Walgreens

<p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">===</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">corp but also family fdn, disambig nodes?</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">raga</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3098828-AG-RAGA-Call-Sheet.html</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">decides not to relocate hq overseas 8/6/14</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> =</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">21? RAGA, did not sell in 2-3 states where legal</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ca gov newsom 54m$</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/abortion-2659565246/">https://www.alternet.org/abortion-2659565246/</a></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">pop info 3 23</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">w</font><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: rgb(64, 64, 64); font-family: Spectral, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">algreens is facing a public relations crisis after</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: rgb(64, 64, 64); font-family: Spectral, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"> </span><a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/ceb5574b-9edd-4c35-93db-5d70f27509b6?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw" style="font-family: Spectral, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; color: rgb(64, 64, 64);">announcing</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: rgb(64, 64, 64); font-family: Spectral, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"> </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: rgb(64, 64, 64); font-family: Spectral, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">it would not dispense abortion medication in several states where abortion remains legal. Walgreens' decision came in response to threatening letters from Republican Attorneys General and anti-abortion activists. The decision has</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: rgb(64, 64, 64); font-family: Spectral, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"> </span><a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/868b6255-2313-4c08-a646-9e935945a08c?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw" style="font-family: Spectral, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; color: rgb(64, 64, 64);">provoked outrage</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: rgb(64, 64, 64); font-family: Spectral, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"> </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: rgb(64, 64, 64); font-family: Spectral, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">from</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: rgb(64, 64, 64); font-family: Spectral, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"> </span><a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/495a4044-d297-469d-a84d-9fd6db1971c5?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw" style="font-family: Spectral, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; color: rgb(64, 64, 64);">many customers</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: rgb(64, 64, 64); font-family: Spectral, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"> </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: rgb(64, 64, 64); font-family: Spectral, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">who object to a major corporation placing additional restrictions on abortion access.</span></p><p style="font-family: Spectral, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: rgb(64, 64, 64); line-height: 26px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;">Walgreens attempted to stem the damage with a tweet purporting to "make very clear what our position always has been" on Mifepristone, a drug used in combination with Misoprostol to induce abortion. The company says it will "dispense Mifepristone in any jurisdiction where it is legally permissible." [tet]</p><p style="font-family: Spectral, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: rgb(64, 64, 64); line-height: 26px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;">walgreens' statement, however, does not clarify in which states it will dispense Mifepristone. And that is the question central to the entire controversy. </p><p style="font-family: Spectral, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: rgb(64, 64, 64); line-height: 26px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;">For example, Walgreens told Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach that it "<a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/ceb5574b-9edd-4c35-93db-5d70f27509b6?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw" style="color: rgb(64, 64, 64);">does not intend to dispense Mifepristone within your state</a>." In a letter last month, Kobach claimed that it was illegal for Walgreens to distribute Mifepristone anywhere based on an 1873 law that prohibits sending "indecent" materials through the mail. The Department of Justice <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/b9704398-7b9d-4714-a29e-ede9276c5757?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw" style="color: rgb(64, 64, 64);">disagrees</a>. Further, companies like Walgreens have their own distribution channels and do not rely on the Postal Service to stock their pharmacies. Kobach also cites a Kansas law that says abortion pills must be given to patients "in the same room and in the physical presence of a physician." Kobach does not mention that the law was <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/b5ca2eab-0eba-4217-bda7-254ba5530c9b?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw" style="color: rgb(64, 64, 64);">blocked in November by a Kansas judge</a>. </p><p style="font-family: Spectral, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: rgb(64, 64, 64); line-height: 26px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;">The basis of the injunction is a ruling by the Kansas Supreme Court that the state constitution protects the right to an abortion. Anti-abortion activists in Kansas attempted to amend the state constitution to pave the way for an abortion ban. That constitutional amendment was <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/4ca5ac2f-f4a5-493f-be47-12f64408082c?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw" style="color: rgb(64, 64, 64);">overwhelmingly rejected by Kansas voters</a>. </p><p style="font-family: Spectral, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: rgb(64, 64, 64); line-height: 26px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;">Nevertheless, Walgreens appears to be accepting the deeply flawed legal analysis of Kobach — who unsuccessfully ran for governor on a pledge to make Kansas "<a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/62bf7389-e789-4a37-8da5-7141e0adbea8?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw" style="color: rgb(64, 64, 64);">the most pro-life state in the country</a>." Walgreens is apparently playing a similar game in Montana and other states. </p><p style="font-family: Spectral, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: rgb(64, 64, 64); line-height: 26px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;">Former Vice President Mike Pence (R), however, is enthusiastic about Walgreens' approach. “I commend Walgreens for yielding to the rule of law,” <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/47f9144d-29ac-4d36-bdc5-e11b8c7d4e98?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw" style="color: rgb(64, 64, 64);">Pence said</a> at the annual gala of Students for Life, an anti-abortion group. “Americans don’t want their pharmacies to become abortion facilities.”</p><p style="font-family: Spectral, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: rgb(64, 64, 64); line-height: 26px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;">In some states, including <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/60481da7-6e1f-485b-9fd9-2615934afffe?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw" style="color: rgb(64, 64, 64);">Ohio</a>, abortion is legal but state laws prohibit pharmacies from dispensing abortion medication. But now that the FDA has authorized pharmacies to dispense Mifepristone, it is unclear if these laws are enforceable. This is a legal concept called <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/3b9a09f3-12c9-42a0-823c-6fa4dc702846?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw" style="color: rgb(64, 64, 64);">federal preemption</a>; once the federal government imposes comprehensive regulations on an activity, states are not permitted to interfere. GenBioPro, a company that produces a generic version of Mifepristone, filed a federal lawsuit in West Virginia arguing that the state's ban on abortion medication is <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/31c76318-7b98-407b-adcb-f1050eab287a?