‘All too common’: retail theft shows no sign of slowing down

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This article was published 23/04/2024 (545 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It’s a cost of business Phil Klein never expected, but now knows all too well.

The owner of Bagelsmith in downtown Winnipeg has been burglarized four times since opening his flagship store on Carlton Street in late 2020.

“My experience downtown has really only been that it’s pretty rampant with break-ins,” Klein said Tuesday afternoon. “It seems to be an all too common thing that happens.”

New data from the Winnipeg Police Service shows the incidents of crime show no indication of slowing down, despite the police force’s initiative to curb retail theft.

In four months, from November 2023 to March 2024, there were 877 break-and-enters at commercial locations and 3,115 incidents of shoplifting under $5,000, as per new figures provided by the Winnipeg Police Service.

There were 3,745 reports of shoplifting under $5,000 from January to August 2023, a 44 per cent increase compared with the same eight-month period in 2022.

In November 2023, Winnipeg police launched the Retail Theft Initiative in which more officers were stationed near retail hot spots, where thefts were described as becoming increasingly brazen and violent.

One month later, police reported more than 150 arrests. Updated arrest statistics for 2024 are not yet available.

Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce president Loren Remillard said the trend is concerning as the thefts will have short-term and long-term effects in the community.

“We know so many of our neighbourhoods require small business to maintain its vibrancy and vitality … when they vacate those neighbourhoods, it creates a trend that sees those areas depopulate and create huge holes economically,” he said.

Last November, thieves smashed a window at Klein’s Bagelsmith and made away with a knife and an induction burner. The owner knows better than to leave cash on site after the first three thefts. Food has also been stolen from the business, a sign of larger socioeconomic issues, Klein said.

“What does that tell you? There’s hungry people.”

“We’re working in situations where there’s addiction, poverty, certain challenges that are drivers of theft. When a level of desperation heightens those challenges, there are times where people will stop at nothing to get what they need.”– Winnipeg police spokesperson Const. Dani McKinnon

In November, the Canadian Federation of Independent Businesses released a report detailing the effect of crime on businesses in Western Canada. More than half of Manitoba businesses — 54 per cent — have felt the impact of crime, the report found.

Winnipeg police spokesperson Const. Dani McKinnon said the crime has far-reaching implications.

“We’re working in situations where there’s addiction, poverty, certain challenges that are drivers of theft. When a level of desperation heightens those challenges, there are times where people will stop at nothing to get what they need,” she said.

Electronics, tools, equipment and bikes are among some of the most-stolen items due to their high resale value, McKinnon said.

Remillard lauded the province’s recently announced rebate program for security cameras, which will reimburse up to $300 to homeowners and small-business owners for security equipment, but says its only part of the way to address theft.

“It’s part of a much larger strategy that we need… it’s not the solution to these issues that we’re seeing.”

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Police and the Retail Council of Canada continue to work in tandem to address thefts under the Retail Theft Initiative but police are resource-dependent and have a limited number of officers to monitor communities, McKinnon said.

“There’s so many facets to the ‘why’ and now we’re at the stage of how do we protect people, how do we assist businesses and how do we keep people safe overall?” she said.

Klein is locked in to a lease for his downtown location for another four years, and isn’t sure what the future holds for his business after that. Sales at his other two locations — one on Taylor Avenue and the other, an express location, on McDermot Avenue — eclipse his principal location.

“It’s an unfortunate kind of circumstance that a lot of people are dealing with downtown and I don’t foresee that really changing any time soon,” he said. “It’s just the cost of business — not one that I expected to incur, but one that I now know.”

nicole.buffie@freepress.mb.ca

Nicole Buffie
Multimedia producer

Nicole Buffie is a reporter for the Free Press city desk. Born and bred in Winnipeg, Nicole graduated from Red River College’s Creative Communications program in 2020 and worked as a reporter throughout Manitoba before joining the Free Press newsroom as a multimedia producer in 2023. Read more about Nicole.

Every piece of reporting Nicole produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.