Shoplifting for Christmas Presents

Deck the halls with stolen holly
Fa-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la
'Tis the season to have sticky fingers
Fa-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la
Don we now our loose apparel.
Fa-la-la, la-la-la, la-la-la
Thru the mall stolen under-layers will be added.
Fa-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la.

Over the top? Did you know that 1 in 11 shoppers shoplift?

Did you know that the retail business makes 20% of it's annual sales during the Christmas season?

In 2006 the Annual Retail Shrinkage, as they call it, tallied up to a whopping 40.5 billion bucks!

$19.0 billion is attributed to employee theft! While the sales dollars and theft dollars have increased the employee theft has remained a steady 47% of the total at least since 2004!

I'm not really a fan of big corporations but those stolen dollars represent higher prices to you and me. That sucks!

What happened to "It's the thought that counts"? Seriously, who can feel cheerful about giving stolen gifts? Instead of "Look what I made for you ma." It has become "Look what I stole for you ma." I don’t know about you but frankly, this boggles my mind.

References

National Retail Federation. "2007 Holiday Survival Kit." 2007.

"Stores Working To Prevent Shoplifting This Holiday Season," WLOX Biloxi Gulfport Pascagoula, http://www.wlox.com/Global/story.asp?S=7401450, 11/30/07, Biloxi: ABC News.