Economic downturn fuels global shoplifting spree

A new study shows that a growing number of affluent shoppers impacted by the global recession have turned to shoplifting to obtain the luxury items they can no longer afford to buy. Last Wednesday, Timewrote:

The global recession isn’t just making jobs scarce and tightening spending—it’s also turning more people into thieves. According to an annual survey released on Tuesday, incidents of shoplifting rose nearly 6 percent over the past year, representing nearly $115 billion in losses for businesses. One of the more surprising findings: A growing number of new shoplifters are outwardly reputable, middle-class people who are walking off with French cheeses, quality meats, cosmetics, mobile phones, clothing and other goodies that they feel they need to maintain a quality of life they can no longer afford.”People already feeling, or merely anticipating, the negative impact of recession have taken to stealing … at the very time retailers also suffering from the downturn have had to cut back on security staff,” says Joshua Bamfield, director of the Britain-based Center for Retail Research, which documented the findings in its annual Global Retail Theft Barometer. “In addition to the usual criminals, you have lots of newcomers to stealing who figure they don’t run much risk at getting caught, won’t pay much of a price if they are and justify their action on the hard times we’re all facing.”The researchers found that shoplifting—or what’s euphemistically known as product “shrinkage”—jumped 5.9 percent in the past year at the more than 1,000 retail chains the group surveyed globally. In previous years, the increase hovered at 1.5 percent annually. Though the problem was documented across all regions, the steepest increases occurred in North America (8.1 percent) ….

Even more significant than the economic impact of these costs being passed along to consumers are the ominous social implications of this trend.

This ilk of shoplifter doesn’t steal out of “necessity” to feed his or her family. These shoplifters are not organized criminals stealing for resale. They simply can’t afford comforts they’ve grown accustomed to, and the idea of scaling back their standard of living is more absurd to them than that of stealing to maintain it.

Through interviews with police and shoplifters, researchers found that many of the individuals caught shoplifting regard this kind of stealing as fully justified because of the recession. This is evidence that the moral compass of a growing number of people is way out of kilter.

Where does it end?

Without moral integrity guiding our actions, there is nothing we won’t do. This is a harbinger of the riots and chaos that will erupt in the future. Here’s what we wrote in August about the tensions building with every foreclosure:

Unfortunately, America is heading into the worst economic times ever. What some commentators have called the Greater Recession is really just the early stages of a Greater Depression. Expect devalued dollars and soaring interest rates. Sky-high oil prices and hyperinflation. Wheelbarrows of money for loaves of bread. This is the future of the U.S. economic implosion.Economic catastrophes such as the one we’re beginning to experience don’t just affect the economy. We are sitting on a social powder keg. The public disillusionment and social disruption when the green shoots and imminent economic recovery fail to materialize will be a tragic spectacle. Expect social discontent and race wars to flare. The town hall meetings are just the first sparks of a greater social powder keg ready to explode.

This growing number of casual, unapologetic, middle-class shoplifters provides more evidence of how quickly and easily that powder keg will be ignited.