Retailing | 4:50 February 01, 2010 | Print this story

Criminologist urges better ways to fight store theft

Supermarkets in Ireland lose an estimated €150 million each year to shoplifters, according to a criminologist speaking at the annual conference of Efficient Consumer Response Ireland.

The conference, attended by representatives of big retailers and food and drink manufacturers, heard that the global retail industry loses around $278 million a year –1.65% of turnover – because of stock mismanagement, and internal and external theft.

University of Leicester Criminologist Adrian Beck told the conference that retailers tended to blame the loss on external theft, even though it represented just a third of the Irish shrinkage cost of €450 million.

“Shrinkage is always being blamed on outsiders. In South Carolina, they blame girl gangs. The Finns blame the Russians, and the British blame east Europeans. But these are often urban myths and the roots of the problem lie in the business itself,” he said.

Better design, better staffing and better procedures were the best methods of fighting theft, Beck said, and well-motivated staff, as opposed to electronic technology, offered the best protection.

It was important to impose sanctions on shoplifters, but in the long run it was better to “design out” theft, he said.