Widespread theft costing Canada's retail industry dearly: experts
CTV
The Retail Council of Canada wants to put a stop to widespread theft within the retail industry, and industry leaders are meeting this week to find solutions.
The Retail Council of Canada wants to put a stop to widespread theft within the retail industry.
“Retail crime contributed about $5 billion in losses across Canada,” Retail Council of Canada Loss Prevention and Risk Manager Rui Rodrigues said in an interview with CTV National News. Rodrigues said those numbers are from pre-pandemic, and likely higher now.
Retail industry leaders are meeting this week to find solutions to minimize theft.
“Theft amounts to roughly 1.8 per cent of all retail revenues in the country.”
Stealing from retail stores in Canada has gone on for a long time, in a variety of ways, but Rodrigues said the problem is worse now than it has ever been.
“General shoplifting happens quite often and group theft is a growing problem,” he said, as he described the practice of large numbers of thieves blitzing stores and leaving with large amounts of stolen merchandise. “They are literally filling shopping carts and bags full of merchandise.”
Rodrigues said organized crime is a growing concern, with items stolen before they even get to stores.
