If you're like me, then you've noticed that many of your favorite businesses have lately been changing things around — checkout procedures, security, the overall shopping experience — for reasons that aren't always immediately clear.

I'd say this makes it clear enough:

Losses from retail crime ticked up in 2022, causing many retailers across the country to change the way they do business, according to a survey released on Tuesday by the National Retail Federation. …

The annual survey by the trade group collected insights from 177 retail brands across 28 different retail sectors — including apparel, jewelry, grocery, and department stores — and accounted for more than 97,000 retail locations and $1.6 trillion in annual retail sales.

Shrink — a measurement of lost inventory — for total retail sales in 2022 reached $112.1 billion, up from $93.9 billion in losses in 2021, according to the survey.

From about $94 billion to over $112 billion — a jump of 21%, give or take.

That's big. Very big.

This will also explain in part why prices are going up. Retailers have to recoup their losses, whatever they may be — and many of their losses are simply walking out the front door on a daily basis.

And the parameters of the problem are getting worse, too: Retailers on the survey said that shoplifters are "somewhat more or much more aggressive and violent compared with one year ago." They're getting bolder and they're getting meaner too. It's unsurprising.

Unsurprisingly, Democrat-run cities have been hit the hardest by organized retail crime: Los Angeles, Oakland, San Francisco, Houston, and New York City all rank at the top. Criminals will go where the crime is easiest.

As one leader put it, retailers are witnessing "unprecedented levels of theft coupled with rampant crime in their stores," and the situation "is only becoming more dire."

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