The UK’s largest retailer has enlisted the assistance of a former shoplifter in order to tackle the issue of theft in the grocery stores. Tesco’s Eyes Wide Open campaign uses a training video made with the help of the former shoplifter to advise staff on how to reduce the likelihood of theft in-store. The video highlights the main products of interest to thieves and how they think they can get away with it. “Shoplifting is an industry-wide problem and presents a challenge for retailers... ...Read more »

As unemployment rose last year so did the incidence of alcohol and food theft, according to a Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research report released yesterday. The research, from New South Wales, discovered food shoplifting surged by 17 per cent last year as almost two cases were reported, on average, each day. Alcohol was first on the list for thieves, as retail shoplifting rose by 7.8 per cent. “It is a telling fact that in the last 12 months the types of items stolen from retail stores... ...Read more »

Peak retail industry body the Australian Retailers Association (ARA) has advised that new research, which suggests employee theft costs Australian retailers almost $3 billion per year, shows the traditional approach of protecting assets from external shoplifters only gets half the job done.ARA Executive Director Richard Evans said internal theft contributing to over half of the $5.8 billion (or two percent of turnover) expected to be written off as retail shrinkage this year could be minimised with... ...Read more »

British retailers are concerned that the economic slowdown will wipe out falls in retail crime achieved over the last year. The British Retail Consortium’s (BRC) Retail Crime Survey 2008, published on Monday, showed numbers of customer thefts down 26 per cent in the year to April and employee theft plummeting 56 per cent in the same period. The issue of shoplifting is still a costly one for retailers, however, as indicated by the fact that an offence takes place every 90 seconds – on... ...Read more »

Checkpoint Systems and Sealed Air Cryovac have reportedly created the first integrated and automated anti-theft tagging system for direct contact with fresh food products. The combination of Checkpoint’s Food-Safe EAS labels, certified for direct contact with food, and Sealed Air Cryovac Smartpak vacuum shrink bags, is also anticipated to allow retailers to reduce inventory shrinkage of cheese and fresh products. According to Checkpoint Systems, the idea came from concerns about increasing... ...Read more »

The current economic climate has been blamed for rising shoplifting figures. Theft from Australian stores has risen from 1.5% of revenue up to 2% since November according to the Australian Retail Association (ARA), costing retailers approximately $5.8 billion annually according to ARA CEO Richard Evans. With two rate rises since November, coupled with rising food, petrol and rental prices, the financial pressure on Australians has intensified and Evans views economic hardship as the key... ...Read more »