Items lost to shrink

In financial accounting the term inventory shrinkage (sometimes truncated to shrink) is the loss of products between point of manufacture or purchase from supplier and point of sale. Sometimes shrinkage may be as high as 15% to 20% of total volume,^{[citation needed]} having a major negative effect on profits. The average shrink percentage in the retail industry is about 2% of sales.^{[citation needed]} Image File history File linksMetadata Retail_shrink. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Retail_shrink. ... Manufacturing, a branch of industry which accounts for about one-quarter of the worlds economic activity, is the application of tools and a processing medium to the transformation of raw materials into finished goods for sale. ... Profit, from Latin meaning to make progress, is defined in two different ways. ...

Shrinkage is for a large part due to theft or some other crime,^{[citation needed]} and the prevention of this type of shrinkage is one reason for security guards and cameras. Also, some shrinkage is due to damage in transit, shipping errors, or misplaced goods. When dealing with perishable goods, such as produce, natural spoilage becomes a source of shrink. Everyday instance of theft: the bike which fits on this wheel has disappeared. ... A security guard or security officer is usually a privately and formally employed person who is paid to protect property, and/or assets, and/or people. ... This article is in need of attention; please see the talk page. ...

The four major sources of inventory shrinkage in the retail industry are:

1. Employee theft
2. Shoplifting
3. Administrative errors (e.g. warehouse discrepancies)
4. Vendor fraud

In the United States, the National Retail Security Survey is published annually as part of the Security Research Project at the University of Florida. The Security Research Project endeavors to study various elements of workplace related crime and deviance with a special emphasis on the retail industry. This article or section is not written in the formal tone expected of an encyclopedia article. ... The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public land-grant research university located in Gainesville, Florida. ...

See also

• Loss prevention