Switching products, one form of retail theft (image: twitter.com/albiondumsday)
Someone found out, at least in a small way, the price of one form of retail theft.
Bought a costly LED spotlight bulb, turned out to be a cheap one that a shoplifter had swapped boxes for. Bastard.
Don’t know where he was shopping, but Home Depot and Lowes sell these bulbs for $7-$10 each. Some stores sell them for more.
So Who Pays?
- The Customer. He shelled out $10 but only got a one dollar product, and one he didn’t need anyway.
- The retailer. They lost an expensive light bulb and may have to sell an extra $100 worth of product to make up for that $10 theft (assuming a ten percent margin).
- The General Customer. We pay increased prices to make up for retail shrink.
- An Insurance Company. Do they cover these losses for you? If yes, premiums will increase to reflect losses paid and increased risk.
- The Public. Lost tax revenue on sale of items has to be made up by the rest of the taxpaying community. Sure its small on a single $10 item, but when you aggregate the tens of billions of dollars of theft every year it’s very significant.
You can do something about retail theft.
American Theft Prevention has tools to help retailers combat shoplifting and other source of retail shrink. Visit our website at www.AmericanTheftPrevention.com to see some of our products. Or call 847-972-6540 or 866-416-0999 to discuss ways we can help you merchandise your products securely.
Tags: liability, loss prevention, product switching, returns, shoplifters
June 9, 2010 at 1:17 pm |
OK, I was that guy. And I’m in England, near Derby.
I’m really sore about it because although I’m sure the store will switch the product for me, it’ll mean a 15 mile round trip, it will more than double the cost of the product (effectively) and I’ll not be able to shake off the worry that perhaps the store people will think I’m trying to pull a fast one myself!
The person who must have done the original switch won’t care about cheating the store, but I doubt they thought of (or would have cared about) the trouble their trickery was putting humble little me to.
I guess I’ll learn to check more before I buy, but I wish I didn’t have to.
Andrew Denny