This is a tricky situation.
It turns out Manhattan’s only Costco may have a shoplifting problem, months after rampant thefts forced the closure of its neighboring Target. The company is proud They say their closed-door policy has helped them avoid a recent epidemic of retail crime.
The big box retailer’s only location on the island, located at E. 117th St. and FDR Drive in the East River Shopping Plaza, has reportedly lost a staggering amount of money to theft in recent days, with people making off with incredible bargains from the members-only warehouse-style store. Reddit The thread argued,
A photo posted on a popular chat site – purportedly taken in an employee-only area of the store – showed a bulletin board display that appeared to detail how much the store had lost on the most stolen items during the previous financial year.
Losses from “shrink,” a retail industry term for stolen or lost merchandise, apparently ran into tens of thousands of dollars.
Topping the list of losses for East Harlem’s bulk buyers were Dyson cordless vacuum cleaners, which cost the company $6,210, according to the photo. The next most expensive item was a pack of Gillette men’s razors, which cost the company $6,189.
Fitting it onto a shirt front would be a challenge for most people, yet Costco’s multipack of Kirkland brand premium paper towels is, for some reason, selling out for -$5,021.
Batteries and vitamins also seemed to be very popular among the snatching crowd.
AA batteries were down -$3,527, AAA batteries were down -$2,916, Centrum women’s pills were down -$3,407, and Nature’s Bounty D3 supplements were down -$1,694.
Commenters were perplexed by the high rate of theft, even though wholesalers require membership registration to enter their stores and hire people solely to check receipts as customers leave.
Overall, the tens of thousands of dollars allegedly stolen from Uptown stores are a tiny fraction of the scale of thefts nationwide.
According to the National Retail Federation (NRF), major U.S. retailers will lose a combined $112 billion in 2022 due to store shrink, more than double the already-growing $50.6 billion in 2018. The federation counts both employee theft and shoplifting in calculating the figure.
Experts say the problem has only gotten worse since then.
