Organized thieves rampage through America

Black Friday sales and the holiday rush have always been a concern for retailers but this year they have to worry about something even bigger- organized thieves and shoplifting. 

Organized thieves, shoplifting, and smash-and-grab incidents have been rampant over the past few months. Law enforcement officials believe that the pandemic is definitely responsible for this uptick. Online shopping which saw a boom during the pandemic added in up to a 60% increase in such crimes as online sites are usually the place where these thieves sell the stolen products. Stores in Chicago, Minneapolis, and St Paul are the latest to be targeted. Best Buy stores in Maplewood and Burnsville, Minnesota were recently hit by a group of criminals who stole expensive products. Police in Chicago are swamped with four smash-and-grab incidents that occurred in stores such as Foot Locker, the North Face, and Cannada Goose. Earlier this month, an estimated 80 thieves ransacked a Nordstrom store in California, and over a dozen people swiped merchandise from Louis Vuitton stores in suburban Chicago. Officials believe that thieves target stores in densely populated areas which are closely packed together because the products from these stores have a high resale value, offbeat stores are usually never the targets. 

Repeated incidents have led to stores adding additional security and keeping their more valuable merchandise locked up. This has turned out to be an issue for customers and sales. First of all, customers get weary to come into a store where they see so much protection. Secondly, they have to flag down a salesperson in order to unlock the merchandise they want to look at. Since most retail stores are going through labor shortages, they don't even have the manpower to enable them to place enough staff who can unlock the lockers whenever necessary. 

Source: CBS News