Shop theft $350M p.a.

Press, 13 September 1988, Page 6

Shop theft $350M p.a.

PA Wellington Shoplifting, already costing the retail industry at least $350 million a year, was on the increase, said a spokesman for New Zealand’s largest investigation and non-uniform security service yesterday.

Nationwide Investigation and Security Group’s senior executive, Mick Hubbard, said some retailers were going out of business because of shoplifting.

“One retailer we saw recently had stock ‘shrinkage’ of 17 per cent, about half of which was probably through shoplifting — that is a company that is going out of business very quickly,” he said.

Companies losing 5 per cent of stock through theft were not uncommon. He said his staff caught more than 120 people a month. Retailers expected about 2 per cent of stock to be lost to shoplifters but for many the problem was now more serious.

The increase could not be attributed to a single factor, but the rise in unemployment was one, he said. There was no easy way to stop shoplifting because the offenders did not fit any one pattern.

“In the last two years we’ve caught two nuns, a foreign diplomat, a bank manager, and many other seemingly unlikely candidates,” he said. Shoplifting gangs were a growing trend in the industry.