GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- A newly released survey examining retail losses due to shoplifting and employee theft puts annual supermarket shrink at 1.79% of total retail sales, up from 1.5% in the prior year.
1.95% of total sales, or $20 billion.
The 38 participating supermarket companies represented the single-largest retail group polled, 11.3%. Supermarkets said employee theft accounted for about 42% of total shrink; shoplifting, 33.4%; administrative error, 13.5%, and vendor fraud, 11%.
The report was conducted by the University of Florida here and funded by Sensormatic Electronics, Deerfield Beach, Fla., a supplier of electronic security systems.
