One key thing was missed in this article. Keeping workers happy keeps them from being disgruntled and stealing from their employer. I doubt there is a shortage of Wal-Mart workers who feel they are "getting screwed" by their employer. I think the opposite is true of Cost-co. I believe I saw some figures a while back which indicated that Wal-mart suffers from employee theft on a much greater scale than Cost-co. All this stolen product must have an effect on the bottom line.

you raise an intriging point, which begs the question: How much money does walmart lose when people steal?

Is getting $40 dollars of merchandise stolen cheaper than paying someone $40 extra? I have a suspicion that:

1. Employees steal less than $40 of merchanise/week

2. Paying employees $1/hour (40/week) more would be more expensive than getting $40 stolen

3. It would take more than $1/hour to get people to stop stealing.

If I worked for Wal-Mart, and they determined my time was worth only ~7.00/hour, then I wouldn't work very hard... That goes for all jobs.

Specifically, I wouldn't worry about proper inventory control.

I'm sure that if a Wal-Mart worker sees someone stuffing CD's down his pants or into her purse, they would say something... But there just isn't very much interest in making eye-contact with the employees and paying attention to the goings-on in the store.

I don't shop there much, and I can afford what I need and am content enough to know the difference between a need and a want (ie. I don't steal)... but it is sometimes shocking how easy it would be to deplete their inventory if someone had half a mind to... The employees there just don't pay enough attention to notice.

My impression is that most merchandise has security devices, and most stealing nowdays can only be pulled off by employees.

Don't be so sure. When I was in Nevada, a coworker had a cousin that worked at a Walmart in Vegas who was part of a ring of store employees that were stealing gift cards or something and selling them. They were very very successful. I've also bought a DVD from walmart once and opened it up to find it empty. Employee theft for Walmart is a real problem, I think, it's not just people stealing things, it's the expense involved in making sure that people don't steal things. Ah. an article states that in 2007, Walmart losses from employee theft were $3 billion dollars on sales of $349 Billion, this is lower than industry average but it is rising.

Madai wrote: "My impression is that most merchandise has security devices, and most stealing nowdays can only be pulled off by employees."

Its been this way for a long time. Any journalist who writes an article about "inventory shrinkage" and shoplifting is a lazy type with no analytical skills.

jalaroc wrote: "An article states that in 2007, Walmart losses from employee theft were $3 billion dollars on sales of $349 Billion, this is lower than industry average but it is rising."

It helps to have few products in your inventory, worth stealing . Also, this is an indication of how fast the turn aroung time is on the sales Walmart makes. They hold little in inventory to be stolen and sell it quickly.