Louisiana: The State We're In; Shop Lifting Toy Buying

Production funding for this program was provided in part through contributions to Louisianians for Educational Television. The following program is a production of Louisiana Public Broadcasting. Good evening I'm Beth George and welcome to this edition of Louisiana the state we're in. Christmas here as in most cultures is essentially a season of light candles and windows strings on trees. And despite all the running from store to store for most people it's a season of light hearts. The Christmas does have a darker more serious side. This week we look at the problems of shoplifting and consumer safety and the hard work involved in figuring out the public's taste in toy ads. Christmas is a time of give and take to give We all know and love. But in shopping centers the take is what concerns guards like this one.

Unfortunately a shoplifting or shop stealing is store owners prefer to call it is not just the worry of a guard here or a store owner there. It should be a worry of us all. Thanks to the realities of business each gift taken makes each gift we give a little more expensive. Marshall Dickerson is assistant manager of the Baton Rouge department store assesses the magnitude of the problem and discusses ways of combating it. Doug Unfortunately it is the worst time of the year for a couple of reasons one because we have such an increased customer flow at this time of the year which brings a lot more people through our stores. And secondly a lot of the professional shoplifting rings which do operate only operate at Christmas because they think that they can get by with more at this time of year which unfortunately is not true now. Shoplifting increasing as the years go on is a problem getting worse. National figures show that it is increasing. We. And our stores have seen an increase in shoplifting as a result of that we've had to take stricter measures both

internally and with the people that we do catch to try to reverse that trend. Are you taking any extraordinary measures things that you've not done in past years. We have about three times the security people in the store now that we had two months ago to try to take care of that problem. We have investigated using various types of electronic equipment. We have also instituted a very strict policy of prosecuting anyone that we do apprehend which is something that I think all retailers are having to do now. You do prosecute after you catch a shoplifter. Absolutely it's it's very tough to be sitting in a room with these people especially if it's only there that climates are first or second time ever. THEY CALL IT shop staling as we like to call it instead of shoplifting. But for them to have to call their husband or call a close relative to be able to bail him out of jail it's very tough on us to have to do that but at the same time we cannot in good conscience allow these people to go free to do it again because we realize it's just taking money out of the people that work in a

store and especially out of the consumers that shop in our store because so much of the shoplifting has to be passed down to the consumer and our retail prices. That does cause a large increase in products prices. The figures that I've seen nationally are in the vicinity of like in some big cities. It could be as high as 10 percent. It does cause a definite increase in prices. And I think the people the honest people that we have shopping in our store should be aware of this in case they do see someone stealing merchandise from one of the chefs. Do the different stores around Baton Rouge have different policies toward shoplifting. I think in the past that they did. Some stores were a lot more lenient than others as far as prosecution especially about where the increase in shop staling that we've seen in the last three or four years I think nearly all stores have come around the philosophy that the only way that we're going to be able to control it is to have a uniform prosecution policy. And you see a lot of stores that even have that published signs

in their stores mentioning the fact that they do prosecute all shop stealers that they can't catch another shell using a new system of inventory control at the checkout counters where a clerk will simply pass over. Fiberoptic over a scanning card and is this does this have anything to do with security or is it strictly inventory control. It's primarily fam and door control it does give us a little more a little better figures as to what our shop losses are from stealing. It's mainly that we have one too because the information that's recorded magnetically on these tickets forms a basis for management accounting reports of forms of basis for a mentor reports and far reordering of marchandise. It also allows the shopper to be able to be processed a lot quicker at the cash register which we think's an added bonus for the people that are shopping in the stores. What most people will be shopping for like it or not is toys. But when some gifts keep on giving it's playing rather than pleasure. Joe wide

side of the Consumer Products Safety Commission says children's lack of inhibition makes parental care unnecessary. And children are most adventurous Americans they'll try anything. Run the fastest climb the highest explore the scariest taste just about everything. Especially if they're challenged by their peers. They trust that everything they have to use is safe. Yet accidents are the leading cause of death of our youngsters. Among our older youngsters it's burns and burns often run to complicated toys or some misuse of toys or and drowning among our small children. The leading cause of death is ingestion of objects and food safety may seem soreness to us sometimes. Yet we have to take a look at what has happened to cross accidents and work toward

safety. To continue last year about seven hundred and eighty three thousand injuries severe enough to cause hospitalization for emergency treatment occurred in our United States 85 percent of the injuries were associated with transportation toys and products. You and I can know that bikes came first. Four hundred sixty five thousand severe injuries related to that were bicycle related. Roller skates and skateboards I know you guessed with me came second with a hundred 28000 severe injuries. Then try sic Howard non-powered transportation toys and snow country King. And for most of the other severe injuries.

