-
Walmart CEO warned that if thefts do not decrease they will close stores across the country
-
He also warned that they could be forced to raise the prices of their products.
-
Reuters estimates the company loses about $3 billion a year from theft.
Little did Brad decide to take a walk through Walmart and steal as many items as he could fit into his pockets that nearly 40 police officers were gathered inside the store for a community event. He certainly didn’t get away with it.
Brad ended up handcuffed and later ridiculed on Facebook by the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office, south of Orlando, Florida. “Very bad idea, Brad,” they wrote in a post Thursday, quoted by the Fox affiliate in Tampa.
The robbery attempt carried out by Brad is one of the most recent, but by no means the most scandalous that the retailer has registered in recent months. In September, another CBS-affiliated outlet reported that an Indiana employee was accused of stealing up to $225,000 from cash registers.
To the statistics of robberies or attempted robberies, which are alarming in themselves, we must add the cases in which customers have been accused of this crime for incorrectly scanning the products in the self-service machines, or self-checkout. .
“If it is not corrected, the stores will close”
Overall, the situation is so dire that Walmart CEO Doug McMillon himself issued a stark warning Tuesday: If thefts don’t abate, the chain will close stores across the country.
“Theft is a problem,” he said in a televised interview with CNBC. “It is higher than it has been historically. If that is not corrected over time, prices will be higher and/or stores will close.”
McMillon believes that the key to reducing theft is for Walmart to work hand-in-hand with local law enforcement agencies and ensure that those agencies can count on all of the company’s personnel at their disposal.
“We have security measures that we have implemented for each store location. I think local law being a good partner for staff is part of that equation, and that’s generally the way we approach it,” he said.
US$ 3,000 million in thefts every year
McMillon did not specify during the interview how much money Walmart has lost on stolen items this year, but Reuters estimates indicate it likely loses about 1% of its US revenue each year, or about $3 billion.
The CEO also didn’t dwell on which locations have experienced the highest level of theft. However, his announcement comes after Los Angeles Walmarts resorted to tightening security on much of their inventory to prevent further theft.
The Bentonville, Arkansas-based giant isn’t the only retailer recently sounding alarm bells over record theft numbers. Lack of inventory reduced Target’s gross margin by more than $400 million in 2022 compared to last year.
Target expects those losses to rise to $600 million by the end of the fiscal year, according to November statements by its chief financial officer, Michael Fiddelke, who blamed the incidents on organized crime.
“Along with other retailers, we have seen a significant increase in retail theft and organized crime across our business,” added Target CEO Brian Cornell.
In mid-September, the National Retail Federation found that total shrinkage losses, a term retailers use to refer to theft and other types of inventory loss, rose to $94.5 billion in 2021.
Incidents increased 26.5% on average in the same year, according to the 2022 National Retail Safety Survey, cited by Fox News.