Lawmakers expressed outrage Monday over the shoplifting crisis that’s killing local businesses — including by calling for the return of 1990s-style law enforcement in the wake of complaints from nearly 4,000 grocers.
“It’s utterly ridiculous that a small subset of career criminals make up 30% of shoplifting arrests in 2022,” said City Councilman Robert Holden (D-Queens), citing alarming statistics that the NYPD revealed last week that 327 career crooks were busted a total of about 6,600 times.
“We can’t have this revolving door of criminality in our state — it’s time to dust off the successful tactics from the ’90s in New York City, which actually worked to reduce crime.”
Councilwoman Julie Menin (D-Manhattan), who chairs the Small Business Committee, also said she’s planning a joint hearing with the Public Safety Committee because “we urgently need solutions to address this issue.”
On Sunday, The Post exclusively reported that a new coalition of grocers was demanding a rollback of the state’s controversial, 2019 bail reform law to target “repeat theft offenders” and a new law so prosecutors can combine cases to charge a serial shoplifter with felony grand larceny instead of multiple misdemeanors.
The Collective Action to Protect our Stores group also wants retail workers covered by the same law that makes it a felony to assault cops, MTA workers and livery drivers. --->READ MORE HERE
A nationwide shoplifting epidemic is crippling the finances of brick-and-mortar retailers, which warn that they may be forced to raise prices or even shutter stores in order to offset tens of billions of dollars in lost inventory.
The National Retail Foundation is estimating that it lost $94.5 billion last year due to “shrink” — an industry term that means lost inventory — which is being blamed primarily on shoplifting, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Shrink measures losses including theft by employees and product damage, but the greatest portion of shrink — 37% — came from external theft, including products taken during organized shoplifting heists, the trade group said.
It also noted retailers, on average, saw a 26.5% surge in organized theft incidents last year.
The $94.5 billion sum represents around 1.4% of retail revenue in 2021, according to the NRF, whose data shows significant year-over-year increases in “shrink” that accelerated during the coronavirus pandemic.
Between 2014 and 2019, shrink rose at a compound annual rate of around 7% year-over-year, according to the NRF. In 2020, shrink surged by 47%. The next year, it increased by another 4%.
Retailers told the NRF in surveys that staffing shortages exacerbated by the COVID pandemic have made it difficult to maintain enough personnel in stores to thwart potential shoplifters.
Supply chain shortages have also enabled shoplifters to sell stolen goods at a premium on eBay, Amazon and other secondary market facilitators, the NRF said. --->READ MORE HEREFollow links below to related stories:
NYC grocers want to stick a fork in serial supermarket shoplifters
NYC grocers’ simple fix for serial shoplifters: Will lawmakers listen?
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