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw" style="color: rgb(64, 64, 64);">preempted by federal law</a>. </p><p style="font-family: Spectral, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: rgb(64, 64, 64); line-height: 26px; margin: 0px;">Walgreens has been the focus of controversy, but other major pharmacy chains — including CVS, Rite Aid, Walmart, Costco, and Kroger have not responded to media requests. Their specific policies on Mifepristone are unknown.</p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">===</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://boingboing.net/2023/03/06/walgreens-wont-sell-abortion-pills-in-red-states-even-where-it-is-legal.html">https://boingboing.net/2023/03/06/walgreens-wont-sell-abortion-pills-in-red-states-even-where-it-is-legal.html</a></font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">pop info</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">for <b style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">several years, Walgreens and other major retailers have been sounding the alarm about an alleged spike in shoplifting, describing it as an existential threat to their business. These dramatic claims generated a nationwide media frenzy.</b></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 26px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Now, Walgreens is quietly <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/5b30b335-ecf9-4768-8bab-7c6dffbaa354?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw" style="">backtracking</a>. </b></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 26px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In a conference call with investors on January 6, Walgreens Chief Financial Officer James Kehoe was asked how shoplifting and related problems impacted the company's financial performance. Kehoe admitted that “maybe [Walgreens] cried too much last year” about the issue, adding that the drugstore chain probably spent “too much” hiring private security companies.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 26px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Kehoe added that theft at Walgreens had “stabilized” and the company was "quite happy with where we are." Walgreens’ “shrink” — an industry term for inventory losses from theft, damage, or administrative errors — had gone down from 3.5% of sales last year to roughly 2.5% in its last quarter. Walgreens declined to specify how much of the "shrink" was due to shoplifting as opposed to other causes, like employee theft and damaged goods. Across the industry, "external theft" accounts for <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/54266003-4e0d-47a6-b3c7-4d5d86e19c9b?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw" style="">only one-third of total shrink</a>. That means shoplifting at Walgreens likely amounts to less than 1% of sales.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 26px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But Kehoe’s upbeat comments gloss over Walgreens’ central role in fomenting the national panic over retail theft. Just a year ago, Kehoe said that part of the reason Walgreens’ reported lackluster earnings was because of “gangs that actually go in and empty our stores of beauty products.” </font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 26px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“This is not petty theft,” Kehoe insisted at the time. “It's not somebody who can't afford to eat tomorrow.” </font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 26px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Walgreens has been joined by other major retailers who have been echoing similar cries and drumming up fear: Walmart CEO Doug McMillion <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/9b682793-9f4f-44c9-8365-e1b5c0067860?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw" style="">warned</a> that Walmart may have to raise prices or close stores because theft was “higher than what it has historically been.” Former Home Depot CEO Bob Nardelli stated on national television that retail theft was “<a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/54cc74e4-271f-4d34-ab02-da8fb8f1e8bd?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw" style="">spreading faster than COVID.</a>”</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 26px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Publicly available data, however, contradicts the theft-wave narrative. The number of shoplifting offenses dropped 46 percent between 2019 and 2021, according to the FBI’s <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/506d2213-3ac1-4a3b-869e-423ca866e526?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw" style="">crime data explorer</a>. The National Retail Federation (NRF), a trade group that represents retailers like Walgreens and has amplified the theft-wave narrative, has also found that shrink declined to 1.4% of total retail sales in 2021, from 1.6% in 2020. External theft, the NRF found, made up 0.5% of total retail sales in 2021. </font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 26px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In response to a request for comment, Walgreens sent Popular Information the following statement: "Although we are pleased to see retail shrink levels stabilize, this is still a serious national problem affecting us all and all retailers. We have taken a number of steps to address this issue and, most importantly, protect the safety of our customers and team members, including our highly-valued partnerships with law enforcement and security professionals."</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 26px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">So although Walgreens continues to describe retail theft as a "serious national problem," Kehoe was clear that it is not preventing Walgreens from being a profitable company. And yet the company reported a net loss of <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/30bcedc0-9269-4e20-8a72-e45afe7c1b19?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw" style="">$3.7 billion in its most recent quarter</a>. Why? The company took "a $5.2 billion after-tax charge for opioid-related claims and litigation." That litigation stems from Walgreens' role in fueling the opioid epidemic by filling illegitimate prescriptions for highly-addictive pain medication. </font></p><h3 class="yiv3994555191header-with-anchor-widget" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 1.16em; margin: 1em 0px 0.625em; position: relative;"><strong><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">What happened in San Francisco</font></strong></h3><p style="line-height: 26px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In May 2021, Walgreens told the <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/c0883b78-3f17-4a6e-9706-e665f05b6829?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw" style="">New York Times</a> “that thefts at its stores in San Francisco were four times the chain’s national average, and that it had closed 17 stores, largely because the scale of thefts had made business untenable.”</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 26px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Months later, the retailer announced the closure of an additional five stores in San Francisco and told the <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/38372433-ebe2-453b-abee-53632b26471d?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw" style="">San Francisco Chronicle</a> that “organized retail crime continues to be a challenge facing retailers across San Francisco, and we are not immune to that.” The company said it had to increase investments in private security in San Francisco by “46 times our chain average in an effort to provide a safe environment.”</font></p><p style="line-height: 26px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">When the company announced it was closing five stores in San Francisco due to rampant theft, police data obtained by the San Francisco Chronicle <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/f27eb37a-65e7-44ed-9971-264fdbd8311b?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw" style="">revealed</a> that “the five stores slated to close had fewer than two recorded shoplifting incidents a month on average since 2018.” Moreover, the company’s claims that thefts at its San Francisco stores were four times its national average were not reflected in citywide crime data — in 2020, shoplifting had reached <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/2aa085d4-ca98-4217-8273-580bcb05f2e2?