the.com/shoplifter
A customer who decided the final step of shopping was optional.
means Someone who takes goods from a store without paying for them.
from Built from 'shop' plus the older verb 'lift,' which once meant to steal — the same 'lift' that survives in 'shoplifting' itself and in old thieves' slang like 'lifting fingers.' The compound dates back to 17th-century England, where 'shop-lift' first named the thief, not the act; it was criminal slang before it was a dictionary word, born in the same underworld vocabulary that gave us 'pickpocket.'
- legal threshold
- often just over 950 dollars for felony charges
- top target
- small, expensive items like razors and baby formula
- industry cost
- retailers lose over 100 billion dollars yearly
- self-checkout irony
- stores built their own blind spot