Procrustes Stretched
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It appears the gods are delivering more terrible News 4 MAGA Messaging. It seems, America’s stores are winning the war on shoplifting. How can that be, you may ask? I suggest when people push away doom, gloom, dystopian scenarios of American wreckage, reality sets in. American ingenuity wins again. Retailers suffered and rather than quit or walk away crying crocodile tears, they went to correcting a situation.
New York CNN —
A year ago, America’s stores declared a shoplifting epidemic. They closed stores in major cities, hired extra security, locked up key merchandise and declared big losses in their financial statements.
This year, retailers are telling a very different story — or no story at all. It’s as if the shoplifting crisis suddenly vanished.
Take Target, for example.
Last year, Target said a scourge of petty theft and organized groups stealing merchandise dented its profit by more than $500 million. Target also closed nine stores, saying “theft and organized retail crime” threatened worker and customer safety and made business unsustainable.
But now, Target is sounding a different message as it gets a better grip on lost merchandise, known as shrink. (Shrink and theft are often used interchangeably, although shrink also accounts for inventory losses from employee theft, damaged and spoiled products, administrative errors, vendor fraud and other factors.)
“We’re ahead of where we expected to be in terms of progress on shrink,” Target chief operating officer chief Michael Fiddelke said on an analyst call last month.
New York CNN —
A year ago, America’s stores declared a shoplifting epidemic. They closed stores in major cities, hired extra security, locked up key merchandise and declared big losses in their financial statements.
This year, retailers are telling a very different story — or no story at all. It’s as if the shoplifting crisis suddenly vanished.
Take Target, for example.
Last year, Target said a scourge of petty theft and organized groups stealing merchandise dented its profit by more than $500 million. Target also closed nine stores, saying “theft and organized retail crime” threatened worker and customer safety and made business unsustainable.
But now, Target is sounding a different message as it gets a better grip on lost merchandise, known as shrink. (Shrink and theft are often used interchangeably, although shrink also accounts for inventory losses from employee theft, damaged and spoiled products, administrative errors, vendor fraud and other factors.)
“We’re ahead of where we expected to be in terms of progress on shrink,” Target chief operating officer chief Michael Fiddelke said on an analyst call last month.
