steveox
Well-Known Member
Wal-Mart eases policy on petty shoplifters - Business - International Herald Tribune
Wal-Mart refuses to carry smutty magazines. It will not sell compact discs with obscene lyrics. And when it catches customers shoplifting - even a pair of socks or a pack of cigarettes - it prosecutes them.
But now, in a rare display of limited permissiveness, Wal-Mart is letting thieves off the hook - at least for up to $25 worth.
According to internal documents, the company will no longer prosecute first- time thieves unless they are 18 to 65 years old and steal merchandise worth at least $25, putting the chain in line with the policies of many other retailers.
Under the new policy, a shoplifter caught trying to steal a DVD of the movie "Basic Instinct 2" ($16.87), for example, would receive a warning, but one caught stealing "E.R. - The Complete Fifth Season" ($32.87) would face arrest.
Wal-Mart said the change would allow it to focus on theft by professional shoplifters and its own employees, who together steal the bulk of merchandise from the chain every year, rather than the teenager who occasionally takes a candy bar from the checkout counter.
It may also serve to placate small- town police departments around the United States who have protested the company's policy on shoplifting, under which employees invariably summoned officers, whether a customer tried to steal a $5 toy or a $5,000 television set.
The police make as many as a dozen arrests a day at some of the chain's giant 24-hour stores, prompting a handful of departments to hire an additional officer just to deal with the extra workload.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/13/business/worldbusiness/13iht-wal-mart.2190898.html
Wal-Mart refuses to carry smutty magazines. It will not sell compact discs with obscene lyrics. And when it catches customers shoplifting - even a pair of socks or a pack of cigarettes - it prosecutes them.
But now, in a rare display of limited permissiveness, Wal-Mart is letting thieves off the hook - at least for up to $25 worth.
According to internal documents, the company will no longer prosecute first- time thieves unless they are 18 to 65 years old and steal merchandise worth at least $25, putting the chain in line with the policies of many other retailers.
Under the new policy, a shoplifter caught trying to steal a DVD of the movie "Basic Instinct 2" ($16.87), for example, would receive a warning, but one caught stealing "E.R. - The Complete Fifth Season" ($32.87) would face arrest.
Wal-Mart said the change would allow it to focus on theft by professional shoplifters and its own employees, who together steal the bulk of merchandise from the chain every year, rather than the teenager who occasionally takes a candy bar from the checkout counter.
It may also serve to placate small- town police departments around the United States who have protested the company's policy on shoplifting, under which employees invariably summoned officers, whether a customer tried to steal a $5 toy or a $5,000 television set.
The police make as many as a dozen arrests a day at some of the chain's giant 24-hour stores, prompting a handful of departments to hire an additional officer just to deal with the extra workload.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/13/business/worldbusiness/13iht-wal-mart.2190898.html