[DenverChannel] A Downtown Denver business owner says shoplifting at his stores has gotten so bad he's having to charge customers a fee to make up the costs."[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," Derek Friedman, owner of several Sportsfan and Sock Em Sock Emporium locations in the Denver metro, said Sunday.
Since 2019, he says shoplifting at his downtown and Federal Boulevard stores has tripled.
"There's zero consequences, I think, for property crime in the Denver area. It seems like it's dropped to barely anything," Friedman said.
It's forced him to impose this new Denver Crime Spike Fee to help him recover thousands of dollars in losses, as originally reported by Denver Business Journal. The fee will go live in February.
"We're talking about six figures [in losses] for a really small business like us, and that is meaningful. It impacts our employees, and, more importantly, it now is going to impact our shoppers," Friedman said.
The problem has also made it harder for him to keep employees as they'd rather work at Park Meadows or Cherry Creek Mall.
"When you have the impact of having someone come in and wander around the store and then grab a jersey and a hat and pull out a machete and walk out, it does have an issue with your ability to recruit and retain employees," Friedman said.
Tobey Zamora, a customer born and raised in Denver, isn't too happy with the forthcoming 1% fee, but he knows the situation downtown right now is a bit rough.
"You got to do what you got to do. It sucks. It sucks that it falls back on us consumers," he said. "I'm not okay. But if I have to, I have to. I mean, I'm not gonna stop buying what I want."
Friedman says he may have to increase the fee in the future if things don't improve in the next few months. But he hopes by taking action, local and state leaders will pay more attention — and so will customers.
"My hope is that over the course of the coming months, some different approaches are taken to enforcement and police presence and attitudes towards police and the great job that they do protecting businesses like ours," he said.
So the haves have to pay for the will nots. Fuck you Denver. I ain't shopping at your shit anymore.