Shoplifting Will Account For $1.84 Billion Of Stolen Merch This Christmas

'Tis the season!

As everyone scurries about making their last-minute purchases, stores ought to be on the lookout for shoplifters. As AP reported today, shoplifting is rampant this time of year -- and is happening more in 2011 than it did in 2010.

In the month leading up to Christmas, shoppers will steal about $1.84 billion in merchandise, up from about $1.7 billion last year, according to a Global Retail Theft Barometer survey.

Shoplifting, of course, isn't unique to this time of year. According to the National Association of Shoplifting Prevention, about one in 11 Americans shoplift. But when the stores get crowded around the holidays and the pressure to buy builds, walking out without paying becomes even more common.

And the things people steal become a little more specific and holiday-related. Previously AdWeek noted that the most commonly snatched items include "luxury meat" like filet mignon, expensive liquor, fragrance like Chanel No. 5 and "designer" apparel like Ralph Lauren and Tommy Hilfiger (we're guessing less mainstream labels like Thakoon or The Row are not snatched nearly as often).

If you're going to have yourself a big steak and a spritz of $100 perfume, we suppose this would be the time to indulge. But stealing not only is wrong, it also feeds the downward spiral of the economy. For retailers, the holiday season is literally the most wonderful time of the year, when shoppers empty their pockets and get the economy churning.

Yet when millions of people take that Polo by Ralph Lauren shirt instead of paying for it, a total of $1.84 billion is lost, not gained. And that doesn't help the economy -- and by extension, shoppers -- at all.

The one upside? We can take comfort in knowing that at least Americans aren't the ones with the stickiest fingers. Even with the rise of shoplifting this year, the U.S. is still outpaced by countries like Russia, India and Thailand as the most shoplifting-crazy cities in the world.

Below, check out the cities where shoplifting is the highest. Then go shopping -- and remember to actually pay for your stuff.

Note: No one in the photos below are actually shoplifting (as far as we know)!

Comments

[JumpStreet1983]

07:58 PM on 04/11/2012

As long as there are dressing rooms, shoplifting will never go away. That's just the way it is. However, instead of raising prices and making the general public pay for it, make the stores and business absorb their own losses.

[patters85]

08:36 AM on 12/28/2011

Was that first slide the best illustration for this story? Black people always get used in this manner. Two middle aged black women leaving a store. With the caption reading "Shoplifting" I assumed that the story was showing shoplifters. But no.....just a couple of customers that "happen to be black. Really? Sell it HP! It works. I guess.

[deluk]

09:22 AM on 12/26/2011

All second or third world countries where times must be tougher than we can imagine.

[Larry Perfetti]

08:00 AM on 12/26/2011

Yep, shoplifting is wrong. But the amount pales on comparison with with 8.3 trillion dollars the banks ripped off from us during the last few years. And their masterminds give their employes bonuses. How about we wrok to stop shoplifting and economy-wrecking?

[PatrickforO]

02:46 AM on 12/26/2011

Shoplifting is highest in Valley Stream NY? That's is so bizare. I would think NYC, like Queens, or maybe LA, Pittsburg, Detroit or Chicago. I've never even heard of Valley Stream.

[Sarahrosenthal86]

02:03 PM on 12/24/2011

the worst was when i ended up in a squad car in a type 1 diabetic low blood sugar daze after walking out of cvs with a water bottle in my hands. at least he gave me some candy.
shoplifting sucks.

[patters85]

08:45 AM on 12/28/2011

Now if we could just treat corporate thievery like we treat a guy walking out of a CVS with a bottled water. Do you realize that you spent more time in the squad car than all of the bankers that crashed the economy spent in jail, combined? I see nothing wrong with our justice system. Well.........maybe just a little bias towards the wealthy. LOL!

[stape45]

10:21 AM on 12/24/2011

If businesses had to absorb their own losses, I'll bet there would be one helluva lot less shoplifting going on. Shoplifters have simply given retailers an excuse to raise their prices to cover their losses and pad their profits, all at the same time.

[patters85]

08:50 AM on 12/28/2011

Walmart Does inventory once every six months and call their losses "shrink". Then they collect insurance for the loss. Guess who actually pays for the loss. We do. What a racket!

