Retail Group Retracts “Organized Shoplifting” Claim

The New York Times reports:

A national lobbying group has retracted its startling estimate that “organized retail crime” was responsible for nearly half the $94.5 billion in store merchandise that disappeared in 2021, a figure that helped amplify claims that the United States was experiencing a nationwide wave of shoplifting. The group, the National Retail Federation, edited that claim last week after the trade publication Retail Dive revealed that faulty data had been used to arrive at the inaccurate figure.

The claims have been fueled by widely shared videos of a few instances of brazen shoplifters, including images of masked groups smashing windows and grabbing high-end purses and cellphones. But the data show this impression of rampant criminality was a mirage. In fact, retail theft has been lower this year in most of the country than it was a few years ago, according to police data. In most major cities, shoplifting incidents have fallen 7 percent since 2019.

Read the full article. According to the data, “organized gang” shoplifting – a favorite topic on Fox News – represents about 5% of all stolen merchandise.

Retail Group Retracts Startling Claim About ‘Organized’ Shoplifting – The National Retail Federation had said that nearly half of the industry’s $94.5 billion in missing merchandise in 2021 was the result of organized theft. It was likely closer to 5 per… https://t.co/jNmJWh1PpZ

— Olav Mitchell Underdal (@omunderdal) December 8, 2023