NO. CAN YOU READ?
Under lock and key? Does it actually say that in your article? Did you actually read the article you linked?
What does the data say?
Some of the data pointing to a rise in theft has been contested,
with critics questioning if retailers are mistakenly
blaming too great a share of their losses on organized crime.
A 2022 report from the NRF found $94.5 billion in losses in 2021 because of shrink, up from $90.8 billion in 2020.
But the average shrink rate actually dropped from 1.6% to 1.4%, according to their findings, meaning the dollar figure spike could be attributed to higher prices because of inflation rather than a spike in shrink or theft.
Johnston told USA TODAY that while NRF believes 37% of 2021’s shrink loss was
related to external theft, those estimates are “not scientific.”
Cohen of Columbia Business School said that while anecdotal evidence suggests theft is on the rise and he has no reason to doubt the issue is as serious as companies suggest, he described accounting for theft as “somewhat of an ambiguous determination.”
We're in a period of inflation, and there's tremendous pressure on P&L (profit and loss) coming out of two and a half years of chaos and COVID, and a lot of companies are using theft as a reason why their performance is less than what they had hoped it would be,” he said. “Whether they're using it as an excuse, or as a valid reason, it's difficult to know.”
At least one retailer has already walked back its concerns over theft. After blaming a rise of theft for
a number of store closures, Walgreens CFO James Kehoe in January said the company may have “cried too much last year” over shrink and has since stabilized its shrink figures.
During the company’s latest earnings call in June, executives said they planned to close an additional 150 U.S. stores “to further simplify the business.” Executives made no mention of shrink or theft during the call.
Smash and grab is certainly a thing and a trend. But the idea that it has more to do with increased prices than Covid and the resulting supply chain issues and inflation demonstrates you watch too many videos and apparently have a problem grasping the immense size of our economy outside of these types of robberies