“Whenever the shrink numbers from shoplifting get too high, a low-margin grocery business can’t survive, and the store closes.”
When we moved to inside the Beltway on the Prince George’s side, we were amazed at how many of the locals would walk through the supermarkets grazing on the fruit, cookies and chips. You could find open bags of snacks on nearly every shelf.
It’s no wonder stores move out of those areas. About the only way to stop that is to use the Soviet model of stores, where the customer goes to the counter, hands a clerk a shopping list, pays, and then the clerk gets what’s on the list.
“...we were amazed at how many of the locals would walk through the supermarkets grazing on the fruit, cookies and chips. You could find open bags of snacks on nearly every shelf.”
Yep. Marts won’t prosecute for that. They’d have to have dozens of employees just watching customers continuously to have grounds. So, you take the kids, have a meal with drinks, drop the wrappers and empties, buy $5 of snacks on SNAP and head home.
The amount of loss from theft, in-store eating and waste (cold food left on staple shelves) would astound most people.