Gamers and Thieves

[jester47]

Actually, that's not true. If you talk to almost any bookseller (chain or independant) who knows the numbers of stock loss to theft in their store, they will tell you that the most shoplifted book is the Bible. I kid you not. I worked in several bookstores for years during and after college, and my wife worked in a store for the past 5 years, and it held true across all of our experiences. It was a discussion that was had at many company meetings, and was a very difficult thing to try to counter, because it is not kids who are stealing the bibles. It's been discussed in Publishers weekly and other places as well, I'm not just basing this on my own experiences.

Hrm, it might be regional. I know that the Pacific Northwest is the most non-bible reading section of the country, and it is also the biggest Science Fiction market in the country. This could skew the numbers a bit.

Yes, but they also position the occult section and the sexuality section so they can be watched as well. Those are just sections that many teens are likely to head for in a bookstore. At the stores that I worked in that carried RPGs (not all did), the section was setup so that it was visible by the staff at all times, because we had books stolen from it. We also had books stolen from every other section of the stores, but RPGs tended to be hardcovers costing $20+ while most other theft was paperbacks that could easily be slipped into a pocket. It was usually a matter of the value of the theft vs. the amount of theft that occured that decided which sections were watched most.

Hrm, they don't watch those sections that way up here. The sex and occult sections are in secluded places. And from what our store consistently said, we did not get much shrinkage from those sections. Its the manga/RPG section that gets more attention up here.

As for the bible I can believe it elsewhere. The idea that God owns everything, and wants you to hear his word could be misunderstood to mean that taking a bible is OK.

It might just be a teenage theft experimentation demographic overlap...

Aaron.

 

[billd91]

I think one of the reasons there seems to be a lot of theft of RPG items at a variety of stores is because of the demographics involved. There are a lot of male adolescents who get into the hobby who haven't quite figured out where they sit on a variety of moral lines. Young males tend to be more risk-takers than older males or females and so may have fewer inhibitions about shoplifting the items. And you have the whole package wrapped up in natural teen rebellion and tendencies to act against the norms of conformist authority.
I'm not saying that all male teen shoplift gaming stuff, but that there's a natural demographic less hostile to this sort of thing than the mainstream of consumers.

As far as the Bible being the most regularly shoplifted, I think our society places a high priority on having some sort of spiritual rudder/guidance/crutch/whatever. I suspect many people feel a drive to own a Bible, whether they actually consult it/read it/level furniture with it/hide liquor in it/or not. And for people with limited money, it's a lot easier (though quite a bit more ironic) to pick up the moral compass that is the Bible without paying for it from a major book chain. There's also always a market for the Bible so that if people aren't going to peruse it themselves, they can probably sell it for a few bucks pretty easily.
Personally, I don't peruse the Bible though we have more than one around the house (my wife was a religious studies major in college). But if I wanted one, I'd nick one from a hotel.

 

[Xath]

When I worked at Wizards, we positioned the CCGs and the Miniatures (when we still sold them) in plain view of the register. Eventually, the theft had us putting all CCGs behind the counter. The only "shoplifter" I ever caught was a 2 year old who put a shiny Pokemon booster in his coat pocket. His mom made him put it back when I told her.

We'd run Yu-Gi-Oh tournaments twice a week, and it seems no matter how many times we warned the kids to keep their stuff with them, at least 1 deck a week went missing.

I don't remember people stealing books. I just remember people treating the RPG section like a library.

 

[eris404]

I think one of the reasons there seems to be a lot of theft of RPG items at a variety of stores is because of the demographics involved. There are a lot of male adolescents who get into the hobby who haven't quite figured out where they sit on a variety of moral lines. Young males tend to be more risk-takers than older males or females and so may have fewer inhibitions about shoplifting the items. And you have the whole package wrapped up in natural teen rebellion and tendencies to act against the norms of conformist authority.
I'm not saying that all male teen shoplift gaming stuff, but that there's a natural demographic less hostile to this sort of thing than the mainstream of consumers.

