Features

Five Finger Discount

Posted on: April 09, 2008

Shoplifting or “five-finger discount” is not restricted to common people, remember actress Winona Ryder, who was arrested for shoplifting at Saks Fifth Avenue department store in Beverly Hills, California, or Will & Grace actress Shelley Morrison, who was arrested for shoplifting at a Robinsons-May store in California?

The existence of an external triggering event and the feelings of anger and desire for vengeance are the most virtual factors that precede shoplifting as per various psychologists.

Shoplifting has become a concern for local businesses in Western Idaho, particularly in Chubbuck and Pocatello. However, the store operators say the trend is not growing, but are also not taking this behavior for granted.

Store managers say that the shoplifters target portable items like, make-up accessories, small electronic gadgets or anything that can be easily hid under the clothes of the shoplifters or in the baggage they are allowed to take inside the store.

Different stores across the region have already opted for some major anti-shoplifting options like, CCTVs, security tags attached to garments, loss prevention personnel, exit inspections and store guards with or without the uniform.

The huge economic loss due to shoplifting was claimed to be $25 million a day by the retailers throughout the United States in 2001. However, studies have found that over half of what is reported as shoplifting is either employee theft or fraud.

Generally in the United States, store operators have the limited right to detain and have the power to initiate criminal arrests and/or civil sanctions against the shoplifter(s) depending upon the policy of the retailer and the state statutes governing civil demands and civil recovery for shoplifting as reconciled with the criminal laws of the jurisdiction

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