Itchy Fingers

Stop, I’m famous!

• Jennifer Capriati Tennis player, $15 dollar silver ring
• Winona Ryder Actress, $5,000 worth of clothing and hair accessories
• Lindsay Lohan Actress, $2,500 necklace
• Britney Spears Popstar, $200 top from store, lighter from gas station
• Rex Reed, TV host and columnist, CDs

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There are many more instances that Amit Mehrotra, store manager at Vishal Mega Mart, Lucknow, can rattle off. Shoplifting, he says, happens “day in and day out”. The mystery of the missing goods, in fact, is something retailers across the country deal with far more frequently than they would like. Because Indians, according to the Global Retail Theft Barometer published by the Centre for Retail Research, Nottingham, UK, have the stickiest fingers in the world. India, reveals the study, is the No. 1 shoplifting nation in a survey of 43 countries. And here’s the clincher: we have held this dodgy distinction for the last five years in a row.

“There is nothing wrong with Indian retailing. The difficulties are caused by the fast rate of expansion of the retail sector, which has meant that standards have fallen,” reasons Professor Joshua Bamfield, author of the study and director of the Centre for Retail Research. This year, the study included 5,320 stores in India’s organised retail sector, and found that 2.38 per cent of the total sales had been swallowed up by shoplifters, greedy employees, internal errors and unscrupulous vendors and suppliers (‘shrinkage rate’ in marketspeak). It might seem small, but in a business where margins are tight, retailers are feeling the pinch. In Bangalore’s Garuda Mall, for instance, centre manager Vijay Kumar estimates that merchandise worth up to Rs 20,000 disappears every month. Even so, says Kumar, “it’s a delicate situation. Everyone is a customer until caught, and so cannot be randomly questioned”.

Potential lifters know this well. They are on their best behaviour, and often in their best clothes, to come across as buyers who can afford the merchandise the store has to offer. Alarmingly, for every planned and organised pilfering spree (a retailer in Ghaziabad, UP, claims that groups of teens scout shopping centres with the sole intention of pocketing stuff), there are numerous impulsive mini-heists.

The fit is right? CCTV grabs show up some of our more industrious cousins

Kleptomania, the clinical sort where the person can’t ‘help’ it, is rarely the culprit. Psychologist Suvra Chunder says that only 5 per cent of shoplifters are kleptomaniacs. Leave out the professional shoplifters and what you have are everyday people—window-shopping, ticking
off grocery lists, checking for cellulite in those fitting room mirrors. And then without warning, smashing security tags and tearing off or swapping pricetags when they find a blind spot where cameras or salespersons can’t catch them. If the store is crowded—think weekend bargain hunters, or better still, festive season shoppers—it’s a windfall. Seasoned lifters have their happy hours too. “The first hour is when salespersons are busy prepping the store. Staff strength is low, which means fewer pairs of eyes watching,” says B.K. Singh, head of security at City Centre, Calcutta. Most play diligent customer—stand in queue, take out wallet with a flourish, pay for what they’ve bought. But when the bag of merchandise is handed over, they swiftly slip in their booty. Even if the alarm beeps, hey, there’s a bill to wave in the guard’s face. Then there’s the classic layer trick: walk into the store in one dress, and walk out with a brand new one worn underneath it.

What makes your regular mall crawler throw caution to the wind, sneak a glance around and reach for that skin-whitening cream? (Cosmetics and toiletries, along with apparel and processed food are hot property, says the study.) Chunder says the impulse is not new, but the exposure we enjoy today stimulates it. “Ours is a case of too much too soon. We have access to so much because of socio-economic changes but have not had the time to adapt. Earlier, we would see Christian Dior perfumes in magazines, now there are shelves full of it in front of us. So much is accessible to us, whether we can afford it or not, which stimulates the urge to possess.”

Wait for beep Anti-theft sensors at a Lucknow mall. (Photograph by Nirala Tripathi)

But the “urge to possess”, retailers say, most easily fells young people high on aspiration and low on pocket money. At Vishal Mega Mart, says Mehrotra, half the shoplifters are teenagers. Vijay Kumar of Garuda Mall pegs the number at 80 per cent. To a young person, not yet sure of his moral compass, Chunder says, a swanky mall is a goldmine. “Add to that the ‘created need’ which advertising and the media promote, peer pressure to keep up with the Joneses, and the slack vigilance at home and you can see why so many youngsters are shoplifting,” she says. Many feel no remorse. One shoplifter even justifies his actions, “These shops cheat us all the time, what’s wrong if we rip them off once in a while?” Once caught, the price to pay is often just the cost of the product pilfered. Most stores let shoplifters off with a warning, but sometimes, the police are called in. Which comes with its own pitfalls, as one retailer admits, “We caught a professional shoplifter with some 40 items. When the cops came, they took away the offender...along with the stolen merchandise!” Professor Bamfield observes that the police also don’t take shoplifting seriously enough, which takes away from the gravity of the crime.

Shops, thus, have devised their own policies. One retailer used to keep photos of offenders and details of stolen items for their records, along with a signed letter of apology. Mehrotra says, “At Vishal, if a customer has pilfered repeatedly, it is reported to the police.” It’s no wonder that demand for security equipment has gone up substantially, notes Yogesh Dutta, vice-president, Security BU, Aditya Infotech. However, many still shy away from technological intervention and rely on “age-old methods” like manual checking, he says.

Sadly, the ones conducting the checks don’t always check their own impulses—employee pilferage accounts for a chunky 25.5 per cent of total retail shrinkage. Well-versed with the store’s surveillance mechanisms, they are able to bypass it easily. Retail consultant Arvind Singhal of Technopak says, “If there is a friend at the counter, an employee can punch in a lower value or a different article code or bill only three items out of four.” His advice? “Focus more on employees rather than customers.” Vishal Mega Mart already is. Mehrotra informs that employees are frisked before they leave the premises, and have to deposit their belongings at the baggage counter. There are also internal security guards keeping a hawk’s eye on products.

Clearly, for those with mischief on their mind, blind spots are growing smaller. As Singhal says, “It is only a matter of time before the cost of security equipment and interventions comes down in India. Then, shrinkage will stabilise like anywhere else in the world.” We’ve already set the ball rolling: India’s shrinkage rate has come down from an embarrassing 3.2 per cent in ’06. Singhal also cautions that a true picture of India’s retail scenario is only possible if one takes into account informal retailing, which still commands a lion’s share of the market. That too will change over the years. And hopefully, bring with it a change in mindset. Surely, it’s time the ‘nation of shoplifters’ went shopping for a better tag.