American retailers are fleeing Democrat-controlled cities after their woke, pro-criminal policies caused the corporations to lose significant sums of revenue due to skyrocketing crime.
But admittedly at least part of retailers’ losses nationwide can’t be attributed to Democrats’ failed policies.
And now Walmart and other retailers are scrambling to solve one self-inflicted problem that could sink their companies.
Over $112 billion in “shrink” recorded by retailers in 2022
Over the past few years, a growing trend of “flash mob shoplifting” has been spreading in Democrat-controlled cities across the U.S.
Roving bands of criminals show up at retail stores and overwhelm the staff.
When the groups are finished looting, the stores are left looking destroyed.
This retail theft mob happened at a Nordstrom in California today. Because of broken state laws, these crimes are considered “non-serious” and “non-violent” and nobody will go to state prison, even if caught and convicted. State laws need to be fixed and YES, many people need to… pic.twitter.com/nESaJSxj4p
— Jeff Reisig (@jeffreisig) August 13, 2023
In 2023, the National Retail Federation released a survey highlighting the total “shrink” experienced in the previous year.
The survey estimated that figures for stolen goods reached $112 billion.
But the shrinkage isn’t just caused by shoplifting mobs as approximately $40 billion, or 36% of the reported theft, was committed by shoplifting.
Another $32 billion can be attributed to employee theft.
And $30 billion due to simple mistakes made during the self-checkout process.
Now retail giants are fumbling to reverse the trend.
Self-checkout has led to “deliberate” and “accidental” theft
Walmart, Kroger, Dollar General, Target, and Costco have all announced new plans to deal with shrinkage at stores across the country.
Their goal is to reevaluate the impact of self-checkout.
Kiosks have been taking over checkout lanes at Walmart and others for the past few years.
Now, Walmart is reversing course by removing self-checkout lanes entirely at multiple locations.
“We’ve decided to remove self-checkout lanes and replace them with staffed lanes at selection locations,” a Walmart representative told the Daily Mail.
Research firm GlobalData has been studying the impact, and can provide valuable insight on the changes coming to your favorite retailers.
The managing director of the firm, Neil Saunders, says that theft isn’t just high because of “deliberate actions” but also due to “accidental mistakes.”
Saunders added that, “Forcing more customers to use manned checkouts resolves a lot of these issues and saves retailers money.”
But Target is taking a different approach.
Target further automates self-checkout while others pull back
Target is beginning a plan to roll out new self-checkout surveillance systems at all their stores in the United States.
The new system, TruScan, uses an array of sensors and cameras to keep an eye on customers in the self-checkout lane and alert staff of concerns.
The Daily Mail reported that the system, “Is different to simply having CCTV cameras trained on the area. . . it is thought to use computers powered by artificial intelligence to monitor shoppers.”
Target says that by the end of 2024, all locations will have TruScan.
Dollar General, Kroger, and Costco are following Walmart’s lead and reintegrating people into the checkout process.
Dollar General has removed self-checkout at 300 locations and plans to add manned checkout as a second option at the remaining 9,000 stores.
Kroger and Costco are simply beefing up the number of employees that are present in the self-checkout areas in their store.
US Political Daily will keep you updated on any developments to this ongoing story.
