Shoplifters cost retailers Sh3bn annually

Some of the suspects paraded by supermarkets after they were linked to shoplifting. The retailers said shoplifters work in gangs of five or six while only a few act alone. PHOTO | CORRESPONDENT

What you need to know:

  • According to the Retail Trade Association of Kenya, major retailers across the country are estimated to be losing Sh3.5 billion worth of stock.
  • A single shoplifter, according to Mr Shah, is capable of stealing goods worth Sh25,000. A gang of five, he said, can easily walk out with goods worth Sh100,000 on a single mission.
  • Naivas Business Development and Marketing Manager Willy Kimani was of the view that some shoplifters are protected by rogue police officers.
  • Tuskys Chief Operating Officer Peter Leparachao said the losses were higher when one factors in the cost of measures aimed at reducing the crime.

Supermarket chains are losing goods worth Sh3.5 billion annually to shoplifters — equivalent to half the money that Garissa County received from the National Treasury for this financial year.

Crimes range from the theft of a few items by dishonest shoppers to organised gangs that lift huge quantities of goods, turning shoplifting into a cottage industry and threatening the survival of big stores.

Looking every bit like customers and working in gangs of five or six, the shoplifters position themselves strategically near the shelves where small but valuable products like jewellery, perfumes, cosmetics, soaps and electronic goods are displayed.

As their accomplices engage and distract shop assistants and merchandisers, their accomplices stuff stolen items into expandable bags under their clothes secured by waist bands. Some even put the stolen items under their hats.

According to the Retail Trade Association of Kenya, major retailers across the country are estimated to be losing Sh3.5 billion worth of stock.

“When they are arrested, they are taken to the police stations and released on cash bail, which is normally a drop in the ocean compared with the value of the loot. To them, shoplifting is worth the risk,” says Nakumatt Holdings Chief Executive Officer Atul Shah.

However, the Kenya Police Service Police spokesperson Gatiria Mboroki defended officers, saying they cooperate with the retailers’ security officers and it was unfair to make such allegations against the police.

RECORDED COMPLAINS

According to her, no retailer has recorded such complaints against the police and she asked them to report corrupt officers to the Independent Policing Oversight Authority. 

A single shoplifter, according to Mr Shah, is capable of stealing goods worth Sh25,000. A gang of five, he said, can easily walk out with goods worth Sh100,000 on a single mission. The problem with the law is that shoplifters are treated as petty offenders and are usually released on a Sh3,000 to Sh5,000 bond, setting them free to return to their illegal activities.

Mr Shah said in the last stock take, Nakumatt found that it had lost about 1.5 per cent of its stock with shoplifting being the leading cause. He said the chain could be losing up to six per cent of its goods to “stock shrinkage”, the industry term for theft. The supermarket also loses goods retained at police stations as exhibits.

“With time, these products expire, get lost or lose value and considering the number of shoplifters arrested, it is a huge loss,” said Mr Shah.

Tuskys Chief Operating Officer Peter Leparachao said the losses were higher when one factors in the cost of measures aimed at reducing the crime.

“The most shoplifted items are high value, low volume items like jewellery, perfumes and roll-on deodorants even though occasionally high value high volume items like electronics are also targeted,” said Mr Leparachao.

CATEGORIES

According to him, there are three categories of shoplifters: the professional ones who know all of the tricks of the trade, the juvenile one who either act individually or at the behest of adults and the kleptomaniacs, who steal compulsively whenever the urge strikes.

“The most frustrating thing in eradicating shoplifting is weak legislation,” said Mr Leparachao. “Shoplifters are categorised as petty offenders and treated with kid gloves by courts and the police are not enthusiastic in pursuing these cases and in most cases they don’t investigate them.”

Naivas Business Development and Marketing Manager Willy Kimani was of the view that some shoplifters are protected by rogue police officers.

“They are well-known to the police,” he said. Some, he said, are released within an hour of being arrested. He also blamed the crime on rogue small-scale retailers who buy the stolen goods for resale.

“There has to be a buyer for whatever they steal from our shops. If the police were serious about fighting this kind of organised crime, they would have arrested the owners of those shops. It is no longer about poverty, it’s business,” he said.

Some of the serial shoplifters appeared more than six times in photos taken by security officers from various supermarkets seen by the Daily Nation.

Most of the goods they steal are in bulk, giving credence to the claim that they are meant for resale.

DIFFERENT NAMES

One of the suspects, going by different names, had pending cases in court, after being arrested in Nyali Cinemax Nakumatt and Nanyuki Nakumatt.

There is a warrant of arrest against her after she failed to appear in a court in Shanzu, Mombasa.

Uchumi Supermarket Group CEO Jonathan Ciano said court processes, investing in CCTV cameras, employing workers to keep an eye on displays, legal fees incurred when prosecuting the suspects and costs of countering shoplifters’ tactics also drain supermarket resources.

“Waking up every day to think about how you are going to deal with people whose job is to come up with new ways of stealing from what you sweat for is not easy,” he said. It becomes another expense when you have to buy sensormatic tags, invest in the sensors at the exits and employ surveillance crews.