Editorial correction — September 20, 2026. The earlier story treated survey percentages as national incident growth and claimed the same offenders moved into fraud. We retain the dated respondent findings without implying a national census or a proven causal substitution.
What the retailer study reports
The National Retail Federation’s July 30, 2026 release describes a retailer survey conducted with the Loss Prevention Research Council. Respondents reported an average 12.4% decline in shoplifting incidents and an 8.1% decline in merchandise theft incidents between 2024 and 2025, alongside concerns about other fraud and external-theft methods.
These are findings from participating retailers, not a census of all U.S. crime. Survey percentages describing businesses’ experiences should not be restated as national percentage increases in offenses. The report also does not track every individual offender from shoplifting into a different crime.
Several things can change at once
A store can experience fewer stolen products and more attempted account fraud during the same year. That does not establish that the decline caused the increase or that one completely replaced the other. Changes in reporting, business practices, exposure and security can affect what a company observes.
This distinction protects the practical value of the findings. Treating every form of theft as a single interchangeable total can obscure which response a worker or customer actually needs.
Whose safety gets counted?
My moral concern includes the person behind the counter. A loss-prevention policy should not quietly transfer risk to an employee expected to confront a dangerous situation. Customer inconvenience, worker safety and financial loss deserve separate consideration rather than being folded into a slogan about getting tough.
At the same time, a business should explain how it verifies allegations and corrects errors. A system that protects merchandise while treating innocent customers unfairly has created another accountability problem.
Questions for a useful local review
Ask which offense category changed, whether the comparison covers the same stores and period, and whether the measure is incidents, dollars or the share of retailers reporting an increase. Then ask what the proposed response is expected to improve and how that outcome will be checked.
The survey raises legitimate concerns. Its value is strongest when its scope is stated accurately and its findings lead to a specific response, not an unsupported claim that all crime simply moved out of sight.