Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Thefts in retail stores highest in India

HYDERABAD: India topped the list of world’s retail shrinkage (theft in retail stores) with 3.10 per cent, an increase of 6.9 per cent over last year. It was 2.90 per cent last year.

The second annual Global Retail Theft Barometer 2008 survey, which covered 920 large retailers across 36 countries, revealed that India is followed by Mexico Thailand, South Africa and Malaysia.

The survey was prepared by Centre for Retail Research and was funded by Checkpoint Systems Inc. Country manager of Checkpoint Systems India Pvt Ltd Dharmesh J. Lamba, in a release here on Wednesday, said that most retailers did not consider shrinkage as a major concern, but it affected their profits directly.

For instance, if a jacket costing Rs. 2,000 is stolen from a store, the shopkeeper will have to sell 10 jackets to cover his costs estimating his net margin is at 10 per cent of the cost of the product.

The total shrinkage in India in 2008 is put at US $ 2.543 billion. While theft by customers contributed 44.7 per cent of shrinkage losses, employee theft took a share of 23.7 per cent and 8.4 per cent by suppliers/vendors. The remaining 23.2 per cent was due to administrative errors.

Theft of stock was put at 27.8 per cent, while theft of cash, gift coupons and vouchers contributed 32 per cent. Highest average shrinkage was noticed in apparel/clothing, fashion/accessories, followed by vehicles/auto parts/ building material; and cosmetics/perfumes/beauty/pharmacy.

The lowest rates were found in footwear/sports goods/ jewellery/watches.

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