# How much shoplifting actually happens at the average Walmart superstore? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 17, 2008, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-shoplifting-actually-happens-at-the-average-walmart-superstore/477567 "2008-12-17T15:21:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![mlees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@mlees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mlees)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2008, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-shoplifting-actually-happens-at-the-average-walmart-superstore/477567/41 "2008-12-18T19:16:32Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > What’s a dead body get you at a flea market nowadays? About fifteen to life. :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2008, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-shoplifting-actually-happens-at-the-average-walmart-superstore/477567/42 "2008-12-19T01:27:59Z")
At the semi-deserted K-Mart here (one register guaranteed to be open several times a day!), the dressing rooms (a likely place for a rape or murder) aren’t locked any more. You used to have to press a buzzer and hope someone with a key would eventually arrive to count your try-ons and let you in. Now you can try on every sorry garment in the store, all day long - no one there cares. I can only imagine how much stuff, and not only clothing, gets hidden on a shoplifter and waltzes out the door… I guess they really HAVE given up. ---
**Author:** ![rainy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c2a13f/32.png) [@rainy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rainy)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2008, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-shoplifting-actually-happens-at-the-average-walmart-superstore/477567/43 "2008-12-19T13:09:14Z")
> [@Burton](#): > > Slip and fall cases are the hardest to prove and the easiest to defend though. I’ve worked in the insurance industry for over 20 years and can’t even recall a retail slip and fall going to trial. [Not a cite, but] According to a friend who is a lawyer the most profitable tactic for the slip and falls is to simply file the motion, and await the store’s settlement offer. He said simple economics govern the stores choice to pay out. Settle for X amount even if you know the slippee is lying, or go to court to demostrate your innocence at a cost of 10X… ---
**Author:** ![Contrapuntal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e274bd/32.png) [@Contrapuntal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Contrapuntal)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2008, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-shoplifting-actually-happens-at-the-average-walmart-superstore/477567/44 "2008-12-19T13:10:45Z")
> [@DanBlather](#): > > This explains why BestBuy checks bags at the door, just a couple of feet away from the checkout. They want to make sure that their cashiers are not just baggng up free or heavily discounted purchases. In other words, they are inconveniencing you to protect themselves against their own employees. Exactly. ---
**Author:** ![Burton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Burton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Burton)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2008, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-shoplifting-actually-happens-at-the-average-walmart-superstore/477567/45 "2008-12-19T15:07:01Z")
> [@rainy](#): > > [Not a cite, but] According to a friend who is a lawyer the most profitable tactic for the slip and falls is to simply file the motion, and await the store’s settlement offer. He said simple economics govern the stores choice to pay out. Settle for X amount even if you know the slippee is lying, or go to court to demostrate your innocence at a cost of 10X… You can take that stance but then you’re encouraging fraud and become a target. I’ve worked with large retail accounts around D.C. that fought every claim, even the few that might be meritorius very hard. I’ve never seen any numbers that show which is the most cost effective course of action but even if they were to come out even fighting makes more sense to me. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2008, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-shoplifting-actually-happens-at-the-average-walmart-superstore/477567/46 "2008-12-19T16:45:35Z")
> [@LouiseE](#): > > A friend who owns a small cash only fast food place had to fire an employee once due to fairly obvious, though difficult to prove, theft. > > There was no register, only a till, so it wasn’t a matter of checking the paper tape. Instead, he could inventory x number units had been sold at y price, so there should be a minimum of x\*y in the till, not counting sales of any side dishes. When the inventory count indicated day’s sales should be $300, but there was only $50 in the till, it was hard to not draw certain conclusions. > > He fired her but did not try to prosecute as 1–it would be difficult to prove that she was stealing vs bad at math and 2–she was a black female and he was a white male, in Oakland, Ca, so all kinds of politics, good luck. Skin color aside, he had nothing to prosecute anyway. After all, it could have been \*him \*doing the stealing. “Missing stuff” is not evidence that _a certain employee_ is stealing. ---
