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Retail Crime Overseas >>
figures from Europe, the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Germany and Latin America

Western Europe

Retail shrinkage and crime figures for all countries in Western Europe including The Netherlands, Ireland, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Belgium, Greece, Switzerland, Austria, UK, Portugal, and Sweden are surveyed by the Centre for Retail Research for The European Retail Theft Barometer. For details of the European Theft Barometer, click on this link.

The USA
The 2004 Report from Prof Richard Hollinger (University of Florida) shows a fall in average shrinkage to 1.65% in 2003 (1.70% in 2002). Previous results show US shrinkage in the 1990s varying annually between 1.72% and 1.95%. Shrinkage has now fallen from 1.80% in 2001. These data relate to the whole US retail sector.

Unlike European data, the greatest loss is attributed to retailers' own employees. Employees/staff are thought to be responsible for 47% of losses, customer thieves 32%, suppliers/vendors 6%, and administrative/paper error 15%.

The costs of security are given as 0.51% of turnover (sales).

Further details: Hollinger, R and Langton, L (2004), 2003 National Retail Security Survey, Gainsville, Fl, USA: University of Florida. www.soc.ufl.edu/srp.htm

US Supermarkets: The 2004 survey of supermarket theft from Jack L. Hayes International showed that 35,532 staff of the 24 respondent supermarket groups were apprehended for theft or fraud during 2003-4 (4% of total employee count). The average amount stolen by staff apprehended was $661 and for customer thieves $137. The total apprehended had increased marginally since the previous year. The total losses for these 24 retail groups were almost $2,000 million. Sixteenth (16th) Annual Retail Theft Survey conducted by Jack L. Hayes International

Canada
The Retail Council of Canada (Report, 2004) estimates that shrinkage in 2003 was 1.23% of retail sales. The main factor cited was internal theft (48%), followed by 31% for customer theft, 'other' 2%, and administrative error 19%. The previous year's shrinkage was thought to be 1.75%, so care needs to be exercised in looking at the data from any one year.

The Canadians felt that 21% of their losses were caused by organised gangs.

Australia
No retail crime survey has been carried out for several years, but the Australian Retailers' Association Loss Prevention Conference, estimated that average shrinkage for the sector was 1.5%, equivalent to $A 2.5 $3 billion per annum.

A 2001/2 study for ECR Australasia claimed that grocery retailers suffered 1.52% shrinkage, equivalent to A$823 million. The breakdown was: 35% customers, 25% staff, 11% suppliers, and 29% process failures.

New Zealand
John Guthrie has now carried out three crime surveys of New Zealand retailers, the most recent being 2003.
New Zealand shrinkage was estimated to be 1.5% of turnover. 68% was attributed to customers, 12% to employees, 3% to supplier fraud, and 20% to administrative error.
The cost of crime was $NZ564 million, whilst total shrinkage was $NZ705 million.

Further information: Dr John Guthrie, New Zealand Centre for Retail Research and Studies, University of Otago, PO Box 56 Dunedin, New Zealand.
E-mail jguthrie@business.otago.ac.nz
Title: 2003 New Zealand Survey of Retail Theft and Security.

Latin America
A study of retail crime costs in Mexico, carried out in 1999 by Dr Cecilia Margaona, showed Shrinkage costs:
Pharmacy 1.13%
Self service 1.32%
Dep. stores 1.29%
Specialists 1.34%
The main sources of loss were thought to be customers (35%), employees (23%), third parties (9%), error (11%), and waste (21%).

GERMANY
Research from EHI (EuroHandelsinstituts), Cologne (Köln) indicated that German retailing lost €4.5 billion in 2003 from stock loss. The study was based on 73 companies with 2739 stores drawn from all kinds of business within the retail sector.
The weighted average shows that shrinkage in 2003 was 1.23% compared to 1.27% in 2002. €925 m was spent on security. Reference: Horst, F. (2004) Inventurdifferenzen 2003, Köln: Verlag EHI-EuroHandelsinstituts GmbH

SHRINKAGE IN FAST MOVING CONSUMER GOODS IN EUROPE

This survey, carried out by Adrian Beck and Charlotte Bilby (Scarman Centre, Univ of Leicester) covered part of the retail sector - fast moving consumer goods - by which the authors seemed to mean mainly the grocery industry.
Total shrinkage for this sector in AD 2000 was 1.75%, a slight fall since 1999 (1.77%). This was equivalent to €13.4billion, although this covered Central and Eastern Europe as well as Western Europe. The causes of stockloss in retailing were thought to be:
External (Customer) theft 37%
Internal (employee) theft 24%
Supplier fraud 12%
Process failures 27%
Reference: Beck, A. & Bilby, C. (2001) Shrinkage in Europe, A Survey of Stock Loss in the Fast Moving Consumer Goods Sector, Brussels: ECR Europe.

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