Retail Theft Surges 93% Since Before COVID-19 Pandemic: ‘Retailers have not been crying wolf’; Oklahoma Gov. Stitt Issues Order Requiring State Employees to Return to the Office in 2025, and other C-Virus related stories

By admin On Dec 30, 2024

Retail theft surges 93% since before COVID-19 pandemic: ‘Retailers have not been crying wolf’:

The average number of shoplifting incidents jumped 93% in 2023 compared with pre-pandemic times and monetary losses for retailers have risen 90%, according to the nation’s largest retail trade group.

With its “Impact of Retail Theft & Violence 2024” study, the National Retail Federation (NRF) is highlighting the severity of this issue. For instance, despite the continuous efforts by retailers to combat such crimes and a growing number of states that have updated their laws to prosecute organized retail crime as felonies, the number of retail theft incidents continues to climb.

According to the data from the report, conducted in partnership with the Loss Prevention Research Council, incidents have jumped 26% in 2023 from the prior year.

“This isn’t what we were used to. This isn’t the shoplifting I was apprehending 30 years ago,” David Johnston, NRF vice president of asset protection and retail operations, told FOX Business. “These are people who are shoplifting because they know when they have an outlet to sell this merchandise to.”

Johnston is referring to organized retail crime groups, which resell stolen goods.

“Not every shoplifter is going out there and selling their stolen goods online or at a flea market. They’re selling them in larger mass quantities to these local, regional or transnational organizations who are helping to feed the system,” Johnston said.

Last year, there were an average of 177 shoplifting incidents per day, but in certain retail sectors, that number reached more than 1,000, the data showed.

“Retailers have not been crying wolf,” he said.

Not only are the number of incidents rising, but retailers said that they are also getting more violent. About 73% of those surveyed reported that shoplifters exhibited more violence and aggression than they were a year ago. About 91% reported that these criminals are more violent and aggressive compared with 2019. —>READ MORE HERE

Oklahoma Gov. Stitt issues order requiring state employees to return to the office in 2025:

Gov. Kevin Stitt has ordered all state workers to return to their offices and places of employment, saying the move is needed to “hold stragglers accountable.” The order comes more than a year after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention declared an end to the COVID-19 pandemic, and reflects the frustration many businesses have expressed in getting employees who went remote during the crisis to return to their offices.

“Return to the office, or you won’t be working for our state,” the governor said in a tersely worded message on X.

The governor’s order, No. 2024-29, said all full-time state employees are required to perform their duties in their assigned office, facility, or field location by February 1, 2025. The order said that forcing state employees to return to traditional work environments was a critical step in accountability and delivering services effectively.

The order also provides a few limited exceptions for state employees with non-standard work hours (e.g., evenings, weekends, holidays), roles where in-office employment is deemed unreasonable and agencies facing office space constraints that would require additional expenditures to accommodate employees.

“COVID altered the way we did business for a time, but that time has passed. Now, we need to put stewardship of taxpayer dollars as our top priority,” Stitt said in a statement announcing the order. “Oklahomans deserve a government that operates with full accountability and delivers services effectively. Returning to traditional work environments is a critical step in achieving that goal.”