Theft worrying Canadian retailers as busy holiday shopping season begins

As shoppers clog malls and storefronts in search of holiday deals, some retailers in Canada are on edge.

Incidents of theft continue to climb, leaving those on the frontlines scared and sometimes hurt.

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Rui Rodrigues, the executive advisor for loss prevention and risk management with the Retail Council of Canada (RCC), tells 1130 NewsRadio the council’s most recent figures are quite sobering.

“We released a retail crime report for 2024 — that would be information collected from the previous year. So, when we look at total losses for Canada, based on the respondents from the survey, we see losses now being reported at $9.1 billion, versus the last time we did a survey similar to it, which would have been 2018 and at that point, the cumulative loss was $5 billion. You can see the losses have almost doubled,” Rodrigues explained.

He points out that the survey was conducted by speaking to nearly 20,000 retailers across the country.

“Thefts have grown, of course, but businesses that are tracking it are reporting to us the number of incidents where violence is involved is now 300 per cent what it used to be.”

Rodrigues says that means theft that involves assault or theft with a weapon.

“That brings forward a much greater safety concern for employees, customers, and security officers working in the retail environment.”

He says theft isn’t just targeting high-end stores, it’s anything criminals can get their hands on.

“It’s across the board. Certainly, the locations that are bigger — so your bigger boxed items and/or the retailers that have mass merchandise, like Walmart and others, who may have grocery, pharma, apparel all under one roof is obviously more attractive to a group of individuals because they can go in and get a greater volume of theft and they have a lot more they can accomplish in a short period of time.”

He says there are no businesses that are immune from theft and violence.

“In our major urban centres, we certainly see a greater degree of marginalized individuals, people dealing with mental health, drug addictions, homelessness, and we see a greater proportion of those individuals stealing. And if they’re already under the influence of drugs, they may already be more prone to violence. But it’s also important to note that what we see is organized criminals are now preying upon those individuals.”

Rodrigues is calling for judges to put chronic offenders away, adding they’re abusing the justice system and treating it like a revolving door.

“Retail theft, previously, would be treated as a low-level property crime and would be typically dismissed. Whereas now, by collaborating, the retailer, police are able to demonstrate the total criminality of an individual, like a repeat offender, so when it’s brought to the prosecutor, they’re not just seeing a theft under $5,000 and pleading that down or dismissing the individual… and prosecutors, because they’re more involved… can look at better guidelines from a sentencing perspective.”

Even then, he says Canada would still have a lot of work to do.

He says retailers are frustrated as chronic offenders will often continue to commit crimes while waiting for a court date.

“They’ve become so brazen that they understand there are no consequences to their actions, and that’s something that absolutely needs to change.”

Rodrigues says some retailers are taking matters into their own hands by bringing in security guards, beefing up entrances and exits to stores, and adding turnstiles to prevent theft.

“Having good evidence so when [theft] does happen, they can supply that to police so they can actually get an idea of the individual — which is very helpful.”

He says shoppers see more security guards in stores and malls at this time of year, as people prepare for the holidays.

“It’s supply and demand. As traffic goes up, security goes up too.”

However, he adds it’s not sustainable year-round, when malls aren’t as busy, and keeping a heavy security presence can be costly. One way to sidestep those extra costs is with targeted enforcement using police.

It’s unclear why, but while many people face a cost-of-living crisis, the most recent figures from Statistics Canada show a rise in shoplifting under $5,000.

“Police reported 182,361 incidents of shoplifting of $5,000 or under (442 incidents per 100,000 population) in 2024, up 14 per cent from 2023,” Satistics Canada said.

“The rate of shoplifting has increased for four years in a row and was up 66 per cent during the period from 2014 to 2024.”