Not all the goods that disappear from store shelves during the holiday season are bought. Sticky-fingered customers and employees make off with $9 billion in merchandise annually, and Christmas is the big season. Shoplifting has jumped 35% in the past four years, making it the fastest-growing larceny crime in the country. According to one study, shoplifters get away with the loot 97% of the time.

Fearing that the souring economy will lead to even more thefts, retailers are resorting to novel deterrents. One innovation is an "ink tag," a plastic disk containing three glass vials of indelible ink that is attached to a garment and removable only with a special tool. Tamper with the tag and the ink spills, staining the fabric and perhaps a finger or two. "We're saying, `Get away with it if you want, but why are you bothering?'" says Robert DiLonardo, marketing chief of Security Tags Systems Inc., the major U.S. manufacturer. His firm has marketed nearly 2 million of the Swedish-invented tags to about 200 U.S. stores. One chain's losses were reportedly cut 60%.

Some antitheft systems are decidedly low-tech. Several grocery stores, including Cub Foods in Colorado Springs, Colo., are placing life-size cardboard figures of local police officers next to such tempting items as film and cosmetics. The cutouts cost Cub $500 apiece but have reduced shoplifting in the store 30% in the past six weeks. "We don't have to feed them, pay them, give them vacation or worker's comp," says assistant manager L.J. Stevens. "We just clean them off once a week with a dustcloth."