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw" style="">its lowest level</a> since they began collecting data in the 1970s. </font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 26px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Moreover, back in 2019, Walgreens announced it would <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/ee457764-ed6a-4be2-81c4-bb9151c6e24a?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw" style="">close 200 stores</a> across the U.S. as part of a larger “cost-reduction” plan.</b> The San Francisco Chronicle, in 2021, raised the question of “whether a $140 billion company was using an unsubstantiated narrative of unchecked shoplifting to obscure other possible factors in its decision." </font></p><h3 class="yiv3994555191header-with-anchor-widget" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 1.16em; margin: 1em 0px 0.625em; position: relative;"><strong><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">How Walgreens played the media</font></strong></h3><p style="line-height: 26px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">Mainstream media has historically gravitated toward sensationalist crime coverage that often obscures reality. With Walgreens, a similar pattern emerged: the drugstore chain’s dubious narrative was spread unchecked by some of the largest news organizations in the country. </font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 26px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">One of the first viral stories on Walgreens’ alleged theft issue was published by the<b> </b><a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/c0883b78-3f17-4a6e-9706-e665f05b6829?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw" style=""><b>New York Times’</b> San Francisco Bureau Chief Thomas Fuller</a> in May 2021. “The mundane crime of shoplifting has spun out of control in San Francisco, forcing some chain stores to close,” read the subhead. In the piece, Fuller recounts a time in 2016 he saw a man grab “a handful of beef jerky” and walk out of a Walgreens. Based on this five-year-old anecdote and a statement from Walgreens, Fuller declared a “shoplifting epidemic” and called into question a sentencing-reform measure that reduced some thefts from felonies to misdemeanors. The piece, notably, does not include any data on crime rates in San Francisco. </font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 26px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The New York Times’ <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/5b30b335-ecf9-4768-8bab-7c6dffbaa354?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw" style="">coverage</a> of Kehoe’s comments acknowledged that “Walgreens received national attention in October 2021 when it announced that it was closing five stores in San Francisco, citing shoplifting as the reason for the closures.” The story acknowledges how Walgreens’ shoplifting claims “fed into political debates about crimes.” The piece, however, fails to mention the critical role the Times itself played in amplifying Walgreens’ claims without supporting evidence. </font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 26px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Since May 2021, the New York Times has <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/185520cf-898d-4dc9-a501-f33cb20c0ae1?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw" style="">published</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/8d45f592-1352-461b-9df3-51f49bad8ec9?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw" style="">at</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/f498900d-150b-45fd-964e-c65d4aca5853?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw" style="">least</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/ec361c70-6bfc-45ae-ae64-77369ffaa0cc?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw" style="">six</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/c0883b78-3f17-4a6e-9706-e665f05b6829?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw" style="">stories</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/6c387417-37ee-42ea-b645-a4fbc25b5750?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw" style="">warning</a> readers of retail theft.</b> Over the same time period, other outlets provided even more voluminous coverage of the issue. The <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/dcab40ca-3d82-4328-a3c0-ab24eb5191df?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw" style="">Wall</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/c105f4d3-9ac4-42c0-8772-db915a9de480?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw" style="">Street</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/4b4f34e0-e16f-4229-8c53-435ba8eaf538?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw" style="">Journal</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/0bda7cc1-7531-4766-b6fe-b45138750944?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw" style="">published</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/383e06c6-703f-4b2c-8e0b-867bcc37d6fb?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw" style="">at</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/2e20bc4a-b885-4446-85b0-d8476a37495c?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw" style="">least</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/b1c2be8b-4e8d-4fbe-bc7f-00d8ed3fb2bc?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw" style="">13</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/606ce3b2-dc68-4582-9b70-fba14cd5bd2e?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw" style="">stories</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/34d1e194-5b96-4402-92d4-34a958a9030d?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw" style="">on</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/27ac6ce0-64ac-4c22-8924-61d7139e194b?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw" style="">the</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/894105ef-1985-4ec5-9b87-3eb371d09189?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw" style="">retail</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/70e0763c-371e-4678-a830-8da10bee6917?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw" style="">theft</a> “epidemic”, including four from its <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/94c34749-ec88-46c7-a93e-6ff6b98ccf56?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw" style="">editorial board</a>. CNN <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/3f66619b-0076-4f97-9194-0adce66d08a2?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw" style="">published</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/9b995e3f-924d-4103-bca3-32b2e2d5f9b1?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw" style="">at</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/2a5ea889-2f91-4dbf-acfc-69fe14272ea9?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw" style="">least</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/38211c2e-0b5d-4c31-b5fe-c098786cc831?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw" style="">seven</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/8b2c5395-e313-42d7-b9fe-1f95666630a5?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw" style="">articles</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/6257276a-d1a0-4840-a29b-64300c127fbe?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw" style="">on</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/c49feb00-c8d9-49ca-a56b-dc8635f38b35?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw" style="">the </a>“wave” of retail theft. And Business Insider <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/c9d50c97-62a8-4434-8d53-8ed6ed69a726?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw" style="">published</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/ee0270ff-3a4e-4923-a8f4-6598bc2ce3a2?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw" style="">at</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/bc990dbf-b2fc-47da-9412-497b548612ce?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw" style="">least</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/5c7b215a-2baf-482b-b419-4a4c66db5bf4?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw" style="">18</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/d61f621a-1c63-43fc-8d54-f21a5e3c021a?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw" style="">stories</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/6c337aaa-2658-47a9-8c71-d1638afc22df?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw" style="">on</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/52d3300a-bbd4-49ab-b3e9-11b149f19bad?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw" style="">how</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/8764a1f2-0498-4d3b-b154-7623875075e4?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw" style="">retail</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/b6b2c117-8266-410f-a2d2-c5d6e3021d8a?