Local and Retail Theft
Major retailers and local stores close due to rampant theft.
About 56% of small businesses have reported theft from their stores in 2022, while large retail companies have reported that eight out of ten of their stores have been stolen from. Because of this, both retail and local stores with high chances of robbery have been closing in certain locations.
Target, being one of the main retail companies shutting down locations, estimated that losses from theft could top $1.2 billion this fiscal year. Because of this, Target has decided to shut down nine of their locations in major cities to try to prevent even more losses. But with the closings of these locations, communities surrounding them lose access to groceries or even their jobs.
“It’s sad that people have to lose their jobs over this,” senior Gabrielle Black said. “Like they’re just doing their jobs and they go unemployed because of something they didn’t even do.”
64% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck, making them rely on discount stores such as Walmart, according to CNBC. But because of the rampant theft happening, Walmart has decided to close down 23 of their stores so far in 2023. Three of these are located in Chicago’s South and West side neighborhoods, which are predominantly filled with minority and low-income families.
“If this keeps happening people won’t be able to get food for their families,” senior Zakiya Miller said. “Lower income families won’t be able to get affordable groceries leading them to have more problems than they probably do.”
45% of small businesses report experiencing theft or shoplifting in the past year, according to the US Chamber of Commerce. But unlike chain stores, small business owners can’t recover those losses so quickly. Filing insurance claims won’t be helpful either since the insurance coverage is too high or they’d drop the business after the claim has been filed.
“Local businesses already don’t have much,” senior Nia Bryant said. “So, stealing [from] them really hurts compared to [big] companies.”
36% of local business owners stated that they have increased security measures and bigger retailers have stated that they’ll make “significant investments” to keep their stores safe. These measures include increasing security guards, surveillance, and higher-quality locks.
