Shoplifting blogs are gaining popularity on Tumblr, but for the people who own and work at local Athens businesses, shoplifting is a real problem.
A new lifting community has emerged on the blogging site Tumblr, but the "lifters" involved aren’t trying to bulk up-- they’re trying to steal from businesses large and small to avoid paying for their desired lifestyle.
Shoplifting blogs are full of tips and tricks for budding kleptomaniacs, but local Athens businesses can really take a hit from what they lose to people stealing merchandise. Many examples of such blogs can be found online.
Last March, Mountain Laurel Gifts, 25 S. Court St., lost around $10,000 when a man broke in and stole jewelry from their backroom, Celia Summers, a manager who has worked at the store for 18 years, said. Since the robbery, the store has made efforts to enhance their security with extra cameras and an alarm system.
Athens stores may experience losses on a weekly basis or every few months, depending on the store. Some stores use security tags to discourage shoplifters, but it is more common for stores to use cameras and quality customer service. Marissa Whaley is a manager at local store BlueTique, 19 W. State St., who believes good customer service is important to deter shoplifting.
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“Shoplifting is everywhere,” Whaley said. “It’s hard to stop it, but if you can try to stop it as much as possible, you try to. We greet everyone who comes in and the more you talk to people the more reluctant they are to try to take something because it becomes more personal.”
One time a shoplifter tried to stuff clothing into a backpack right in front of an employee at BlueTique. The employee gave them the option to return the merchandise or deal with the police, Whaley said.
Maria Scarmack, the owner of local store So…Livi’s, 42 N. Court St., hasn’t had as many bad experiences with shoplifters and said she trusts the Athens population.
“I’m sure it could happen and may have happened but shoplifting hasn’t really been a big concern of ours,” Scarmack said. “The majority of people are honest, you might get a few bad apples but you can’t worry about it all the time.”
Cassi Spires, a sales associate at Artifacts Gallery, 2 W. State St., doesn’t have that same trust when it comes to the Athens shoppers.
“You really want to think that you can trust everyone in Athens,” Spires said. “But you can’t, because the town isn’t just full of small town people. There’s so many different people and you don’t know how they were brought up or what they think is okay to do.”
At Artifacts, the business keeps its display cases full and monitored by cameras, so the sales associates can tell when someone takes something. If employees are able to catch someone before he or she leaves, they will approach the person after they call the police to try to keep them in the store, Spires said.
“Just talking about shoplifting makes your heart speed up a bit,” Spires said. “When it happens you have to approach these people and accuse them of doing something they may not have done. You just call the cops and hope that they show up, but sometimes they take their sweet old time.”
In one case, another store called Artifacts to report that a shoplifter it had apprehended also had some of their merchandise, Spires said.
“When I worked at a bigger store I didn’t see as much shoplifting but I think some people think they can get away with more from smaller stores,” Whaley said. “The items may not have ink tags and the stores may not have cameras but a lot of smaller stores are taking those extra steps.”
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