When shoplifting turns organised: Retail’s $9b battle with crime

The petty shoplifter slipping items under a jacket has given way to a far more confronting reality for retailers.From small businesses to supermarket moguls across Australia, recent findings reveal that a new era of calculated, coordinated and potentially violent organised theft is mounting.This shift is reshaping how supermarkets, department stores and fashion chains operate. It is also forcing crucial conversations about the future of shopping centres, customer safety and even the safety and viability of frontline retail work.Body cameras in the aislesFor Woolworths and Coles, the crime wave has become impossible to ignore. Woolworths has now fitted staff in more than 350 stores with body cameras and earpieces, most of them in Victoria, after locking down stores 45 times in the first half of 2025. According to the Australian Financial Review, Coles has reported 40 per cent more retail crime incidents in Victoria compared with NSW, and is training thousands of staff to de-escalate situations that can turn volatile within seconds.“Acts of violence against team members, some connected to theft, are increasing, both the number of incidents and the severity,” Woolworths director of stores Jeanette Fenske told the AFR.Melbourne retailers are facing a surge in violent youth crime, with Master Grocers Australia director Lincoln Wymer warning store owners are “at breaking point” after a rise in thefts, smash-and-grab raids, and machete-wielding hold-ups.“The government needs to improve bail laws, increase sentencing and bring in mandatory jail time for knife crime and assaults on retail workers,” he told The Australian last week.A systemic problem at RebelThe problem is not confined to grocers. Sporting goods retailer Rebel, a part of Super Retail Group, took a financial hit from a surge in what chief executive Anthony Heraghty bluntly described as stock loss on a new scale.Rebel “did experience a significant step-up in stock loss activity during the period, which negatively impacted gross margins and offset top-line performance at a profit-before-tax level,” Heraghty told investors in Super Retail Group’s earnings call last week. Heraghty was quick to reiterate that the issue wasn’t about isolated incidents of shoplifting, rather, coordinated efforts “with entire racks of merchandise being stolen and resold on secondary marketplaces.”Counting the costAccording to crime reporting platform Auror, retail crime now costs the economy an estimated $9 billion annually. The Australian Retailers Association (ARA) and National Retail Association (NRA) say 800,000 incidents were reported nationally in the past year alone, with more than half involving an assault or weapon. Seventy per cent of retailers report increased customer theft.Chris Rodwell, CEO of the Australian Retailers Association, has called on all states to support “improved information sharing, increased focus on the human impact of retail crime, and greater adoption of smart technology.”“A nationally consistent response to implement the measures recommended by the [Retail Crime] Symposium would send a clear message to offenders: their actions will not be tolerated, and consequences will follow,” Rodwell said. SA’s operation measureIn May, the ARA and NRA pointed to South Australia as proof that change is possible. The state has recorded five consecutive months of falling shop theft and a 10 per cent drop in overall theft offences following the expansion of “operation measure”, a police taskforce dedicated to retail crime.“The South Australian Government has consistently led the country with its response program to retail crime, and we are now seeing sustained results from these actions,” Rodwell said. “We have also seen strong progress in New South Wales due to their changes to retail crime legislation.”Still, Rodwell cautioned that broader action is overdue. “Retail crime is a scourge on our community and business wellbeing, and unfortunately, it is not going away on its own. We are keen to see leadership from the Federal Government to address this issue from a national perspective and call on governments in Victoria, Queensland and the ACT to move forward with their own legislation in this area,” he reinforced. The future of shoppingFor many retailers, the problem is not just the theft but the atmosphere it creates in stores. Accent Group CEO Daniel Agostinelli recently warned that violent incidents risk driving families and young workers away from suburban shopping centres.“We need the authorities to do something about this, not just because of theft but bad vibes in shopping centres,” he told the AFR.Criminologist Professor Michael Townsley said the rise in retail theft is best understood as a mix of opportunism and organisation, rather than a new phenomenon. “In Australia we really don’t have a great deal of empirical evidence around what organised retail crime looks like,” he said. What is clear, however, is the role of inside knowledge and loopholes. “A lot of groups will have someone in the close circle get a job, either in a retailer or with a courier, and all of a sudden that group will start targeting that business because they’ve got inside information.”Townsley also cautioned that online retail presents a new vulnerability. “The major difference might be the online environment. Because [organised criminals] don’t have to go to a store. They can defraud many businesses. I would think that’s probably the main factor that’s different today compared to 10 years ago,” he said. “Geography is no barrier for the online space.”Looking ahead, Townsley said prevention strategies are just as important as enforcement. “I think this is where there’s a massive opportunity for training,” he said. “In person training is surely going to be more effective.”From body cams in supermarkets to training in de-escalation, Australian retailers are investing millions to protect staff and customers. Yet the scale of the challenge suggests it will take more than just storefront measures.With the ARA’s Retail Crime Symposium set to bring together retailers, police and government, the industry’s message is clear that isolated strategies are no longer enough. What began as shoplifting has morphed into organised crime, and retail’s $9 billion loss is now firmly in the thick of it.