As students walk into local businesses, it may not be unusual to receive a simple “Hi” or “Hello.”

Most students don’t think twice about such greetings, but most students aren’t shoplifters.

Joe Orlowski, store manager for Steve & Barry’s University Sportswear, 515 E. Grand River Ave., said saying hello to customers is one of the primary ways he cuts down on shoplifting, a concern for police and business owners across Michigan.

“I’m sure it happens everywhere,” Orlowski said. “But as long as you’re watching what’s going on in your store it shouldn’t be a problem.”

As such, he said saying “hello” to people entering the store and having employees circulate on the floor can be deterrents for someone looking to steal.

But Orlowski said such a level of alert often extends outward to neighboring businesses.

He has received courtesy calls from nearby business owners letting him know if a suspicious customer is coming down the road.

“If there is a problem, we as businesses sort of stick together,” he said.

But such instances don’t occur frequently, Orlowski said, countering claims that young people are the usual sources of shoplifting.

Rachel Whitaker, a writer for the Michigan Retailers Association, said such feelings are not unusual, but the crime extends across many demographics.

“It’s not a problem that’s just associated with just one group of people,” she said.

Howard Ballein, owner of the Student Book Store, 421 E. Grand River Ave., disagreed. He said he could actually be safer situated across the street from MSU.

“We’re pretty lucky because we’re in a market where a vast, vast majority of students are honest,” he said.

But he does keep his employees aware of the problem.

They circulate the floor and are made aware of what to look for, and such measures increase during peak stealing-seasons.

“It seems to rear its ugly head sometimes at certain parts of the term like at finals week and sometimes at the beginning of the term,” Ballein said.

But other than the few peak times, he said it is not an overriding problem and he has not heard fellow business owners complain, attributing it to the students.

“The more intelligence the people possess the less apt they are to try to get something for nothing,” he said. “These are not dumb kids, they are not going to make the mistakes that others might.”