Merchandise That Walks

In department stores, the dapper, boutonniered floorwalker is being replaced by batteries of hidden television cameras, constellations of elevated mirrors and platoons of security guards whose job it is to make sure that customers do not always get what they want. Despite the uncounted millions that retail stores spent on security last year, shoplifters and light-fingered employees stole an estimated $3 billion in merchandise --up 20% from the year before.

Manhattan-based Bonwit Teller last week reported that it lost $3,220,000 in thefts during fiscal 1970, more than the company's profits for that year. Retailers in Manhattan are worried that many of its elegant stores will be forced to close in a few years if losses to thieves are not cut. "About 60% to 70% of all those whom we apprehend have a drug-addiction problem," said Bonwit President William M. Fine. "Whenever you see an area with a major drug problem, you see a great increase in store thefts." The problem afflicts almost every major metropolitan area in the country. According to executives of the Chicago drug abuse program, a heroin addict without other sources of income must steal an average of $40,000 worth of goods a year to keep himself in fixes.

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