Retailers Report Rise in Employee Theft

 manager, had a weekly poker game at a small clubhouse down by the river. The game was staked with a hundred dollars from everybody’s store safe. Once when I moved into a new house, my boss bought us a $700 in-house vacuum cleaner system and listed it as an “equipment expense.” A store manager routinely worked the drive-thru during the busy lunch rushes and under rang the cash register to the point of being able to buy himself a new car in just a few months. Another manager routinely used employees to clean his house and do repairs and kept them on the clock.

And there were some pretty clever thefts at the store level too. One employee was able to steal 50 pounds of meat a week from the restaurant and sell it to his family and friends. He did it by waiting for the manager to go into the office every morning and then threw the meat out a side window to a waiting accomplice who then drove off. And the list goes on and on. I’ve worked at stores where I’ll bet 80% of the staff was ripping it off in one way or another. If you are a restaurant manager, you’d be amazed at how many people eat for free when you’re not there.

According to the St. Louis Post Dispatch, (www.stltoday.com), the latest retailers’ report shows that 79% of stores and restaurants surveyed report an increase in theft. The national retail federation says that the tough economic times may have made it easier for employees at all levels to succumb to temptation. But it’s not all just out of need. The bad economy seems have made employees more brazen and a lot of the items being stolen are high ticket. Some steal like shoplifters and others use elaborate accounting schemes to rip their employers off.