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw" style="">theft</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/398fd4fd-cfcf-43cf-88cf-4e3c513727be?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw" style="">has</a> “ballooned” into a billion dollar problem for companies. According to the Center for Just Journalism, the number of stories featuring the keywords “organized retail crime” or “organized retail theft” increased by <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/28343863-eb67-4e35-a9d4-b082d737a221?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw" style="">more than 270%</a> between 2020 and 2021. </font></p><p style="line-height: 26px; margin: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">The overblown claims in this media coverage have political consequences. Walgreens’ theft concerns was “a flash point in a stinging criminal justice debate that helped <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/57c60f27-de57-4cf1-a2a0-42cda6cca0b2?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw" style="">electrify the recall of former San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin.</a></span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">” California Republican Chair Jessica Millan Patterson wrote in an op-ed that the Walgreens closures were evidence that “</span><a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/61627e9e-285e-43c1-8c7e-783fe78a70be?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Democratic policies have created a crime spike.</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">” Boudin was removed from office by voters in June 2022.</span></font></p><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">not violent but hyped</font></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">pop info judd</font></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">12 22</font></div><div style=""><p style="line-height: 26px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Walmart CEO Doug McMillon announced during an interview on CNBC last week that the retailer may have to <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/c4300f49-557d-428f-951c-d340c85f79d5?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw" style="">raise prices or close stores</a> due to insufficiently aggressive prosecution of retail theft. McMillon claimed that, as a result of lenient sentences, theft at Walmart is “higher than what it has historically been.” During the interview, McMillon does not disclose how much merchandise Walmart is losing to shoplifting or how that compares to previous years. </font></p><p style="line-height: 26px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Walmart, the nation’s largest retailer, racked up $559.2 billion in revenue last year. So far this year, the company has made $15 billion in profits. Last quarter alone, Walmart recorded <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/3e3d2c04-5b66-4703-9ccb-a398e6fbe83f?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw" style="">$152.8 billion</a> in sales, nearly a 9% increase from the previous year. The purported spike in shoplifting at Walmart did not stop the company from announcing <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/6804fd67-96af-4393-8b84-96effa602042?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw" style="">a new $20 billion share buyback plan</a> last month. And McMillon is being paid as if the company is thriving. In 2021, he took home <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/d1319d2a-5913-45ad-a8b4-53b61b2d5077?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw" style="">$22.574 million</a> in total compensation — 1,078 times more than the median Walmart employee. </font></p><p style="line-height: 26px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">Publicly available data also contradicts McMillon’s claims. As Popular Information <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/086f4c17-7c2f-428d-8c61-afd37ad52199?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw" style="">previously reported</a>, the number of shoplifting offenses dropped 46 percent between 2019 and 2021, according to the FBI’s <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/9accc5be-0b15-4c6a-ac74-125cfc1f56e6?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw" style="">crime data explorer</a>. </font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 26px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Of course, not all shoplifting incidents result in charges. But the <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/15718693-9443-4188-95a0-6edd6fde03d4?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw" style="">National Retail Federation</a>, a trade association that represents Walmart and other major retailers, found that "shrink" — an industry term for inventory losses from theft, damage, or administrative errors — declined between 2019 and 2021. In 2021, the average shrink rate was <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/15718693-9443-4188-95a0-6edd6fde03d4?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw" style="">1.4% of total retail sales.</a> That means for every $100 in sales, an average of $1.40 in inventory was lost. Retail theft alone amounted to <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/15718693-9443-4188-95a0-6edd6fde03d4?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw" style="">0.5% of total retail sales</a>, or $0.52 for every $100.</font></p><div class="yiv0725435484captioned-image-container-static" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 26px; margin: 32px auto;"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="yiv0725435484image-wrapper"><tbody><tr><td style="word-break: normal; text-align: center;" /><td align="left" width="1456" class="yiv0725435484content" style="word-break: normal; text-align: center;"><a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/ad1353f4-e28a-40e4-8327-69bb9c2206d2?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw" class="yiv0725435484image-link" style="text-decoration-line: none; border: none; display: block; height: auto; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; width: auto;"><img alt="" width="550" height="258.0013736263736" src="https://ecp.yusercontent.com/mail?url=https%3A%2F%2Fsubstackcdn.com%2Fimage%2Ffetch%2Fw_2912%2Cc_limit%2Cf_auto%2Cq_auto%3Agood%2Cfl_progressive%3Asteep%2Fhttps%253A%252F%252Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%252Fpublic%252Fimages%252Fb3e3c4cd-5e85-4a65-9dcb-0be1e1b73355_1472x690.png&t=1670962655&ymreqid=5b97f7b6-4cda-3c8f-1c3e-a303a5013100&sig=nggZqZlBjT1dwZaR2TT5qg--_D" class="yiv0725435484wide-image" style="text-indent: -9999px; display: block; height: auto; margin: 0px auto; vertical-align: middle; max-width: 100%; border: none !important; width: auto !important;" /></a></td><td style="word-break: normal; text-align: center;" /></tr></tbody></table></div><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 26px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The average retail shrink in 2021 is the same as it was in <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/a891a240-0810-40ed-812d-0c4bb3948b12?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw" style="">2015</a>. The only difference is that shoplifting and external theft made up a slightly <em>larger</em> portion of the "shrink" in 2015 than it did in 2021. </b></font></p><p style="line-height: 26px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">Walmart isn’t the only company stoking fears of a shoplifting surge. Last year, <b>Walgreens <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/92ee22b1-8851-481b-b6c5-9e5bb8dfc5b0?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw" style="">announced</a> that it was closing five stores in the Bay Area due to the “scale of thefts.</b>” Popular Information found that this claim, however, was not reflected in citywide crime data, which showed that in 2020 shoplifting had reached its lowest level since they began collecting data 45 years ago. Walgreens also said in 2019 that it planned to shutter 200 stores as a “cost-saving measure,” reported the <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/430a4e0a-123b-4ddb-a564-fc370f647a34?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw" style="">San Francisco Chronicle</a>. “[T]he timing of Walgreens’ decision led observers to wonder whether a $140 billion company was using an unsubstantiated narrative of unchecked shoplifting to obscure other possible factors in its decision,” wrote the <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/430a4e0a-123b-4ddb-a564-fc370f647a34?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw" style="">San Francisco Chronicle</a>.