I don’t pretend to know the answer to black criminals, but perhaps retails should borrow a page from the best universities and colleges in this country and return to segregated facilities.
