Retailers in Edmonton are seeing liquor thefts are rising at an alarming rate, resulting in lost revenue and threatening the safety of employees.
“Some of our stores are hit five to six times a day,” said Keith Clark, Manager of Liquor Depot Oliver Square. "They'll even tell us, they'll say 'I’m just here to clean off your shelf' and they will literally take whatever they can.”
Liquor Depot has more than 90 stores scattered across Edmonton. The chain has watched its shoplifting numbers triple in the past three years from 2,211 in 2016 to 6,640 in 2018.
The thefts can be traumatizing to employees who are forbidden by Liquor Depot policy from trying to stop a theft in progress.
“We have employees here that have been punched and kicked, have bottles thrown at them, been knocked down,” said Clark. “It's definitely a big concern.”
Jim Pettinger, Manager of Liquor International, said the rise in shoplifting is a concern for smaller independent stores like his. He believes repeat offenders and an overloaded court system is to blame for the spike.
“That probably more than anything is what's contributing to this epidemic of shoplifting,” said Pettinger. “Because they know nothing is going to happen to them.”
Edmonton Police said it appears liquor store thefts are on the rise city wide, but could not provide statistics to CTV News. In a statement, EPS said it was working closely with local liquor retailers to work together to reduce liquor theft.
The problem is so bad for Liquor Depot that its parent company, Alcanna Inc., has established a ‘Organized Retail Crime Group’. The group has investigators looking into shoplifting incidents that may otherwise go un-investigated and sharing information with EPS.
"They'll do surveillance on these individuals they'll put the cases together, they'll gather all the video evidence and bring it all to police." said Joe Cook, Vice President of Business Ventures with Alcanna Inc.
"(Police) are assisting us with doing some targeted tactics on our stores and really zoning in on specific groups that are actually hitting us." Said Cook, who linked the brazen thefts to organized crime.
“The guys are coming in with shopping lists of merchandise to grab. Obviously they're feeding another market out there, a black market,”
Alcanna suggests one way to counter thefts is to make it mandatory for customers to show identification as they enter the store.
However, Pettinger said he wants to see a system where all liquor stores can share information, something that currently does not exist in Alberta.
“It's not just a shoplifting concern, it's a safety concern."
With files from CTV Edmonton’s Dan Grummett
