City of La Marque pays big price for Walmart shoplifters

Galveston County Daily News
By LAURA ELDER The Daily News
November 28, 2022

It would be easy to write off Walmart’s shoplifting problem in La Marque as the cost of doing business. To an extent, Walmart does.

Nationally, shoplifted merchandise costs Walmart about $3 billion a year, about 1 percent of its U.S. revenues, according to a 2016 Reuters report, although some estimates are far more.

Walmart understandably is motivated to reduce losses from theft and for nearly 10 years has rolled out programs and policies — some helpful, others controversial — to deter thieves, reduce police calls and stop so-called shrinkage that includes theft by employees, damaged inventory, vendor fraud and cashier errors.

Still, as La Marque leaders have argued, Walmart isn’t the only victim here. Theft at Walmart in La Marque is so pervasive it’s skewing the city’s crime rate. Police officials told the city council in October that although crime in general was down, property crime was up sharply and most of that spike could be traced to shoplifting at the Walmart store, 6410 Interstate 45 S.

High property crime rates can hurt cities’ efforts to attract people and businesses. New businesses and investors that could spur economic growth and improvements are apt to avoid areas where crime is rampant.

Aside from being a drag on economic development, the high rate of shoplifting at Walmart puts a severe strain on already burdened police staffs in cities big and small.

La Marque leaders did what good leaders should do and appealed to Walmart for a remedy.

They got Walmart to staff its La Marque store with two additional asset protection associates, Vinny Muanza, market asset protection manager for the mega-retailer, said.

“The number of shopliftings in the store has risen by 39 percent since last year,” Muanza told The Daily News.

The city’s police department is working with Walmart and its asset protection team on strategies to decrease theft at the store, which could assist in lowering the city’s crime rate.

Walmart, like any other taxpayer, should expect police response. But problems shoplifting causes for the city in terms of branding and a disproportionate number of police calls is too big to ignore.

La Marque police have arrested 205 people for shoplifting at Walmart so far in 2022.

The city reported about one shoplifting a day from Jan. 1 to Sept. 30 this year and shoplifting accounted for 70 percent of all theft in the city, Police Randall Aragon said in a city council meeting Oct. 10.

“If we didn’t have shopliftings, our property crime rate would be down 13 percent instead of up 12.1 percent,” he said.

Walmart is by no means the only retailer plagued by rampant theft.

“Recently, retailers have been battling unprecedented losses,” Forbes reported this month. “Organized retail crime is running rampant. A national retail security survey shows that total shrink in 2021 reported by retailers is now almost a $100 billion problem.”

And mass merchandisers aren’t alone in complaining about the crime.

“More than half — 56 percent— of small retail businesses say they have experienced theft from their stores in the past year,” according to data released in July by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Half of them say the issue has gotten worse in the past year.

“Retail theft is not a victimless crime, and its increasing prevalence means greater danger for store employees and higher costs for law-abiding Americans,” said Neil Bradley, executive vice president and chief policy officer at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. “Store owners are not only confronted with traditional shoplifting, but increasingly with highly organized criminal gangs who seek to profit by taking advantage of gaps in the law.”

Industry observers blame the pandemic, high inflation and staffing shortages for the sharp rise in store thefts.

If you think shoplifting largely is perpetrated by the poor trying to provide food or diapers for their families, think again. It’s on the rise mostly because there’s a higher level of organized retail crime; felony threshold levels have been raised; and there are fewer eyes on the sales floor, according to security company RecFaces.

Shoplifting has become a low-risk, high-reward activity, the company said.

It’s such a problem for Walmart, that when CEO Doug McMillon took charge in February 2014, he made reducing crime a top priority, Bloomberg reported in 2016. Strategies included moving employees from storerooms and aisles to store exits to spot-check receipts, among other efforts, according to Bloomberg.

One of Walmart’s more memorable efforts to reduce calls to police was a program in which first-time offenders caught stealing merchandise below a certain value could avoid arrest if they agreed to go through a theft-prevention program.

Shoplifters had the option to pay a fee to Correction Education Co. and Turning Point Justice and complete an educational program in exchange for forgiveness.

Walmart suspended the program, which was in about 2,000 stores, in 2017 in part because it got sued over it.

La Marque leaders should be commended for working with Walmart. We all have a stake in preventing shoplifting.

“In addition to the growing number of thefts that turn violent, innocent consumers, employees, local communities, and business owners and shareholders bear the costs of rising retail theft,” the U.S. Chamber of Commerce said in July.