Violence at Discount Retailers is Making the News
How Dollar Stores Became Magnets for Crime & Killing

"Discount chains are thriving - while fostering violence & neglect in poor communities"

- 200+ gun violence incidents at Family Dollar or Dollar General stores since 2017
- Large number involve armed robberies where workers, customers were shot
- Nearly 50 of those incidents resulted in deaths

The Gun Violence Archive, a website that uses local news reports and law enforcement sources to tally crimes involving firearms, lists more than 200 violent incidents involving guns at Family Dollar or Dollar General stores since the start of 2017, nearly 50 of which resulted in deaths. The incidents include carjackings in the parking lot, drug deals gone bad and altercations inside stores. But a large number involve armed robberies in which workers or customers have been shot.

Since the beginning of 2017, employees have been wounded in shootings or pistol-whippings in at least 31 robberies; in at least seven other incidents, employees have been killed. The violence has not let up in recent months, when requirements for customers to wear masks have made it harder for clerks to detect shoppers who are bent on robbery. In early May, a worker at a Family Dollar in Flint, Michigan, was fatally shot after refusing entry to a customer without a mask.

The number of incidents can be explained in part by the stores' ubiquity: There are now more than 16,000 Dollar Generals and nearly 8,000 Family Dollars in the United States, a 50% increase in the past decade. (By comparison, Walmart has about 4,700 stores in the U.S.) The stores are often in high-crime neighborhoods, where there simply aren't many other businesses for criminals to target. Routine gun violence has fallen sharply in prosperous cities around the country, but it has remained stubbornly high in many of the cities and towns where these stores predominate.

The glowing signs of the discount chains have become indicators of neglect, markers of a geography of the places that the country has written off. The chains' owners have done little to maintain order in the stores, which tend to be thinly staffed and exist in a state of physical disarray. propublica.org

Holiday Crime Trends
July 4th Holiday Cargo Theft Trends and Security Tips from CargoNet
Freight tracking and recovery company CargoNet is warning about a potential surge in cargo theft during the first week of July when Canada and the U.S. celebrate their national days. The company said Monday that extended business closures can create an "advantageous operating environment" for cargo thieves.

Noteworthy thefts from previous July 4th holidays

• $2,000,000 of perfume from Hillsborough Township, New Jersey
• $444,000 of copper cables from Long Beach, California
• $328,321 of toys from Trevor, Wisconsin
• $270,000 of jeans from Blacksburg, South Carolina
• $259,878 of hard drives and server chassis from Norcross, Georgia

Click here for July 4th theft trends and security tips infographic. trucknews.com
 

Coronavirus Tracker: July 2

US: Over 2.7M Cases - 130K Dead - 1.1M Recovered
Worldwide: Over 10.8M Cases - 520K Dead - 6M Recovered

Fallen Officers From the COVID-19 Pandemic: 51 | NYPD Deaths: 45
Private Industry Security Guard Deaths: 150+
 

US reports over 50,000 new single-day coronavirus cases on Wednesday, the largest single-day total since the start of the pandemic

Holiday Weekend Could Lead to Bigger Spikes
Fourth of July has potential to create 'perfect storm' for COVID-19 spread, infection disease doctor warns
As the Fourth of July weekend nears, an infectious disease doctor said the United States could be heading into "the perfect storm" for a spike in new coronavirus cases.

"It's set up a perfect storm: the combination of travel, the combination of reopening - perhaps in some cases, too early - and the combination of people not necessarily following some of these preventive guidelines," Dr. Joshua Barocas, an infectious disease physician at Boston Medical Center, said during a Wednesday briefing by the Infectious Diseases Society of America.

