Retailers Report Rise in Employee Theft

I've worked in the retail and restaurant business for a long time and I've seen a lot of theft, from the petty stuff like stealing a sandwich to pilfering thousands of dollars. When I first started working for one particular restaurant outfit some of the managers, including the district manager, had a weekly poker game at a small clubhouse down by the river. The game was staked with a hundred dollars from everybody's store safe.

Once when I moved into a new house, my boss bought us a $700 in-house vacuum cleaner system and listed it as an "equipment expense." A store manager routinely worked the drive-thru during the busy lunch rushes and under rang the cash register to the point of being able to buy himself a new car in just a few months. Another manager routinely used employees to clean his house and do repairs and kept them on the clock.

And there were some pretty clever thefts at the store level too. One employee was able to steal 50 pounds of meat a week from the restaurant and sell it to his family and friends. He did it by waiting for the manager to go into the office every morning and then threw the meat out a side window to a waiting accomplice who then drove off. And the list goes on and on. I've worked at stores where I'll bet 80% of the staff was ripping it off in one way or another. If you are a restaurant manager, you'd be amazed at how many people eat for free when you're not there.

According to the St. Louis Post Dispatch, the latest retailers' report shows that 79% of stores and restaurants surveyed report an increase in theft. The national retail federation says that the tough economic times may have made it easier for employees at all levels to succumb to temptation. But it's not all just out of need. The bad economy seems have made employees more brazen and a lot of the items being stolen are high ticket. Some steal like shoplifters and others use elaborate accounting schemes to rip their employers off.

Combined with non-employee theft return fraud at retail stores will account for $11.8 billion in losses in 2008. The fraud and theft increases during the busy holiday season when stores turn to temporary workers who may take advantage of their positions, knowing that will soon be gone anyway. The retailers say that internal theft usually accounts for more loss than shoplifting.

With the bad economy and retail profit margins in the red anyway, most stores are increasing their efforts to catch shoplifters and internal theft. But sometimes that's hard to do. One major shopping center here in St. Louis has given up prosecuting shoplifters just because of the sheer numbers of cases involved. If you're caught, you're given a warning and asked to leave. It's like a license to steal. Before the age of video cameras, I once had to climb up into the ceiling to watch a dishonest register operator. Sometime you have to do whatever it takes to catch a thief.

Because of all this theft, it is recommended that you have a well organized system put in place. A secure database that uses something like zebra tags will really help. You can check out those here.