Dick’s Sporting Goods is facing a profits drop of almost 25 percent, despite rising sales, due to the shoplifting epidemic sweeping American cities.
“Our [second-quarter] profitability was short of our expectations due in large part to the impact of elevated inventory shrink, an increasingly serious issue impacting many retailers,” lamented chief executive Lauren Hobart – with “inventory shrink” being a politically correct euphemism for items lost to damage, theft, fraud, and so on.
Mass shoplifting events have been on the increase, particularly in Gavin Newsom’s California, in recent months, with law enforcement blaming organized criminals and the introduction of soft-on-crime policies as zero cash bail.
So-called “flash mobs” have been pillaging multiple stores across Southern California, with viral video footage showing tens of masked criminals stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of goods.
In Chicago, meanwhile, previously devastated retail chains such as Walgreens have begun to roll out “anti-theft” stores, with almost all products locked away and customers required to order them through a touchscreen before staff bring them out.
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