Not to mention the cost of the books themselves. Not to justify shoplifting, but if you are a teenager/young person working for minimum wage in the US (or living off the generosity of your parents), paying $32-40 for an RPG book is pretty steep when you consider all the other entertainment someone could buy for that same amount. When I was younger, I often thought of things in terms of the cost of a CD. I might look at shirt that cost $50 and think "Man, that's five CDs!" (I shopped at local used store that sold CDs for $10 or less) Even at full Tower Records price, a $40 book is the same as two CDs. Now consider that a lot of places don't put security tags in their books, making them more tempting to steal than CDs which almost always have security devices in them. It doesn't surprise me at all.

 

[Samothdm]

Back when I was in Junior High, our local city library had a bunch of RPG books (originally) but the more I got into the hobby, the more frustrated I got when I'd go to check out a book only to find that it had been missing for years. They eventually stopped carrying them altogether.

During the same time period, a "D&D Shoplifting Ring" got started by a few kids at my school. They actually had a computer-list (on dot-matrix!) of Modules, books, and acccessories that they would get for people. You could put your order in for a module for, say, $0.50, and then they'd go shoplift it and deliver it to you. It was insane. It got to the point where another guy started a competitive "service" at lower rates. Hardbacks cost more than softbacks which cost more than modules. I have no idea how long that lasted or whatever happened to those guys.

This was all around 20 years ago.

 

[Shadowdancer]

Back when RPG supplements/adventures routinely came in shrink wrap, the thing that always made me mad is when teens would take off the shrink wrap to read the products, and take whatever loose inserts were inside. You could find the discarded plastic all over the store -- people would pick up the product in one section, carry it to another section that was more secluded and open them there, ditching the evidence behind books in that section.

Our local Waldenbooks always keeps the RPG stuff close to the checkout counter so it can be watched by the staff, and they keep CCG, WOTC minis and dice behind the counter or locked in a display case. They recently reconfigured the store to move the Scifi/Fantasy book section from the back of the store to the wall near the front and across from the counter so the RPG stuff could be placed near the target audience's favorite section and still be monitored by the staff.

 

[fafhrd]

Get any group of young males who think they're ninjas and you end up with "acts of stealth"

 

[ColonelHardisson]

I started gaming in 1979. I've never shoplifted, but I knew of plenty gamers who stole game books. The places I bought game stuff - mostly chain and independent bookstores back then, as my area didn't have much in the way of game shops in the late 70s/early 80s - had a problem with game material being stolen (I was told this by employees of the places I went to).

 

[Samothdm]

Back when RPG supplements/adventures routinely came in shrink wrap, the thing that always made me mad is when teens would take off the shrink wrap to read the products, and take whatever loose inserts were inside. You could find the discarded plastic all over the store -- people would pick up the product in one section, carry it to another section that was more secluded and open them there, ditching the evidence behind books in that section.

I bought a bunch of stuff for 1/2 price this way at my local Gemco (later "Fred Meier") store by noting to the store owner that part of the product was missing. People had done exactly what you said - opened an item and taken pieces out.

I picked up "Top Secret" for $6 this way because someone had taken the dice and the module out of the box but left the rulebook.

 

[ender_wiggin]

I've never actually taken anything out of a store (being raised with decent morals), but I must admit, the temptation is there, the motive is there, and the means is there. Does anyone know the manufacture price on these $50 books? All the gaming friends I knew face to face are either in college now or are doing drugs, so I don't know about their thievery individually, but I know its there, inexplicably.

It's all about the price vs value. Have I ever bought a legal copy of Windows XP Professional? That costs $280. Hell no, you burn a copy from your friend. Have I every bought a pdf? Hell no. You get a copy from your friend. It's that simple. If I had the people resources that some of you guys had, I would definately be ripping pdf versions of books off. I'll be honest - if I had enough money to buy a decent scanner I would do it myself.