A new University of Florida retail study found that inventory shrinkage — a combination of employee theft, shoplifting, vendor fraud and administrative error — cost the nation's retailers close to $31 billion last year.
University of Florida criminologist Richard Hollinger, Ph.D., has directed the National Retail Security Survey for the past 15 years. He said results show that in 2004, retailers lost 1.54% of their total annual sales to inventory shrinkage. While employee theft is down slightly, it is still the largest single source of inventory shrinkage. These declines were offset by a higher rate of shoplifting which accounted for 34% of retail losses, up from 30.8% in 2000. U.S. retailers lost nearly $10.5 billion in sales to shoplifting last year.
