Walmart CEO Doug McMillon announced during an interview on CNBC last week that the retailer may have to raise prices or close stores due to insufficiently aggressive prosecution of retail theft. McMillon claimed that, as a result of lenient sentences, theft at Walmart is “higher than what it has historically been.” During the interview, McMillon does not disclose how much merchandise Walmart is losing to shoplifting or how that compares to previous years.
Does the CEO or the Wal-Mart corporation have any significant investment in for-profit prisons? I am trying to understand the motivation for pushing this story if it isn't true.
Another criminal organization. Walmart wants to crack down on "shoplifting" that they say is negatively affecting their business. But the evidence goes against their argument. Yet every day our local Walmart is breaking the law with regards to wages paid, hours offered, insurance or lack thereof, price gouging, etc. We need to have a governmental body exercising the proper authority to rein these criminally conspiritorial behemoths in!
The Walmart name is synonymous with unfair practices. From the beginning, they laser focused opening in lower income neighborhoods, underpricing goods, forcing local mom and pop business to fold. Long range, this practice created food deserts, where alternate shopping options are few or non-existent, and though they brought employment, pay is well below accepted norms and te hours are long with little in the way of benefits. With the advent of automation at Self-Checkout, we scan and bag our own items, essentially becoming unpaid laborers. That Walmart is subsidized by the government is stunning and infuriating. I may be mistaken, but it was my understanding we already have burdensome sentences for crimes of this nature. What's worse, their narrative will spread among other retailers and become a rally cry for the Right. Charge more for less, imprison the poor. Win win for them.
Right! Don't forget that they pay so low that they teach employees how to get food stamps and other government support. They also pressure small communities to put their police force inside the stores. Tax payers are supplementing Walmart on so many levels. It is dastardly and I will do whatever I can to avoid spending a single penny in their stores.
My son works at a Home Depot warehouse. He is amazed at how much inventory is thrown in the trash because of a minor dent. Not donated to a place like Habitat for Humanity or discounted, but discarded. Large items like tool boxes, mowers, refrigerators. This has to outpace any amount of theft in stores.
I think it's part of a broader effort by the GOP to spread these narratives about crime in cities (with the not so subtle implication that it is always people of color committing these crimes). Then they can use that fear to their benefit.
Trevor Noah did a segment of "Now You Know" last week that addressed this very subject. You can google it. He noted the media responsibility in reinforcing this illusion that retail crime is rampant. The politics of this idea that citizens are causing their own problems and inflation is their fault is pretty blatant. In fact, it is distracting from the real problem: corporate greed and malfeasance. Wage theft far surpasses all other types of theft.
In 2016, Walmart announced it was closing 154 stores. This "contraction" took place in poor rural and low income urban areas, but not until Walmart killed off the mom and pop small businesses in those communities, leaving those communities worse off than before.
Walgreens has grossly over-developed, practically on every corner in some areas, leaving us to wonder about capital investment write-offs as they, too, contract their businesses in poorly performing locations.
Both of these corporations contributed to the opioid crises. Should they be considered parasitic entities?
I was a state prosecutor in Central Florida. When we subpoenaed store employees for trials, we got all kinds of resistance from management; plea deals were accordingly lenient. This twit is blowing smoke up our collective. . . .
Judd -- you slammed that point home! It reminds me of a study that was done in hospitals in the late 70s regarding employee theft. Unlike what many believed to be true, it was not the lowest paid employees (janitors, nursing assistants, etc.) who did the majority of the stealing, it was the highest paid (RNs, techs, etc.) If the facts aren't looked at, salesmanship can sell an umbrella to a Laplander.
Where have we come to as a society when we justify crime because the victim can afford it? How stupid is that? Comparing shoplifting to wage theft is a bogus comparison and one I would expect out of FOX News or OAN, please stop doing it. Theft is theft and retail stores operate at very low margins, in the single digits so theft matters. Walmart is no more deserving of theft than a sole proprietorship and having seen plenty of smash and grab and looting I have zero sympathy for criminals. If thieves were stealing baby formula or diapers or basic foodstuffs I would be sympathetic to a degree, if they are stealing anything else it’s another matter.
Maybe just maybe if people felt a sense of community they would look past their selfish interests to realize that if a retailer abandons a neighborhood it hurts everyone in that neighborhood. Food deserts are now a reality because crime and theft make business unviable.
