ORC & Theft Surges to $379B Globally
Retail Inventory Crisis Persists Despite $172 Billion in Improvements - IHL Group Study shows $1.73t in lost sales
The global retail industry continues to hemorrhage $1.73 trillion annually due to inventory distortion (the cost of out-of-stocks and overstocks), according to new research from analyst firm IHL Group, despite implementing $172 billion in improvements over the past year. The study reveals a widening performance gap between retailers embracing AI-driven inventory management and those clinging to traditional approaches.

The comprehensive analysis of worldwide retail operations shows inventory distortion now represents 6.5% of global retail sales, down from previous years but still equivalent to South Korea's entire GDP – a truly staggering amount.

"We're witnessing a fundamental transformation in how successful retailers manage inventory," said Greg Buzek, President of IHL Group. "The data shows a clear bifurcation emerging: retailers deploying AI and machine learning are achieving sales growth 2.3 times higher and profit growth 2.5 times higher than competitors. It's becoming an existential issue – evolve or get left behind."

The Theft Crisis Compounds Technology Challenges

Organized retail crime and theft jumped to $379 billion globally. While showing improvements with more stringent prosecution in 2025 in the US, the research shows that despite technological advances, ground-truth accuracy remains compromised by shrinkage at store, warehouse, and supply chain levels.

Specialty hardgoods retailers face the highest overall inventory distortion costs, while food and grocery segments demonstrated exceptional improvement performance with a 43.5% improvement rate – the strongest across all analyzed segments.

The study identifies supply chain disruption as the largest single contributor to global inventory distortion, accounting for $301 billion in annual losses. Geographic chokepoints including the Suez Canal and Panama Canal continue creating cascading effects, while tariff uncertainties force retailers into complex inventory positioning strategies. fox4kc.com


Most Americans Support In-Store Body Cams to Fight Retail Crime
To Stop Shoplifters & Violence, More Retailers Deploy Body Cams
As prices on consumer goods continue to rise, shoplifting has been increasing right alongside them. To protect their bottom line, retailers are fighting back with a bold new tactic — one that might make some shoppers uneasy.

Stores like Walmart, Target, and TJ Maxx are outfitting employees with body-worn cameras in an effort to reduce theft, prevent violence, and protect workers. It’s a move that’s sparked debate across the country — but according to new research, most Americans aren’t nearly as worried about privacy as they used to be.

Body cameras have long been associated with law enforcement. But now, you might spot one on a cashier, store greeter, or loss prevention officer at your local grocery store. Walmart, Dollar General, and Kroger are among the growing number of retailers testing or rolling out bodycams for employees — especially in locations hit hard by theft or safety incidents.

At Walmart stores in Florida and Texas, body-worn cameras are now being used at select checkout counters. TJ Maxx and Marshalls are also deploying them among their loss prevention teams. Even convenience stores like 7-Eleven — often open late or around the clock — have joined the trend in high-crime areas.

The goal? Protect employees, de-escalate tense situations, and discourage shoplifters before they act. Most Americans are surprisingly okay with this kind of surveillance — especially if it means safer stores.

A new survey commissioned by tech firm Halos found that more than 70% of U.S. adults are either comfortable with, or indifferent to, the presence of body-worn cameras outside of law enforcement. Even more striking: 62% of people believe bodycams help deter bad behavior like theft or verbal abuse. And 44% said they’d think twice about their own actions if they knew store staff were wearing one. thebullamarillo.com

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Are Anti-Theft Receipt Checks Legal?
More CA retailers want shoppers to show their receipts at exits, but is it legal?
The rise of receipt checks at several retail stores throughout California has sparked new conversations about the legality of the anti-theft measure. While places like Costco and Sam’s Club have a reputation for checking shoppers’ receipts upon exit, it’s becoming more common for other California retailers to enforce receipt checks at the door.

Most recently, Ross Dress for Less, a discount retail store, rolled out a new policy to stop customers on their way out for a receipt check. Several locations throughout Northern California have signs plastered near entrances and exits that read, “We Check Receipts.”

While the measure reportedly curbs theft and increases accuracy during transactions, some customers find it to be inconvenient. Other customers don’t take issue with showing a receipt when they leave a store.

Walmart also has asset protection employees near exits to verify purchases on receipts before shoppers leave the building. But what if customers don’t stop?

It’s legal for stores to create receipt-checking policies. However, according to California Penal Code 490.5, also known as Shopkeeper’s Privilege, most customers in California are not legally required to show their receipt before leaving a store.

The law requires store employees to have probable cause to legally detain a customer. If a retailer doesn’t have good reason to suspect a case of shoplifting, they cannot force anyone to stop and show a receipt.

