For 32 years, the National Retail Federation (NRF) — the lobbying group representing major retailers in the United States — has produced the "National Retail Security Survey." The survey, widely cited by media outlets, attempts to estimate the total retail "shrink" in the industry by collecting data from major retailers.
Judd continues to do the hard work that comes with real investigative journalism. His report on the NRF is a perfect example. Who else is reporting on this or understands its importance? Dollar-for-dollar my best & most trusted source for this kind of news.
Yes, this is another way that the "criminal legal system" gets to vilify the poor in order to keep them poor and ignore underlying conditions that push us all into poverty. Poor people are easily deprived of rights and thus exploited. I see them every time I go to do my little CJS court watch duties. I encourage you all to go observe a misdemeanor court session or two, especially jail clearance where "shoplifters" are railroaded into jail and probation. One poor fellow was forced to stand out in front a Red Lobster of all places wearing a sign that said "I am a thief." (Wonderful country this USA). BTW I stole a cap gun from a 5 and dime. Damn it, I forgot to steel the caps. That was 60 years ago. If I'd been caught, I probably would have lead a very different life. A regular John Dillinger I was.
Great reporting as always! Details ,analysis , questions unanswered.
You can bet the local nightly news will present nothing close to this reporting.
Judd Thanks once again for real reporting….rather than sound bites, miss conceptions, false impressions, all of which 1/2 this country wants to believe.
I work at a big box store and I confront this lie daily. Explaining to people that our security measures are not as necessary at our store as theft is such small percentage, but when the dollar figure is talked about, ot sounds bigger than it really is. Skewed information to build fear.
Shoplifting happens. It is a real problem. It is not, however, a crisis. I worked for a well known outdoor apparel and lifestyle company for a number of years. We had two or three very expensive GoPro cameras in a locked case and two or three very expensive jackets equipped with anti-theft devices, but the rest of it was easy to access, try on or test. And we were told that even if we saw shoplifting happen we were only to mildly confront the person. If they went out the door we were to let them go. The losses were an acceptable price to pay for customer service and to keep the staff safe from potentially violent, or false, confrontations.
I'm guessing: were salespeople told to avoid loud confrontations because they cold lead to violence in the store. Was the store ready to call law enforcement--were you allowed to do--that when the goods walked out the door with obvious criminal intent?
Great article. But I thought that Popular Information, or possibly another similar group, published a report within the past six months stating that large retailers wanted to shift blame for poor financial results away from their management to shoplifting.
As the article says, in 2023 like other years, outside theft was 36% of the ‘shrink’. So in that other 64% there is the failure to control or stop internal theft, bad inventory management & other types of mismanagement. Plus, if ‘shrink’ is steady at 1.5-1.6% of sales it is not major force driving costs / prices.
Now the big supplier of retail security products has sponsored a ‘survey’ which surveyed senior loss prevention & security executives about shoplifting trends. Not retailers.
Are the big security execs interested in saying they’ve failed to stop internal theft? Are they the ones who would say inventory management failures are a problem? Has the industry collected actual data?
Nope. They were only asked about their views on shoplifting trends. They responded with the ‘party line.’
“Jeff Asher, an analyst specializing in criminal justice data, told Popular Information he was skeptical of the numbers in the new NRF report. Asher said the NRF's findings should be "taken with a grain of salt" because they are "based on a survey of impressions rather than any meticulously collected evidence."
The “impression” the industry wants to provide is the “impression” captured in the survey by a company that stands to profit from the “impression.”
I very, very much appreciate this deep dive into what the NRF has done and how -- not least because I suspect that other industrial lobbying groups are similarly manipulating statistics to fit their preferred narrative, i.e., propaganda.
How many days before I see this misleading and self-serving “news” enthusiastically reported, on Fox, accompanied, as always, by frightening video? Not just Fox; other media will dutifully parrot this “report” which happens to originate with their advertisers.
With as much on line shopping as we do now, shoplifting would most logically be decreasing. There are fewer people actually in stores today than in prior years.
COVID lockdown trained us to order on-line and the habit continues.
Not to mention the drive for more and longer incarcerations at privately funded prisons, a pet profit center for our oligarchs. It's no wonder that they are salivating at the prospect of vast holding areas or concentration camps provided by, of course, private contractors and builders, for the millions of deportees to be arrested next year.
Judd continues to do the hard work that comes with real investigative journalism. His report on the NRF is a perfect example. Who else is reporting on this or understands its importance? Dollar-for-dollar my best & most trusted source for this kind of news.