Giving back? They provide merchandise and groceries at prices people can afford. They provide a wide selection of products to choose from, they provide these things in big, well lit, fairly clean stores. Business exists to serve a need at a profit. If you want to see an economy where business cannot make a profit go visit Venezuela and see how people starve and leave the country because they have nothing to eat. I will end by saying this, I don’t understand why people think business exists to employ people, that is not their function, that is a byproduct. Job creation is not the job of business or government.
No need for hyperbole. We get enough of that in gaslighting from the RW'ers. No one said they need to make zero profits. But knowing that corporate greed is driving approximately 56% of the rate of inflation, can't you see how more concern about investor ROI vs care about the employees and the community they serve can be an issue? If you can't see that, then perhaps you should seek out a forum more in line with your manner of thinking.
Here’s part of the problem: Walmart, like many large retail corporations, does not want to pay actual people to do the job of checking out items for purchase. I live in a small town in rural Ohio that is a regional shopping area since we are the county seat. Probably 10-20% of the local police docket entries in our local newspaper is people arrested for not scanning items during checkout. So Wal-Mart used our local police force to deal with it. Walmart outsources their security problems to the taxpayers. AND they save the money that would go to paying checkout clerks. Walmart (and other similar corporations) whine and wail that “they can’t find employees” and so they have no choice but to go to self-checkout. The problem is that they don’t pay enough. I own a business here and I do pay enough. I get 60-70 applications whenever I post a job. People are sick and tired of low inadequate hourly wages and constantly changing schedules. I would love to see a national boycott of these soulless corporations. I realize that some shoppers will have no other place to shop because Wal-Mart long ago drove the local businesses to close.
Walmart has offloaded the cost of handling theft complaints from Walmart onto your community, through the salaries paid to the cops handling Walmart theft complaints.
Does the CEO or the Wal-Mart corporation have any significant investment in for-profit prisons? I am trying to understand the motivation for pushing this story if it isn't true.
As Legum points out, the motivation for pushing the story of a shoplifting surge acts as a cover for corporate greed and malfeasance.
That’s a good question.
An excellent question!
Another criminal organization. Walmart wants to crack down on "shoplifting" that they say is negatively affecting their business. But the evidence goes against their argument. Yet every day our local Walmart is breaking the law with regards to wages paid, hours offered, insurance or lack thereof, price gouging, etc. We need to have a governmental body exercising the proper authority to rein these criminally conspiritorial behemoths in!
Thanks so much Judd for this report. If you weren’t doing your work, we’d probably believe the CEOs and media hype about rising shoplifting rates.
The Walmart name is synonymous with unfair practices. From the beginning, they laser focused opening in lower income neighborhoods, underpricing goods, forcing local mom and pop business to fold. Long range, this practice created food deserts, where alternate shopping options are few or non-existent, and though they brought employment, pay is well below accepted norms and te hours are long with little in the way of benefits. With the advent of automation at Self-Checkout, we scan and bag our own items, essentially becoming unpaid laborers. That Walmart is subsidized by the government is stunning and infuriating. I may be mistaken, but it was my understanding we already have burdensome sentences for crimes of this nature. What's worse, their narrative will spread among other retailers and become a rally cry for the Right. Charge more for less, imprison the poor. Win win for them.
Right! Don't forget that they pay so low that they teach employees how to get food stamps and other government support. They also pressure small communities to put their police force inside the stores. Tax payers are supplementing Walmart on so many levels. It is dastardly and I will do whatever I can to avoid spending a single penny in their stores.
My son works at a Home Depot warehouse. He is amazed at how much inventory is thrown in the trash because of a minor dent. Not donated to a place like Habitat for Humanity or discounted, but discarded. Large items like tool boxes, mowers, refrigerators. This has to outpace any amount of theft in stores.
The last paragraph says everything you need to know :(
I think it's part of a broader effort by the GOP to spread these narratives about crime in cities (with the not so subtle implication that it is always people of color committing these crimes). Then they can use that fear to their benefit.
Trevor Noah did a segment of "Now You Know" last week that addressed this very subject. You can google it. He noted the media responsibility in reinforcing this illusion that retail crime is rampant. The politics of this idea that citizens are causing their own problems and inflation is their fault is pretty blatant. In fact, it is distracting from the real problem: corporate greed and malfeasance. Wage theft far surpasses all other types of theft.
