A Colorado Business Owner is Now Charging a Shoplifters Fee

A Colorado business owner is having so much theft in his stores that he's now implemented a fee to all purchases to help him recover thousands of dollars of lost revenue. Is that fair?

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Theft In Colorado Stores Leads To Extra Charges For All Customers

I think we all know that theft is an issue around the globe and some small business owners pay the biggest price when their stores and businesses are being stolen from. Shoplifting is America's number one property crime and local Colorado business owner, Derek Friedman, has had enough.

David owns the popular "Sportsfan" shop on the 16th street mall in Denver as well as other shops around the Denver area. In an article from Denver 7, Mr. Friedman claims that his stores have lost in the six figures in revenue to shoplifting and that he feels he has no choice but to take matters into his own hand. His plan? Charging all customers a 1% fee on all transactions at all of his stores. He tells Denver 7:

"[It's called the] Denver Crime Spike Fee, and so that'll be a 1% transaction fee for all of the items that are purchased in our stores. There's zero consequences, I think, for property crime in the Denver area. It seems like it's dropped to barely anything,"

He also says that shoplifting has tripled in two of his locations since 2019. Obviously, having a sports store on the 16 Street Mall in Denver is a hot shopping destination, but that has led us to this new "Denver Crime Spike Fee." Some customers aren't happy with the new change but they understand that the store is just doing what it has to do. Question is, will more businesses follow this theft fee?  When will it stop? Is it fair to charge the good, paying customers for the actions of others? The truth is, fees like this have been secretly added in businesses for years and most don't even notice.