Access Control
& Security Systems

Inventory shrinkage — a combination of employee theft, shoplifting, vendor fraud and administrative error — cost American retailers $32.3 billion in 2000.

According to a recent National Retail Security Survey, which analyzed theft incidents from 116 of the nation's largest retail chains, retailers lost 1.75 percent of total annual sales to these problems. That percentage is up from 1.69 percent in 1999.

Retail security managers attribute more than 46 percent of losses to theft by disgruntled workers. Shoplifting, by comparison, represented 31 percent of losses. The remainder is attributed to clerical error and theft by vendors.

Translated into dollars, employee theft costs retailers $14.9 billion annually.

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