Last year I worked for a while in a hardware store to research a story I was planning. I had never worked retail before so the job was an eye-opener—a lot of retail work is poorly paid drudgery. The experience certainly raised my respect and sympathy levels for retail workers.

I also learned about shoplifters. The store was well set-up for surveillance with wide uncluttered aisles, clear sight lines, and cameras, but there still was theft. I can only imagine what a crowded clothing store must suffer in losses.

Predictably, shoplifting has increased in these tough times. Added is the seasonal spike in the curve when people treat themselves to a little something for Christmas. Stores are packed, clerks are busy, and surveillance systems are overtaxed.

In our modern society, shoplifting seems to be a socially acceptable form of stealing based on the surprising number of people who do it or have done it. According to the National Association for Shoplifting prevention (NASP, www.shopliftingprevention.org), 1 in 11 Americans shoplift. I suspect this statistic reflects habitual shoplifters—the percentage of people who have done it at some point in their lives is apt to be much higher.

For many, shoplifting is similar to cheating on tax returns or ripping off insurance companies with fraudulent claims—it’s the revenge of the little person against the big faceless corporation. The “revenge” is nothing but a rationalization to cloak the fact that shoplifting, tax cheating, and insurance fraud are just different forms of stealing, a crime punishable in some parts of the world by cutting the thief’s hand off.

Shoplifting damages not only the robbed merchant, but also society as a whole. This is the intellectual leap that many people do not take because it requires thinking more than 18.5 seconds into the future. The NASP website lists the following points:

•  The higher prices consumers must pay to cover the losses from theft.
• The inconvenience and invasiveness of security measures to consumers when shopping in stores.
• The loss of community jobs when stores are forced to close.
• The loss of local and state sales tax revenue resulting in higher taxes for everyone.
• The added burden on the police and the courts.
• The added financial and emotional hardship placed on families resulting from the arrest of a parent or child.
• The corruption of our youth and our future, when dishonesty is not effectively addressed at its most fundamental level.

Surprisingly, professional shoplifters are a small minority. Also surprisingly, there is no shoplifter profile. Men and women steal in equal numbers. Young and old steal. Interestingly (and also surprisingly), more adults steal than teens.

According to another website, www.preventshopliftingloss.com, only 3% of shoplifters steal as a for-profit enterprise, meaning that the other 97% steal for other reasons, such as personal or social pressure (“Caitlin has, one. I need one, too” or “We gotta keep up with the Joneses”). Another little-publicized reason is the rush that shoplifters feel when they get away with it. This rush is apparently so potent that it rises to the level of addiction, making it very difficult for some people to stop.

Some more interesting facts: shoplifters themselves say they get caught only once in 48 tries and are turned in only half the time. This means that punishment comes only 1 in a 100 times. Those are pretty good odds.

Stores are gearing up for the Christmas season in several ways. Heightened security is one of them. Top items on shoplifter wish lists according to Adweek: steaks (yes, frozen steaks!!), expensive liquor, and electric tools.

Getting back to the adrenaline rush of shoplifting, I can state from personal experience that it doesn’t hit everyone. As a teenager, I once shoplifted a 45 (a record, not a gun). Like a typical teenager, I don’t know why I did it. I had enough money to buy the record. I agonized about my theft for two days before finally sneaking it back onto the store’s shelf. My relief rivaled any shoplifting rush.

That little episode started me on an unrelenting road to populism. As chance would have it, the day after I returned the record, my father happened to be reading the local paper’s account of a shoplifter caught in the act. He then pointedly lectured to me on the interconnectedness of things, how the act of stealing hurt not only the store, but also society as a whole because everyone else would have to pay a little more to cover the store’s shoplifting loss. I say “pointedly” because he was taking a moment to teach, unaware that life had already taught the lesson. At least, I don’t think he knew. Who knows with parents? They always know more than they let on.