Shoplifting at `epidemic proportions’ in Barbados

(Barbados Nation) Shoplifting and organised theft have reached “epidemic proportions” in Barbados, says retailer John Jackson.

Jackson, managing director of the popular So-Lo Warehouse in Black Rock, St Michael, complained that thieves had stolen about Bds$30 000 in goods from his warehouse in December alone. In addition, he said, they left behind a repair bill totalling Bds$50 000.

“We were going to close up. We were going to get out because the amount of thieving is not manageable. It is on a level where it would bankrupt our business,” Jackson said.

He pointed out that employees and even hired security guards were sometimes involved in the organised theft from businesses.

Jackson said shoplifters were moving in groups of threes and fives, and that sometimes they brought young children with them.

“We have had big [overweight] women come into the warehouse, and they would have a net under their skirt and would put the goods into these nets between their legs and walk out as if they were pregnant. We can’t go to a woman and say, ‘Excuse me, I want to put my hand under your skirt’,” he said.

He said the shoplifters appeared to be selling the stolen items at reduced prices to people in the business of selling food.

Jackson, who has been operating his business for only two years, said he had also broken up an internal ring where an employee had made off with Bds$10 000 in liquor over a four-week period and Bs$20 000 in rice, potatoes and onions.

As for security, he said he discovered twice that the guards he had employed from two different firms were also involved in a scheme to steal from his warehouse.

“I spent Bds$20 000 to put in security cameras and I have plainclothes security at the door and in the warehouse now.”

Jackson said the situation was not peculiar to him, but was a widespread phenomenon.

“I have been speaking to other people in the business and I understand that this is an epidemic, and that it is getting bigger. I went into a supermarket and they had security guards posted like soldiers throughout the supermarket.

“To add security is probably another quarter million to your expenses and this will be passed on to the public,” the So-Lo boss said.