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Giant Food grocery chain fighting to keep stores open as theft, violence has 'increased exponentially
MSN ^ | 5-30 | Kristine Parks

Posted on 05/31/2023 3:23:28 AM PDT by dennisw

One grocery chain is fighting hard to keep stores open despite rampant shoplifting and an uptick in violence forcing many retailers to leave major cities across the country.

Giant Food, which operates 165 supermarkets in D.C., Maryland, Virginia and Delaware, has taken multiple measures to combat theft and keep stores safe, according to a report in The Washington Post. That includes limiting store entrances; hiring security guards; restricting the number of items at self-checkout stands; putting less high-value items on shelves; and securing razor blades in containers that make noise if opened.

Company president Ira Kress said he's seen theft rise at least "tenfold in the last five years" and violence increase "exponentially."

He hopes these measures will help keep stores open, even if they inconvenience shoppers. "The alternative is worse for customers," he told the Post. "The last thing I want to do is close stores. But I’ve got to be able to run them safely and profitably."

Fears of violent reactions from shoplifters has also changed some companies policies over the years. "We used to chase shoplifters," Kress said. "And you’d get the product back, and nobody would ever fight you. … I didn’t worry about somebody pulling a knife or gun on me [40] years ago," he told the Post.

A consumer and retailer industry expert said that retailers will continue to leave cities as it has become difficult for them to maintain a profit with organized retail crime and theft at an all-time high.

"We’re seeing the highest level of organized retail crime and theft ever," Lakshman Lakshmanan, senior director in Alvarez & Marsal’s consumer and retail group said in the Post report.

Other retailers have similar policies in place, due to fears the employee might be harmed or killed in an altercation with a shoplifter.

(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: ahold; ferals; giant; groceries; stealing; theft; thieves; urban
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To: The Antiyuppie

Trying to operate a business in a war zone - big mistake or bad idea?


41 posted on 05/31/2023 6:32:52 AM PDT by Noumenon (You're not voting your way out of this. KTF)
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To: dennisw

Shut them all down until there isn’t a Grocery Store within 100 miles of DC


42 posted on 05/31/2023 6:38:09 AM PDT by eyeamok
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To: Alberta's Child

never “patronize a retail store that has security guards...”

I agree. Easy enough that if stores need security guards, a problem bigger that potential theft exists. Same thought applies to “armed resource officers” in schools.
Those inclined to such behavior simply need appropriate levels of encouragement to achieve proper behavior.


43 posted on 05/31/2023 6:39:28 AM PDT by Huaynero
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To: CIB-173RDABN
"But one question I have for all these large corporation, which party have you been supporting?
Money is the grease that keeps politicians in power. If these large corporations continue to help get Democrats elected then they have reaped what they sowed"

See: San Francisco for more lawless Democrats destroying everything.

And isn't the goal of the Marxist D's for no one to own anything?

44 posted on 05/31/2023 6:46:52 AM PDT by Pajamajan ( PRAY FOR OUR NATION. Never be a peaceful slave in a new Socialist America)
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To: ducttape45
Something I have noticed over the past several months is that people who go through the self checkout lines will ring up their purchases, but then not pay for it, and walk out with their items. Anyone else seen this? I’ve seen it Kroger, Walmart and Dollar General stores.

How many items are they walking out with, without paying? My guess is 3-5 and not more than 10. Here is a video of someone waking out/trying to at least/ with a whole grocery cartful.

Brighton, Colorado (near Denver) 5/29/23 Security officer and customers confront blacks and white woman stealing shopping carts full of merchandise at @KingSooper Mart .... https://twitter.com/Tomhennessey69/status/1663379503689629697

45 posted on 05/31/2023 6:47:30 AM PDT by dennisw (Never attribute to stupidity, that which is adequately explained by malice)
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To: dennisw

https://twitter.com/Tomhennessey69/status/1663379503689629697

Funny video of thieves at King Sooper in Colorado. Brazenly wrestling with store security to take a cartful of unpaid groceries out of the store.


46 posted on 05/31/2023 6:50:10 AM PDT by dennisw (Never attribute to stupidity, that which is adequately explained by malice)
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To: hardspunned
Online ordering and pick up will eventually eclipse the traditional store walk for most others.

I wouldn't want to be the "Personal Shopper" doing the deliveries.

47 posted on 05/31/2023 6:54:41 AM PDT by Tommy Revolts
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To: ducttape45

I was at Home Depot recently. I had a couple personal items and one item for work. As I rang up the first transaction, an Eagle eyed clerk reminded me to buy the other small item in my cart.

