Grocery operators groan under shoplifting

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For retailers, particularly supermarkets, shoplifting is a big problem. The rising cases of shoplifting in major supermarkets is taking a heavy toll on profitability. Although, it is difficult to estimate how much operators in the Nigerian retail sector loses to shoplifting annually because of the country’s poor record-keeping culture, operators and stakeholders say that Nigeria, given her population, takes the lion share of the over $128 billion the global retail industry lost last year to shoplifting, according to a research report by the Global Retail Theft Barometer.

As if the figure was not enough heartache for operators, global Retail Theft Barometer, which tracks shoplifting, trends as well as the leading causes and methods of prevention, warned that shoplifting would likely increase during this festive season, including public holidays and Easter, which are generally busier for retailers. “Shoplifting increases during busy retail operation periods like weekends and afternoons, as the stores would be less focused on petty theft and shoplifting.

This makes it easier for items to be stolen and concealed by perpetrators without being detected,” an expert and head of Consumer Goods Council, South Africa (CGCSA) Crime Risk Initiative, Graham Wright, added.

According to experts, shoplifting, also known as five-finger discount, or shrinkage in the global retail industry parlance, is theft of goods from a retail establishment. It is one of the most common property crimes dealt with by police and courts.

But in Nigeria where records of such crimes are either inaccurate or not kept at all, owners of retail outlets across the country are getting increasingly apprehensive over the rising cases of shoplifting. This is particularly so now that supermarkets and grocery store owners are expanding the scope of goods they carry and size of their stores in preparation for the festive season.

The most common targets of shoplifters are ‘hot products’, or small items that can be easily concealed. According to experts, such products can be quickly resold through informal markets at cheaper prices. Most shoplifters, The Nation learnt, are amateurs; however, there are people and groups who make their living from shoplifting, and they tend to be more skilled. This means that on daily basis operators are faced with the challenge of arresting runaway, internally coordinated theft by both senior and junior staff in what experts say could be an established network of organised crime.

The emerging organised network is said to be targeting high-value products such as electronics, furniture, baby food products, cosmetics and general food items. Yet, for operators, the greatest challenge appears to be Nigeria’s legal system, which is said to be not punitive enough to deter shoplifting, either as perpetrated by shoppers or unscrupulous employees.

“Shoplifting is one of the challenges grocery stores face. Some of them attract hoodlums depending on the area they are located,” says Ms Olamide Matthew of Home Affairs Supermarket in Gbagada, Lagos. She said because of this, the management spends resources on state-of-the-art security gadgets to stop shoplifters and hoodlums in their track.

The story is the same at Justrite in Abule Egba, Lagos. The Manager, Mr Ahmed Tijani, said shoplifting has become a major challenge. “We often have issues of shoppers doing away with items on the shelf without paying for them. As a result, the store gradually loses its income. The management of Justrite has however, boosted its security architecture by acquiring Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) cameras to monitor buying and selling activities in the store.

To drive home his point, Tijani narrated how a shoplifter was caught sometime last year and was arrested. Hear him: “A lady was arrested for allegedly shoplifting our grocery items mid last year. She came in at 9:30 pm when the store attendants were hurrying to go home. She picked some can drinks and tried to hide them inside her backpack. She was however, caught by our store detective, who arrested her.”

Indeed, the use of CCTV is becoming one of the most preferred anti-shoplifting technologies. “The surveillance camera doesn’t just help in curbing criminal activities such as shoplifting; it increases our senses of security. We stand assured because CCTV guarantees protection of our property,” the sales representative at Azlas Supermarket, Ojota, Lagos, Mr. Sunday Omokaro, said. He said if a shoplifter is aware that he is under watch, he would think twice before stealing anything. “The thieves are cautious that they might get caught, and may abstain from criminal activity,” he said.

However, CCTVs and other anti-shoplifting measures do not come cheap, as they run into hundreds of thousands, depending on its sophistication and specification. Also, the use of CCTVs to apprehend shoplifters in the act requires full-time human monitoring of the cameras, and the human monitors must be paid. Besides, grocery owners are paying through their noses to hire, train, and maintain security personnel. And the resources for doing so are quite huge, sometimes eating into operators’ bottom line.

Source: The Nation