**Author:** ![cuberdon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/45deac/32.png) [@cuberdon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cuberdon)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2008, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-shoplifting-actually-happens-at-the-average-walmart-superstore/477567/47 "2008-12-19T17:19:20Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Skin color aside, he had nothing to prosecute anyway. After all, it could have been \*him \*doing the stealing. “Missing stuff” is not evidence that _a certain employee_ is stealing. When that certain employee is the only one on duty, and is the one to count and deposit the day’s sales, and the amount of sales doesn’t match the missing inventory by a long shot, and it happens multiple times with that person and never with anyone else, we may have to disagree what constitutes evidence. ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2008, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-shoplifting-actually-happens-at-the-average-walmart-superstore/477567/48 "2008-12-19T17:50:04Z")
> [@Hampshire](#): > > A dirty loss prevention guy (yellow shirt at front door) who would let his friends cart stuff right past him. Again thousands. I’ve been think about this all throughout reading this thread: what happens when the loss-prevention folks are dirty? ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Slant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c57346/32.png) [@Mr.Slant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Slant)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2008, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-shoplifting-actually-happens-at-the-average-walmart-superstore/477567/49 "2008-12-19T18:21:25Z")
You get more loss prevention guys involved, and sometimes covert cams installed that an in-store loss prevention team doesn’t even know about. I’ve heard tell of sites where the ENTIRE in-house loss prevention team (all shifts included) went dirty… I’ve been tangentially involved with customers where we had crooked LP working with crooked store management… ---
**Author:** ![nivlac](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/3bc359/32.png) [@nivlac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nivlac)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2008, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-shoplifting-actually-happens-at-the-average-walmart-superstore/477567/50 "2008-12-19T18:43:31Z")
Something that has not been brought out so far is that theft does not only occur in the retail stores. Theft also happens at warehouses, distribution centers, crossdocks, and other places where there are no customers, just employees. When I was connected to retail some time ago there was considerable theft going on in the warehouses which required tighter security measures. Employee turnover was high partly due to the ones fired for stealing. I guess it was too tempting to not take one or two units of a product when there were literally thousands lying around the warehouse. In retail stores if you’ve ever wondered why certain products are so inconveniently placed (like behind locked glass cabinets, behind counters, etc.) it’s because of their high risk of pilferage. That’s the tradeoff that retailers have to make. By displaying products more securely they may lower shrink but that can also deter sales. This is one reason why companies that sell high margin products have a lot of interest in RFID technology. It’s one way of making the product accessible yet traceable anywhere in the store. ---
**Author:** ![Satellite\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/258eb7/32.png) [@Satellite\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Satellite_Guy)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2008, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-shoplifting-actually-happens-at-the-average-walmart-superstore/477567/51 "2008-12-19T18:58:38Z")
Satellite^Gal’s cousin works at the local Wal-Mart here, and, last week or so, one of the other employees saw a guy in the automotive section, staying there a little while. a bit later, one of the managers went over there, and, in an empty microwave box sitting there, she found dozens of empty CD cases. the thief was taking the disks out of the cases. Satellite^Gal just now told me that some thieves are now taking cereal boxes, pulling out the bag of cereal, and stuffing the CD cases in that, just keeping the disks… Satellite^Guy ---
**Author:** ![nivlac](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/3bc359/32.png) [@nivlac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nivlac)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2008, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-shoplifting-actually-happens-at-the-average-walmart-superstore/477567/52 "2008-12-19T20:02:47Z")
This is why WMT keeps their video games behind locked glass cabinets. Thieves were slitting open the boxes and stealing the discs. ---
**Author:** ![Hampshire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hampshire/32/4887_2.png) [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2008, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-shoplifting-actually-happens-at-the-average-walmart-superstore/477567/53 "2008-12-19T21:13:52Z")
> [@bordelond](#): > > I’ve been think about this all throughout reading this thread: what happens when the loss-prevention folks are dirty? You hope they get sloppy and screw up. Which they eventually do. One guy got caught because a savy employee watched a customer leave his department with a DVD player, pass up the registers, and talk to the security guy on the way out. Threw up a red flag and the employee let management know. Another guy was a student and took requests from other students to get them stuff for “real cheap” (he stole it and resold it for a discount). An honest student thought it was shifty and made a call to the store management. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-shoplifting-actually-happens-at-the-average-walmart-superstore/477567.md?page=2)