Commentary: The ‘minor’ crime of shoplifting can be part of something much more sinister

Typically, the term “shoplifting” connotes a minor crime – an individual stealing out of need or for personal use. But as Robert Gavin’s reporting on January 20 reveals (“Colonie man charged with moving stolen goods”), shoplifting can be something far more serious, consequential – and dangerous.

In the Colonie case, a person was held without bail on charges of stealing more than $100,000 in goods in separate incidents in various Capital Region stores. That pattern, and that kind of haul, are characteristic of organized retail crime – a high-level theft reliant on the premise that stealing from stores is low risk and high reward.

Experts say proceeds from organized retail crime finance everything from a lush lifestyle to gang activity, illegal guns, human trafficking, and drug crimes. State and local governments lose millions in sales tax. Shoppers pay more and see more products locked behind the counter or in special packaging. Even the Rev. Al Sharpton commented in frustration on national television, “They’re locking up my toothpaste.”

The National Retail Federation reports losses from internal and external theft tallying $94.5 billion nationwide in 2022, and losses of some $62 billion nationally due to fraud at the return counter. Areas with high retail density, such as the Capital Region, are target-rich.

Store-level thieves working for organized retail crime groups are the first step in a black-market supply chain where the items most in demand include health and beauty aids, baby formula, designer jeans, charging cords, razor blades, power tools, ink cartridges, and food. This is sophisticated work combining efficient training and, increasingly, violence that endangers shoppers and workers alike.

Organized retail crime takes many forms, including credit card, gift card, and return desk fraud and collaboration with store employees. It can put stolen items for sale online or back into the legitimate supply chain, repackaged and relabeled to obliterate expiration dates.

New laws demand a careful balance between the crime and the circumstance of those caught stealing. For example, organized retail crime groups know they can “hire” down-on-their-luck people eager to risk misdemeanor arrest and earn pennies on the dollar for merchandise they steal at the direction of higher-ups who fence the goods and, in turn, make the real money. Imprisoning pawns evokes bad memories of Rockefeller-era drug laws. We don’t need to go back there.

New York does, though, need to take a hard look at the overarching severity of organized retail crime and its heavy toll. New York City’s independent supermarkets, bodegas, and grocers have formed a built-to-purpose coalition, “Collective Action to Protect our Stores” (CAPS), urging Albany to make it a felony to assault retail employees and owners, combine petit larceny charges in incidents of recidivist theft, and chase those who “foster the sale of stolen goods.” These ideas seem to point correctly not at the shoplifter who steals out of need but at those whose profession it is to make stores and consumer products more dangerous and expensive.

The CAPS proposals can boost the work of groups like the Retail Council of New York State and the National Retail Federation, which won federal legislation at the end of 2022 requiring online marketplaces to verify the identities of high-volume third-party sellers. That’s where a lot of the stolen merchandise shows up.

Recognizing store-level theft as something more serious than ‘shoplifting’ takes strides toward reducing all manner of crime by cutting off a major source of funding for illegal activity. The Colonie arrest shows organized retail crime is not confined to major urban areas. The issue demands a balanced statewide response.

Ted Potrikus of Cooperstown is retired from a career at the Retail Council of New York State.

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