Then of course another point to look at in toys is to see and this is maybe the point of ball that Detroit is not too complicated or too big a youngster of the right for the right age. We believe that children would be much better off with bicycles and bigger thing that the youngster cannot. Many. Children's exuberance may be a heartening side. It's that same exuberance that requires caution by those responsible for them. People like teachers says inherit. We hear a lot of Christmas time about toys buying purchasing toys that are safe for children was things we've heard a lot about or toys that might have sharp edges I think like this. This little pull here has some very very sharp horns that

that we brought in today to talk about and show maybe a toy that should not be purchased for a child. Susan is that one of the things that we have problems with this sharp edged toys. Right that's something that somebody really needs to watch for because on cars and other innocent looking toys they will have points and shop edges. I think we have an example some of the children brought in of a toy that it has is very soft. How about this nerf rocket let's let's see that over there. Let's bring it right here. Shooting it this is it now this is a toy that I think would like this sort of Christmas. Why is this a particularly good choices. Because it's soft. This is foam and it's it cannot hurt anybody and even the plastic parts are soft. They can't hurt head. They don't have anything pointed or shock on it. I think another thing that we hear about is that toys should be appropriate for a child for the ride for the ride aged child that is say maybe five years old like all of

you are wooden like a toy that might be suitable for an older child we have a game here I think that shows some of the small parts that might be harmful for a little child. Let's see maybe we can look at the girls over here. Why would that game be a problem. Pieces about the size of your finger now that can be stuck in a child's nose or in his ear. But a 5 yo we hope would not do something like that whereas a 3 year old would not possibly know better. I think one of the interesting stories you've seen advertised on television a lot of those stretch toys Mr. stretch in the stretch monster let's look at one of those a minute. These are really fun toys. Now what. What is inside this toy says an entire cities full of so I don't know for sure but that's what I've been Tell which I think is a good idea because so many of them would contain a liquid or soft styrofoam something like that it could be swallowed that could be harmful.

And I wouldn't expect the syrup to be you know dangerous for the child. I think that a lot of little boys like these fire trucks and some of the. We've seen some around here let's let me see this truck right over here this jeep going at this is a good one isn't it. Everything monitoring the wheels are soft plastic they're not. And even the edges right here the corners are not sharp. Let's look at one of these Jeeps over here that turn. Something like this for a 5 yo would be appropriate but this one does just that and it's hard metal it's not like a soft plastic. You can see it's well enjoy. Some people who are bound to enjoy Christmas despite the long hours and grueling pace are toy store owners as owner my poor points out healthy Christmas toy sales can make up for any number of slow periods during the year. Mr. poore I suppose this is the biggest time of year for the toy business. Yes it is the last

eight to 10 weeks of the year is that by far the largest in toy industry and things picked up so far because of the oncoming Christmas season or has it been slow. Now it's been a very good place for it. Fortunately people started buying earlier so they do get a better selection. And it has been very good here in the last six weeks. I heard somewhere that cold weather effects the public's buying habits and you found that to be true. Yes. People think of Christmas and. If you can bundle up and go out and start shopping and you get a volley it's good for business because Christmas people relate to cold weather so it helps a lot in buying from the public in the Christmas mood ride ride. There's been some concern over the past few years about well by the consumer groups for hazardous toys for children and like toys it will be too sophisticated for a very young child.

Is that a deal had many toys and or has it is that the mother should watch out for the toys that we carry are basically the toys that are made now are all Sgrena very carefully by the Food and Drug Administration and before a toy is brought out onto the market the Food and Drug Administration experiments with the toys. About the only hazards that is now is someone buying a toy for the wrong age group buying something for an older child which. This should be for a younger child. Most of the items will have an age group on the box and the parent should go by the age group instead of going way over the age or away on. That's about the only hazard that there is now in the toy industry. There are a lot of new toys out on notice television shows seem to be inspiring new toys like and also Star Wars is big this year. Star Wars is probably the number one single category. Of course

we all know how the movie has been very strong and there have been others probably about 20 items out now from the movie and next year you can expect to see well over 100 different items on Star Wars. This seems to be the newest generation of toys. The remote control ride this is really come on very fast in the last two years. Last year was the first really successful year for these items and. We have increased tenfold the different items we carry in this line. But the parents would get almost as much of a kick out of as the children we do. This is very true. The parents will buy these just for themselves to play with just as much as the child would. This works on the same lines as a remote control airplanes of a few years back rides this is a remote control unit which is completely and append from the driver. I'm holding a control unit which I

