ROYAL, Mich. (CBS DETROIT) — Retailers across the country are taking action against shoplifting, including one small business in Royal Oak.
Julia Manzella is a buyer at Rail and Anchor, an eclectic boutique in Royal Oak. She says a few years ago, the small business began noticing a decline in profits and a disappearance of merchandise, and she took action.
“To stop the theft, we had to put money back into the store,” Manzella said. “So we spent thousands of dollars on a security system.”
The store began posting photos and videos of shoplifters on social media in an effort to catch the crooks.
“We’re tracking people down and they’re not coming back,” Manzella said. “We’ve taken a position on this.”
Bloomberg reports that retail giant Target has also taken a stand. The publication cites inside company sources who told it that Target has asked its employees to lower the sentencing threshold for shoplifters from $100 to $50.
“It might help solve the problem if big companies like Target started taking a stand,” Manzella said. “But it’s also going to take a lot of local agencies starting to go after repeat offenders.”
“I’ve had a lot of friends who have had to close their businesses because of this issue,” Manzella told CBS News Detroit. “But we’re not a small cannabis store and they can’t take advantage of us. We have to keep our doors open and we have to build a business.”
Target did not respond to CBS News Detroit’s request for comment as of the time of this article’s publication.
