Rise in Shoplifting and Retail Theft
By Staff -- Gifts & Decorative Accessories, 6/16/2009 8:32:00 AM
Boca Raton, FL — Retail theft, including shoplifting, employee theft, administrative error and vendor fraud, is up, according to the recent National Retail Security Survey (NRSS) annual survey conducted by the University of Florida with a funding grant from ADT Security Services. The increase in retail theft breaks a previous six-year decline, including a reported 18-year historic low of 1.44 percent of overall retail sales in 2007.
“This year both the dollar loss and rate of loss increased and the evidence shows that the economy and resulting cutbacks in staffing by retailers are creating an opportunistic environment for both individual shoplifters and organized retail criminals,” said University of Florida criminologist Richard Hollinger, Ph.D., who directed the National Retail Security Survey. “These are preliminary numbers from 2008 and do not reflect shoplifting and retail theft rates from the first part of 2009, when the recession was considered by many to be at its deepest.”
"The survey is in line with what we have been hearing from retailers about increased shoplifting and organized retail crime in very tough economic times," said Joe La Rocca, loss prevention advisor for the National Retail Federation.
Employee theft is still the largest portion of the retail theft pie, although as a percentage it decreased slightly while shoplifting increased in 2008. The survey only reflects in-store retail crime and does not measure crimes such as cargo theft or merchandise stolen in transport.
Talkback
Related Content
Related Content