The exception to the rule are membership stores such as Costco and Sam’s Club. At membership stores, customers consent to receipts checks as a term and condition for their membership. While not stopping for a receipt check is not a criminal offense, it is grounds for a membership cancellation. fox40.com


Canada's Retail Theft Surge
'Significant' increase in retail thefts triggers crime safety blitz

Between 2023 and 2024, Waterloo Region experienced a 36 per cent increase in retail thefts, with 4,276 incidents reported

The Waterloo Regional Police Service (WRPS) is launching a retail crime safety blitz this month to address a rise in significant retail thefts across Waterloo region.

As part of this initiative, officers will conduct targeted enforcement in identified problem areas, with locations determined by crime analysis and community needs. A range of policing strategies will be used to prevent and deter retail theft, including organized retail crime.

Between 2023 and 2024, Waterloo region experienced a 36 per cent increase in retail thefts, with 4,276 incidents reported. These thefts not only drive up costs for consumers but also affect feelings of community safety. cambridgetoday.ca


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Walmart Faces Backlash As It Expands
As Walmart Opens New Stores, Can it Quiet Remaining Public Displeasure?
As Walmart aggressively began expansion in years past, oftentimes displacing existing local grocers or mom-and-pop retailers in doing so, a groundswell of criticism often made news headlines as residents expressed concerns over the retail giant entering their communities. The 2005 documentary “Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price” earned two thumbs up from movie critics Richard Roeper and Roger Ebert, as well as endorsements from labor groups, and the discourse surrounding the blue-and-yellow brand was one of controversy when it came to the company’s public image.

Things have changed substantially in the interim, as Modern Retail’s Mitchell Parton detailed in an exhaustive report — although not entirely. As Walmart plans to open new Supercenters and Neighborhood Markets after a brief pause between 2021 and 2023, it faces some degree of familiar pushback from communities slated to play host to new locations.

“While in some cases, the retailer has flown through easily, elsewhere it has encountered opposition from some community members. For example, in Ankeny, Iowa, residents have been speaking out this year against a Walmart store proposed near their homes at the end of 2024, NBC affiliate WHO 13 Des Moines reported. Residents complained about increased traffic on main and side roads, increased noise and light pollution. In June, the planning commission of Edmond, Oklahoma, denied plans for a 44,000-square-foot Walmart Neighborhood Market grocery store — nearly 100 residents had attended a public meeting to voice concerns,” Parton wrote.

“Still, a Walmart spokesperson told Modern Retail its three newest stores that opened over the last few months in Cypress, Texas; Tuscaloosa, Alabama; and Eagle Mountain, Utah have been celebrated by their respective communities and have attracted crowds of people,” he added.  retailwire.com


Holiday Spending Dragged Down by Gen Z
Gen Z pullback could send holiday sales down 5%: PwC

Older generations are cutting back a bit or even spending more, but these younger consumers’ budgets are down nearly a quarter, the firm found.

Gen Z consumers this year plan to cut their holiday spending by nearly a quarter. This is a stark contrast to last year, when their average spend rose 37% from 2023, according to PwC’s holiday outlook.

Older generations are at least maintaining their plans, more or less. Millennials plan to spend about 1% less on average, while Gen X shoppers plan to spend 2% more and baby boomers plan to spend 5% more.

Gen Z’s pullback is set to drag overall holiday spending down 5%, the first drop since 2020, per the report. This differs from Deloitte’s expectation for holiday sales to rise up to 3.4%. retaildive.com


Dollar Tree Hiring Thousands of New Employees
Dollar Tree to host National Hiring Week event at its stores
A leading discount retailer is seeking thousands of new workers.

Dollar Tree Inc. will host a National Hiring Week taking place Sept. 14-20, where it plans to hire thousands of associates across more than 9,000 stores nationwide. Open positions include a variety of part-time and full-time roles, including store managers, assistant store managers, and customer service associates.

Dollar Tree is touting its “competitive pay, flexible schedules and quality benefits” for potential hires, including medical, dental and vision coverage, an employee stock purchase plan, ValuED education assistance, and DailyPay, which allows associates to get paid between traditional paydays. chainstoreage.com


The International Supply Chain Protection Organization Welcomes System Loco to Advance Global Supply Chain Security and Visibility

With technology trusted by 80% of security IoT providers, System Loco combats the cargo theft epidemic and protects global supply chains.

