Wal-Mart Stores has a new priority: reducing theft.
Greg Foran, head of the retailer's U.S. operations, told a media briefing on Thursday he added theft and other forms of "unknown shrinkage" to a list of urgent items to be tackled at Wal-Mart's 4,555 stores across the United States.
Foran said he saw an opportunity to boost margins by putting a dent in a problem that typically represents 1 percent for any retailer's sales. He noted that Wal-Mart generated nearly $300 billion in revenues in the United States in the past fiscal year.
"One percent of $300 billion is quite a lot of money. If you can save 10 basis points of it – boy I’ll take it every day of the week and put it into lower prices for customers," Foran told Reuters after the briefing.
One basis point is equal to one hundredth of 1 percent, meaning that 10 basis points - or 0.1 percent - of $300 billion would be equal to $300 million.
Wal-Mart had flagged the issue when it announced its first quarter earnings last month, saying that "shrink" was a major contributor to a 13 basis point decline in its gross profit margin. It said half of the problem was related to food.
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[ Anyone remember WalMart's decision a few years back to not prosecute theft under $25? --Editor ]
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5 comments:
If you work at Wal-Mart you get paid so little and treated so badly, they encourage theft. If they treated their workers better and paid us more we wouldn't have to steal to make up the difference. I figure I steal around an extra $100. a week that I should be getting in my paycheck. It is real easy too, I just repackage items in empty boxes, and then purchase them. Better to pay for some plastic toy, which has clothing in the box.
Perdue had a theft problem that was occurring outside of their actual processing plants.Without going into detail it involved a deceptive practice with the placement of seals on loaded trucks.Wal-mart could quite probably be dealing with the same type of issues that would occur during transport.Hacking into shipping inventory & deleting various items from the delivery invoice would greatly outweigh shoplifting (10 to 1)in theft volume.Hacking was not an option in the early 80's with the Perdue issue,but it absolutely is now.
Sounds like you failed to get an education, trying to make a career out of what should be a part time job and will likely end up getting caught. Blame your employer for your failures as a human being. Oh wait, I bet a union would help you right?
11:10 take your Union hyperbole to the Union Hall. America has a top down problem. people steal. Marxist Union Heads steal on a grander scale and Government steals exponentially ... this Country is headed down the sewer.
Just like the new influx of disease. Why hasn't anyone run the figures between rates of shoplifting and the importation of illegal aliens to take American jobs?
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