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Show Alert customers are key to theft prevention. efforts ghly 40 percent young people - and 60 percent adults in shoplifting incidents. With that pattern changing, the money value of stolen items has gone up because adult shoplifters tend to steal higher value items than juveniles. Thus we have more pressure to drive prices up to compensate for theft losses," Shanaman added. While the most popular items for the retail thief are ladies clothing, pharmaceuticals, pharmaceu-ticals, cosmetics and jewelry, the professional shoplifter the one who accounts for the big ticket items, does not operate that way. j'They become more active during the holiday shopping season because larger crowds cr-owds mean less risk of getting caught. They know what to steal and how to sell it. For example, fresh meat from your local supermarket can bring the professional thief 50 cents on the dollar when sold on the street. "Again, those losses are made up by increased prices across the board," Shanaman Shana-man said. He emphasized that while increased use of sophisticated sophisticat-ed security systems aid in nabbing retail thieves, the alert shopper willing to call a store employee's attention to a theft is the most effective weapon against rising prices due to shoplifting. Holiday shoppers can protect pro-tect their own pocketbooks from rising prices by alerting store employees when they spot shoplifters at work this Christmas Season, according to the Utah Retail Merchants Association. Inflation isn't the only thing driving prices up. Shoplifting, or retail theft which can now be classed as a felony, probably accounts for price hikes as much as inflationary forces, says Richard Ri-chard L. Shanaman, president presi-dent of the association. "Losses due to retail theft must be treated as operating costs and those costs are passed along to the shopper. Our best estimate is that retail merchants in Utah will lose at least $6.3 million to shoplifters this year," according acc-ording to Shanaman. He added that Utah shoppers could save that much money right off the top in purchases if shoplifting were stopped. "For example, exam-ple, if a department store is operating at a net profit margin of four percent, and loses a $50 item to a shoplifter, the store has to make an additional $1,250 in sales to off-set that loss. "The only alternative is to raise prices. And customers who are willing to call a store manager's attention to an in-store theft are merely protecting their own interests. inter-ests. The continuation of retail theft only results in higher prices adding to the general inflation," Shanaman Shana-man said. But that's only part of the story. Some retailers are forced to spend from five-tenths five-tenths to six-tenths percent of their total sales on security measures. In Utah, those costs can exceed $2 million a year. Security costs include the purchase of special electronic surveillance equipment, equ-ipment, one-way mirrors and special observation stations, along with salaries and training costs of security guards or plainclothes officers. off-icers. "Those costs, along with-, the actual losses of merch? andise costs, could red'ile retail prices significanfiy if shoplifting could be' curtailed. curtail-ed. Those savings could just as well be passed along to our customers,' according to Shanaman. To add to the problem, the nature of the shoplifter is changing, according to reports re-ports from association members. mem-bers. In the past, juveniles have accounted for the largest numbers of shoplifters. shoplift-ers. But that is changing and retail merchants are report- ing m6reandrfrforfeudults) involved-hefVVtN; "Our s5isUG6-tpp2.J |