Barocas said cases spiked in some states after Memorial Day. Thirty-seven states now trend upward in the number of cases from last week and only two states, New Jersey and Rhode Island, trend downward. ktla.com

'A scary number' of retail companies are facing bankruptcy amid the coronavirus pandemic

Even those that survive will face a bumpy road ahead

To be sure, 2020 is shaping up to be one of the deadliest ever for the former icons of the mall and various shopping centers. The pandemic has kept stores closed for months and sent sales for the sector into a tailspin. With consumers only slowly venturing back out to stores after months of being quarantined, retailers are being faced with the reality they need fewer stores open...or should no longer be in business at all.

"Some companies are just not going to survive this," says McGrail, who is the COO of Tiger Capital Group. Its McGrail's team - which often includes store associates of a stricken retailer - that hangs the "Everything must go" signs and works to fetch top dollar on fixtures and other inventory.

Once formidable retailers such as Neiman Marcus (filed for bankruptcy in May) will either vanish entirely or emerge from bankruptcy with 75% smaller store networks. Those retailers that somehow manage to avoid bankruptcy by way of a creative debt raise or other restructuring will find the road ahead bumpy at best. yahoo.com

Top CEOs see business impact from coronavirus lingering until at least the end of 2021
The chief executives of the nation's biggest companies expect the business impact from the coronavirus to linger until at least the end of 2021. Nearly a third of them fear it could persist beyond then.

That sizable percentage − and disagreement among the country's most powerful executives − represents how uncertain the economic climate remains as the U.S. battles a health disaster with little modern precedence. cnbc.com

Apple to reclose 30 more retail stores as coronavirus cases spike

Nordstrom cuts 6,000 jobs, reduces workforce nationwide amid 40% decrease in sales

McDonald's is halting its U.S. reopening plans as coronavirus cases spike

Belk confirms layoffs, primarily at corporate office due to coronavirus pandemic

Fears grow for UK high street as more than 6,000 retail jobs cut in a day

Here's why the biggest U.S. mall owner might want to buy JC Penney

U.S. adds 4.8M jobs in June with leisure and hospitality and retail leading the way

Macy's reimagining its fireworks for COVID-19
 

Tennessee Legislation clarifies Organized Crime Retail law:
A new law went into effect July 1 clarifying Tennessee’s ORC statute
The legislation provides that the illegal purchase of merchandise or stored value cards may be made by physical or electronic means under Tennessee statutes to further curtail the crime. The measure seeks to cut off the flow of funds used in the purchase of illegal drugs through retail theft. The offense of organized retail crime includes an individual that acts in concert with one or more individuals to commit theft of any merchandise with a value greater than $1,000 aggregated over a 90 day period with the intent to fraudulently return the material to retail merchant. Expert testimony taken in the General Assembly previously revealed that Tennessee was losing over $14 million in sales tax dollars and retailers were losing over $200 million each year related to return fraud. Nationwide, the loss was $12-15 billion, with almost all being related to the illicit drug trade. Senate Bill 1943 by Briggs / Public Chapter 620 / Effective Date: July 1, 2020. fox17.com

California: Proposition 20: Tougher on parole, property crimes
California voters have weighed in twice in recent years to reduce the punishment for crimes considered by existing law to be among those less serious than violent felonies. In 2014, Proposition 47 was passed to reduce the penalties for some theft and drug crimes. In 2016, Proposition 57 offered a chance of parole to some serving prison sentences for crimes that don’t fall on the state’s list of violent crimes.

Both laws have been the subject of intense debate over whether they are the right step toward reducing the prison population and promoting rehabilitation or a wrong step that has led to an escalation in crime by repeat offenders.

This ballot measure would place new limits on some of the sentence reductions included in Proposition 47 and Proposition 57. It would allow some theft-related crimes to be charged as felonies and it would create two new crimes: serial theft (applicable only to a select list of crimes and to defendants who have prior convictions for certain crimes) and organized retail theft (two or more people involved in some theft crimes within a 180-day period). Both crimes could result in jail time. latimes.com

Delaware County, PA: Pennsylvania State Police investigating $75,000 theft of merchandise from local boutique

Houston, TX: Man faces felony theft charges for 2 Walmart thefts; 4 prior theft charges in past 4 years