Downtown Vancouver retailers say shoplifting has become rampant.
Employee theft is also on the rise, according to industry insiders.
While street crime, property theft and lawlessness have become election issues in B.C.—particularly in the Vancouver Yaletown riding—data and anecdotal reports hold that retail theft is rising across the country.
There are many explanations for this rise, and the higher cost of living is one of the most cited.
Pandemic-era spending and supply-chain glitches helped push inflation in Canada in recent years to decades-high levels while workers’ wages often did not rise in tandem.
Another explanation for more shoplifting is that some would-be thieves believe that they will not experience consequences if they get caught.
Vancouver Police Department Chief Const. Adam Palmer has lamented what he has called a “revolving door” justice system that exists even when it comes to repeat and violent offenders.
His department has conducted sting operations that found organized crime recruiting vulnerable people in the Downtown Eastside to steal goods that can then be resold.
“Organized crime will play a much broader role when they know they can resell products, and when people are desperate—not just people, but restaurant owners,” Dalhousie University professor and agri-food analytics lab senior director Sylvain Charlebois told BIV. “There is a black market.”
A third explanation for increased shoplifting is a belief that self-checkout technology makes theft easier.
This has prompted some supermarkets, such as the H-Mart at the corner of Robson and Seymour streets, to have self-checkout kiosks where cameras project images of the shopper’s face onto small screens that are clearly visible to the shoppers. Signs make clear to the shoppers that they are on camera.
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“There has been an unsustainable increase in external theft or shoplifting over the last five years,” said London Drugs’ general manager of loss prevention, Tony Hunt.
“In 2023, across Canada, there were 2.5 million shoplifting or theft incidents reported to police, however 26 per cent of those were cleared of any charges.”
He estimated that retailers might only report about 15 per cent of theft incidents to the police, “in some cases not wanting to burden police, or simply [because of] a lack of confidence in the justice system.”
Statistics Canada data shows that shoplifting thefts valued at more than $5,000 in B.C. have been on the rise, jumping to 201 reported incidents in 2023 from 161 in 2022, 126 in 2021 and 92 in 2020.
RCMP on Vancouver Island in September arrested two men involved in a recent shoplifting spree where police allege they took an estimated $10,000 worth of merchandise from businesses in the Greater Victoria area in one afternoon.
One of the men lived in a New Westminster home that police searched and found a trove of evidence pointing to potential illegal activity, including what they said was $30,000 worth of stolen merchandise, including tools and electronics, and about $20,000 worth of stolen high-end clothing with tags still attached.
Go back a decade and many Metro Vancouver grocery stores would not have had security guards at entrances.
Almost all do now, and that has meant an added expense for grocers, which is passed onto customers, Charlebois said.
He added that the number of security personnel in stores wearing civilian clothes has also increased.
London Drugs president Clint Mahlman last year estimated to BIV that prices at his retail chain were up about three per cent more than they would be otherwise to compensate for shoplifting and vandalism.
Employee theft is also on the rise
Cannabis stores in B.C. operate under strict regulations that keep products out of customers’ reach.
“The only loss that we experience as cannabis retailers is shrinkage due to employee theft,” said Jaclynn Pehota, executive director at the Licensed Retail Cannabis Council of BC.
“What we end up with in cannabis retail is people pocketing cash transactions. Somebody comes in and buys a product with cash instead of a card, and then the money ends up in the employee’s pocket.”
Companies that own up to the maximum of eight cannabis stores in B.C. often have a system where employees count cash and sometimes products at the end of each shift, and that total is matched with transaction records.
Sometimes transactions are not rung in, Pehota said. Other times, the stores are independent outlets where owners try to foster a family atmosphere and do not require cash counts or product counts.
Employees may also pilfer merchandise or cash on a grander scale.
BC Provincial Court Judge Nancy Phillips in July sentenced 34-year-old Carlos Cenon Santos to two years in prison and ordered him to pay $750,000 for stealing $2 million worth of laptops from London Drugs’ Richmond distribution centre.
She said that he snuck the laptops under his shirt to take to a back room, where he would put them in his knapsack. He took advantage of London Drugs not inspecting knapsacks when employees left the building, she added.
BIV asked Hunt what London Drugs has done since to prevent such thefts, but he said in an email that he cannot speak to that specific case.
Santos pleaded guilty to one count of theft worth more than $5,000 even though his thefts took place during a five-year period, starting in 2017, one year after he was hired, according to the judgment.
Court filings show other large B.C. retailers claim to have been victims of significant employee thefts.
Jim Pattison Ltd., which is affiliated with the Jim Pattison Group, alleged in a Sept. 17 notice of civil claim filed in BC Supreme Court that Linda Elizabeth Nissen stole $216,392.93 between 2019 and 2022, when the company fired her from her job as a head cashier from a Vancouver Island Quality Foods store.
Charlebois said retailers often do not speak out against employee theft because it is “embarrassing” and may inspire copycats. “Grocers are incredibly afraid of that,” he said.
Strategies to combat employee theft vary.
The modus operandi for decades at convenience stores, such as those from Surrey-based 7-Eleven Canada, has been for staff to count cash and cigarettes at the end of each shift alongside the employees coming on to start shifts.
No one from 7-Eleven Canada responded to BIV’s request for an interview on how the chain combats employee theft.
Loblaw Cos. Ltd. last month initiated a pilot program in Calgary, equipping employees with body cameras to beef up safety measures, as well as to potentially deter employee theft.
The move comes in response to a dramatic surge in violent encounters at retail locations across the country, the company said.
“This is a technology we have examined,” Hunt said.
“As with any new security technology, we are reviewing the outcomes carefully, and would explore this technology if it is shown to enhance the safety and security of employees and customers.”
