Conclusions

Abstract

Retailers make their stores and online websites welcoming to shoppers, accessible and easy to use. These are filled with desirable merchandise, which, if it is worth buying, is certainly worth stealing. Retail consumers and retail employees have virtually unrestricted access to retail assets. By mimicking the actions of a legitimate customer or an honest employee they may be able to obtain goods (and in the case of employees, cash and other means of payment) for their own purposes or resale. Although retail crime issues are often related to the modern sins of consumerism and self-service, concerns about the major impacts of shoplifting and employee retail fraud go back at least to the seventeenth century.