Recently, the Milford Police Department posted on social media with a request for the public to identify a male suspect who was involved in a shoplifting incident at the Milford Walmart. The suspect was identified thanks to assistance from the community, but comments on the post suggested that police should focus on “real” crimes.
“Oh. No, somebody shoplifted, call for backup,” Frank Brizzle commented.
In a reply to Brizzle’s comment, Robert Dole commented on crime solve rates.
“Meanwhile, crimes with actual victims in Delaware have a 30% solve rate,” Dole said. “Imagine fi the police did this stuff for the community instead of their corporate masters.”
One poster pointed out that shoplifting meant higher prices for everyone with several replies stating that was false.
The fact is that shoplifting does cost consumers as businesses must pass along losses through increased prices. According to a recent report compiled by Capital One, Delaware retailers lost $262 million to shoplifters in 2022, the last year the numbers were released. The report also found that the average shoplifting incident cost retailers almost $500.
In 2023, retailers reported a 93 percent increase in shoplifting incidents in 2023 compared to 2019. The dollar amount lost per shoplifting incident also increased 71 percent from 2019 to 2020.
Another area where retailers are seeing losses is in return fraud. In 2023, retailers lost $101 billion to fraudulent returns. The most common type of return fraud is the return of non-defective used merchandise which impacted 48.8 percent of retailers in 2023. That same year, 44 percent of retailers experienced returns of shoplifted or stolen merchandise. Just over 16 percent of holiday returns are fraudulent, costing retailers $24.5 billion.
Excessive shoplifting at some retailers have led them to close stores. According to the survey, 30 percent of retailers closed store locations due to retail theft in 2023 and 23 percent plan to close stores in 2024.
The survey also found that 65 percent of retailers report less than half of the shoplifting incidents to law enforcement due to the lack of law enforcement response. In Delaware, shoplifting $1,500 or more worth of merchandise is a felony, so many retailers only report shoplifting above that threshold in order for the perpetrator to face stiffer penalties.
For small businesses, shoplifting can be devastating. Small businesses lose an average of $1,686 to retail theft each year. For this reason, 64 percent have increased prices to cover those losses.
One comment on the Milford Police Department post mentioned that stores have insurance for shoplifting, so there is no need to raise prices. Although it is true that retail stores have commercial property insurance that includes theft coverage, they may not always cover shoplifting losses. In addition, it is difficult for a retailer to prove shoplifting happened simply because inventory is missing. Inventory could have been disposed of as damaged by an employee without being logged or it could simply have been misplaced or miscounted. Therefore, many insurance companies would be reluctant to cover a few missing items.
In addition, retailers may be reluctant to report missing inventory to the insurance company as multiple claims could raise their rates. Higher insurance rates can also cause a retailer to increase prices, passing along the cost of shoplifting to other consumers who are honest.
Learn more statistics about shoplifting by visiting the Capital One report online.
