Another Reason Not to Shop at Walmart

I don't shop at Walmart. I never have, and won't until they start shouldering their share of their own costs -- like paying their employees a living wage and providing benefits like insurance and sick leave, rather than have us paying for their food stamps and Medicare.

And it turns out that Walmart has found yet another way to stick it to us:

Now the company has found another way to keep profits up: by externalizing the cost of theft prevention. As a result, in Tulsa, Oklahoma and other Walmarts across the country stores are experiencing a crime wave. Shannon Pettypiece and David Voreacos write at Bloomberg Businessweek: Walmart’s Out-of-Control Crime Problem Is Driving Police Crazy. Tulsa PD's Darrell Ross spends so much time there he's known as Officer Walmart:

It’s not unusual for the department to send a van to transport all the criminals Ross arrests at this Walmart. The call log on the store stretches 126 pages, documenting more than 5,000 trips over the past five years. Last year police were called to the store and three other Tulsa Walmarts just under 2,000 times. By comparison, they were called to the city’s four Target stores about 300 times.

The police should start charging them -- Chicago charges for ambulances, and it's not cheap.

There was a Walmart Express over on Broadway. (Chicago won't allow retailers like Walmart and Target to put in big-box stores; they have to occupy existing retail spaces or be part of a new development.) I'm happy to report that after a couple of years, it's closed. I'm sorry for the people who are out of work now, but Target is expanding in the city.

(Side note: I hadn't been to the Loop in a number of years until I started going to the Cultural Center on a regular basis. Carson Pirie & Scott on State Street, in the landmark Louis Sullivan building, is now a Target. Sheesh.)