"Following the Corona crisis, there has been a tens of percent increase in food thefts around the world - both because of financial distress and because of the large area in the supermarket," said Moran Opgang, VP of Focus and Director of National Customer and Loss Prevention, at Check Point at G1.
The company specializes in providing technological solutions for reducing the loss of depreciation in the retail world in Israel, and it works with hundreds of leading companies and chains in Israel in the fields of fashion, pharma and food retail.
According to the company's data, the increase in the phenomenon of "customer procrastination" in 2021 - compared to 2019, before the outbreak of the epidemic - began with the opening of stores and malls after closures.
Of all the thefts, 30% were "snooping" by one person and 70% were thefts and "snooping" of two or more people.
"The corona has increased theft in all worlds," explains Opgang, "because people did not have a job and money. Their only way to survive was to steal, and this is a 'successful method.' When in a family with two babies the mother is fired and the father is unemployed.
"Some of our customers said that customers at the supermarket stole frozen meat and even milky and white or yellow cheese. In some places they released them, because after the investigation they realized that the theft was not planned and it was not an organized gang but survival."
"Thefts are getting better"
According to Opgang, a significant number of thefts in the southern region were committed by residents of the Bedouin diaspora - in most cases, in gangs of two or more people.
The thefts were carefully planned, as they would usually locate the networks where the level of security or control was relatively low.
Another phenomenon that Oppgang describes is the theft of alcohol.
"It's a very hard blow," he says. ".
Opgang states that his company recognizes a 15% -12% increase in thefts of products from the fields of optics, cosmetics, fashion, electricity and food.
"The thefts in the field of fashion are done not only at the entrance of the store but also in the locker rooms. There are those who take ten items and put them in a bag. We have a technological solution that knows when a locker is going to be stolen."
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