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 26px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Target CFO</b> Michael Fiddelke <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/d740abfc-86c6-4d3f-a35a-43ce84b2550e?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw" style="">told CNBC</a> last month that theft rose “about 50% year over year.” The company told <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/2c8f293b-d976-42dc-8a44-a7aed2a700a2?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw" style="">Winsight Grocery Business</a> that it is working with legislators and law enforcement to address the “growing national problem” of retail theft. Similarly, last week, the former CEO of Home Depot, Bob Nardelli, described retail theft as an “epidemic” and said that shoplifting was “<a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/855e80ea-d214-4bcd-9ddf-273dea33ad5d?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw" style="">spreading faster than COVID</a>.”</font></p><p style="line-height: 26px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">Despite the apocalyptic rhetoric, losses from shoplifting pale in comparison to the wages employers steal from employees each year. The Economic Policy Institute estimates that employers<a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/b69dd8aa-c90c-409f-8084-1964930095b1?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw" style=""> steal roughly $15 billion annually</a> from their employees from minimum wage violations alone. This figure, which excludes other common forms of wage theft like overtime violations, “exceeds the value of property crimes committed in the United States each year.” </font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 26px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Since 2000, Walmart has had to pay $1.5 billion in penalties for wage and hour violations</b>, according to the <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/1caecc13-aac5-46cc-8595-f407e7b1bd81?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw" style="">Good Jobs First Violation Tracker</a>. </font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 26px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><strong><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Will more aggressive prosecution deter theft?</font></strong></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 26px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">CNBC's Rebecca Quick, one of the hosts of Squawk Box, asked McMillon about "laws that have been changed." Specifically, Quick claims that there are new laws that provide "criminals won't be prosecuted below a certain level." McMillon accepted the premise of Quick's question, arguing the laws need to be "corrected."</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 26px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But Quick's description of the law is inaccurate. States have not passed statutes legalizing theft. Rather, all states have a felony threshold for shoplifting. In Connecticut, shoplifting more than $200 in goods is a felony. In Texas, the threshold is $2,500. Misdemeanor theft, below the felony threshold, generally results in little to no jail time. Felony theft can result in years in prison. </font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 26px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Since 2000, <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/0b1f71e2-323f-4542-a148-c8e6c26a863b?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw" style="">at least 40 states have raised their felony theft thresholds</a>. Walmart and other retailers have spent millions opposing these changes, arguing that raising the felony threshold will increase shoplifting. The data, however, does not support this claim.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 26px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>A 2017 <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/de0ff800-fc69-4c87-b922-4c2ced6918c4?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw" style="">study</a> by Pew Trusts found that "in the 30 states that raised their thresholds between 2000 and 2012, downward trends in property crime or larceny rates, which began in the early 1990s, continued without interruption</b>." Further, the study found that "states that increased their thresholds reported roughly the same average decrease in crime as the 20 states that did not change their theft laws." Notably, the "amount of a state’s felony theft threshold—whether it is $500, $1,000, $2,000, or more—is not correlated with its property crime and larceny rates."</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 26px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In 2010, South Carolina raised the threshold for felony theft from $1,000 to $2,000. Pew Trusts <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/ef98e41f-729e-4bca-98fe-f786ceb6a038?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw" style="">found</a> that "since the law was implemented, the state’s property crime rate …continued to fall, dropping 15 percent in the three years after reform." Despite the higher threshold, "the value of goods reported stolen in the state…did not change, remaining about $200 on average."</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 26px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Retailers were able to push through a harsh anti-shoplifting law, with no felony threshold, in Arizona. It <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/f45062ea-6b38-4468-b467-5282d791ae9a?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw" style="">resulted</a> in a "man who robbed [a] Walmart of goods worth less than $10… facing two felony charges."</font></p><p style="line-height: 26px; margin: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Why doesn't increasing the felony threshold increase shoplifting? Most shoplifters are not making a calculation about the potential legal consequences. Many are <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/740cdbde-d067-4a3d-b769-59cf5f1988d8?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw" style="">addicted to drugs</a> and are willing to do anything to feed their addiction. Last month, Walmart proposed paying <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/047191b9-a889-49ac-b73d-5b284abda895?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw" style="">$3.1 billion to settle lawsuits</a> alleging it "improperly filled prescriptions" for opioids, fueling an addiction epidemic. </font></p></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div></div><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> =</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2021/09/companies-lobbying-against-infrastructure-tax-hikes-have-dodged-millions-in-taxes-report/">https://www.alternet.org/2021/09/companies-lobbying-against-infrastructure-tax-hikes-have-dodged-millions-in-taxes-report/</a></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ah</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 51);">President Joe Biden's American Jobs Plan proposal would raise the United States' corporate tax rate to 28% in order to pay for infrastructure projects. Some large corporations, journalist Akela Lacy stresses in an <a href="https://theintercept.com/2021/09/06/infrastructure-bill-companies-tax-increase/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">article published by The Intercept</a> on September 6, have been aggressively lobbying against that proposal — and they include everything from pharmaceutical companies to financial firms, some of which dodged a fortune in taxes.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>"Companies that…. lobbied earlier this year on issues related to tax rates in Biden's American Jobs Plan include Walmart, Oracle, Accenture, Bristol Myers Squibb, Shell and Walgreens</b>, according to an analysis by <b>Accountable.US,</b> a nonpartisan watchdog group focused on public corruption," Lacy explains. "<b>Executives at companies that have historically avoided paying taxes, like Johnson & Johnson, JPMorgan Chase, FedEx, and DuPont, have spoken out publicly against Biden's proposed tax increases."</b></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Lacy continues, "</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 0);">Shell and </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">Walgreens</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 0);"> lobbied earlier this year on corporate tax issues in the American Jobs Plan. Walmart hired a lobbying firm tasked with 'monitoring of tax proposals related to infrastructure' in the plan and proposed legislative efforts related to Donald Trump's 2017 tax cuts. Accenture hired another firm to 'monitor the American Jobs Plan as it relates to corporate taxes.' Oracle and Bristol Myers Squibb, a multinational pharmaceutical company, used the same firm hired by Accenture to monitor and lobby on similar issues in the proposal."