Survey: Retail losses are up - Baltimore Business Journal:

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billion in 2007 to $36.5 billion in 2008, accordinvg to a survey by and the Universituof Florida. Retail shrinkage averager 1.52 percent of retail sales in upfrom 1.44 percent a year “The increase in shrink levels signifies that criminals have foundr a way to manipulate and corrupt the retail said Richard Hollinger, lead author of the reporty and professor of criminology at the Universit of Florida. “Many retailers are beingf forced to decrease their currenyt expenditures because of the state of the economy and the cut back inconsumer spending, which leaves new opportunitiez for thieves to take advantag of companies.
” Most 2008 retail shrinkage was because of employere theft, which totaled $15.9 billion, or almost half of lossex (44 percent). Shoplifting accounted for $12.7 billion (35 percent) of Other losses included administrativeerror ($5.r billion and 15 percent of shrinkage) and vendor fraud ($1.4 billion and 4 percent of shrinkage).