New Delhi: Organised retailing in India is a budding industry and pilferage is growing menace. Retailers told that employees are the worst shoplifters.
This is a reconstruction of last Sunday's event when an electric shaver that was not paid for, slipped out of a shopping bag from a shop worker.
It is only indicative of a threat that is growing.
In India, organised retail is expected to triple in the next five years. Such exposed shop layouts are far more vulnerable to shoplifting.
According to Sanjiv Goenka, Vice-Chairman,RPG Group, "There are displays, TV monitors, scanners in the retail shops, but it still happens that shop people goes carrying things without being cleared."
Such losses, termed 'shrinkage' in retail parlance, could range from as low as 0.25 per cent claimed by a Shoppers Stop executive to as high as around 2 per cent of total turnover.
Attractive picks are high-value easy to conceal items like jewellery, CDs and cosmetics.
This is a global phenomenon and according to a study, British retailers have spent 3.5 billion pounds on crime prevention in the last 5 years.
Indian retailers are following suit by investing in more security guards and technology like RFID. However, some of them are seeking tougher policing and penalties for such offences.
Ramesh Agarwal, CEO, Vishal Mega Mart, says, "The police doesn?t take action against the threat. The customers know that nothing will happen if they are caught by retailers for stealing that encourages them to steal again."
The police is of little help, as under the Indian Penal Code, pilferage is a minor offence.
Indian Retailers reluctantly admit that a major chunk of employees are ship lifters themselves, in some cases as high as 70 per cent, who manage to work around the outlet's security systems.
To combat that, stores like Vishal Mega Mart have resorted to strict checking of employees along with incentive programmes to discourage stealing.
A study states that the US retail industry is losing $46 billion dollars annually to retail crime.
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