Everyday and everywhere in the world shoplifting is going on. Shoplifting is one of the most common crimes committed by young offenders. When caught people assume that the only problems made are for themselves, and this is where many people aren't aware of the larger effects. Some of these effects are the cost to stores, cost to consumers, costs to the community, embarrassment to family, and loss of friends. This is an essay to look into the details of some of the effects of shoplifting. It also looks at some of the ways shoplifting can be prevented or stopped.
The Cost To Stores.
When people are stealing, a store goes under a great amount of loss. They have to pay for things like security systems and wages for security employees. As well they lose the money for everything that is stolen. If the profit margins for the store are low, they need to make up for the cost for each item stolen. Grocery stores often have profit margins of around 1%. If someone shoplifts steaks worth $7.00, the store must sell goods worth $700.00 to recover the loss. It's easy to see how shoplifting could quickly threaten the viability of a business. This can be really painful for businesses if there is a lot of shoplifting in one store. The debt will build up to the point where some stores may go bankrupt. To give you an idea of how much shoplifting is going on, in the USA more than $10 billion worth of goods are stolen from retailers each year. That's more than $25 million per day. When stores try to prevent shoplifting by installing security cameras and hiring employees that again costs them more money. It cuts back on shoplifting but in the end it really nocks off a lot of dollars from the total profit earned. .
The Cost To Consumers .
To cover the costs of security employees, equipment and losses due to theft, a store has to pass the charges on to the customer. In the USA an estimated seven cents ($.07) of every dollar a store charges (nationally) is a built in cost to cover shoplifting losses.