Retailers in New Zealand are facing an increasing level of organised and violent crime, a recent study has found.
The results of a new study conducted by Retail NZ and the University of Otago revealed retail crime was not only increasing but also becoming more organised and more violent.
University of Otago department of marketing senior lecturer Dr John Guthrie said this was concerning. Almost 40% of retailers had noticed changes in the type of retail crime over the past 12 months and were seeing more "brazen" criminals than in previous years.
The first New Zealand Survey of Retail Theft and Security was run in 1996 and then repeated in 1999 and 2003.
Theft committed by employees had also increased by 6% since the last survey.
According to this year’s survey, employee theft accounted for 18% of losses in comparison to the 12% losses recorded in the last survey 14 years ago.
Dr Guthrie said the total cost of crime was far greater than the $1.1billion reported.
"Our research shows that retailers are spending around $514million a year on crime prevention."
"However, the research also shows that money spent on preventive measures does pay off," Dr Guthrie said.
"It’s a good idea for retailers to review their security arrangements and do what they can to make it tough for the criminals."
Dr Guthrie said the survey was done on a national level and there was no breakdown for individual regions.
However, he said Dunedin would have been reasonably well represented in the results.
It became a lot more difficult for a retailer as there were a lot more people in their stores.
"It’s a challenge, especially when people are under pressure to buy Christmas gifts."
Retail NZ public affairs general manager Greg Harford encouraged more people to report retail crime to police.
Almost one third (31%) of retail crime goes unreported either because there was a perception police would not act or because it was time-consuming and difficult to do so.
Mr Harford said retail crime had a disproportionately high impact on small businesses and high street retailers.
Retailers were also more worried that criminals were more aggressive now than in the past.
A "sizeable number" of violent and aggressive incidents were reported every year as well as an increase in more sophisticated fraud incidents.
"This shows that retailers need to be more alert to a range of criminal activity, as well as taking steps to protect their employees and customers from the threat of violence," Mr Harford said.
Retail NZ called on the Government to manage retail crime and establish a dedicated retail crime reduction task force and bring in an infringement ticket-style offence for petty theft.