Yes, this is another way that the "criminal legal system" gets to vilify the poor in order to keep them poor and ignore underlying conditions that push us all into poverty. Poor people are easily deprived of rights and thus exploited. I see them every time I go to do my little CJS court watch duties. I encourage you all to go observe a misdemeanor court session or two, especially jail clearance where "shoplifters" are railroaded into jail and probation. One poor fellow was forced to stand out in front a Red Lobster of all places wearing a sign that said "I am a thief." (Wonderful country this USA). BTW I stole a cap gun from a 5 and dime. Damn it, I forgot to steel the caps. That was 60 years ago. If I'd been caught, I probably would have lead a very different life. A regular John Dillinger I was.
I'm sending this to my brothers who watch too much cable news and think shoplifters should get life imprisonment sentences!
Thank you Judd for providing clarity!
Great reporting as always! Details ,analysis , questions unanswered.
You can bet the local nightly news will present nothing close to this reporting.
Judd Thanks once again for real reporting….rather than sound bites, miss conceptions, false impressions, all of which 1/2 this country wants to believe.
I work at a big box store and I confront this lie daily. Explaining to people that our security measures are not as necessary at our store as theft is such small percentage, but when the dollar figure is talked about, ot sounds bigger than it really is. Skewed information to build fear.
Shoplifting happens. It is a real problem. It is not, however, a crisis. I worked for a well known outdoor apparel and lifestyle company for a number of years. We had two or three very expensive GoPro cameras in a locked case and two or three very expensive jackets equipped with anti-theft devices, but the rest of it was easy to access, try on or test. And we were told that even if we saw shoplifting happen we were only to mildly confront the person. If they went out the door we were to let them go. The losses were an acceptable price to pay for customer service and to keep the staff safe from potentially violent, or false, confrontations.
I'm guessing: were salespeople told to avoid loud confrontations because they cold lead to violence in the store. Was the store ready to call law enforcement--were you allowed to do--that when the goods walked out the door with obvious criminal intent?
Great article. But I thought that Popular Information, or possibly another similar group, published a report within the past six months stating that large retailers wanted to shift blame for poor financial results away from their management to shoplifting.
As the article says, in 2023 like other years, outside theft was 36% of the ‘shrink’. So in that other 64% there is the failure to control or stop internal theft, bad inventory management & other types of mismanagement. Plus, if ‘shrink’ is steady at 1.5-1.6% of sales it is not major force driving costs / prices.
Now the big supplier of retail security products has sponsored a ‘survey’ which surveyed senior loss prevention & security executives about shoplifting trends. Not retailers.
Are the big security execs interested in saying they’ve failed to stop internal theft? Are they the ones who would say inventory management failures are a problem? Has the industry collected actual data?
Nope. They were only asked about their views on shoplifting trends. They responded with the ‘party line.’
“Jeff Asher, an analyst specializing in criminal justice data, told Popular Information he was skeptical of the numbers in the new NRF report. Asher said the NRF's findings should be "taken with a grain of salt" because they are "based on a survey of impressions rather than any meticulously collected evidence."
The “impression” the industry wants to provide is the “impression” captured in the survey by a company that stands to profit from the “impression.”
I very, very much appreciate this deep dive into what the NRF has done and how -- not least because I suspect that other industrial lobbying groups are similarly manipulating statistics to fit their preferred narrative, i.e., propaganda.
Just noticed that if you add a vowel, NRF spells "nerf." Now I'm thinking of Popular Information as a Nerf blaster.
As usual, Judd does the hard work and reporting that MSM isn’t willing to do. Proud to be a supporter of PI!
I love a good data takedown!
How many days before I see this misleading and self-serving “news” enthusiastically reported, on Fox, accompanied, as always, by frightening video? Not just Fox; other media will dutifully parrot this “report” which happens to originate with their advertisers.
With as much on line shopping as we do now, shoplifting would most logically be decreasing. There are fewer people actually in stores today than in prior years.
COVID lockdown trained us to order on-line and the habit continues.
This is a really good point.
What in the name of gods green earth is fitting room visibility? If it’s what it sounds like how is it legal?
Not to mention the drive for more and longer incarcerations at privately funded prisons, a pet profit center for our oligarchs. It's no wonder that they are salivating at the prospect of vast holding areas or concentration camps provided by, of course, private contractors and builders, for the millions of deportees to be arrested next year.
This is the future - instead of data, we'll base policy on 'what senior executives think.'
A report written for the NRF by an NRF contractor/benefactor that confirms NRF's position. Must be true.