</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Lacy goes on to note how successful some of these mega-corporations have been when it comes to dodging taxes — and not only in the United States.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 51);">"A Reuters report last year found that from 2018 to 2019<b>, Shell</b> reported $2.7 billion through offshore tax havens and avoided paying hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes," Lacy writes. "In 2019, Australia charged Shell $755 million for six years' worth of taxes the company did not pay. The company reported that after getting tax refunds related to the closure of oil platforms, it paid no corporate income tax in the U.K. in 2018 on $731 million in profits."</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Lacy points to Walgreens as another company that knows how to dodge taxes.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">"Between 2008 and 2014," Lacy explains, "<b>Walmart held more than $23.3 billion in offshore accounts and avoided paying more than $4.59 billion in U.S. taxes,</b> according to a <a href="https://s3.amazonaws.com/oxfam-us/www/static/media/files/Broken_at_the_Top_FINAL_EMBARGOED_4.12.2016.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">2016 Oxfam report</a>. In an arrangement internally known as Project Flex, the company routed money through an <a href="https://qz.com/1701404/walmart-allegedly-created-fictitious-chinese-jv-to-avoid-us-tax/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">allegedly fictitious Chinese subsidiary</a>, Quartz reported, which allowed it to avoid paying $2.6 billion in U.S. taxes between 2014 and 2017. The 2016 report from the U.S. PIRG, CTJ, and ITEP also found that Walmart reported zero tax haven subsidiaries despite having as many as 75."</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></p><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.urban.org/sites/default/files/2019/06/27/conservative_philanthropy_in_higher_education.pdf">https://www.<b>urban.org</b>/sites/default/files/<b>2019</b>/06/27/conservative_philanthropy_in_higher_education.pdf</a></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">...</font>The importance of the <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);"><b>Walgreen Foundation’</b>s support raises a counterfactual: would these scholars have enjoyed prominent careers without that financial assistance? Like all counterfactuals, the conclusion must be speculative. Certainly, many of the scholars at the University of Chicago</span> who received funding from the Walgreen Foundation (such as Posner and Becker) may well have had brilliant academic careers even if the Walgreen Foundation and the Graduate School of Business had never existed. However, this misses the point: the success of George Stigler’s Walgreen-funded project created a scholarly network and a financial infrastructure with which to promote their pro–free market ideas. Without Walgreen’s support, that may well have been more difficult. </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">CASE STUDY II: HENRY MANNE AND LAW AND ECONOMICS </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The success of Stigler’s project can be understood within the context of a broader conservative philanthropic movement that built upon past victories. Before Stigler constructed an antistatist economics and business program at the University of Chicago, Keynesians (who supported muscular state interventions in the economy) tended to dominate economic thought in the United States. The most prominent economists and economics programs in America (e.g., Paul Samuelson, who served as an economic advisor to John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson and built MIT’s economics department into a powerhouse) predominantly belonged to the Keynesian tradition.11 Stigler’s antistatist economics program not only allowed for the transformation of economics programs throughout American higher education, but provided academic support for the conservative transformation of the law. Steven Teles’s (2008) book on the development of the conservative legal establishment, The Rise of the Conservative Legal Movement: The Battle for Control of the Law, strongly emphasizes the Chicago school’s importance in the creation of the field of “law and economics” in the 1970s. “Law and economics” is, essentially, the application of economic analysis—specifically economic analysis rooted in the Austrian school’s free market philosophy—to public policy and legal questions.12 Not every early attempt to institutionalize conservative legal and economics programs was as successful as Stigler’s. Henry Manne, whom Teles calls one the great organizational entrepreneurs of law and economics, attempted to build a dedicated conservative law program at the University of Rochester in the late 1960s by cultivating conservative alumni and foundation support.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">...</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">CASE III: THE OLIN FOUNDATION AND THE BEACHHEAD THEORY </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Although a dense network of conservative philanthropic foundations—including the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, the Scaife Foundations, and the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation—became prominent funders of right-wing causes in the 1970s and early 1980s, the John M. Olin Foundation has received the most scholarly attention for the following three reasons: (1) it was one of the first conservative foundations to focus on giving in higher education to achieve its political aims, (2) its peer institutions considered it an innovative leader in right-wing philanthropic giving, and (3) it has actively supported studies that highlight its history and mission. Such studies include John J. Miller’s official history of the foundation, A Gift of Freedom: How the John M. Olin Foundation Changed America, and Steven Teles’s more neutral The Rise of the Conservative Legal Movement, both of which received support from Olin Foundation grants. 17 Scholars and philanthropic officials have centered these points (particularly its reputation for innovation) in criticisms of the Olin Foundation’s politics (Sally Covington’s Moving a Public Policy Agenda, for example, devotes one of its major case studies to the foundation because of its reputation for innovation and impact).</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> Given the success of the Olin Foundation’s projects and of its broader vision of promarket social change rooted in college and university campuses, this reputation is well deserved.18 John M. Olin, whose Winchester Repeating Arms Company made a fortune during World War II manufacturing arms and ammunition for the US Army, was not the first right-wing billionaire to establish a dedicated philanthropic foundation in their name (Henry Ford, John D. Rockefeller, and even the comparatively less wealthy Charles Walgreen preceded him). But Olin was concerned that “mission creep” had set in at the major establishment philanthropic organizations, leading them to betray their founders’ promarket ideals. He was determined to avoid the same fate, and to ensure his money was tied to meaningful institution-building and political change. The Olin Foundation was therefore designed to have a limited lifespan: Olin died in 1982, and the foundation folded in 2005 after having disbursed nearly $300 million to conservative causes.19</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">...</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">CASE IV: THE KOCHS AND GEORGE MASON UNIVERSITY </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Koch Family Foundations took a similar approach to Olin, except that unlike Olin, the Koch foundations funded “Gramscian” and “Fabian” strategies simultaneously. As of 2015, the Kochs had spent nearly $150 million funding academic programs at no fewer than 307 higher education institutions. In fact, they dedicated $50 million to a single flagship campus in the Koch system: George Mason University.34 How GMU became a Koch campus—or rather, how the Kochs became the major financial backers of several of the school’s promarket research centers, along with its economics department and law school—is worth exploring in detail. The Kochs’ approach to philanthropic giving is similar to Olin’s in important ways, among them the committed ideological vision, the importance of </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">...</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">CASE V: THE FEDERALIST SOCIETY</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> Institutions created by conservative philanthropy in higher education can have profound political, social, and cultural influence. The most influential of these institutions is the Federalist Society, founded as a group for conservative law students in 1982. The Federalist Society has given educational and social support to a generation of right-wing judges, attorneys, and legal scholars.