Shoplifting less common in Finland than in most other countries

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The international economic crisis has led to an increase in loss of merchandise from retail stores.
      Finland is something of an exception in this respect, with retail shrinkage at 1.3 per cent of sales, whereas it is 1.43 per cent on the global scale.
      The overall increase in the “shrink average” has increased by nearly six per cent, which is about EUR 84 billion on the global scale, according to an international study by Checkpoint Systems, which supplies retailers with security systems. The figure means annual additional costs of EUR 152 for each household in the world.
     
Suffering most were retailers in North America, where the increase in the shrink average was more than eight per cent in a year. The net effect is losses of 46 billion dollars.
      The study shows that increasing amounts of food, clothing, and medicines disappeared from stores. Checkpoint attributes more than a third of shoplifting offences to the effects of the recession.
     
In Finland, Vesa Saarinen, the managing director of the Finnish operations of Checkpoint, says that shrinkage has hardly grown at all.
      “Large chains have set up many new shops, but they have not skimped on theft prevention and security equipment”, Saarinen says.
      Although shoplifting in Finland is below the European average, Saarinen says that theft nevertheless remains a big problem.
      “Costs of theft are paid by ordinary, honest consumers”, Saarinen points out.
     
The most common targets of theft are designer clothes, tools, and expensive foods, such as prime cuts of meat.
      Also prone to disappearance are cosmetics, as well as video and music games.
      Petri Käyhkö, head of security at the Kesko chain, says that professional shoplifters and shoplifting in organised groups are increasingly common.
     
Finland's figure of 1.31% puts it just below the European average of 1.33% of sales.
      Turkey, the Czech Republic and Hungary head the table, while in Austria and Switzerland losses through theft and breakages are only around 1% of sales.
      In-store thefts by shoplifters generally account for about half of the shrinkage losses, with the remainder coming from pricing errors, suppliers, and shop staff.
      In the Americas shop assistants are actually responsible for more thefts than customers, and in North America they account for 44% of the total losess, with the shoplifters trailing behind on 36%.
      The situation is reversed in Asia and Europe.


Links:
  Checkpoint International press release: Global Retail Theft Barometer Study Finds Retail Theft Reaches $115 Billion Worldwide

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