Summer Street voices amid Orange's climbing retail theft

Mother and daughter duo of Orange's Chaos & Karma boutique, Helen McBurnie and Jordan Garlick are fed up with thieves ransacking their family-owned business.

In the past month alone, Miss Garlick says items were stolen on five different occasions - the retailer resorting to posting still images of the store's CCTV footage to Facebook.

"We'd never had this drama before, but we've probably gotten about one [shoplifter] a week on average for the past month or so," she said.

"There's no telling who will or won't steal, you can't pick it, and you can't go to the police without a name, so that's why we've been putting them up [on Facebook] to get them."

According to Police NSW, stealing accounts for up to 40 per cent of reported shop losses per year, with shoplifting considered a criminal offence under the Crimes Act 1900.

Also known as larceny, the offence carries a maximum penalty of two-years imprisonment for items valued under $2000.

Beyond this, the maximum penalty for larceny is 10-years imprisonment.

Which is why, though wary of defamation laws, Ms Garlick says the public broadcasting strategy is an attempt to attain the shoplifter's identity, so as to produce sufficient evidence to police - which is needed in order to charge someone.

But the hopeful trade-off is the shoplifter (or someone known to the person) turns themselves in and pays for the stolen item in full, with the post pulled down thereafter.

And kindly, don't return in the future.

"If you're embarrassed enough to walk back in here, then you've probably learned your lesson," Miss Garlick said.

"Do the right thing if you know you've done the wrong thing, and if you don't have good intentions or remorse, then don't come back.

"We're not a franchise here, we're mother and daughter-run. This is our bread and butter and we're out of pocket in a time that's already tough."

Small business peers say "shoplifting has been rife" on Summer Street recently, with the Chaos & Karma owner pinning external factors (like rising cost of living) for the behaviour.

Neighbouring retailer, Mary & Tex Curious Emporium, has also been hit hard with thieves of late - owners forking out added expenses in a bid to tighten security.

Some doors down, Orange's Bed Bath N' Table store manager of six years, Hannah Morrow flagged recent bouts of shoplifting.

"We have had a lot of theft lately and we're expecting a lot more over Christmas," Miss Morrow said.

"There's usually someone up the front to deter people and we do occasional bag checks when we can, but we call the police all the time with young groups of kids jumping on the beds and screaming out the front, or fist fights outside the store.

"But it's hard to say, there's probably a lot more shoplifting going on than we know and it's pretty rare to catch someone."

Miss Morrow says among the store's most targeted items are high-quality sheet sets, blankets, and candles.

Staff have had to reconfigure part of the store's layout in an attempt to protect stock.

"We used to keep our quilts near the [entry] doors," she said, "but we've had to move them after people continued stealing them and taking off.

"But theft is pretty bad along Summer Street."

Stores like Priceline and SportsPower have done similar to Chaos & Karma with social media posts in a bid to boil down identities and reclaim stolen items, or be reimbursed for the loss.

Getting "pretty lucky" with posting still images of footage, Miss Garlick says she wishes it were more effective even still.

Many users will often tag friends as a joke, or fill the thread with unhelpful comments.

"It's worked more times than it hasn't, though," she said, "but either way, it's just getting ridiculous."

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