Posted in: Comics | Tagged: comic store in your future, Comics, HRL

Comic Store In Your Future – How Shoplifting Changes Everything

Published Tue, 05 Sep 2017 10:30:29 -0500

Last updated Wed, 15 Jun 2022 16:28:37 -0500

Rod Lamberti of Rodman Comics, writes weekly for Bleeding Cool. Find previous columns here.

Shoplifting, sadly, is an issue that every comic store faces. Shoplifting is also known as shrinkage, or shrink. A quick google look up describes shrinkage as the term used to describe a reduction in inventory due to shoplifting, employee theft, or other errors. There are four major sources of inventory shrinkage in retail: employee theft, shoplifting, paperwork errors, and supplier fraud.

Shoplifting is part of the reason I changed the layout of the store. The checkout is no longer by where people walk in — it is now by the back wall, which allows us to see throughout the store more clearly. This doesn't mean shrinkage has been eliminated entirely; it just makes it a bit more easier to spot.

We do have a camera, though some people just don't care and steal anyway.

Some people that I have even helped out end up getting caught stealing — which, I admit, puzzles me. If someone helps me out, I don't think, "How can I can steal from this person?" Although, stealing isn't something I ever think about. I don't understand it — we aren't selling necessities.

Another part of stealing that baffles me is that everyone who has ever been caught stealing has never paid back the store, nor made any effort to repay the store. There's been no attempt to make things right. One parent did have their kid return some of what they had stolen — the portion that they hadn't listed on Craigslist yet. Heck of a plan on the kid's part: steal merchandise and re-sell it. In talking with parents of kids that have stolen from us, the reactions range from "I'm not surprised," to "Please don't press charges."

We have, of course, had adult shoplifters, too. I understand that kids will be kids. But as for adults, people are what they are. When we catch teenagers 18 or above shoplifting, the conversation I have with their parents is usually much more serious — they're adults now.

It's not like the movies. Such as in Clint Eastwood's Gran Torino, where a kid tries to steal and his mother makes the kid work for Clint Eastwood's character in the movie as penance. Not saying I want someone working for free, but after nearly seven years in business, I am still surprised that not one shoplifter has ever tried to pay back what they stole — or even seemed to really care that they stole.