The “Supermarket Sweep”: Addiction and decriminalization fuel a West Coast shoplifting boom.

City Journal ^ | October 21, 2019 | Christopher F. Rufo

[karpov]

...

Today, in some West Coast cities, the Supermarket Sweep isn’t a game show—it’s a dark reality, fueled by addiction, crime, and bad public policy. From Seattle to Los Angeles, a “shoplifting boom” is hitting major retailers, which deal with thousands of thefts, drug overdoses, and assaults each year. Since 2010, thefts increased by 22 percent in Portland, 50 percent in San Francisco, and 61 percent in Los Angeles. In total, California, Oregon, and Washington reported 864,326 thefts to the FBI last year. The real figure is likely much higher, as many retailers have stopped reporting most shoplifting incidents to police.

Drug addiction is driving this shoplifting boom. In recent years, West Coast cities have witnessed an explosion in addiction rates for heroin, fentanyl, and meth; property crime helps feed the habit. According to federal data, adults with substance-abuse disorders make up just 2.6 percent of the total population but 72 percent of all jail inmates sentenced for property crimes. Addicts are 29 times more likely to commit property crimes than the average American. Furthermore, as the Bureau of Justice Statistics found, “[39 percent of jail inmates] held for property offenses said they committed the crime for money for drugs”—the most common single motivation for crime throughout the justice system.

Unfortunately, as West Coast cities grapple with an addiction epidemic, the shoplifting boom has only accelerated because of decriminalization. California's Proposition 47, approved by nearly 60 percent of voters statewide in 2014, reclassified many drug and property felonies as misdemeanors, effectively decriminalizing thefts of $1,000 or less. Many criminals now believe, justifiably, that they can steal with impunity. For example, in San Francisco, police reported 33,000 car break-ins last year; the city now leads the nation in overall property crime.

[VTenigma]

Nobody saw that coming.

[FatherofFive]

Well, the Democrats are promising free everything...

[metmom]

Democrat policies coming to full fruition.

[SamAdams76]

The losers are not the supermarkets but the customers.

The "leakage" simply hits the COGS line on the P&L and gets passed on to the customers in the form of higher prices so that the bottom line can be maintained. Supermarkets margins are thin enough as it is (1 to 2 per cent) so they aren't eating it.

[grumpygresh]

So if there are more ODs from addiction there will be less shoplifting and fewer in prison.

You can’t always save people from bad choices. Certainly law enforcement can’t fix what is essentially a moral problem.

[frank ballenger]

RE:San Francisco now leads the nation in car breakins....

Well at least they are number one in something. Good job.

Like Woody Allen as Central American leader in Bananas: “We are a small country but we lead the world in hernias. That’s something.”

[dljordan]

Is it time to call in the military?

[BenLurkin]

All that poop on the sidewalk has to come from somewhere.

[frank ballenger]

actually it was leading in overall property crimes....

[seastay]

I know of at least one grocery store in Los Angeles where management told employees NOT to try and stop shoplifting. The liability of paying damages for somebody being hurt, including the shoplifter is more than the losses , not creating a scene for the “paying customers” is behind the policy, and the fact that the shoplifters many whom are homeless know there are no penalties, worse thing is they might be escorted out of the store by police whom have no incentive to show up and hand out tickets and do useless paper work. The losses are all factored into the stores prices, making products more expensive for the rest who actually have to pay for their groceries.

[cloudmountain]

You can’t always save people from bad choices. Certainly law enforcement can’t fix what is essentially a moral problem.

Amen to that!
Morality is something that should have been learned all during early childhood. By the teens the "cake is baked."

Daddy-less boys produce men who don't respect authority.
Black fathers are essential for teaching their sons how to deal with adult white male authority. Black mothers can't do that.

[cloudmountain]

During the L.A. riots I still remember cameras panning in on the Koreans defending their market against the black looters...from the rooftops with rifles.

[tallyhoe]

Well guess what? Everything that is stolen adds to the cost of everything. So your paying for their losses!

[Dr. Zzyzx]

Broken Window Theory in action.

[Daffynition]

This is why we need the 2A.

[bigbob]

They heard “free stuff” and thought it was a thing.

[Midwesterner53]

Time for the large retailers to leave the west coast. They can’t get reliable electricity in California anyway.

[rockinqsranch]

We rarely shop at “Supermarkets” anymore. Our once a week route takes us only to small, and large warehouse markets. The small one we can get all the “Supermarket” stuff at warehouse prices, and not have to buy bulk, and then there’s Costco for all the other if they have it that week.

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

So glad I live in Northern WI. I don’t have to deal with any riff-raff or thugs. I live close to 3 major grocery stores within a mile of each other. Plus I have emergency food when the SHTF.