Shoplifters vex retailers
June 11, 2013
Shoplifters cost German retailers about 3.8 billion euros ($5.04 billion) in 2012 alone, a survey by the EHI scientific institute revealed on Tuesday.
About half of the damage was caused by regular customers in shops across the nation. Another 800 million euros worth of goods were stolen by staff, with the remainder swiped by suppliers on the road from the factory to the retail store.
Altogether, the losses work out to the equivalent of 50 euros per German household.
A losing battle
Among the favorite items among shoplifters last year were sunglasses, cigarettes, perfumes, alcoholic beverages, razor blades and all sorts of clothing, the study found out after a poll among 17,000 retail shops.
EHI researcher Frank Horst said in only two percent of all shoplifting cases thieves were actually caught, with the rest carrying away their booty unnoticed in broad daylight.
"Accomplices distract the security personnel while a shoplifter clears a whole shelf," Horst said, describng a common practice. "Or security staff are lured to a remote corner of a store and is too far away when the alarm bell is ringing at the exit."
The EHI report added that last year German had retailers installed new anti-theft systems to the tune of 1.2 billion euros - to little avail as it turned out.
hg/pfd (dpa, AFP)