am controlling the movement of the vehicle. There seems to be we're talking early about a new wave of electronic toys. I know that there are video toys games programmable video cassettes that you can rig up to your television and play games with it. Going into the toy field for children or is it going to be strictly an adult toy. The video games which have been around going on about three to four years now they're still very popular and they're expanding them to where they're very diversified. Now in our operation we're getting into electronic games which are portable games which you can take with you. And there are six to eight different electronic games out this year and they have been very very popular. Unfortunately we have not been able to get most of them. We do have a few in stock ready to sell.

If the high priced rage this year is any indication video is now to be used for considerably more than children's games. More than last year there will be hundreds of thousands of crates sitting under American Christmas trees in a few weeks with a notation made in Japan inscribed beneath the wrapping paper. There is now a new TV gadget on the consumer market. Perhaps you've seen the hands shoot up. That's right. Ever want to watch two things that are out at the same time. Well now you can. This was a home video tape recorder. And while it has actually been on the market for about a year this is the first season of heavy marketing and competition. This machine is like a conventional tape recorder except that it records and plays back TV pictures. In addition to just sound it uses special video cassettes a bit larger than the tape because that's we're used to seeing. But the tape recorder controls are quite

similar to those on conventional audio cassette recorders. Right now their most popular application is for recording television programs off the air. The recording can be viewed hours months or even years later or it can be used as a kind of instant replay. Perhaps the most attractive sales point is the automatic timer the machines can be reset to record any TV program even while no one's home. The prices are still roughly a thousand dollars as high as thirteen hundred. But salesmen bristle at the suggestion that this might be nothing more than an expensive toy not expensive toys that have real function gives individual a lot of latitude in what they want to

watch and when they want to watch a lot of people have problems with their work hours against their free hours. This gives them the opportunity of recording when they're not at home but I am back when they are available. Not surprisingly Japanese manufacturers hold a virtual stranglehold on the home video market. In fact though there are 12 brands on the market this month loading RCA Panasonic Magnavox and there are only two manufacturers Sony and Matsushita who make all of them. Moreover the systems are incompatible with each other. In other words because of different concept sizes and tape speeds. A Sony tape can't be played on a Panasonic and vice versa. Just because you are straight and come back in just a glaze the strong will survive and even stickier question is whether video taping TV programmes is even legal.

Several production companies claim it is copyright infringement and have sued Sony and by implication the rest of the home videotape industry. It's a question that will take years to resolve. But to the consumer the more immediate issue is one of price and here we might take a lesson from recent marketing history. This is a first generation video game a ping pong simulation. Last year these units sold for 50 to over $100. This year their prices are half as much. Sometimes less but even at less than $18 there is not as much interest anymore. Attention in this corner of the department store is riveted on a new generation of video games. The programmable game. With the single control unit the consumer can buy electronic plugin cartridges to play any one of many dozens of games. The State of the art has advanced and in the meantime the old generation while no worse in quality than

before and experienced a dramatic drop in price the same thing happening with calculators. My calculators first came out they started at a higher price. OK Tech and general marketing know how to do it or you can start out with a hundred dollars whereas a year after the same company it was sold for $25. OK another way since you knew people are stepping into new territory in blanket video games and video tape. New product prices are designed for quick profit and seem to play then on the impatience of American consumers. Prices of the Sony video tape unit are already dropping for example. One large department chain in Boston will cut its price on the units by $300 within a week. Even so by next year probably a million video tape units and even more video games will be firmly entrenched in homes across the country. Well before the forces of competition the savings from mass production act together to reduce their price.

One of the most beloved Christmas traditions is not cracker sweet. It's an enchanting story with music to match and few of us in the audience give thought to the long and distinctly uninsured ending hours involved in preparing the Nutcracker. We spent an afternoon with a Louisiana concert and enjoyed the taste of the performance to. Eat. You.

Shoplifting consumer safety hard work in stores exhausting rehearsals

even those of us in the news business can take only so much seriousness at this time of year. Next week we'll celebrate Christmas in the traditional way at maid wood plantation in Napoleon ville. It's a festival complete with music and Santa Claus and lots of memories. I hope you'll join us. I'm Beth George. Good evening. And. The AS. The proceeding was an LBB production production funding for this

program was provided in part through contributions to Louisianians for Educational Television.