After looking through a few links I don't have as good data as was in my retail training in 2004 or so, but https://www.businessinsider.com/stop-blaming-theft-shrink-ta... talks about them being fairly comparable, and that retail mismanagement is within 10% or so of the problems due to theft.

Overall my point is just that the retail theft story is blown way out of proportion, and many media and political outfits benefit from concern around crime.

It probably differs by stores and locations, right? I can imagine one city having a huge problem and another having barely any issues.

I dont understand how that supports the conclusion that it is out of proportion. It can be simultaneously true that mismanagement is a meaningful budget impact, and theft is a meaningful budget impact.

I think the more interesting questions are if the rates of theft are changing. IF it has gone 10x in 10 years, that might be noteworthy, no? If theft rates are concentrated in 10% of locations, that might be noteworthy too.

My national retail supermarket has profit margin of about 1% of sales (ticker ACI). If mismanagement was always 1%, and now theft goes up to 1%, the company will go bankrupt.