Retail corporations refer to the massive economic loss from shoplifting, employee theft, and administrative errors as shrinkage, a harmless-sounding term that actually costs the…

A closer look

Retail corporations refer to the massive economic loss from shoplifting, employee theft, and administrative errors as shrinkage, a harmless-sounding term that actually costs the global economy tens of billions of dollars every single year. Major big-box stores factor these massive financial losses directly into their operating budgets and subsequently raise the retail prices of everyday goods, meaning honest consumers are functionally subsidizing the criminal activities of local thieves. The entire retail sector is basically operating a massive involuntary charity campaign where you pay an extra fifty cents for toothpaste just to cover the cost of some teenager stuffing premium electronics down his baggy pants. Retailers will dramatically lock up inexpensive sticks of deodorant behind impenetrable glass shields, yet still somehow lose a billion dollars annually because their own underpaid managers are quietly stealing inventory out the back door. The economy is basically just a chaotic honor system that is desperately failing on a microscopic level every single day