SAUNDERS: Retail pirates don’t fear store workers or the law. Enough.
WASHINGTON — Rep. Dina Titus, D-Nev., was in the cosmetics corner at the Walgreens at Eastern and Tropicana avenues when she saw a man come into the store, walk up to where eyelashes were displayed, swipe them into his backpack and walk out the door.
She walked up to a lady who worked at the store and asked, “Did you see what that guy just did?”
“Oh, yeah. He comes in here about twice a week and does that with cosmetics that they resell at the flea market,” Titus recalled the woman saying during a sit-down in her Capitol Hill office. The year was 2022.
If you watch cable news or follow social media, you’ve seen clips of modern-day pirates captured on security cameras. It’s not the theft alone that concerns the public, so much as the fact that criminals know they are being recorded on video and don’t care.
Like the false eyelash booster Titus saw at Walgreens, they either don’t fear that they’ll be stopped, or they don’t fear the consequences if they are.
“We used to think of shoplifting as somebody getting a candy bar or magazine or something,” Titus offered. With so many reports of store employees facing hostile and aggressive crooks, Titus became one of three original co-sponsors of the “Combating Organized Retail Crime Act of 2023,” or ORC, to establish a federal center to help track and prosecute shoplifting gangs and create a cohesive national strategy to curb organized retail crime.
Ever since Walgreens Chief Financial Officer James Kehoe backed off his 2021 assertion that organized shoplifting prompted the company to shutter five San Francisco stores, people who rail about shoplifting know they will be criticized for buying into what cynics describe as a “panic.”
But all you have to do is walk into a big-box outlet, supermarket or other business where products are displayed under lock and key to understand that retailers can’t market their wares as they used to.
When people have to find a clerk to unlock their purchases, Titus offered, they’re going to shop online, and both large and small retailers will fail.
The measure has bipartisan support, with 57 Republicans and 48 Democrats signed on as co-sponsors. Reps. Susie Lee and Steven Horsford, D-Nev., have joined Titus in supporting the bill.
Even though there is no vocal opposition to the measure, Titus thinks it will be very difficult to pass the bill before the end of the session. In an election year, she said, neither side wants to give the other a win.
A spokesperson for the bill’s author, Rep. Ken Buck, R-Colo., however, informed me his office is optimistic it will get moved.
This bill has little visible opposition. It is aimed at organized crime and likely will save American consumers money. Retail staffers feel threatened, while some who challenge thieves risk losing their jobs. Wouldn’t it be nice to see Washington act before a bad situation gets even worse?
Contact Review-Journal Washington columnist Debra J. Saunders at dsaunders@reviewjournal.com. Follow @debrajsaunders on X.