Security Guards & Empty Shelves: A Barometer of Change

Hmmm, how concerned should we be about the current, societal barometer readings?

I stopped in at my local health food store earlier this week and was surprised to see a security guard in full gear posted at the front of the store. He stood there stoically in a rather intimidating posture. I found his presence both perplexing and a bit unnerving.

On my way home, I stopped at Staples to buy printer cartridges. It looked there had been a big run on cartridges as the inventory was very low. I found the cyan and magenta cartridges I needed but not the yellow one.

A staff person accessed storage cabinets high above the shelves and retrieved a yellow cartridge for me. Sorry about that, she said. We’ve had such a problem with theft that we can only leave a few cartridges on display. A probable explanation occurred to me then for the security guard posted at the front of the health food store.

It seems that burgeoning retail theft has become a sign of the times. I did a quick Google search and came up with the following statistics.

Canadian retailers lost $9.1 billion to theft in 2024 – an 82% increase since 2018. In 2023, police-reported shoplifting increased by 18% from the previous year. Some stores report a 300% increase in thefts since 2020.

75% of Canadian retailers report incidents of shoplifting. High traffic stores like supermarkets and big-box retailers are the most frequent targets.

So what is behind this disturbing trend? A few of the factors:

Rising inflation and the cost of living make it increasingly more difficult for some individuals to afford basic necessities.

The proliferation of online marketplaces makes it easier for thieves to sell stolen goods which has incentivized larger-scale theft operations.

Organized crime groups are increasingly involved in retail theft and often employ groups to steal large quantities of merchandise for resale. (This may account for the recent rash of brazen, smash and grab robberies of jewelry stores in our area.)

Reduced store staffing has created more opportunities for theft. In addition, self-checkout counters – while lowering labour costs – has created increased opportunities for shoplifting.

I regard this disturbing trend as a barometer of change in our society in a couple of ways.

The dire straits of the increasing number of people living at or below the poverty line has made theft an unfortunate necessity for their survival. On another front, operating outside the law has been enabled by technology and the way retail stores operate. This had made crime – organized or otherwise – a more attractive and lucrative way of life.

I wish I had answers to the underlying problems involved in these developments. Unfortunately, I do not. But the barometer reading is troublesome. I have to wonder what is says about where we are headed as a society and whether there are ways and means, not to mention the collective will, to stem the rising tide.

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~ Michael Robert Dyet is also the author of Until the Deep Water Stills – An Internet-enhanced Novel (now out of print) which was a double winner in the Reader Views Literary Awards 2009. Visit Michael’s website at www.mdyetmetaphor.com .

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