© Reuters. File photo: People walk past a Woolworths supermarket following the easing of restrictions put in place to curb the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Sydney, Australia, June 16, 2020. Photo taken on June 16, 2020. REUTERS/Loren Elliott/File P
Byron Kay
SYDNEY (Reuters) – Australia has reached record levels of retail store thefts, according to government figures, with grocers Woolworths Group kohls group (OTC:) Corporations already struggling with skyrocketing supply costs and cargo jams.
New South Wales, home to one-third of Australians, saw a 23.7% increase in store thefts from 2021 to 2022, according to state government figures.
Queensland, Australia’s third largest state, had its highest monthly theft rate on record in January this year, according to publicly available police data. Neither state’s data has identified the retailer that reported the theft.
The data highlights concerns raised by analysts and social researchers that rising costs of living – from grocery shelf prices to electricity bills to mortgages – fuel crime. This could affect the profits of Woolworths and Coles, which together account for his two-thirds of Australian grocery sales.
“If unemployment rises and economic conditions tighten, that risk will increase further,” said Craig Woolford, retail analyst at MST Marquee.
“Supermarkets operate with very thin profit margins. Small changes in inventory losses are enough to affect profitability,” he added. In supermarkets, the loss of items due to theft, expiration, or payment errors is called inventory loss.
Woolworths and Coles declined to comment. Kohl’s chief operating officer Matt Swindells said in a Feb. 22 earnings call with analysts that the company was experiencing a “high level of theft” and had increased staff training and technology to combat it. said he was investing in
Australia’s unemployment rate rose to its highest level since May in January after raising interest rates nine times to curb inflation and is now near 8%.
Roger Wilkins, deputy director of the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economics and Society, part of the University of Melbourne, said: “High inflation and rising interest rates are likely candidates to explain the rise in retail theft.