By: Hadassa Kalatizadeh
Manhattan’s luxury retail shops are opting to bolt their doors during business hours in response to the brazen stream of shoplifters.
As reported by the NY Post, the shoplifting problem has become so precarious that Madison Avenue stores on the Upper East Side are dimming their lights, locking doors and opening by appointment only throughout the daylight hours. At 67th street, the Carolina Herrera boutique looks closed, following so many incidents at the famed shop. The management seemingly decided that even if the look turns away some clients it’s worthwhile if it will ward off shoplifters.
“The normal thing now today is to lock our doors on Madison Avenue,” admitted Carolina Herrera sales associate Michelle Singh after she opened the door for a bride-to-be. Handbags, Singh noted, are a favorite target in the series of shopliftings, where luxury items are simply stolen off the shelves. Singh was present in a recent robbery, when a “normal-looking man in his 40s” grabbed “four or five” purses. Singh tried to stop the man from leaving, but her colleagues decided to let him unlock the door afraid of what he might do.
“We don’t feel safe,” added a Carolina Herrera store manager, who identified himself as Michael. “You feel violated when they come in.” The store has locked its doors “for at least several months” to limit more incidents. Similarly, the Chanel store at 64th street and Prada at 70th are locked during normal daytime business hours. A guard stands by at the doors and chooses who to open the door for after eyeing them through the windows. NYPD patrol cars have also been regularly spotting parked in front of the expensive stores.
As per the Post, in a bold daytime heist in February a team of seven thieves walked in and out of The Real Real on Madison Ave and 71st Street stealing about $500,000 worth of handbags and jewelry. “It’s very much an organized crime model,” commented Matthew Bauer, president of the Madison Avenue Business Improvement District. The shoplifters many times do not even face jail time thanks to soft-on-crime Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. The shoplifters who walk in are “just the tip of the iceberg” and just “following orders” in a seemingly big organized crime syndicate, Bauer said.
“These gangs are more aggressive and violent than in years past,” the National Retail Federation reported in its 2021 security survey. As per NYPD data, grand larceny is up 54% and petty larceny up 42% overall for the year. In the 19th precinct, which includes the UES, grand larceny is up 47% and Petty larceny is up 70% in 2022.
