Retail Theft And Its Link To The Recession

From the recent research put out by the British Retail Consortium, traders have described a distinct rise in hostility and shoplifting as a direct result of the recession.

The most recent crime review by the trade body the British Retail Consortium shows retail theft carried out by the public increased by a third between 2008 and 2009.

It makes outrageous reading that a shop theft takes place almost every minute of the day, twenty four hours a day, and is one reason why business experts are requesting that the police and those others who are in authority take retail theft more seriously.

Not only did this study show a rise in retail theft but more disturbingly, violent behaviour against staff also increased and as a result shop keepers are asking the police to do more to care for them and their stock.

It is said that twenty two thousand employees all over the country claim they have been under attack by customers and a spokesman for the British Retail Consortium states that the police and others in the criminal justice system do not take retail theft seriously enough.

The study carried out the BRC encompassed sixty leading stores, who between them have over one million employees and has a market coverage of almost half.

So what exactly does half million a shoplifting thefts a year equate to in monetary terms? Well the answer is over one billion GBP in lost revenue for the retailers of the United Kingdom.

And it is even possible that these figures are understated as the belief amongst industry experts is that many crimes go unreported and as a result the figure could be twice as high.

This is not a victimless crime and many people will try and persuade you otherwise but just keep in mind it will be the honest shopper who suffers the additional monetary costs whilst it is left to the unfortunate employee to bear the emotional and psychological cost that comes from the distress of an attack in their workplace.

So the question has to be asked; is this situation likely to abate any time soon?

We would think not and the reasoning is quite simple, we have a recession that is not showing any signs of going into recline and we have a government which is in the middle of implementing massive spending cuts within the public sector which means the police will have to prioritise their budgets and ergo, retail theft will not be at the top of their list.

If you couple this with those affected by the recession and the spending cuts then you will find an ever increasing populace who are getting more and more desperate to maintain the lifestyle they were once accustomed too.

These members of the public could possibly have an indirect or direct effect on the retail sector as they may be the ones carrying out the shoplifting or they may have a practised thief steal to order, it does not matter which one it is as the overall result is the same.

Retailers must realise that this will not sort itself out and the only real course of action open to them is to adopt a proactive approach to store security.

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