Romanians shoplift $10 million from supermarkets

The merchandise shoplifted from Romanian supermarkets last year was worth some 10 million dollars, according to market estimates. This is a lot of money for Romania, but extremely little if compared to the United States, for instance, where shoplifting has come to account for 1.7% of the supermarkets’ sales. In Romania, it only accounts for 1%.
Many Romanians that left the country before 1989 were shocked to see the extraordinary bounty in the western supermarkets. They were so shocked that they were often caught by guards with pockets full of chocolate or sneakers.
But what happened when the supermarkets came to Romania? Despite the impression that the merchandise is easy to steal, it seems that Romanian thieves are no match for the new security norms. Or perhaps many of them are still “going to school” in the west.
According to the main retailers in Romania, the inventory losses prompted by theft (committed by employees or due to fraud and administrative errors) account for less than 1% of the total sales.
This means that losses amounted to 10 million dollars last year, considering the estimated sales of the Romanian store chains: almost one billion dollars.
In the United States, inventory losses have accounted for 1.7% of turnover in the past few years, which means more than 31 billion dollars.
When it comes to the security system, every company, be it Metro, Carrefour or any other store, claims to own the best equipment. But what is such a system comprised of?
“First of all, there is the uniformed security personnel, meant to provide protection to customers – so that there are no incidents at the cash registers, for instance,” says Rainer Exel, general manager of Rewe Romania, the company that owns two XXL Mega Discount! stores (in Bucharest and Sibiu).
“Then come the civil guards, who protect the store and the products, and, last but not least, the surveillance cameras,” Exel adds. Another, more Romanian-like solution is applied in some Mega Image stores: only the packaging of expensive liquor can be found on the shelves. The bottle can be picked up at the cash registry, after it is paid for.
Let’s not forget the magnetic security system, with magnetic labels tightly attached to the expensive products, such as clothing items or electronic devices. These labels are demagnetised or taken out at the cash register, but when someone tries to avoid payment, the magnetic field triggers the alarm. This also goes for the neighbouring countries.
“We are using in Romania the same security systems we use in the other countries where we operate. Thus, Romania is, as far as we are concerned, a very safe country – there are few security problems, while the issue of shoplifting is the same as in all our other hypermarkets around the world,” says Francois Oliver, Carrefour general manager.