Everyone’s had the experience of walking into a local pharmacy or convenience store and having to ask for a product behind a locked case. Now, with retail thefts on the rise, that locked case may be getting a lot more sophisticated.

In 2021, retailers slowly started seeing the return of customers through their doors after the pandemic pushed them largely online. One unintended consequence of this was a major uptick in shoplifting, which some retailers are now responding to with new technological solutions.

• Retailers, on average, saw a 26.5% increase in organized retail crime incidents nationally in 2021 from the prior year, according to an NRF survey.
• NRF also found that the average shrink rate in 2021 was 1.4%. As a percentage of total retail sales in 2021, that shrink represented $94.5 billion in losses, up from $90.8 billion in 2020.
• As Retail Brew previously reported, Target CEO Brian Cornell said in a November earnings call that in 2022, the company had $400 million of inventory shrink, which also encompasses items breaking and administrative errors. However, he blamed this number on “a significant increase in theft and organized retail crime across our business.”

While some companies like Target and Walmart have closed stores because of shoplifting, others are meeting the problem head-on by integrating technology-based preventative measures. But while tech across the board—from license-plate recognition systems and perimeter surveillance to facial recognition and multi-sensor parking lot surveillance towers/units—slowly becomes more commonplace in stores, in some instances, it’s also raising concerns regarding consumer privacy.

“I would assume that at the top of every retailer’s mind is a positive customer experience…that is safe, that is secure, and that is as unobtrusive as possible and easy for the consumer,” David Johnston, vice president of asset protection and retail operations at NRF, told us. “But if there are no preventative methods being used, it allows the thieves to walk right in and take what they want.”

Keep reading here.—KM

For two years, Natural Products Expo West, like most trade shows, was sidelined due to Covid-19, forcing retailers to change the way they discovered new brands, and brands to find new ways to pitch them. But when the Anaheim Convention Center’s doors re-opened in 2022, industry members flooded back, and this year, attendance continued to grow.

According to some retail buyers we chatted with at the show, however, it’s not exactly the same as it was, so some are thinking about trade shows like these a bit differently, and even trying new approaches to reflect the changing utility of the event.

Drive to thrive: James Ren, director of merchandising for branded food at Thrive Market, told us walking the show’s aisles to see what catches his eye, rather than taking meeting after meeting, would be a “dream scenario.”

The show might be evolving in that direction, as the pandemic made the food and beverage industry as a whole less “formal,” Ren noted. Before, securing just a 30-minute meeting with a buyer was often a monthslong process that often included a flight to wherever the retailer was based. Now, they can simply meet over Zoom.

“In the past, trade shows were this one opportunity for brands to connect with buyers that they’ve been trying to chase after for a long time,” Ren said. “The trade show now has more become a space for discovery.”

Amid databases, email pitches, and of course, Instagram, Ren said trade shows remain the “most fun” and “human” way to find new brands.

Keep reading here.—EC

Today’s top retail reads.

Rock around the Croc: Inside the chokehold that an “aesthetically questionable” shoe has managed to maintain on us, even post-pandemic. (the New York Times)

Raising resale: RealReal CEO John Koryl said his plan to reach profitability next year involves “tweaking” the existing company strategy, including by pushing larger purchases and monetizing data. (Business of Fashion)

Ask Dall-E: How generative AI (algorithms that can be used to create new content, like images or text) will change the fashion industry. (Glossy)

What happened in the world of retail this week in…1976 and beyond? Retail Brew takes you way, way, way back.

• On March 26, 1996, David Packard, who co-founded the Hewlett-Packard company in a garage with a $538 loan, died. He was 83 years old.
• On April 1, 1996, Taco Bell pulled off the April Fool’s joke of the year by taking out ads in major newspapers announcing the chain was purchasing the Liberty Bell and renaming it the “Taco Liberty Bell.”
• On April 1, 1976, Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne founded Apple Computer Inc.

Catch up on the Retail Brew stories you may have missed.

• Two Albertsons execs share their trade show strategy
• What we learned at Kering’s sustainability panel
• The Holy Grail: delivery french fries that don’t arrive soggy