Canadian grocery retailers are losing over $9 billion annually — an estimated value of $2,000 a day per grocery store.This is according a new report by the Retail Council of Canada (RCC), which highlights losses from theft has nearly doubled compared to 2018."We have seen retailers closing retail locations across various markets in Canada where it is no longer sustainable to operate," the report states.RCC highlights Canada's grocery theft losses are similar to the US at first glance, but notes because Canada has fewer urban centres than the US, "it can be argued that retail crime is much more centralized in Canada to a few major markets.".The $2,000 estimate is cited by the Food Professor, Dr. Sylvain Charlebois, who runs a Agri-Food Analytics Lab at Dalhousie University, in a recent interview with LCN.The loss ends up being 1.5% of the $612 billion annual grocery sales in 2025. "The biggest problem is organized crime," stated Charlebois."Of course, we often hear about, not just in Quebec, but all over Canada, big thefts of hundreds of thousands of dollars. The accumulation of all these thefts makes it a real problem."The report highlights grocery products are the top items targeted by organized crime groups, commonly including meat, candy, and alcohol. Other reasons for the surge include rising food inflation and the arrival of self-service checkouts, as reported by TVA Nouvelles."."More and more, grocers no longer want to open stores in city centers, for example, where there is a lot of homelessness and drugs," Charlebois points out."That's why we're seeing more and more plainclothes security guards walking around stores, cameras, etc.""I expect we'll see more and more of it."It is ultimately the consumers who will be paying the price for these thefts at the grocery, Charlebois points out..He adds groups who embody a sort of Robin Hood archetype, stealing to redistribute groceries to food banks, are actually using a very ineffective technique."These may be groups that want to do well, but, in the end, everyone pays. It's better to let the banners manage their inventory and, if they have a surplus [...], it often [ends up] precisely at food banks," Charlebois explained.
