elgato
Joined: 24 Feb 2005
Posts: 16923
Location: Texas
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| Posted: Tue Nov 10, 2009 1:14 pm Post subject: Are auction sites solving the theft problem? Nope! |
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In response to NRF’s safety warning to shoppers earlier this week, an online marketplace lobbyist told the Cleveland Plain Dealer that retailers are simply pursuing organized retail crime legislation “to demonize their online competition.” (This is a ridiculous point, but more on that later.) In addition, this lobbyist attempted to minimize the seriousness of organized retail crime by saying that auction sites already police themselves to “prevent” the sale of stolen goods. The problem, he thinks, is that retailers are not committed to fighting crime themselves.
The accusation that retailers are counting on legislation to replace their own efforts could not be farther from the truth. It is true that the recession forced many retailers to make deep spending cuts last year just to stay in business, and loss prevention spending was not immune. But according to a study from the University of Florida, companies still spent an estimated $8.2 billion on loss prevention expenses last year. Need a comparison to realize just how huge that number is? It’s similar to the annual revenues of major retailers like Nordstrom and Whole Foods.
Later in this same article, an eBay representative provided his own reasoning behind why we want legislation. In his view, NRF is “trying to discredit thousands of honest, hard-working small business people in an attempt to forward its lobbying agenda.” He also says these efforts “are aimed more at protecting retail giants rather than serving consumers.”
This is another allegation that the auction sites have been fond of making and, quite frankly, I’m tired of the stale messaging. This has nothing to do with small businesses; in fact, small businesses make up one-third of our thousands of members
more.. link to news article |
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