<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);"> The landmark cases settled by a conservative-leaning Supreme Court in the past decade—Citizens United v. FEC, Shelby County v. Holder, Janus v. AFSCME, and Trump v. Hawaii 46—would have been considerably more difficult for conservatives to win without the Federalist Society’s influence, </span>not least because Chief Justice John Roberts and Associate Justices Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, the late Antonin Scalia, and Clarence Thomas are all Federalist Society alumni. One opinion columnist has called the Federalist Society the “farm system for the [judiciary],” ensuring the ideological reliability of judicial appointees and preventing missteps like Richard Nixon’s appointment of Harry A. Blackmun (who wrote the majority opinion in Roe v. Wade) to the Supreme Court or George H.W. Bush’s appointment of David Souter (who was identified with the court’s liberal faction for most of his career).47 Although the media </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">...</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">CASE V: UNDERGRADUATE STUDENT GROUPS </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Although the Federalist Society and conservative domination of the legal system represent conservative philanthropy’s most consequential achievements, other kinds of higher education philanthropy have contributed to right-wing political success. Conservative activists and philanthropists have underwritten right-wing undergraduate student activism that advocates free market ideology on college campuses. One of the earliest organized efforts was Young Americans for Freedom, founded by a group of some 90 young activists at conservative publisher William F. Buckley Jr.’s Connecticut estate in September 1960.55 (Young Americans for Freedom is not to be confused with <b>Young America’s Foundation</b>, discussed below. For clarity, I refer to both organizations by their full  names...</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">notes: 54Maxine Joselow, “Is George Mason the New Trump U?” E&E News, July 17, 2018, https://www.eenews.net/stories/1060089361; “Tracking Deregulation in the Trump Era,” Brookings Institution, January 16, 2019, https://www.brookings.edu/interactives/tracking-deregulation-in-the-trumpera/. 55 There are three scholarly treatments of Young Americans for Freedom by historians. These are Gregory L. Schneider’s Cadres for Conservatism: Young Americans for Freedom and the Rise of the Contemporary Right (New York: New York University Press, 1999), John A. Andrew’s The Other Side of the Sixties: Young Americans for Freedom and the Rise of Conservative Politics (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1997), and sociologist Rebecca E. Klatch’s A Generation Divided: The New Left, the New Right, and the 1960s (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999). There are also a handful of accounts from conservative pundits involved in Young Americans for Freedom, notably William F. Buckley Jr.’s Flying High: Remembering Barry Goldwater (New York: Basic Books, 2008) and Wayne J. Thorburn’s (former executive director of Young Americans for Freedom) A Generation Awakes: Young Americans for Freedom and the Creation of the Conservative Movement (Ottawa, IL: Jameson Books, 2010).  ]]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>It should also be noted that Young America’s Foundation and<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> Leadership Institute </span>alumni have gone on to prominent positions in the American Right in the 2010s, </b>including White House advisor and architect of the Trump administration’s draconian immigration policy Stephen Miller (Young America’s Foundation) and media provocateur James O’Keefe (Leadership Institute). 65 </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This poses another counterfactual: would a similar conservative leadership cadre have developed absent support from organizations like Young America’s Foundation and the Leadership Institute? Ultimately, it seems unlikely that conservative organizations operating independently on college campuses without any kind of overarching political and financial coordination would have developed such a wide-ranging and politically disciplined leadership class. For instance, the broad support that conservative philanthropy has provided to conservative firebrand Dinesh D’Souza, now a bestselling author, suggests that a vibrant conservative ecosystem, both on and off campus, is crucial for cultivating conservative leaders. The Olin Foundation and the Institute for Educational Affairs first supported D’Souza through his right-wing campus newspaper, Dartmouth Review, in the early 1980s. After graduating from Dartmouth, D’Souza secured a John M. Olin Fellowship at the American Enterprise Institute, where he helped popularize the phrase “political correctness” to decry early 1990s campus culture. It seems fair to say that D’Souza owes much of his success to Olin, which can likely be said for many lesser-known conservative thinkers and writers who have reliably promoted free enterprise and procapitalist views.66</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A survey of the literature on conservative philanthropy in higher education yields the following key themes: The importance of dense networks to achieve immediate and long-term goals. Michael Joyce, a senior official at the Olin Foundation and later the head of the Bradley Foundation, called this the “wine collection” effect; I refer to it as the career pipeline. This pipeline is a way for foundations to invest in conservative figures when they are students or scholars, who mature and eventually contribute to rightwing politics off campus.67 </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This was the Olin Foundation’s stated goal when it supported writers and activists like Dinesh D’Souza. But it was also a goal of institution-building on college campuses. Multiple foundations funded overlapping efforts at colleges and universities across the United States to establish centers for right-wing thought, and those efforts operated cumulatively over time. The creation of a center of conservative economic thought at the University of Chicago allowed for future successes; even failed attempts like Manne’s entrepreneurship at Rochester and Emory reaped results under different circumstances at George Mason. </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The establishment of conservative student groups, from the Federalist Society to undergraduate conservative newspapers, provided a <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">pipeline of talent</span> to these institutions and, in the case of the Federalist Society, eventually provided financial support</b>. Identifying faculty organizational entrepreneurs and sympathetic administrators. From an operational standpoint, this was a critical component of the eventual establishment of conservative centers on campus.<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> When any of the three ingredients <b>(dense networks of donors, dedicated organizational entrepreneurs among faculty, and a sympathetic administration) </b>were lacking—as at the University of Rochester in the 1960s and Emory University in the 1980s—the institution-building efforts failed. </span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">When those three ingredients were present, as they were at Harvard in the late 1980s and George Mason University since the 1970s, the transformations could be profound.</span>The Koch network at George Mason would never have been as successful as it has been without the collaboration of faculty and administrators. A corollary to this is the importance of overcoming institutional resistance. There has been tremendous resistance in the academy to right-wing philanthropy. Three of the right-wing efforts discussed in this review—at the University of Chicago in the 1940s, the University of Rochester in the 1960s, and Emory University in the 1980s—were unsuccessful because of faculty or administration resistance; the successes were possible when support from faculty and, above all, administration was forthcoming.  </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">=</font></div><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></p>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">For example, Walgreens — the ubiquitous American drugstore chain — has begun the process of merging with a Swiss company and may reincorporate in Switzerland, a well-known tax haven.</span><br style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" />

