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If you live anywhere near a major city and shop — which means you’re like a majority of people — you’ve probably noticed that stores are taking extra measures to curb shoplifting. From locking up items behind the counter to putting special locked cases on the shelf that require an employee key, stores weren’t going to just sit idly by and let shoplifters rob them blind.

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That, or the stores are just closing. Like the Walgreens locations in Boston.

In California, retailers have lost $7.2 billion to shoplifters. The issue is so bad, California Democrats passed legislation increasing the penalties on retail theft (as a way of staving off Prop 36, which has even tougher penalties). In New York, theft has cost retailers $4.4 billion, and Gov. Kathy Hochul declared ‘war’ on shoplifting.

In short, it’s bad. Or was.

Because stores implemented a lot of the things we mentioned above: locking up items, closing down stores. Things that make retail theft difficult, if not impossible.

And you’d think the ‘Curious consumer reporter’ for CNN would not only know this.

You’d think wrong:

He writes:

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.)

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But don’t worry — X users did his job for him and pointed out why retail theft is down.

Right?

Look at that. Steaks behind iron bars.

Heh.

Many people can’t afford the bread or the gas to get to the store.

And when there’s nothing to steal, of course the retail theft rate goes down.

OH MY GOD.

The shoplifting rate was up and the CNN consumer reporter runs with the headline ‘America’s stores are winning the war on shoplifting’?

You don’t despise the media enough.

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He really is smug, isn’t he?

The last Denny’s in San Francisco closed recently thanks to dining and dashing — which is also theft.

Nathaniel Meyersohn’s next story: ‘how retail theft helped create jobs.’

And people lost jobs and residents of the community lost access to needed goods and services.

CNN sucks.

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Bingo. Meyersohn even admits the measures have ‘frustrated shoppers’, which is a way of saying we get victimized by criminals again. And Meyersohn thinks that’s a win.

You. Don’t. Despise. The. Media. Enough.