Retailers in the District have escalated anti-theft efforts in recent months as businesses nationwide struggle to thwart shoplifting.
Giant Food stores in D.C. launched a ban on large bags. Harris Teeter employees check customer receipts at exits across the District. And at some local Safeway markets, departing customers now face an electronic gate that prevents people from leaving without a receipt.retailers’ efforts to tamp down property crimeWhile clear data on shoplifting in D.C.
At the nearby Giant Food in Columbia Heights, customers struggled to adjust to a big-bag ban that had taken effect this past Thursday at select stores in the D.C. region. While the company, which declined an interview request, said in a statement that “open reusable shopping bags” were welcome, duffel bags or those measuring more than 14 by 14 by 6 inches were not.
Several shoppers interviewed at stores Tuesday said they felt shoplifting had risen — and said they had personally witnessed retail theft. It is difficult, however, to know exactly how pervasive shoplifting really is because D.C. police do not track it as a specific category. The department includes those types of crime in a broader theft category, and those crimes have remained stable during the first five months of this year, compared with the same period in 2023.Thefts in D.C.
the economic conditions that lead some to steal in the first place. Others argued the aesthetic of the security measure felt dystopian; at the Safeway in Adams Morgan, one customer said the gate reminded him of a prison.Buckner said the gate “feels targeted” at low-income people and Black and Hispanic people.
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