Ahmedabad:
A well-dressed man walks into a supermarket and goes through the things on display. He tries out a shirt, looks at a pair of shoes and inspects some new gizmos. Disappointed that he could not find what he had come for, he walks away. Later, the mall discovers that some expensive deodorants have gone missing.
Welcome to the world of shoplifters and malls happen to be their favourite jaunt.
According to a survey, the Indian retail sector lost Rs 9,295.9 crore to shoplifting and theft during the 12-month period ending on June, 2010. The industry in Ahmedabad, believes that of its total sales, up to 2% is lost to shoplifting and theft.
Shoplifting, which is also known as 'shrinkage' within the retail industry, is theft of goods from a retail establishment. It is one of the most common property crimes dealt with by police and courts.
Talking about shoplifters, Ashish Deep Singh, manager, Iscon Mega Mall, Ahmedabad, said there are usually two types of shoplifters.
"The first category is of professional shoplifters who earn a living by taking things from shops. They also tend to be more skilled. The other are the kleptomaniacs, who have a compulsive urge to steal," said Singh.
He said that the mall cannot do much as far as shoplifting is concerned and individual stores need to put in place proper security measures for the same.
Several malls have installed closed circuit television cameras (CCTVs) to check shoplifting. Others insist on customers depositing their bags at the counter to help arrest the trend.
Indranil Banerjee, manager, City Mall, Ahmedabad, said one way to help curb shoplifting is to ensure that the employees are vigilant. "Most of the malls have now tightened their security measures. This includes allowing only a limited number of apparels in the trial room to continuously monitoring the CCTV camera footages," he said.
He said that the shrinkage rate is about 2% of total sales, thanks to the modern nigh-tech security systems. "Except for drug addicts and hardened professionals who steal for resale, most shoplifters are decent people who are otherwise law-abiding citizens. The vast majority of adult offenders have no idea about how or why they become a thief, or why they continue to shoplift, even after getting caught," said Professor, Kavita Sharma, Institute of Business Management and Research, Ahmedabad, in an article on indianmba.com.
India's fledgling retail industry has topped the Global Retail Theft Barometer (GRTB) survey for 2009. The country topped the retail 'shrinkage' rate in 41 countries surveyed across the world, for the second year in a row. In India, 47.3% of retail shrinkage was due to shoplifting and 26.4% due to employee theft. The highest rate of shrinkage was seen in apparels.
Talking about the issue Sharma further said in the article that shoplifting is one of the biggest issues faced by most of the retailers.
Psychologist Prashant Bhimani said that kleptomania is generally the outcome of faulty parenting. "It is often people who are not raised properly who resort to such crimes as they do not care for moral behaviour," he said.
Talking further about the issue, Anand Adukia, zonal head, Pantaloon Retail (India) Ltd said that usually the items that are taken away are small in size like small packages of eatables and even undergarments.
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