Since the July 1 start of stores charging customers for plastic shopping bags, there has been a noticeable increase in shoplifting by people with reusable bags. Coupled with the widespread wearing of masks driven by the coronavirus outbreak, store owners are at their wits' end trying to identify shoplifters and stop the thievery.
--Two shopping baskets
At the end of July, a clerk at the Akidai Sekimachi grocery store in Nerima Ward, Tokyo, spotted a middle-aged woman putting items into her reusable shopping bag while standing in the blind spot of the security camera. The clerk called out to stop her before she could leave the store, and five unpaid items were found in her bag. The items included seafood and vegetables, which amounted to around 1,500 yen. Police were called to the store.
Only about 10% of the store's customers used reusable shopping bags before July, but that soared to about 90% after July 1. Alongside this, thefts in the store have gone up 10% to 20%. The woman's trick of opening her shopping bag wide stood out to the clerk. Three other people have been caught shoplifting on the store's security cameras.
A case in which someone put unpaid items into a reusable bag while loading paid-for items into another bag prompted the store to create a countermeasure using red and blue shopping baskets; Customers put items they want to buy into a red basket, cashiers put paid-for items into a blue basket and then customers put those items into their bags. Since implementing this system, shoplifting rates have dropped.
"No matter how much we provide our stores with countermeasures, it's difficult to completely protect them from thefts," said the president of the grocery store chain.
--Victims abound
In the hopes of reducing harmful plastic waste, the mid 1990s saw many people switching from plastic bags to reusable shopping bags. However, according to a survey of about 500 retail stores nationwide, conducted in fiscal 2013 by a Tokyo-based organization for prevention of shoplifting, about 100 of the stores experienced increased cases of shoplifting after reusable shopping bags become more common.
With customers now having to either buy plastic bags or bring their own, many of the respondents expressed their concerns that shoplifting cases will increase.
Hoping to stem the rise of shoplifting using reusable bags, the organization created posters asking customers to fold up their bags while browsing, and to only use them after they have paid for everything. It distributed the posters to supermarkets and other stores.
A large used-book store in Tsuchiura, Ibaraki Prefecture, confirmed five cases of shoplifting in July involving reusable bags. Most of the stolen articles were expensive items, such as out-of-print manga and dictionaries. To help prevent shoplifting, the store enacted a policy in which customers must hand over their opened reusable bags to the cashier before they can browse.
A convenience store in Amagasaki, Hyogo Prefecture, had a case in July where a married couple in their 40s are suspected of having stolen food by using a reusable shopping bag. They were arrested by the prefectural police.
Many retailers are also having issues with face masks, which many people are now wearing. Because these masks covered cover about half of the face, there are times when it's difficult for security cameras and staff to identify shoplifting culprits.
"I think loss-prevention staff, or 'secret shoppers,' are needed to patrol stores to help stop shoplifting," said a director of a company that manages commercial buildings in Ichikawa, Chiba Prefecture.
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