<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">If Walgreens goes through with this tactic, it could cost our economy nearly a billion dollars a year in lost tax revenue.</span><br style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" />

<b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">We have to stop this trend before it spins completely out of control.</b><br style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" />

<a href="http://qz.salsalabs.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=hgXAAdo%2BxFsY4CWycR%2BSgpA%2FOdlb7aOX" target="_blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Add your name right now to the petition to stop the inversion evasion.</a><br style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" />

<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Of course, Walgreens — like most American corporations — relies on public resources like roads to move its products around the country, police to protect its stores from crime, and schools to develop its workforce.</span><br style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" />

<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">And about 25% of Walgreens’ business comes from taxpayer-funded programs like Medicare and Medicaid.</span><br style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" />

<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Dozens of large corporations — including pharmaceutical goliath Pfizer and agri-business behemoth Chiquita — have already completed or considered this selfish, unpatriotic maneuver.</span></font></div>

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<h1 property="dc:title" datatype="" class="node-title"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Robert Reich: The New Way Big Corporations Like Walgreen Are Shamelessly Dodging Their Taxes</font></h1>

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<p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Dozens of big U.S. corporations are considering leaving the United States in order to reduce their tax bills.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But they’ll be leaving the country only on paper. They’ll still do as much business in the U.S. as they were doing before.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The only difference is they’ll no longer be “American,” and won’t have to pay U.S. taxes on the profits they make.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Okay. But if they’re no longer American citizens, they should no longer be able to spend a penny influencing American politics.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Some background: We’ve been hearing for years from CEOs that American corporations are suffering under a larger tax burden than their foreign competitors. This is mostly rubbish.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">It’s true that the official corporate tax rate of 39.1 percent, including state and local taxes, is the highest among members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But the effective rate – what corporations actually pay after all deductions, tax credits, and other maneuvers – is far lower.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Last year, the Government Accountability Office, <a href="http://gao.gov/products/GAO-13-520" style="">examined corporate tax returns</a> <span class="print-footnote" style="">[2]</span> in detail and found that in 2010, profitable corporations headquartered in the United States paid an effective federal tax rate of 13 percent on their worldwide income, 17 percent including state and local taxes. Some pay no taxes at all.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">One tax dodge often used by multi-national companies is to squirrel their earnings abroad in foreign subsidiaries located in countries where taxes are lower. The subsidiary merely charges the U.S. parent inflated costs, and gets repaid in extra-fat profits.   </font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Becoming a foreign company is the extreme form of this dodge. It’s a bigger accounting gimmick. The American company merges with a foreign competitor headquartered in another nation where taxes are lower, and reincorporates there.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This “expatriate” tax dodge (its official name is a “tax inversion”) is now at the early stages but is likely to spread rapidly because it pushes every American competitor to make the same move or suffer a competitive disadvantage.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">For example, Walgreen, the largest drugstore chain in the United States with more than 8,700 drugstores spread across the nation, is on the verge of moving its corporate headquarters to Switzerland as part of a merger with Alliance Boots, the European drugstore chain.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Founded in Chicago in 1901, with current headquarters in the nearby suburb of Deerfield, Walgreen is about as American as apple pie — or your Main Street druggist.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Even if it becomes a Swiss corporation, Walgreen will remain your Main Street druggist. It just won’t pay nearly as much in U.S. taxes.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Which means the rest of us will have to make up the difference. Walgreen’s morph into a Swiss corporation will cost you and me and every other American taxpayer about $4 billion over five years, according to an <a href="denied:%20%20http://www.americansfortaxfairness.org/files/OffshoringAmericasDrugstore.pdf" style="">analysis</a> <span class="print-footnote" style="">[3]</span> by Americans for Tax Fairness.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The tax dodge likewise means more money for Walgreen’s investors and top executives. Which is why its large investors – including Goldman Sachs — have been <a href="denied:%20%20%20http://fortune.com/2014/06/24/walgreen-hq-switzerland-taxes/" style="">pushing</a> <span class="print-footnote" style="">[4]</span> for it.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Some Walgreen customers have complained. A few activists have rallied outside the firm’s Chicago headquarters.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But hey, this is the way the global capitalist game played. Anything to boost the bottom line.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Yet it doesn’t have to be the way American democracy is played.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Even if there’s no way to stop U.S. corporations from shedding their U.S. identities and becoming foreign corporations, there’s no reason they should retain the privileges of U.S. citizenship.  </font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">By treaty, the U.S. government can’t (and shouldn’t) discriminate against foreign corporations offering as good if not better deals than American companies offer. So if Walgreen as a Swiss company continues to fill Medicaid and Medicare payments as well as, say, CVS, it’s likely that Walgreen will continue to earn almost a quarter of its $72 billion annual revenues directly from the U.S. government.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But as a foreign corporation, Walgreen should no longer have any say over the size of those payments, what drugs they cover, or how they’re administered.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In fact, Walgreen should no longer have any say about how the U.S. government does anything.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In 2010 it lobbied for and got a <a href="http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2014/06/30/renouncing-corporate-citizenship/?php=true&type=blogs&php=true&type=blogs&_r=1&" style="">special provision</a> <span class="print-footnote" style="">[5]</span> in the Dodd-Frank Act, limiting the fees banks are allowed to charge merchants for credit-card transactions — resulting in a huge saving for Walgreen. If it becomes a Swiss citizen, the days of special provisions should be over. </font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Supreme Court’s “Citizens United” decision may have opened the floodgates to American corporate money in U.S. politics, but not to foreign corporate money in U.S. politics.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Court didn’t turn foreign corporations into American citizens, entitled to seek to influence U.S. law and regulations.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Since the 2010 election cycle, Walgreen’s Political Action Committee has spent <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/lookup2.php?strID=C00160770&cycle=2010" style="">$991,030</a> <span class="print-footnote" style="">[6]</span> on federal elections. If it becomes a Swiss corporation, it shouldn’t be able to spend a penny more.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Walgreen is free to become Swiss but it should no longer be free to influence U.S. politics.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">It may still be the Main Street druggist, but if it’s no longer American it shouldn’t be considered a citizen on Main Street.</font></p>

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<div class="tags"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><em>See more stories tagged with:</em>

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<div class="field-item even"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/tags/walgreens-corporate-tax-cheats" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" style="">Walgreen's corporate tax cheats</a> <span class="print-footnote" style="">[8]</span>,</font></div>

<div class="field-item odd"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/tags/tax-doging" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" style="">tax doging</a> <span class="print-footnote" style="">[9]</span></font></div>

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<div class="print-source_url" style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong>Source URL:</strong> <a href="http://www.alternet.org/economy/robert-reich-new-way-big-corporations-walgreen-are-shamelessly-dodging-their-taxes" style="">http://www.alternet.org/economy/robert-reich-new-way-big-corporations-walgreen-are-shamelessly-dodging-their-taxes</a></font></div>

<p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong>Links:</strong>

[1] http://www.alternet.org/authors/robert-reich-0

[2] http://gao.gov/products/GAO-13-520

[3] denied:%20%20http://www.americansfortaxfairness.org/files/OffshoringAmericasDrugstore.pdf

[4] denied:%20%20%20http://fortune.com/2014/06/24/walgreen-hq-switzerland-taxes/

[5] http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2014/06/30/renouncing-corporate-citizenship/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=1&

[6] https://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/lookup2.php?strID=C00160770&cycle=2010

[7] mailto:corrections@alternet.org?Subject=Typo on Robert Reich: The New Way Big Corporations Like Walgreen Are Shamelessly Dodging Their Taxes

[8] http://www.alternet.org/tags/walgreens-corporate-tax-cheats

[9] http://www.alternet.org/tags/tax-doging

[10] http://www.alternet.org/%2Bnew_src%2B</font></p>

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