What does theft and shoplifting cost you?

Living close to Memphis, TN means that when I watch the news, there is typically no good news. Every Friday night one of the stations features someone who has shoplifted in a segment called “Stop Thief.” At the end, after the reporter has shown you a picture of the person who committed the crime, they tell you how much you’re “stuck” paying for the same item due to theft.

The truth is, manufacturers and retailers have to tack on a little bit to the cost of every item that is purchased to make up for theft of the item. You think razors are expensive? Just a year or so ago, it was the most shoplifted item in the world.

This year, retail theft was up 8.8% according to the 2009 Global Retail Theft Barometer report that comes from the Center for Retail Research. The report not only stated how much retail theft had risen, but also stated that, in the United States, the average family pays an extra $435 for their retail items per year thanks to retail theft.

The most popular stolen items from stores included personal items such as makeup, razors and perfumes. One of the items that made it to the most stolen items list was the Wii. I just don’t see how someone could walk out of a store with an entire gaming system…I had a receipt in my hand and the system in a box and was still stopped at the door with my new XBox 360 the other day.

I was surprised to see how people could take things out of a store and the elaborate ways that they do it. Watching the segment on the news shows you some of the ways that people get away (for the time being) with stealing car radios and such from the stores by switching out boxes. It just seems like a lot of trouble to go through to likely be caught.