Experts said theft is a big problem for retailers, especially for grocery stores, which have high foot traffic. A 2020 survey by the National Retail Federation found that theft — which the industry calls “shrink” — was at an all-time high, costing the industry $61.7 billion in fiscal year 2019, or 1.62% of retailers’ profits. A whole niche industry around battling retail theft, through cameras, locked display cases and undercover security guards has sprung up.

Albertsons Companies, Inc. had a net income for 2019 of $466 million, Krogers was $1.66 billion. Fuck them.

I don't know if this is just bad wording or a deliberately misleading statistic, but "what the industry calls 'shrink'" is actually lost inventory in general. Only like 40% of that comes from theft; stores lose a lot more from expired product getting thrown out the back door due to bad inventory/ordering and poor stock rotation than they do from good product sneaking out the front door under someone's coat.

The biggest thing I remember from working for a major retail chain in their L.P. department in the 90's, was that most of the theft in retail stores is done by their own employees. And, as much as most major retail employers fuck their employees over time and time again, can't really say I sympathize with the stores one little bit...