In 2016, Walmart announced it was closing 154 stores. This "contraction" took place in poor rural and low income urban areas, but not until Walmart killed off the mom and pop small businesses in those communities, leaving those communities worse off than before.
Walgreens has grossly over-developed, practically on every corner in some areas, leaving us to wonder about capital investment write-offs as they, too, contract their businesses in poorly performing locations.
Both of these corporations contributed to the opioid crises. Should they be considered parasitic entities?
Yes. Or cancerous.
Excellent report, Judd! as long as Citizens United stands, corporations will have a hard time eliciting sympathy.
I was a state prosecutor in Central Florida. When we subpoenaed store employees for trials, we got all kinds of resistance from management; plea deals were accordingly lenient. This twit is blowing smoke up our collective. . . .
This makes me sick and feel helpless - how can we stop the corporate greed and misinformation?
Through your politicians.
Or revolt, but that is sooo messy.
Judd -- you slammed that point home! It reminds me of a study that was done in hospitals in the late 70s regarding employee theft. Unlike what many believed to be true, it was not the lowest paid employees (janitors, nursing assistants, etc.) who did the majority of the stealing, it was the highest paid (RNs, techs, etc.) If the facts aren't looked at, salesmanship can sell an umbrella to a Laplander.
Where have we come to as a society when we justify crime because the victim can afford it? How stupid is that? Comparing shoplifting to wage theft is a bogus comparison and one I would expect out of FOX News or OAN, please stop doing it. Theft is theft and retail stores operate at very low margins, in the single digits so theft matters. Walmart is no more deserving of theft than a sole proprietorship and having seen plenty of smash and grab and looting I have zero sympathy for criminals. If thieves were stealing baby formula or diapers or basic foodstuffs I would be sympathetic to a degree, if they are stealing anything else it’s another matter.
Maybe just maybe if people felt a sense of community they would look past their selfish interests to realize that if a retailer abandons a neighborhood it hurts everyone in that neighborhood. Food deserts are now a reality because crime and theft make business unviable.
How stupid is it that you think addicts and hungry humans can look past their selfish interests...lol talk about ironic and hypercritical
Do you think Walmart feels a sense of community ?
Of course not. They are are like a parasite living off the host and giving nothing back in exchange.
Giving back? They provide merchandise and groceries at prices people can afford. They provide a wide selection of products to choose from, they provide these things in big, well lit, fairly clean stores. Business exists to serve a need at a profit. If you want to see an economy where business cannot make a profit go visit Venezuela and see how people starve and leave the country because they have nothing to eat. I will end by saying this, I don’t understand why people think business exists to employ people, that is not their function, that is a byproduct. Job creation is not the job of business or government.
No need for hyperbole. We get enough of that in gaslighting from the RW'ers. No one said they need to make zero profits. But knowing that corporate greed is driving approximately 56% of the rate of inflation, can't you see how more concern about investor ROI vs care about the employees and the community they serve can be an issue? If you can't see that, then perhaps you should seek out a forum more in line with your manner of thinking.
McMillion? What an appropriate name (reminds me of Donald Duck's Uncle Scrooge McDuck!)
Here’s part of the problem: Walmart, like many large retail corporations, does not want to pay actual people to do the job of checking out items for purchase. I live in a small town in rural Ohio that is a regional shopping area since we are the county seat. Probably 10-20% of the local police docket entries in our local newspaper is people arrested for not scanning items during checkout. So Wal-Mart used our local police force to deal with it. Walmart outsources their security problems to the taxpayers. AND they save the money that would go to paying checkout clerks. Walmart (and other similar corporations) whine and wail that “they can’t find employees” and so they have no choice but to go to self-checkout. The problem is that they don’t pay enough. I own a business here and I do pay enough. I get 60-70 applications whenever I post a job. People are sick and tired of low inadequate hourly wages and constantly changing schedules. I would love to see a national boycott of these soulless corporations. I realize that some shoppers will have no other place to shop because Wal-Mart long ago drove the local businesses to close.
Long story short.
Walmart has offloaded the cost of handling theft complaints from Walmart onto your community, through the salaries paid to the cops handling Walmart theft complaints.
Yup.