As household costs continue to spiral out of control for many Australian households, the flow-on effects are having a huge impact on the country’s retail giants and their stability within the commercial property sector.
Rising costs of groceries, electricity prices and many other staples are putting pressure on families, resulting in rising instances of shoplifting and assault against retail staff.
In response, major retailers and supermarkets are launching security countermeasures that come with issues of their own.
The privacy commissioner has hauled up both Bunnings and Kmart in the last year over their use of facial recognition technology in-store.
“The sensitive information of every customer who entered a relevant store was indiscriminately collected by the FRT system,” privacy commissioner Carly Kind said in regards to Kmart using facial recognition for the two years to July 2022, which did not have consent to do.
Similarly, Bunnings breached guidelines when facial recognition technology was found to be used across 62 of its stores.
But when it comes to the uptick in retail crime, Victoria seems to be getting hit the hardest.
Recent data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed Victoria's retail crime levels were up a record-breaking 20%.
“Today’s figures are grim and confirm Victoria’s retail crime crisis is only getting worse…While this reported data is alarming, the sad reality is it underestimates the true figure, as so much retail crime still goes unreported," said Australian Retail Association CEO Chris Rodwell.
"The toll this is having on our retail workers is unacceptable."
And the impact trickles down.
Fred Harrison, chief executive of Ritchies IGA, said that this increased crime level is pushing some businesses to shut their doors.
“People are making decisions to exit the business because there’s that much theft that it is impacting their bottom line,” Mr Harrison said in an interview with the ABC recently.
“You can’t expect retailers to remain trading and lose money. Is it all-round more profitable, safer, if we just close and walk away?”
