Fortress stores: keeping the most at-risk stores trading – KEY FACTS

• Self-checkout drives 23% of losses, with usage surging toward 100%.
• Violent retail incidents doubled during COVID and remain high.
• Just 10% of offenders account for two-thirds of retail crime losses.
• One store saw 56 fire-exit pushouts in a single day.

Self-checkout: A growing share of loss, and rising fast

Self-checkout is now responsible for up to 23% of unknown store losses, and almost half of those losses (48%) are malicious.

One retailer now sees 65% of all transactions completed at SCO, with a stated ambition to reach 100%.

As SCO volumes surge, so does exposure to loss. Retailers overwhelmingly report that the problem is getting worse, not better.

Violence in retail doubled during COVID and remains high

In the Netherlands, violent and aggressive incidents rose from 15–20,000 per year before the pandemic to around 50,000 incidents in 2020, more than doubling.

Another retailer reported a 50% rise in threats of violence during COVID, with a further 50% increase again in 2022.

The post-pandemic environment remains significantly more hostile than the one retailers were operating in just a few years ago.

Organised retail crime: 10% of offenders cause 66% of losses

One retailer reported that a small group of offenders (just 10%) was responsible for 66% of all ORC-related losses.

This extreme concentration highlights why retailers increasingly focus on repeat offenders, hotspot stores and targeted interventions rather than broad, store-wide measures.

Fire-exit pushouts show the scale of day-to-day pressure

In one US store, there were 56 fire-exit pushouts in a single day and 153 across one week, a vivid example of the relentless operational pressure faced by frontline teams.

Incidents like these erode staff confidence, increase shrink, and reinforce the urgent need for fortified store design and better prevention strategies.

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