Shoplifting in supermarkets is rapidly increasing and is worth over 4 billion, in practice 107 euros for each citizen. Numbers that push chains to strengthen checks on cashiers and employees. The most looted foods? Tuna, alcohol, coffee, cheese and cured meats
It may seem curious but for those who want to do “free” shopping there is nothing better than waiting for winter and especially the Christmas period. Winter clothing is the ideal “paraphernalia” of the more or less occasional thief of department stores and supermarkets. Coats, scarves and heavy jackets offer ideal shelters for hiding goods – even bulky ones – without attracting attention. Added to this is the chaos of holiday shopping. Between last-minute gifts and larger-than-usual expenses, staff control is difficult and fragmented.
The analysis of Crime Trends in Retail & Large-scale distribution in the winter and Christmas period conducted by Blindzone, a startup that applies artificial intelligence technologies to the security of sales points, reveals that, in the weeks preceding the holidays, thefts in supermarkets grow on average by 40 percent, with an increase of 20 percent over the entire winter quarter.
But this is only the peak of a growing trend that characterizes the sector despite modern technologies making sophisticated contrast tools available. Large-scale retail trade is under stress to the point that it has recently used “extreme” and, according to the unions, “questionable” methods to target workers who are not careful enough to track down petty thieves.
It happened at the Pam supermarket chain where three employees were fired for failing to pass the so-called “cart test” or “fake customer” test. The workers were sent away because they did not detect the theft of some products during a test carried out by company inspectors. These, pretending to be normal customers, deliberately hid small products inside other packages in the cart to check if the cashier noticed the theft attempt or the mistake. If the employee did not identify the hidden goods, disciplinary action was triggered which, in these cases, led to dismissal for just cause.
The first case was recorded in Siena: the employee was apparently unable to identify some small items hidden among crates of beer and was fired for this reason. The unions reacted strongly, calling the company inspectors’ methods “an ambush” and a pretext to remove unwanted employees and replace them with younger, less expensive staff.
The Pam group didn’t invent anything. The “fake customer” method is a mechanism adopted especially in commerce and catering to improve the quality of service, but often also for disciplinary evaluations. On the other hand, the fight against the phenomenon of theft is becoming an increasingly felt necessity as shoplifting is growing alarmingly.
The 2024 edition of the Retail Theft Barometer in Italy, promoted by Checkpoint Systems Italia in collaboration with NielsenIQ, a world-leading company in consumer intelligence, reveals that shrinkage (i.e. products that left the point of sale but which were not paid for) was on average equal to 1.2 percent of annual revenues. Translated, it means losses worth over 4 billion euros (4.12 billion to be exact) and a cost per citizen of 107 euros.
The study highlights that 53 percent, or more than half of the losses, are caused by theft: a growing phenomenon, compared to 2023, perceived by 84 percent of the companies interviewed. Other types of losses include 21 percent internal theft by employees, 15 percent supplier errors and 11 percent administrative errors.
Food is the hardest hit and accounts for about 45 percent of shoplifting losses. As for the places where thefts occur, the sales area – Checkpoint System research tells us – remains the main theater, followed by the checkouts. Self-checkout systems are at greater risk of shoplifting than assisted checkouts. Today 79 percent of companies declare they have self-service checkouts and, to deal with the related critical issues, 32 percent have allocated specific resources to prevent theft.
«New technologies such as automatic checkouts, which are based on total trust in the customer, have streamlined payment procedures on the one hand and have also played a part in the increase in thefts. Other causes must be remembered, such as the economic crisis and therefore the loss of purchasing power, inflation. To combat the phenomenon, in addition to the RF antennas placed at the entrances, which emit an alarm when unpaid goods pass through, adopted by 83 percent of the companies interviewed, RFID technology continues to spread. They are intelligent labels, which used as EAS (anti-shoplifting) make numerous data accessible such as the type of stolen goods and the time. This allows the company to identify the products and moments of the day most at risk” Davide Raduazzo, commercial director of Checkpoint Systems Italia, explains to Panorama. According to him «the various brands deal with theft even with the presence of guards. In general, however, there is a lack of sanctions capable of combating the phenomenon.” Raduazzo also explains that shoplifting is usually “the work of regular customers”.
And we come to the profile – or rather the profiles – of shoplifters, excluding those who steal because they don’t have the means to put together a meal. The analysis highlights that 53 percent of thefts are the work of individuals, active episodically, while the remaining 47 percent can be traced back to organized groups. 54 percent of the episodes are attributed to subjects already known for previous infringements, compared to 46 percent of occasional perpetrators. From a demographic point of view, two out of three companies report that 68 percent of managers are aged between 18 and 50, while minors and those over 50 are 16 percent. On an economic level, in 40 percent of cases the estimated amount is between 41 and 80 euros, while for the remaining 60 percent these are episodes of more variable size, distributed between values lower than 40 euros and over 80 euros.
Thieves spare no department. From food to technology, from small to large amounts. In food & beverage, the most stolen items are tuna and alcohol (+90 percent compared to 2023), coffee (+60 percent), cheeses (+40 percent), followed by cured meats (+40 percent). The beauty sector is no exception, where the most “requested” products are face and body care products, followed by razor blades, deodorants, oral hygiene products and make-up.
The scenario remains complex and also involves the safety of staff in stores. In both external and internal employee thefts, 84 percent of chains report a significant increase in verbal or physical attacks on employees who appear to have guns drawn. At the same time, 68 percent of brands recognize the need to train staff to prevent and manage such incidents. Yet in the face of this emergency, there is difficulty in finding the figures dedicated to safety. Even in this sector, a secure salary fails to convince job seekers.
