‘Shoplifting season’ in full swing: retailers

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This article was published 19/11/2010 (5663 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It’s the time of year when carols ring out, shoppers flood stores, and Baby Jesus goes missing from Nativity displays. For fed-up store owner Darlene Appleyard, the holiday season means a spike in shoplifting — including items like Christmas decorations.

Appleyard and her husband, Vern Appleyard, own 15 Manitoba card and bargain stores, including A Buck or Two in the Portage Place Shopping Centre.

She hit headlines earlier this year after she told mayoral candidates the downtown store alone had lost $100,000 in one year to shoplifting.

She’s not expecting respite during the holiday season, estimating 40 per cent of theft in her stores happens from October to December.

“You’re short-staffed. There’s longer mall hours.

“And you’re trying to stretch staff out over longer hours, so you have less staff on the floor, less coverage, and more customers and more mayhem,” she said earlier this week, as her employees bustled around plastic candy canes and shiny holiday signs.

“It’s just easier to steal. This is shoplifting season.”

People steal items as Christmas gifts or take advantage of busy traffic to mask their activities, she said.

She said theft isn’t just isolated to the downtown area, as the couple owns stores in areas like St. Vital, St. James and Grant Park, as well as outside Winnipeg.

“It’s not just here,” she said. “It goes up (due to) the more people you get in the malls.

“Because the more people you get in the malls, the more opportunity there is to steal.”

Mark Beazley, the Toronto-based Retail Council of Canada spokesman, said theft “rises dramatically” during the holiday season.

The council estimates retailers across Canada lose approximately $3 billion to theft annually, but didn’t have shoplifting figures specific to the holiday season. The council says there are more than 200,000 retail establishments nationally.

“Thieves take advantage of the larger crowds and an influx of new seasonal employees that may not have the in-depth loss-prevention training as full-time employees,” he said.

“There’s really a mix of thieves that take advantage of the busy holiday season… there are definitely some opportunists out there, but a significant portion of retail theft is attributed to organized-crime groups and networks of thieves.”

Rita Dubé, loss-prevention manager of Winnipeg-headquartered Warehouse One, said an increase of shoplifting incidents around the holiday season is in proportion with the increase of customers in stores. She said employees at the chain’s 114 stores across Canada are refreshed about five or six weeks before Christmas on how to stop shoplifters. “There’s things like customers that won’t meet your eye (or) customers that want to avoid being spoken to,” she said.

“Our employees are taught to greet every customer that comes in the store.”

A shoplifter does not want to be noticed or recognized, because they’re hoping to do what they want to do and get out of there without anybody realizing they were there.”

Police caution store owners, as well.

“Obviously, during the Christmas months — like November, December, and January… with Boxing Day and holiday sales being on, there’s obviously an increase in persons out in the malls and out shopping, so (that) would definitely pose a risk to shop owners to be more vigilant,” said Winnipeg Police Service spokeswoman Const. Anna Janzen.

Overall complaints to police about shoplifting remain steady.

In 2008, police responded to 325 calls for service about shoplifting, and 366 in 2009.

This year, there’s been about 311 to date.

It’s worth nothing, however, police don’t hear about all the complaints because some are dealt with directly by security staff, who may have peace officer status.

Regardless, Janzen said holiday crime isn’t limited solely to those looking to rip off shop owners, pointing out thieves may sometimes target vehicles full of holiday goodies instead.

gabrielle.giroday@freepress.mb.ca