Retail theft, including shoplifting, employee theft, administrative error and vendor fraud, is up, according to a recent annual survey conducted by the University of Florida with a funding grant from ADT Security Services. The National Retail Security Survey (NRSS) preliminary results show a real increase in the rate of retail theft for the first time in six years. In 2007, the lowest rate of retail theft in the 18-year history of the survey was reported at a rate of 1.44 percent of overall retail sales. Last year that rate rose to 1.52 percent of sales translating into losses of $36.5 billion.
These preliminary shoplifting and retail theft rates are calculated as a percentage of total sales and for the previous six years of the survey they have been trending downward, according to University of Florida criminologist Richard Hollinger, Ph.D., who directed the National Retail Security Survey.