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>Now the outspoken lawyer has fresh ammunition for his effort to repeal the law: The National Retail Federation earlier this month retracted its April assertion

>Now the outspoken lawyer has fresh ammunition for his effort to repeal the law: The National Retail Federation earlier this month retracted its April assertion that nearly half of the $94.5 billion in merchandise that went missing in 2021 was stolen by retail rings. The true percentage was only a small fraction of that amount, about 5%. It's still an _absolutely insane_ amount.

fbdab103 3y ago
Given the dubiousness of their original number, I am taking all of that with a grain of salt. This page[0] lists the 2022 shrinkage for a few companies, and said Target was at $753M. Target is a huge national brand. Are there really ~100x more companies of Target's size experiencing equal shrinkage annually? How does the math work to get to $95B? [0] https://www.cnbc.com/2023/09/08/this-is-how-much-money-retailers-are-losing-to-shrink-retail-theft.html https://www.cnbc.com/2023/09/08/this-is-how-much-money-retai...
- stickfigure 3y ago
  You underestimate the sheer number of small retail stores. Every town, no matter how small, has many.
microtherion 3y ago
The $5B must be viewed in the context of roughly $5T in revenue: https://nrf.com/research-insights/state-retail https://nrf.com/research-insights/state-retail So we're talking .1% of retail revenue. Not that I'm fond of thieves, let alone organized ones, but it does not seem an existential threat to me at this level. As a comparison, eliminating cashiers in favor of automated checkout solutions is estimated to a loss of about 1% of revenue: https://www.winsightgrocerybusiness.com/technology/self-checkout-registers-arent-going-anywhere-neither-are-their-critics https://www.winsightgrocerybusiness.com/technology/self-chec...
- deelowe 3y ago
  Many companies are removing self checkout because of this so I'm not sure that's a great example.
  - toomuchtodo 3y ago
    Still a great outcome if that’s the case.
  - somesortofthing 3y ago
    I'm not sure I've ever seen a self checkout removed, even in downtown Seattle locations where everything's been locked up and security is patrolling every floor. I've seen increased surveillance and scare tactics at self checkouts but I think costco is just about the only major store left that hasn't pushed people into using almost exclusively self checkout.
    - deelowe 3y ago
      It's recent. Walmart is removing them in my area.
- Jiro 3y ago
  That sounds like it's reporting gross revenue. Claiming that the $5B is unimportant because it's a small percentage of revenue, when it's actually gross revenue, is misleading.
pessimizer 3y ago
Really? $4.7B is $14.11 per capita. Fourteen dollars and eleven cents.
deleted 3y ago
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fbdab103 3y ago

Given the dubiousness of their original number, I am taking all of that with a grain of salt. This page[0] lists the 2022 shrinkage for a few companies, and said Target was at $753M. Target is a huge national brand. Are there really ~100x more companies of Target's size experiencing equal shrinkage annually? How does the math work to get to $95B? [0] https://www.cnbc.com/2023/09/08/this-is-how-much-money-retailers-are-losing-to-shrink-retail-theft.html https://www.cnbc.com/2023/09/08/this-is-how-much-money-retai...

stickfigure 3y ago
You underestimate the sheer number of small retail stores. Every town, no matter how small, has many.

microtherion 3y ago

The $5B must be viewed in the context of roughly $5T in revenue: https://nrf.com/research-insights/state-retail https://nrf.com/research-insights/state-retail So we're talking .1% of retail revenue. Not that I'm fond of thieves, let alone organized ones, but it does not seem an existential threat to me at this level. As a comparison, eliminating cashiers in favor of automated checkout solutions is estimated to a loss of about 1% of revenue: https://www.winsightgrocerybusiness.com/technology/self-checkout-registers-arent-going-anywhere-neither-are-their-critics https://www.winsightgrocerybusiness.com/technology/self-chec...

deelowe 3y ago
Many companies are removing self checkout because of this so I'm not sure that's a great example.
- toomuchtodo 3y ago
  Still a great outcome if that’s the case.
- somesortofthing 3y ago
  I'm not sure I've ever seen a self checkout removed, even in downtown Seattle locations where everything's been locked up and security is patrolling every floor. I've seen increased surveillance and scare tactics at self checkouts but I think costco is just about the only major store left that hasn't pushed people into using almost exclusively self checkout.
  - deelowe 3y ago
    It's recent. Walmart is removing them in my area.
Jiro 3y ago
That sounds like it's reporting gross revenue. Claiming that the $5B is unimportant because it's a small percentage of revenue, when it's actually gross revenue, is misleading.

pessimizer 3y ago

Really? $4.7B is $14.11 per capita. Fourteen dollars and eleven cents.

deleted 3y ago

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