Karl Lagerfeld has created a short film called "Vol du Jour." The film starring Lara Stone and Baptiste Giabicon is about a pair of serial Chanel shoplifters. They also have a third partner who drives off with the Chanel merchandise in a getaway vehicle. Take a look:
Study Finds Shoplifting Surged 5.9% Worldwide in Past Year
Timereports that recession has sparked a worldwide shoplifting spree. The Center for Retail Research's Global Retail Theft Barometer 2009 reported that shoplifting climbed 5.9% in the past year at 1,000 global retail chains surveyed. In North America there was an 8.1% increase in shoplifting.
The researchers found that shoplifting — or what's euphemistically known as product "shrinkage" — jumped 5.9% 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% annually. Though the problem was documented across all regions, the steepest increases occurred in North America (8.1%), the Middle East (7.5%) and Europe (4.7%). In terms of total losses, retailers in North America topped the charts at $46 billion, followed by Europe's $44 billion and $17.9 billion in the Asia-Pacific region. In North America and Latin America, store owners and employees were the leading pilferers; in Europe, Asia and the Middle East, it was customers who were swiping the most loot.
Joshua Bamfield, director of the Britain-based Center for Retail Research, told Time, "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."
A new report says
that retail crime has been increasing as the economy has been worsening. The the Retail Industry Leaders Association's Crime Trends Survey revealed that 72% of respondents in its recent poll said that organized retail crime continues to grow, despite loss prevention efforts by retailers. Translation: there's a lot of shoplifting going on. But it's not just shoplifting that has been on the rise: financial fraud is on the rise, as well.
According to the Global Retail Theft Barometer published by the Centre for Retail Research, U.S. retailers spent an estimated $11.8 billion in 2007 on loss prevention efforts.
The survey included 32 of the largest retailers in the U.S., ranging from mass merchants to apparel specialty stores and supermarkets.
Sixty-one percent of retailers surveyed said amateur and "opportunistic" shoplifting had increased, while 55 percent said they had experienced financial fraud in the past four months.
Retail crime has also spread beyond cities and into regions, such as rural areas, that do not typically have high levels of criminal activity, according to the survey.
RILA's survey comes at a time when three bills aimed at cracking down on organized retail crime and imposing new requirements on online auction sites face consideration in Congress this year.
Crime usually does increase during times of economic uncertainty, and this recession is no exception to that rule.
Shoplifting has always been a thorn in the side of retailers. But there's a new trend that's just as irritating to stores: shopdropping. Shopdropping -- also known as reverse shoplifting -- is the practice of placing items in stores that don't belong there. Religious or political messages are being surreptitiously left inside products along with fake products to fool unsuspecting customers, infuriating merchants. Sometimes the items being shopdropped are live animals, which is especially disturbing.
Self-published authors sneak their works into the new releases section, while personal trainers put their business cards into weight-loss books, and aspiring professional photographers make homemade cards — their Web site address included, of course — and covertly plant them into stationery-store racks.
"Everyone else is pushing their product, so why shouldn't we?" said Jeff Eyrich, a producer for several independent bands, who puts stacks of his bands' CDs -- marked "free" -- on music racks at Starbucks whenever the cashiers look away.
Though not new, shopdropping has grown in popularity in recent years, especially as artists have gathered to swap tactics at Web sites like Shopdropping.net, and groups like the Anti-Advertising Agency, a political art collective, do training workshops open to the public.
Retailers fear the practice may annoy shoppers and raise legal or safety concerns, particularly when it involves children's toys or trademarked products.
*****
Normally the band, the Death of Jason Brody, slips promotional CD singles between the pages of The Village Voice newspaper and into the racks at large music stores. But lately, band members have been slipping into department stores and putting stickers with logos for trendy designers like Diesel, John Varvatos and 7 for All Mankind on their CDs, which they then slip into the pockets of designer jeans or place on counters.
"Bloomingdale's and 7 for All Mankind present the Death of Jason Brody, our pick for New York band to watch in 2008," read a sticker on one of the CDs placed near a register at Bloomingdales. "As thanks for trying us on, we're giving you this special holiday gift." Bloomingdales and 7 for All Mankind declined to comment.
*****
"After Easter, there's a wave of bunnies; after Halloween, it's black cats; after Christmas, it's puppies," said Don Cowan, a spokesman for the store chain Petco, which in the month after each of those holidays sees 100 to 150 pets abandoned in its aisles or left after hours in cages in front of stores. Snakes have been left in crates, mice and hamsters surreptitiously dropped in dry aquariums, even a donkey left behind after a store's annual pet talent show, Mr. Cowan said.
Political and religious pamphlets aren't going to hurt anyone -- but dumping live animals inside a store is absolutely despicable.
Claritin, an allergy drug which was recently made available without a prescription, is so popular that it is being stolen from stores by shoplifters. CNN reports that one drugstore manager even complained that people had tried to leave with baskets full of Claritin. Most drugstores are now moving Claritin behind the counter or into locked displays.