Dallas, TX (September 9, 2025) – The International Supply Chain Protection Organization (ISCPO) is proud to announce System Loco as its newest partner. System Loco delivers NIST-certified IoT devices and edge-intelligent data solutions that help supply chain professionals not only monitor shipments, but also predict, prevent, and protect against risks before they materialize. iscpo.org


The International Supply Chain Protection Organization Welcomes Birdseye Security Solutions as Preferred Partner

ISCPO Welcomes Birdseye Security Solutions To Enhance Supply Chain Security at the Gate

Dallas, TX (Sept. 09, 2025) – The International Supply Chain Protection Organization (ISCPO) is proud to announce Birdseye Security Solutions as its newest preferred partner. Birdseye Security Solutions delivers a modern, remote-first approach to securing and operationalizing logistics, warehouse, and industrial facilities. By combining AI-powered cameras, professionally trained live agents, and intelligent software platforms, Birdseye transforms gate operations into data-driven security hubs. iscpo.org


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Retail Leans Into Collaboration to Fight Cybercrime
How the retail sector teams up to defend against cybercrime

The cyberthreat intel-sharing and collaboration group RH-ISAC is helping companies confront cyberattacks. But the challenge is delivering timely intelligence in a dynamic threat environment.

When devious young hackers penetrated the computer networks of major U.S. retailers and suppliers earlier this year, it was a significant test of the quiet cybersecurity collaboration happening among some of America’s best-known brands and their much more obscure partners.

Amid increasingly worrisome attacks on life- and safety-critical sectors like energy, water and healthcare, cyber threats facing the retail and hospitality sector often get significantly less attention. But the retail industry is the country’s largest private-sector employer, making its resilience vital to the U.S. economy. And over the years, the Retail and Hospitality Information Sharing and Analysis Center (RH-ISAC) has played an increasing role in protecting retailers of all sizes, from household names to obscure supply-chain linchpins.

The recent retail hacks, which experts have attributed to the cybercrime group Scattered Spider, demonstrated how companies have come together to defend themselves and one another, Pam Lindemoen, RH-ISAC’s chief security officer and vice president of strategy, told Cybersecurity Dive.

“The retail sector has leaned into collaboration, sharing intelligence, best practices and response strategies,” Lindemoen said.

The breaches linked to Scattered Spider — a notorious and sprawling gang largely made up of American and British teenagers and young adults — hit several retail giants in May and June, including Victoria’s Secret, the Whole Foods distributor United Natural Foods and the department-store chain Belk. As other retailers took note of the intrusions and tried to avoid becoming the hackers’ next victim, RH-ISAC stepped up to support industry-wide security efforts.

“We played a key role in coordinating responses to the threat,” Lindemoen said.

Promoting layered cyber defenses is a major part of the mission of RH-ISAC, which was founded in 2014 in the wake of a wave of cyberattacks on retailers such as Target. (When it launched, it had roughly 30 members; it now has more than 290 “core members,” including hotels, restaurants, retailers and consumer-goods manufacturers). The group facilitates conversations among members about the threat activity they’re seeing, but Lindemoen said it does more than just help companies exchange indicators of compromise. cybersecuritydive.com


How Websites Capture Your Data
When typing becomes tracking: Study reveals widespread silent keystroke interception
You type your email address into a website form but never hit submit. Hours later, a marketing email shows up in your inbox. According to new research, that is not a coincidence.

A team of researchers from UC Davis, Maastricht University, and other institutions has found that many websites collect keystrokes as users type, sometimes before a form is ever submitted. The study explores how third-party scripts capture and share this information in ways that may fit the legal definition of wiretapping under California law.

The researchers built a custom web crawler and tested 15,000 websites from across the internet. They discovered that 91 percent of sites used event listeners in some way. While most were used for basic functions like tracking page loads or clicks, a significant portion were used to monitor typing.

In total, 38.5 percent of websites had third-party scripts installed that could intercept keystrokes. On 3.18 percent of sites, those intercepted keystrokes were also sent to a remote server. That behavior, the researchers note, matches the technical definition of wiretapping under CIPA.

The data captured included email addresses, phone numbers, and free text typed into forms. In some cases, email addresses entered into a form were later used for unsolicited marketing emails, even though the user never submitted the form. helpnetsecurity.com


Bold Steps Needed to Fight Cyber Adversaries
National cyber director says US must shift risk burden toward adversaries

In his first major address after confirmation, Sean Cairncross said the U.S. needs to take bold, coordinated steps to counter authoritarian rivals.

National Cyber Director Sean Cairncross said the Trump administration plans a whole-of-nation approach in order to combat the threat of malicious cyberattacks from the U.S.’s top geopolitical rivals.

Cairncross delivered the opening keynote at the Billington Cybersecurity Summit, saying the administration will push forward an aggressive new posture to counter the risks presented by authoritarian regimes like China.

He said American digital networks have been under assault by threat actors that are using espionage, intellectual property theft, ransomware, political influence campaigns and prepositioning malware on our critical infrastructure. cybersecuritydive.com
 

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