Sparks, NV Police Shoplifting Sting at... Safeway-26 arrests/citations in 2 days!

[storewanderer]

~ttps://www.reddit.com/r/Reno/comments/17el1jo/ ... rrests_or/

https://www.kolotv.com/2023/10/21/spark ... citations/

https://mynews4.com/news/local/sparks-p ... rests-made

Wow- this is very surprising. This is a store in a middle to upper middle class neighborhood. This store isn't very busy but it has steady traffic. The store isn't very well staffed and isn't operated very well so I am wondering if it was targeted by groups who were shoplifting due to the lack of staffing/nothing locked up/open type of situation. Also the store is open 24 hours. I never witnessed any incidents in this store or even saw any suspicious behavior.

I'd love to see how many people would be caught on a similar sting in a Wal Mart or Target... if they caught this many in a sleepy good neighborhood Safeway.

[bryceleinan]

@storewanderer , another article from KTVN talking about the 100k in shrink from alcohol at this store:

https://www.2news.com/news/sparks-polic ... ec9ec.html

I used to work down Vista Blvd. from this store back in 2006, I don’t recall theft issues like this when I went to this store after my shift at UPS, pretty sad to see.

[storewanderer]

@storewanderer , another article from KTVN talking about the 100k in shrink from alcohol at this store:

https://www.2news.com/news/sparks-polic ... ec9ec.html

I used to work down Vista Blvd. from this store back in 2006, I don’t recall theft issues like this when I went to this store after my shift at UPS, pretty sad to see.

Unbelievable. This store has been run poorly. It is understaffed and clearly the situation got out of control.

I am glad to see something was finally done but Safeway is really irresponsible to allow that amount of alcohol theft occur, with much of it to minors and continue to have a wide open alcohol department and unmonitored exit door close to the alcohol. They need to monitor the exit, restrict access to the liquor area, or make it harder to exit the store without paying. These types of things like monitoring the exit and restricting access to the liquor area should have been done before this sting occurred. I am wondering if Safeway even knew what was going on or if community members who were finding minors in possession of alcohol traced back the source of the alcohol to being Safeway and started complaining to police about what was happening.

This Safeway is on its 3rd or 4th store director in the past few years and seems to have a revolving door of employees. I suspect with this type of employee and management turnover situation it is difficult to have the time needed to monitor and assess an ongoing theft problem that is occurring.

If this happened at the Smiths down the street that is right across from the high school I wouldn't be as surprised but they've done a good job with a maze like entry and exit path. Plus they've been dealing with the high school for 30+ years. When the crowd of high school kids descends on the store, the entire store management team is watching them. This has been how it is there through many store management teams over the years.

[storewanderer]

It appears Safeway continues to be targeted in Reno area by shoplifting rings. Also this one went to JC Penney. I am speechless.

https://www.kolotv.com/2023/12/30/chp-f ... eding-car/

It is probably time to quit being open 24 hours and if they are going to be open 24 hours they better have a cashier up front at all times (they don't- they have a bell or in the case of Sparks some weird call box that doesn't work properly but must be an upgrade from the squeek dog toy they had there before) and a security guard. They do so little sales overnight it isn't worth being open.

But great job to CHP for finding out about this stolen stuff in the speeding vehicle. They did the job that the stores all failed at.

WinCo is the only other store open 24 hours and they have loss prevention on duty. This would not happen at WinCo overnight. They do enough volume overnight in the two Reno units to pay for it (probably not enough volume in Sparks but I haven't been there in the middle of the night to know).

[bryceleinan]

@storewanderer , I am not in the Sparks Smith's enough to judge, but how is it compared to Safeway theft wise, considering it is not that far away from Safeway? I know Big R had to lock more of their stuff up, but was not sure about Smith's. Guessing Safeway will definitely be the divest candidate if a merger happens.

[storewanderer]

@storewanderer , I am not in the Sparks Smith's enough to judge, but how is it compared to Safeway theft wise, considering it is not that far away from Safeway? I know Big R had to lock more of their stuff up, but was not sure about Smith's. Guessing Safeway will definitely be the divest candidate if a merger happens.

I don't see significant theft issues in the Sparks Smiths, but then again, I didn't see them in the Safeway either. I've seen various liquor run outs at the Sparks Safeway by teenagers out the liquor/deli side doors and nobody knows or sees and it is a really easy straight path out, I used to see those at the Sparks Scolaris that closed on Disc all the time out the pharmacy side doors at night when they had one cashier or no cashier up front too, these layouts are an easy target. Another issue in the Sparks Safeway is there is an emergency exit at the back corner of the store next to bakery and liquor; this is an avenue for theft to occur from as well. There are cameras on it inside and out.

The Sparks Smiths seems to be well staffed and always has been. There has always been a theft issue involving the high school kids and the store management over the years (which has turned over/been promoted multiple times) always keeps a very close watch during lunch and after school. The entryway is not really friendly for theft. It isn't easy to run out of the store via a straight path, there are a lot of obstacles. While liquor is somewhat close to the doors it would be almost impossible to get it out the door without having multiple employees see you. Late at night even at 11 PM they have two employees watching self checkout and also watching the door. No sensitive high theft product is placed near emergency exits.

The South Meadows and Lemmon Smiths both have a theft issue during the evening where the shoplifter will pretend to be shopping produce and quickly run out the door with a full cart of stuff, since the door is right next to produce. Locking the doors right next to produce (but the other doors are like five steps away) and shopping cart barricades are meek efforts to deter theft at best. The layout is an issue.

Big R's problem is a lack of customer traffic so they don't have as many employees as they have in Fernley/Fallon and have a larger space to deal with. I can see how they'd have theft issues as often that very large store has 3 employees who are trying to keep their eyes on all of the customers (very helpful...) but practically running around in order to do so. The layout (carry over from Lumberjack) is also really difficult to watch multiple aisles at once.

I also noticed the Kietzke Save Mart has closed its liquor side doors and put signs over them. It is funny this is another store that at night used to close the doors on the other side (bakery/deli/produce) and kept the ones by liquor open since the checkstands were positioned in a way that the cashier was facing those doors by liquor, so the logic was they had their eye on the door that way. As I recall under Albertsons the liquor side doors closed by 9 PM with pharmacy.