The Five-Fingered Discount

Not all the goods that disappear from store shelves during the holiday season are bought. Sticky-fingered customers and employees make off with $9 billion in merchandise annually, and Christmas is the big season. Shoplifting has jumped 35% in the past four years, making it the fastest-growing larceny crime in the country. According to one study, shoplifters get away with the loot 97% of the time.

Fearing that the souring economy will lead to even more thefts, retailers are resorting to novel deterrents. One innovation is an "ink tag," a plastic disk containing three glass vials of indelible ink that is attached to a garment and removable only with a special tool. Tamper with the tag and the ink spills, staining the fabric and perhaps a finger or two. "We're saying, 'Get away with it if you want, but why are you bothering?' " says Robert DiLonardo, marketing chief of Security Tags Systems Inc., the major U.S. manufacturer. His firm has marketed nearly 2 million of the Swedish-invented tags to about 200 U.S. stores. One chain's losses were reportedly cut 60%.

Some antitheft systems are decidedly low-tech. Several grocery stores, including Cub Foods in Colorado Springs, Colo., are placing life-size cardboard figures of local police officers next to such tempting items as film and cosmetics. The cutouts cost Cub $500 apiece but have reduced shoplifting in the store 30% in the past six weeks. "We don't have to feed them, pay them, give them vacation or worker's comp," says assistant manager L.J. Stevens. "We just clean them off once a week with a dustcloth."