One night last year, a then-Wharton senior stumbled into the Fresh Grocer at 40th and Walnut streets. “I was just extremely drunk and I went into Frogro and … found an uncooked pizza,” the recent graduate said. “I don’t even really remember most of it, but I just walked out with the pizza and was eating it as I walked out. It was probably 3 in the morning — nobody stopped me.”
In the Penn Patrol Zone, there have been 68 shoplifting incidents so far this year — 17 of which occurred at The Fresh Grocer — a 21-percent increase for the store from the same time last year. In 2010, there were 85 year-to-date total incidents, according to Vice President for Public Safety Maureen Rush.
According to Rush, however, most shoplifting isn’t committed by students. “At The Fresh Grocer, predominantly when people are stealing, it’s three different things: food, baby formula and body products,” she said, adding that the range of products stolen is indicative of the societal problems present in the West Philadelphia area. “The people that are stealing out of Fresh Grocer are pretty much stealing the basics of life.”
Accordingly, Fresh Grocer Marketing Director Carly Spross said that she does not believe there is any correlation between students returning to campus and shoplifting rates increasing. Shoplifting, however, does increase when it becomes busier in the stores.
For that reason, The Fresh Grocer was remodeled last year, moving a prominent security area to the front of the store that helps deter crime, she said. In addition, the store has taken to checking some customers’ bags upon leaving.
Other stores, such as American Apparel, have also increased security to quell shoplifting. Last year, when several arrests were made at the clothing retailer, a security guard was hired to make the store less of a target and deter criminals, according to Rush.
However, some students — such as the recent Wharton graduate — admit the extra security has not stopped them from stealing from shops.
While the majority of shoplifting violations the Division of Public Safety reports are not from Penn students, retail locations on Penn’s campus note that they do deal with student shoplifters. The CVS on the 3900 block of Walnut Street has experienced a “definite increase [of shoplifting] in the past two weeks,” right when students returned to campus, according to CVS manager Lachelle Anderson.
People who shoplift at that CVS are “a mix, probably half and half” students and local residents, Anderson said.
DPS has enforced several programs — such as increasing Penn Police presence around local businesses by requiring a crime log book in every store — that lowered retail theft, Rush said.
The Penn Police are always “very cooperative,” and respond immediately to any reports of retail or other theft, Anderson said.
