These shoppers risk shame for a "damn" good bargain

Shop owners in Chennai are at a loss to explain this. Well-to-do women come in cars, buy goods worth Rs 2,000, but then they pilfer a scent bottle or a an expensive soap. And even as the question `why’ persists, a store keeper at the Kamadhenu Cooperative Supermarket says , “I have even caught a police official slipping in a hair dye surreptitiously into his pocket!”. There are young artful dodgers as well. One gang that came in comprised three kids aged ten, seven and four. The older boys stuffed the four year-old’s shirt with all goodies and they went out to share the booty but were caught. Even in theWest, about three per cent of the profits is written off as `shoplifter’s quota’.

Shops have adopted different measures to combat this menace. Well-managed department stores go in for four to five security personnel in plain clothes who are put on surveillance throughout the day. Another ticklish problem is how to deal with the culprits. It is only a petty theft, but it is a moral lapse and causes loss to the shop owners. They have to cough up a fine that is five times the value of the goods. The punishment meted out to the shoplifters varies in accordance with the class of the culprit. A lower middle class person who stole a five litre oil packet was thrashed mercilessly. And a well-placed official who had pilfered after-shave was only asked, “Does this become you?”.

If they cannot pay up, leave behind costly possessions. A lady left a gold ring after trying to smuggle out a litre of face cream and a huge bar of chocolate under her pallu. But checking and apprehending have their own disadvantages. A woman who used to buy goods for Rs. 2000 was caught stealing a chocolate bar. “She stopped coming after that. For Rs five we had to sacrifice Rs. 2,000”, laments a shopkeeper.

The only solution seems to be what Music World at Spencer Plaza has adopted – a sensormatic check (installed at a cost of Rs. two lakh). A sensormatic tag is attached to each cassette and CD. When it is billed it is demagnetised. Suppose somebody tries walking out without billing, there will be a beep at the entrance. Almost foolproof. There have been instances when they have tried walking out with cassettes and they are politely stopped at the entrance.