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A Cultural History of Shoplifting
Penguin
July 2011
On Sale: June 30, 2011
272 pages
ISBN: 1594202974
EAN: 9781594202971
Hardcover
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Non-Fiction
A history of shoplifting, revealing the roots of our modern
dilemma. Rachel Shteir's The Steal is the first serious study of
shoplifting, tracking the fascinating history of this
ancient crime. Dismissed by academia and the mainstream
media and largely misunderstood, shoplifting has become the
territory of moralists, mischievous teenagers, tabloid
television, and self-help gurus. But shoplifting incurs
remarkable real-life costs for retailers and consumers. The
"crime tax"-the amount every American family loses to
shoplifting-related price inflation-is more than $400 a
year. Shoplifting cost American retailers $11.7 billion in
2009. The theft of one $5.00 item from Whole Foods can
require sales of hundreds of dollars to break even. The Steal begins when shoplifting entered the modern record
as urbanization and consumerism made London into Europe's
busiest mercantile capital. Crossing the channel to
nineteenth-century Paris, Shteir tracks the rise of the
department store and the pathologizing of shoplifting as
kleptomania. In 1960s America, shoplifting becomes a symbol
of resistance when the publication of Abbie Hoffman's Steal
This Book popularizes shoplifting as an antiestablishment
act. Some contemporary analysts see our current epidemic as
a response to a culture of hyper-consumerism; others
question whether its upticks can be tied to economic
downturns at all. Few provide convincing theories about why
it goes up or down. Just as experts can't agree on why people shoplift, they
can't agree on how to stop it. Shoplifting has been punished
by death, discouraged by shame tactics, and protected
against by high-tech surveillance. Shoplifters have been
treated by psychoanalysis, medicated with pharmaceuticals,
and enforced by law to attend rehabilitation groups. While a
few individuals have abandoned their sticky-fingered habits,
shoplifting shows no signs of slowing. In The Steal, Shteir guides us through a remarkable tour of
all things shoplifting-we visit the Woodbury Commons Outlet
Mall, where boosters run rampant, watch the surveillance
footage from Winona Ryder's famed shopping trip, and learn
the history of antitheft technology. A groundbreaking study,
The Steal shows us that shoplifting in its many
guises-crime, disease, protest-is best understood as a
reflection of our society, ourselves.
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