The state faced a crisis four years ago when the coronavirus pandemic wreaked havoc.
While many people were able to work from home, a group of New Yorkers had to brave unknown dangers to keep New York alive. That’s the mom-and-pop workers who work in supermarkets, bodegas, and other important locations.
With New York in crisis, these essential workers were called upon every night for months.
These same workers urgently need our help this time around as retail theft continues.
It is imperative that Albany and its very reluctant Chairman Carl Heastie take immediate action to protect them.
In 2020, single-parent families went to their workplaces, and many never returned.
Although exact numbers are difficult to come by, one study shows that 68% of coronavirus deaths in the first year of the pandemic were among workers, retail and service workers. Masu. It is no exaggeration to say that in New York, dozens of these workers died on the job.
We have honored them with words, but it’s time to back it up with action.
New York single-parent workers don’t feel safe in their stores because too many people are robbed or assaulted.
Shoplifting is vastly underreported in New York City.
According to a survey of members of the National Supermarket Association, 93% are victims of shoplifting. And 60% say they shoplift every day. Let’s think about that for a moment. New York City supermarkets are targeted by shoplifters every day.
These are primarily mom-and-pop supermarkets, and profit margins are already tight. Local stores reported that he lost $300 million in revenue due to retail theft.
Vendors filed about 63,000 complaints, most of which went unresolved.
The margins are even tighter as our research found that 70% are forced to spend money on security. We can’t continue like this.
Store employees don’t have to worry about their safety. Even when security guards are employed, workers are often at risk. We’ve all seen footage on the news of workers being attacked or forced to break up fights.
This is a completely unsustainable situation and it is time for Albany to step up. We have a reliable ally in Governor Hochul. Governor Hochul has made retail theft a key issue this year.
She understands that for communities to thrive and small businesses to grow, they must feel safe and workers must feel protected.
Actions to take
Her advocacy for more funding to prevent theft in retail stores is very welcome.
These funds deploy state police to prosecute retail theft rings, provide funding to district attorneys to prosecute property crimes, establish state police purse snatching units, and combat retail theft. They will do important things, such as securing funding for local law enforcement agencies.
This is why we formed the Collective Action to Protect Our Stores coalition.
As a group of 10,000 diverse stores, we are proud to support state Sen. Jessica Scarcella Spanton and Rep. Manny de los Santos’ bill that would make assaulting a retail store employee or owner a class D felony. We have supported a series of laws and policies that will help us.
We also support legislation that would create a crime of promoting the sale of stolen property and subsequently raise the crime to grand larceny in the fourth degree.
We need Chairman Heastie to listen to us now. We are a Black, brown, and immigrant business, many in the Bronx and surrounding areas.
We just want to operate and work in peace. After a long day, we all want to go home to our families. What they don’t want to be is another statistic: someone being beaten or murdered inside the store.
This is a significant moment for New York. We need to decide who to prioritize and who we want to protect.
It shouldn’t be people who routinely come into stores and punch cashiers, chase employees, or threaten customers.
Everyone loved essential workers in 2020. We need the government to stand up for them now.
If Albany wants to do something for working-class immigrant workers this year, it will give them strong protections.
We asked a lot of these workers during the worst of the pandemic. We owe it to them to stand up for them now.
We don’t have a second to spare.
Nelson Eusebio is a member of the National Supermarket Association.
