Retail THEFT: the hidden crime

Most people connected with the retail industry are now well aware that huge sums of money are lost to shop theft, euphemistically covered by the term “shrinkage”, each year. Government reports and articles (eg Bamfield 1988, Burrows 1988) have put forward various estimates of the extent of these losses. The general consensus is that shrinkage accounts for between 1% and 2% of retail turnover each year. But what exactly does this mean? Who is responsible for these losses? Where and why do they occur? And what can retailers do to reduce their losses? These are some of the questions which a recent report, commissioned by Halfords and carried out by Alan Elder of the Institute of Retail Studies, attempted to answer.