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Supermarket chain Giant has said it is taking measures to curb theft in its 165 supermarkets across the country, including by closing some store entrances.
Other measures include locking items on shelves, hiring extra security, limiting the number of items at self-checkout and putting razor blades in boxes that trigger an alarm if opened.
The chain’s president, Ira Kress, recently told the Washington Post the new measures are a last-ditch attempt at keeping stores open amid theft which he says has ‘increased exponentially’.
‘To say [theft has] risen tenfold in the last five years would not be an understatement,’ he told the newspaper.
Giant Food has supermarkets across DC, Delaware, Maryland and Virginia and unlike many other retailers like Walmart, Nike, Kroger, Target, Macy’s and Best Buy, it is yet to close any.
Supermarket chain Giant has said it is taking measures to curb theft in its 165 supermarkets across the country. Pictured is a store in Silver Spring, Maryland
The chain’s president, Ira Kress (pictured), recently told the Washington Post that the new measures were a last-ditch attempt at keeping stores open
Last June a Giant in Washington DC made headlines when thieves were filmed brazenly filling garbage bags and a shopping cart with laundry detergent
Kress said he knew the new measures were going to aggravate shoppers, but that introducing them was better than the alternative.
‘The last thing I want to do is close stores,’ he said. ‘But I’ve got to be able to run them safely and profitably.’
He justified closing store entrances on the grounds that it makes it harder for thieves to operate and allows for them to allocate more security guards to protect individual entrances into stores.
In November a customer and a security guard were killed after shooting at each other in a store in Maryland.
Ira Kress joined Giant in 1984 and said he has seen crime ‘increase exponentially’ since he began as a part-time cashier
Last June a Giant in Washington DC made headlines when thieves were seen brazenly filling garbage bags and a shopping cart with laundry detergent.
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‘We have the police come to our stores… they’ll take the information, they’ll record it,’ he told the Post.
‘But there’s really nothing being done with that, because they had two homicides that were a bank robbery and two shootings. So it’s like, where are they going to focus their time and attention?’
Kress joined Giant in 1984 and started as a part-time cashier at a store in Silver Spring, Maryland, while attending college, according to Food Trade News.
He took a year away from his studies and was even considering pursuing a career in law enforcement himself. he recounted to the Post how he witnessed theft then too, but that it had changed.
‘It’s continued to escalate,’ he said. ‘So now it’s Tide and Dove and razor blades and Olay, or roasts or shrimp or crab legs.’
‘We used to chase shoplifters,’ he added. ‘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,’ he said.
The chain has said it will permanently close certain entrances to retail stores to curtail theft
Kress said one of the measures included keeping increasingly cheap items locked on the shelves so they are more immune to theft
He also spoke on the broader trend which has seen various retailers pulling out of cities – especially those like San Francisco and Portland – and citing crime.
In 2021 retailers lost a combined $94.5billion to ‘shrink’, a term used to describe theft and other types of inventory loss. And organized retail crime incidents soared by 26.5 percent in the same year, according to the 2022 National Retail Security Survey.
Along with brazen daylight thefts, self-checkouts have also made it easier for people to walk out without paying for items.
Progressive district attorneys in cities like Chicago, New York, Portland and California have also been blamed for effectively legalizing shoplifting by failing to prosecute culprits.
‘It’s laughable for any of our politicians, and I’ve offered to meet and talk with any of them, to be ignorant to what’s going on in their communities, in their jurisdictions, with their constituents,’ said Kress of the response among lawmakers to the crisis.
‘And for politicians to blame businesses… for leaving is embarrassing’.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Dailymail.co.uk
