Wal-Mart struggling with rising theft
Forecast to lose US$3 billion this year
The Edmonton Sun
http://www.edmontonsun.com/News/World/2007/06/13/4258044.html
By AP
NEW YORK — Shoppers at Wal-Mart stores across America are loading carts with merchandise — maybe a flat-screen TV, a few DVDs and a six pack of beer — and strolling out without paying.
Employees also are helping themselves to goods they have not paid for.
The world’s largest retailer is saying little about these kinds of thefts, but its recent public disclosures that it is experiencing an increase in so-called shrinkage at its U.S. stores suggests that inventory losses due to shoplifting, employee theft, paperwork errors and supplier fraud could be worsening.
The hit is likely to rise to more than US$3 billion this year for Wal-Mart Stores Inc., which generated sales of $348.6 billion last year, according to retail consultant Burt Flickinger.
Flickinger and other analysts say the increase in theft may be tied to Wal-Mart’s highly publicized decision last year to no longer prosecute minor cases of shoplifting in order to focus on organized shoplifting rings.
Former employees also say staffing levels, including security personnel, have been reduced, making it easier for theft to occur. And a union-backed group critical of the retailer’s personnel policies contends general worker discontent is playing a role.
Wal-Mart declined to offer any explanations for the rise in losses, but denied it has cut security staff and said employee morale is rising rather than falling.
Although Wal-Mart declined to reveal its shrinkage rate, analysts suspect Wal-Mart — which for years had a theft loss rate that was half that of its peers — is getting closer to the industrywide average.
Theft is a big problem for all retailers, costing them $41.6 billion last year, according to a joint study released Tuesday by the National Retail Federation and the University of Florida.The study found that the shrinkage rate as a percentage of sales ticked upward slightly to 1.61% of sales in 2006 from 1.60% in 2005.
Whatever the cause, such theft — which late founder Sam Walton once called one of retailers’ top profit killers — adds one more challenge when Wal-Mart is already struggling with sluggish sales at its established stores due to an overall economic slowdown as well as its own stumbles in its home and apparel merchandising strategies.
~~~~ In the Dieppe Store, # 3056, moral is no longer falling,, it has hit Rock Bottom
~~~~
OH YEAH ?????
From The Times & Transcript
2007 06 08
Employee Kevin Alonzo Gautreau, stole cakes
A former janitor who helped himself to snacks and crossword puzzle books as he worked the night shift at Wal-Mart has been sentenced to house arrest.
Kevin Alonzo Gautreau, a 20-year-old first-time offender, was in Moncton provincial court for sentencing yesterday on a theft charge. He stole from Wal-Mart on seven occasions from Jan. 25 to Feb. 25.
The court heard yesterday that store officials realized there was some internal theft taking place after hours, so they set up a hidden camera that caught Gautreau in action.
Footage showed him going through merchandise in areas where he was just supposed to be emptying garbage cans. He was seen taking several small items, such as Vachon cakes and crossword puzzle books.
The Crown told the court Gautreau admitted his thievery when confronted, but didn't have a good reason for taking the items.
"He said he wasn't actually hungry, he just took the food because it was there," said Crown prosecutor Michel O. LeBlanc.
Duty counsel told the court Gautreau has found new employment as a cook in a local restaurant and hopes to study cooking in college.
Judge Michael McKee expressed confusion about Gautreau's motivation for the crimes, asking why he would take such items for no apparent reason.
The judge gave him a four-month conditional sentence that includes two months of house arrest and several other conditions. The sentence will be followed by 12 months probation and Gautreau is banned from attending Wal-Mart during that time.
~~~~ Cameras, cameras everwhere..
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