More than $800,000 of alcohol stolen from Virginia ABC so far this year

WHSV
​By Madison McNamee
Published: Aug. 5, 2024 at 7:15 PM EDT|Updated: Aug. 5, 2024 at 7:16 PM EDT

RICHMOND, Va. (WWBT) -Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Authority (ABC) saw more than 14,000 bottles stolen in the first six months of 2024, totaling about $800,000 lost.
The problem is impacting areas across the commonwealth, and thieves are targeting stores in different ways. In the most extreme cases, people are going into shops and stealing $9,000 worth of booze at a time. 
In other cases, stores are just getting targeted frequently.
Data from Virginia ABC shows from January to June, there were 3,754 total shoplifting incidents, with 14,326 total bottles taken and $808,371 total retail price losses.

The items taken range in price from 99 cents all the way up to bottles worth more than $500.

Virginia ABC says context is key, as the agency sold $695.2 million in the same time period, making the retail shrink for fiscal year 2024 0.35% of sales. The group also says working with law enforcement helped them charge one adult and three juveniles in Northern Virginia who were a big part of the recent increase in stolen items. 
A spokesperson for Virginia ABC says the group would load up carts and flee stores before police could get there. They ended up stealing more than $145,000 from 26 different stores.
Data from the agency shows some expensive shoplifting incidents in Northern Virginia, where in Manassas, 228 bottles were taken at once, coming out to more than $7,000 worth of booze. In McLean and Woodbridge, thieves took more than $9,000 worth of alcohol in a day.

It is why that specific location is now counter service only, where customers tell an employee what they want, rather than shopping around. Edwards says this new format has helped reduce the number of stolen items.
Virginia ABC says two other stores in Portsmouth have the same format, and the agency is watching the effectiveness of it and also working on emphasizing staff interaction with customers, more frequent inventories, additional audits and enhancing camera systems as a way to deter thieves.
A spokesperson for Virginia ABC says no product is worth risking the safety of team members and customers, and retail staff are trained to gather usable suspect information and leads for law enforcement.
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