Book store shoplifting

Book store shoplifting is a problem for book sellers and has sometimes led stores to keep certain items behind store counters.

Shoplifters at book stores may be thieves who want the book, or thieves who want to make money by selling the book. Those with systematic resale in mind usually target high-priced books and books that are easily resold, such as academic textbooks.

In addition to shoplifting, book stores suffer from pilfering by shipping personnel and from burglary (theft that happens while the store is closed). Book stores also are victimized by thefts of non-book merchandise and other items.

Owners of small, independent book stores find shoplifting particularly bothersome. According to Paul Constant, a Seattle book-store employee, "I know a few booksellers who have literally been driven a little bit crazy at the thought of their inventory evaporating out the door, and with good reason: An overabundance of shoplifters can put bookstores out of business. One local bookstore owner can famously talk about shoplifters with total strangers for hours, with the detail and passion that some people reserve for sexual conquests."

"Shoplifting is a particular problem," said Patricia Van Osdol, owner of Wellington Books in Portland, Oregon. "It can be disastrous in a small store like this."

Some bookstores report multiple attempted thefts each week.

Certain books, or books by certain authors, are much more likely to be stolen than others, although there are no centralized statistics on the subject. Generally speaking, whatever is popular or trendy is at risk for being stolen. The size of the book also matters, because a small book is easier to conceal than a large one.

In 2017, Canadian book thieves were targeting relatively high-brow works, such as those by Haruki Murakami.