It is that time of the year when hoardings and mall banners are screaming ‘sale’. With jaw-dropping discounts and offers, a walk through the shopping areas of these places is almost like walking through the diary of a shopaholic. Many of us have eyed that pair of sexy black stilettos or that glitzy wallet, but the price tag would’ve weighed us down like an anchor. But this time of the year is when we cash in on all that window shopping.
And while the merchandise being cheap is the thrill, for many others, the confusion courtesy the crowds, creates the perfect smokescreen to shoplift – a hushed up yet prevalent problem that malls and retailers across the city dread because of the rush and the responsibility. A quick glance away from prying eyes is all the encouragement needed for someone longing to own that pair of denims put up on the mannequin. And with trial rooms almost always flooded with people and clothes, what goes on inside the trial room, stays in the trial room – which includes removing price tags, switching them, stashing merchandise under one’s own garments, etc.
While with clothes, pulling off the deed may be trickier, with smaller items such as accessories, stoles, shoes and even books, simply walking out of the store while wearing them or tucked away in the bag suffices. Store employees are strung out with the the constant alertness they must maintain during the sale season as it attracts a huge number of customers, including the wrong kind.
Most of those who get caught are customers who fall prey to temptation rather than professional shoplifters. One lucky 17-year old who managed to get away explains the logic. “I really wanted to read a particular book but, I had no money. I simply picked it up and the sheer thrill of the act was an added incentive.” Traffic at stores across the city – like Lifestyle, Max, Splash, Inorbit Mall and Hyderabad Central – increases by 60 to 70 per cent during the sale season. Over half the purchases happen during the weekend and so does most of the shoplifting. Susheel Singh, manager of customer relations at Hyderabad Central says, “Our ‘Loss Prevention Core’ team is on alert during the sale season. Our quarterly losses due to shoplifting is between Rs 2,50,000 and Rs 3 lakhs.” Incidents of theft also escalate according to Umesh Rawat, the department manager of Max who says, “On an average, we see one instance of shoplifting everyday.”
Anti-theft measures are put in place by most of the retail stores but shoplifters seem to find loopholes. “We can’t place bulky magnetic tags on small accessories like earrings. Customers remove the tag, wear them and walk out,” says Deepak Kumar, store supervisor at Splash. ‘Soft tags’ are placed inside products like footwear which are not visible to customers and beep if they passed through the censors. “It is very easy to walk out wearing footwear. That is why during a sale, most stores display only one shoe of a pair. The other shoe is brought out when the customer wants to purchase it,” says Kriti Srivastava, marketing head at Inorbit mall.
While instances of shoplifting of smaller items like a pen or a chocolate are very common, the more audacious steals are accounted for in the apparels section. “They wear the clothes underneath their own and find ways to pry the tag off, even if the garment tears,” says Susheel, speaking from his experience at Hyderabad Central.
Tag switching is also a common practice where a lesser price tag is put on the garment purchased, replacing the original one. “In such instances, the cashiers have to be careful. Bar codes show the name of the product on the screen. Common sense also dictates that – say, if a pair of denim pants is brought to the counter with a tag of Rs 299, there is obviously something wrong,” says the Max store supervisor. In most cases, the excuse given is that “it wasn’t intentional”. It might be true in some cases as well. A student from the city remembers how she walked out of Shoppers Stop wearing a hair band without paying for it. “There were such a huge rush and I was too tired to notice. It turned out, so were their staff,” she says.
So what happens if a defaulter is caught? While in some cases they’re let-off with a warning and no merchandise, some stores take the crime very seriously. For instance, at Splash, many customers have had to submit written apologies in order to be allowed to shop at the store again. Globus at City Center simply makes the shoplifter pay the entire amount and in case of the inability to do so, a complaint is lodged with the police station. At Max, department manager Rawat informs us that an extra charge is levied. “In some cases, we impose a penalty of sorts by charging the shoplifter about thrice the cost of the stolen good and their identity is recorded,” he explains.
With no law specifically dealing with the instance of shoplifting, stores just resort to what suits their purpose best. As far as levying a charge twice or thrice the current selling price, advocate S Bharat Kumar points out that it isn’t exactly legal. Explaining further, the High Court lawyer says, “Under the Indian Penal Code, shoplifting can be treated as a compoundable offense where the parties can resolve the issue by coming to a compromise. However, such an arrangement should be presented at court. Companies are not protected by any specific law pertaining to shoplifting in India and hence, any unauthorised punishment can be construed as extortion.”
Whether extortion or a hope to dissuade further instances of theft, one thing that will remain for sure is the lure of picking up something when you think no one is looking.