— Have you ever tried barbed wire? Angers target shopper over in-store anti-theft measures – even cheap socks are locked away – The US Sun

AMERICANS are tired of the new safety measures big retailers have implemented since the pandemic.

From almost all everyday items being locked away to extra receipt checks, issues and limits with self-checkout, and a lack of staff available for help and checkout lines resulting in long wait times.

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“Don’t solve problems, just make everyone’s life harder,” said one customer on X, formerly Twitter.

“Just lock the whole store, have you tried barbed wire?” he asked sarcastically.

Retail executives have often blamed rising crime for why they have imposed these new security measures.

$132 billion in combined losses from shoplifting is expected this year alone, according to to look for by Capital One, retailers like Target and Walmart say they simply didn’t have a choice amid inflation.

And while shoplifting rates have increased in some parts of the country, especially since the pandemic, overall crime has declined nationally over the past year, although it varies by state and city.

In Los Angeles, for example, the monthly shoplifting rate increased from about 540 thefts per month in 2021 to just under an average of 900 per month last year, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.

Overall, there were about 12,000 reports of shoplifting in Los Angeles in 2023 – an 81% increase compared to the previous year.

But in New York City, the five boroughs also saw a rise in shoplifting rates, increasing a frightening 65% between 2019 and mid-2023, according to a study by the Criminal Justice Council.

But despite the huge jump from the pandemic, from New York the rate of shoplifting has decreased from 2021 to now.

There were nearly 52,000 reported shoplifting incidents in New York in 2023, down about 7% from 2022, or about 4,500 fewer reports, according to city police department data.

And although businesses have seen an increase in losses and shoplifting, corporate profits now represent the majority of national income over the past 10 years, according to the National Bureau of Economic Analysis.

In fact, last month Walmart reported a quarterly profit of US$5.1 billion, triple the amount achieved during the same quarter, just one year earlier.

But even though Walmart has tripled its profits, the chain has laid off thousands of workers over the past four years, citing the need to cut costs due to inflation and money lost to theft.

Walmart was the leading contributor to a massive 3,225% increase in retail layoffs among major chains nationwide, according to a report from Challenger, Gray and Christmas.

Additionally, Target made about $2 billion more profits last year than the year before, despite a nearly 2% drop in 2023 sales.

Both chains continue to cut labor costs in stores, with Walmart recently announcing that they are moving to expensive digital price tags that can be changed instantly, which would require fewer workers to be in stores.

Target also recently announced that it is reducing the price of more than 5,000 everyday items due to a 2% drop in sales.

But some considered this sudden price drop on thousands of items to be an admission of guilt for Target.

“Alternative Headline: Target Confesses to Blatantly Defrauding Millions of Consumers, No Penalties Expected”, posted a user.