I was impressed.


48 posted on 05/31/2023 7:02:58 AM PDT by cyclotic
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To: The Antiyuppie

The lunatic marxists in maryland recently made a law that CCW is only allowed with permission of the store

This CEO needs to post signs that CCW is welcome in his stores.


49 posted on 05/31/2023 7:05:07 AM PDT by cyclotic
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To: dennisw

No wonder I can’t find any Cold Duck in their stores any more.


50 posted on 05/31/2023 7:13:31 AM PDT by Vaduz (....)
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To: dennisw

exponentially... a process that increases quantity over time.

What they are saying is that as time goes on, the theft and violence will go up. So their only counter measure is to call it quits.

Maybe someday it will get so out of hand that undocumented immigrants will rather stay in their own $hit hold countries.


51 posted on 05/31/2023 7:16:27 AM PDT by CodeJockey (a government )
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To: dennisw

The Giant supermarket we shopped at for 30 years when we lived in a Maryland suburb of DC only had one entrance. And so did others in the area, as the double entry foyer’s had been closed in the late 1980s. Shoppers Food Warehouse, now under a new name, had a double foyer entrances.


52 posted on 05/31/2023 7:24:27 AM PDT by GreyFriar (Spearhead - 3rd Armored Division 75-78 & 83-87)
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To: euram

And those food deserts are of course all because of greedy corporations to these imbeciles.


53 posted on 05/31/2023 7:25:09 AM PDT by FreedomPoster (Islam delenda est)
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To: Flavious_Maximus
When they close the stores in urban areas, the shoplifters simply go further out into the burbs.
Eventually the stores will close in the suburbs as well.

54 posted on 05/31/2023 7:47:05 AM PDT by oh8eleven (RVN '67-'68)
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To: ProtectOurFreedom

Around 1980 a woman moved from San Diego to Lynchburg, VA to retire. She hated retirement so opened a convenience store. Her nearest customers were from a low income housing neighborhood. She named it the Inconvenient Store. Beer, wine and soft drinks were behind the counter. Her pilferage losses were minimal.


55 posted on 05/31/2023 7:51:33 AM PDT by oldvirginian (A friend helps you move furniture. A Real friend helps you move bodies. )
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To: oldvirginian

20 years ago I proposed Shotgun Eddy’s which would have been a pill box convenience store where patrons had access only to an enclosed shopping window where they would select items that would fall onto a conveyor which would lead to a bullet proof checkout position and upon payment pushed through a portal. The store would be staffed and re-stocked by a drive through lane enclosed behind a chain link fence. Staff and goods arrive in the van and open chain link gate, enters the yard, close the chain link gate, opens the drive through, and into the pill box.

Put it in the worst of the worst spots and charge triple the Big Box store rates.

Diluted alcohol drinks, tobacco, drug paraphernalia, malt liquor, diapers, shit like that.


56 posted on 05/31/2023 8:00:36 AM PDT by anton
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To: anton

What should be done now is have example boxes/containers on display. The customer orders from a kiosk and the order is delivered to the attendant behind the counter in the bullet proof room. Once you have paid for your order it is delivered to you through a one way door.

Target used to have a store delivery system you would have liked. A two door system.
A truck would pull to the dock, the driver would call the store to let him in.
Store personnel would let the driver into the back room and into the unloading area. Once in the loading/unloading area store personnel would close the inner dock door. When finished removing product from the truck the driver would close the outer dock door, call the store and someone would come to the back to sign for the merchandise.
Please note that one dock door had to be closed for the other to open.


57 posted on 05/31/2023 8:45:13 AM PDT by oldvirginian (A friend helps you move furniture. A Real friend helps you move bodies. )
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To: dennisw

Closing stores in certain areas might be a good idea to eliminate 90% of the issues. Or pretend everyone has the same values.


58 posted on 05/31/2023 8:55:29 AM PDT by zek157
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To: Flavious_Maximus

True on metro lines. Less so in other areas.


59 posted on 05/31/2023 8:56:55 AM PDT by zek157
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To: hardspunned

The one good thing that’s come from C-19 is curbside pick up. That said, I don’t want some stranger at my door with a $47 tax/title/drive out bottle of orange juice that he likely took a gulp from. It is too risky for the delivery person as well as the customer. There was a post earlier today about a delivery guy getting stabbed and dismembered. Society is too crazy.


60 posted on 05/31/2023 9:45:51 AM PDT by bgill
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