SHOPLIFTING IS costing Irish supermarkets an estimated €150 million a year and pushing prices up for consumers, a retailing conference has heard.
Globally, the retail industry loses an estimated $278 million each year – or 1.65 per cent of turnover – because of “shrinkage”, defined as internal and external theft and stock mismanagement, according to Adrian Beck, a criminologist at the University of Leicester.
Mr Beck said retailers tended to blame the problem on external theft, when this accounted for only one-third of the Irish shrinkage cost of €450 million. He was speaking at the annual conference of Efficient Consumer Response Ireland, an Ibec body composed of big retailers and food and drink manufacturers.
“Shrinkage is always being blamed on outsiders. In South Carolina, they blame girl gangs, the Finns blame the Russians, and the British blame east Europeans. But these are often urban myths and the roots of the problem lie in the business itself,” he said.
Stealing was “all about opportunity” and was best dealt with by prevention through better design, better staffing and better procedures. While surveillance of staff had a role to play in cutting losses through theft, too often businesses relied on electronic technology as a crutch, he said. A well-motivated staff was usually the best protection against theft.
It was important to impose sanctions on shoplifters, but retailers would never be able to catch every one and it was better to “design out” theft, Mr Beck said.
The quality of fresh food is now the biggest factor influencing where consumers shop, according to research presented to the conference. Consumers also perceived that the value of fresh food had improved the most of any food category in the past year, according to the research by Behaviour and Attitudes. Retailers which fall down on providing fresh food are “goosed”, said Ian McShane, managing director of Behaviour and Attitudes.
Over 42 per cent of shoppers said they planned to buy more Guaranteed Irish goods over the next year, and large numbers also said they would buy more fresh foods, and Fair Trade and low-fat products. More say they will be bringing sandwiches to work and entertaining at home.
One in four consumers said they shopped in Northern Ireland last year but the figures varied from 32 per cent in Dublin and 35 per cent in Connacht/Ulster to just 3 per cent in Munster. Toiletries, detergents and alcohol were the products people were most likely to buy on cross-Border shopping trips.
The research reveals the popularity of “buy one, get one free” with shoppers.
Mr McShane warned that until consumers could see security for their jobs and their families, their purse-strings would remain unloosened. From a situation where consumers didn’t know the price of anything they bought, value and price now was “everything”.
