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> Brick-and-mortar retail’s indisputable edge over e-commerce is that consumers can get what they want immediately, and can touch and feel the product before buying it. Rising theft—and stores’ measures to prevent it—could dull that edge.

That has not been my experience at all. The number of times I went to a store only to find out that the thing I drove out to get is not in stock is high enough to make me pretty averse to the in-person retail experience.

The bookstore doesn't have the book I want, the shoe store doesn't have the shoe in the size and color I want, the computer store doesn't have the iPhone peripheral I want.

Unless I'm in a desperate situation, I'm better off waiting a couple of days and actually getting the item I would prefer, instead of torching a few hours for nothing.

Add theft on top of that, and I don't see how the physical retail market won't keep shrinking.

The other side of that coin is that the few businesses who actually do keep good inventory do exceptionally well. I’m talking specifically about Lowe’s and Home Depot. I absolutely love, as a consumer, that I can go and look on their site/app and see that there are X items at Aisle Y Bin Z and it’s almost always perfectly right +- a couple of count. These brick and mortars prove it’s definitely possible to offer that service even if you’re a huge big box store.

There are so many places that are the polar opposite as you imply. One particular annoyance I dealt with recently is Tractor Supply Co. Their online inventory is wrong enough that it can never be trusted - if you don’t want to waste time on a trip to the store you have to call them beforehand to see if an item that is ostensibly “in stock” online is actually in stock.

I remember one tragic event in my life where the only tractor supply that actually had inventory was the one claiming to have 60+.
Online commerce doesn't have an edge in the area of theft. For instance, delivery people are sloppy and and just leave stuff on house doorsteps or in apartment lobby mailrooms. Those items get stolen. Or else, users can falsely report them stolen, getting a refund and the item.
That's a fair observation. I wonder how the numbers compare.
IME buying online from Walmart, they'll find the most banged up box and send it to me. I'll not be able to find a worse looking, more expired product if I had even tried to look for that myself.
> A new report from Common Good Iowa finds that employers are stealing over $900 million a year from an estimated 250,000 Iowa workers…

https://www.commongoodiowa.org/policy-areas/jobs-and-labor/a...

Retail theft has been in peninsula news for some time. I wish we got a similar amount of coverage of wage theft issues.

How does wage theft usually work. Do they skim a small amount from each paycheck and hope the employees don’t notice?
There are countless ways to defraud your employees.

Don’t pay their travel time. Don’t pay breaks. Make them work off the clock. Make them buy supplies. Steal their tips. Pay sub minimum wages to criminals the employer can maintain leverage over. Etc.

> E-commerce may be an unwitting beneficiary of physical retail’s woes. Nothing dampens a physical shopping experience quite like having to summon staff to unlock each item.

There's also the fact that a good amount of these stolen items are sold via Amazon, directly from their FBA warehouses and co-mingled with Amazon's own stock, making Amazon the largest fence in the world.

Alt/Archive link: http://archive.today/yLxHK

Did anyone else read the title as "Shoplifting Fuels, a $94.5B Problem..."? (with a comma in-between the words 'Fuels' and 'a'). Surely I can't be the only one.

I always felt that if you presented an opportunity for someone to steal, they were more inclined to steal than not. Case in point: self check out.
Counterpoint: in my country urban newspaper boxes collect coins, but do not have a locking mechanism. Farmers often leave a table of goods outside, with a jar to collect payments. I suspect there's an Overton Window at work: once people are expected to steal, they will.
Self check out probably saves cost, even if theft is factored in.
I wonder if costco/sam's club membership model experiences this to the same degree?