• The National Association of Convenience Stores estimates that vendors account for between 15 and 20 percent of in-store shrink.
• Delivery shortages are common.
• Convenience Store News market research calculates the percent of sales lost as a result of shrink in 1997 was 2 percent for both traditional and oil retailer stores.
• Combining information, vendor theft costs traditional from $1,695 to $2,260 per store and oil retailers from $1,320 to $1,760 per store annually. Source: Convenience Store News
• The National Retail Merchants Association states that the growth of internal theft is on the rise and accounts for 60% to 70% of all loses.
• The Insurance Institute of America indicates that 65% to 75% of all merchandise loses come from inside stealing by employees.
• The Wall Street Journal stated "customer and guest pilferage is penny ante compared to what is being stolen by employees."
• According to the New York Times "most employers estimate that 72% of their shrinkage is employee related."
• An official from the S.B.A. (Small Business Association) indicates that "as high as 25% of all businesses that go down the tubes, do so as a result of employee theft."
• Your employees are 15 times more likely to steal from you than your customers.
• Otherwise honest employees stole $160 billion last year by wasting time on the job.
• Every day, businesses lose $70 million to theft.
• Employees steal, on average, $919 annually from employers.
• According to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, one out of five business closures are caused by employee theft.
• Loss prevention executives attribute 38.4 percent of their annual shrinkage losses to employee theft, according to the University of Florida's Security Research Survey.
• According to the U.S. Justice Department, internal theft costs American businesses more than $60 billion each year.
• On a per-person basis, dishonest employees steal approximately 8.6 times the amount stolen by shoplifters ($847.81 vs $98.56).*
• On a per-company basis, one in every 23.7 employees was apprehended for theft from their employer (based on over 2 million employees).*

Are you at risk?

• Do you neglect to check out your employees' references and job histories?
• Do you conduct inventories on an infrequent basis?
• Are the keys to your building easy to duplicate?
• Does your building have exterior windows and doors through which merchandise and equipment can be removed?
• Does a single person handle any sensitive job functions, such as purchasing, receiving and accounting?
• Do you trust some employees more than others?

General Protection

• Is there a possibility that equipment or products could be hidden for later retrieval by a thief?
  
• Screen all employees before hiring them - the best defense against internal theft is to hire honest people.
• Watch for warning signs. This may include employees who: seem to live beyond their means, often violate company policies, have a substance abuse problem, are chronic liars, seem immature or troubled, may have cause to feel wronged.
• Never have fewer than two people close up the building at night.
• Have all keys distributed to employees engraved with the words "Do not duplicate."
• If applicable, require sign-in and out of company equipment.
• Adopt a zero shortage policy (inventory, cash, etc.) and stress shortage control even if losses diminish.
• Limit pricing authority to a small group of employees.
• Use shipping and receiving reports that are numbered in sequence to prevent recording of fraudulent payment and the alteration or destruction of shipping orders.
• Prosecute thieves rather than settling for an apology.
  

*Statistics from Jack L. Hayes International, Inc.; with offices in Fruitland Park, Florida and Buenos Aires, Argentina, has been in the Loss Prevention/Security consulting business for 22 years, and is recognized on an international level as the foremost loss prevention/inventory shrinkage control consulting firm in the world. http://www.hayesinternational.com