National Retail Federation says 2021 data was flawed and based on congressional testimony from president of an advocacy group
The powerful National Retail Federation (NRF) lobbying group has retracted a claim that “organized retail crime” accounted for “nearly half” of the shopping industry’s $94.5bn losses due to theft or “shrink” in 2021.
The industry group had said the impact of organized retail crime, which it previously claimed had increased by 26.5%, had become increasingly violent. Retail giants like Target, Walmart and Walgreens said it was threatening their businesses.
The NRF said the figure was based on a congressional testimony from Ben Dugan, the former president of an advocacy group, the Coalition of Law Enforcement and Retail, and that an analyst from K2 Integrity, a risk consultancy that co-authored the report, inferred the “nearly half” claim.
You know who you don’t see constantly complaining about retail theft, grocery stores. Probably because they have a business model resistant to the real cause of all these losses, online shopping and the decline of retail.
It’s easier for the execs though to blame it on retail theft and tell their shareholders that they’re gonna lobby Congress to lock up shoplifters and solve the problem, rather than tell them the business is slowly dying and there’s nothing they can do about it.