Pharmacy chain could be ‘forced’ to shut down several locations after employees ‘threatened’ by rampant shoplifters
A PHARMACY with over 70 locations may be forced to close stores due to violent retail crime.
London Drugs, a popular pharmaceutical company in British Columbia, has spent millions on shoplifting deterrents.
Despite its efforts, the company's president has confirmed that the continued crime wave will likely cause store closures.
On Tuesday, Clint Mahlman told Global News: “I can say that there’s active conversations about closing stores right here in Vancouver."
No further details were given as to which stores or a possible timeline for the closures.
The COO detailed some of the violence that has come with the crime.
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After confronting a customer suspected of attempting to shoplift, one employee was hit with a hatchet.
They had asked the suspect not to take items without paying for them.
Mahlman added that other workers have been threatened with knives, needles, machetes, and other weapons like bear spray.
Anthony Sullivan who owns an IGA store in downtown Vancouver told the news outlet: "Every day we stop people and we never know how it’s going to go.
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"It’s getting worse, not easier."
While London Drugs appears to be discussing closures in Vancouver, the shoplifting epidemic goes further than just one city.
"It's in northern B. C., it's on Vancouver Island, we see it universally everywhere."
A CVS store in Washington DC's Columbia Heights neighborhood has become such a key hotspot for theft that its shelves are always bare and shipment dates are targeted.
Workers said that between 40 and 50 youths will steal from the store before and after school and even late at night.
The employees added that shoplifters know the shipment dates of when merchandise will arrive so they can target the location more effectively.
The CVS store becomes a victim of theft every five minutes, according to Popville.