[Wilhelmena]

09:20 AM on 12/24/2011

Shoplifting is a crime. I think it is a "white" collar crime. There is no other way to account for the amount of money stolen in merchandise each year.

[themightyabealrd]

06:05 AM on 12/24/2011

The profit margin for most retail enterprises is pretty slim-and every time some idiot steals an item, the store and the honest consumers end up paying for the loss. Shoplifting is for losers.

[patters85]

08:51 AM on 12/28/2011

Yep!

[dede4007]

01:44 AM on 12/24/2011

STEALING IS WRONG...and to those of you who do it, SHAME ON YOU. There are things that I would like to have and can't afford, but I don't STEAL them. We pay higher prices that we have to because of people who steal. And, when you say that "the store's insurance will cover it", you are being STUPID because we all end up paying more for the insurance. My daughter is a manager at a retail clothing store and regularly catches people shoplifting. Employee theft is even a BIGGER problem, and she catches employees stuffing their purses and plastic bags full of clothes to take home after hours. (of course they get fired) So, to anyone who reads this who happens to shoplift....STOP IT, and if you don't I hope you wind up in the back of a squad car.

[patters85]

09:02 AM on 12/28/2011

Shop lifting will never stop. But how we deal with it can. Companies have to be forced to do their due diligence to protect us all. Letting the insurance company take the place of store security(Walmart). Is a scam to move more product. The insurance company ends up being a huge customer but we end up financing that customer. Where's the federal trade commission or at lease congress in this scam?

[dede4007]

01:22 AM on 12/24/2011

HEY, TO THOSE OF YOU WHO STEAL.....We have to PAY for EVERY ITEM you steal. The stores charger higher prices, and keep RAISING prices to make up for those of you who STEAL STUFF. Stealing is against the law, it's also one of the ten commandments. STOP DOING IT.My daughter is the manager of a retail store, and everyday catches people shoplifting. The people who steal are of all ages, all races and are brazen about it. There is also a BIG PROBLEM with employee theft, especially in clothing stores. My daughter was continually catching employees stuffing their purses, and plastic bags with clothes, planning to take their "booty" home after hours, and they of course they got FIRED after getting caught. One question to people who steal. WHY? just plain WHY? If you say "I wanted it", that's dumb, because I want things too, that I can't afford to buy, but I don't go around STEALING from other people to get it. You say, "Well, the store has INSURANCE to cover these things". YEAH!! and we all pay higher insurance rates because of THAT TOO. IDIOTS

[jkkFL]

09:17 PM on 12/25/2011

The retail stores around here make their employees carry their personal items in a clear plastic see thru bag.
Personal purchases are wrapped and sealed and held in security until they leave.
Security monitors exits that employees use.
Employee theft? Minimized.

[Joe Stafura]

01:57 PM on 12/26/2011

Employee theft is higher than shop lifting, make a person work for minimum wage on week ends and holidays and all kind of rationalization can be achieved.

[frw55]

05:43 PM on 12/23/2011

Another downside that wasn't mentioned in this article is that all consumers pay for shoplifting with higher prices on merchandise. 1) to recover the cost of the stolen merchandise 2) theft proof packaging 3) security systems and personnel to prevent theft.

[AGrant31]

05:30 PM on 12/23/2011

Before the trolls get here... It's Obama's fault!

[DrObvious]

06:53 PM on 12/23/2011

Ha! Wonder if President Obama out of town yet - why anybody at all wants his job is beyond me. Hope gets a bit of R & R with the clan ... he's earned it. And Happy Holidays to you!

[AGrant31]

10:28 AM on 12/24/2011

Happy Holidays to you!

[ETT]

05:04 PM on 12/23/2011

And guess you winds up paying in the end, the customers! How stupid can people be.

[MissIndependentLady]

03:48 PM on 12/23/2011

I work at a retail store and when I walked into a fitting room, I heard a woman whispering to her daughter that she was going to stuff something in her purse and her daughter whispered back that she was gonna get caught because I was there. I basically stayed there until the mother and daughter left. They didn't steal anything but had I not been there, they would have tried.

[JumpStreet1983]

07:56 PM on 04/11/2012

You should have loudly responded that you overheard her statement and that she is permanently banned from entering that store location after she leaves. There would have been some awkward glances from her and her daughter after she came out the dressing room! LOL!!!!!!!!!!!