Are we finally leaving the boy who cried retail theft behind us?

Ah, the boy who cried retail theft—where is he now?

When 2023 came to a close, industry experts had a similar vision for the future of retail theft conversations. The name of the game? Retail theft solutions.

“For the whole of 2023, you’ve been banging on about theft,” Neil Saunders, retail analyst and managing director of research agency GlobalData, told CFO Brew back in December. “When it comes into 2024…if you’re falling below your profit forecast, [and] you’re saying, ‘Well, it’s because of theft,’ I think investors will say, ‘Well, yeah, but this has been on the radar for a long time. You should have accounted for this.”

Looking at recent earnings calls, this prediction seems to have largely played out—at least in the sense that fewer retailers are crying retail theft. Direct mentions of retail theft were scant in the last quarter, particularly compared to May and June last year, when “more than a dozen retailers” cited retail theft as the culprit behind trimmed profit outlooks and lower margins, CNBC reported.

Retailers that directly mentioned retail theft, organized retail crime, or shrink rates at the end of 2023 often did so in the context of solutions. For instance, when Lowe’s CEO Marvin Ellison was asked about the company’s approach to shrink in the company’s latest earnings call, he noted that “one of the first things that we did is we invested in technology early on to address shrink.”

“Before it became what I call a retail phenomenon of organized retail crime, we were focused on this five years ago of putting in the most sophisticated technology in retail across all of our stores,” Ellison continued, adding that the company was “incredibly pleased” with the results.

Some companies, like Kroger, did point fingers at the boogeyman, but they were quick to shout out efforts taken to improve the situation as well.

“Shrink was a headwind to gross margin during the quarter, primarily due to the continued rise in industry-wide theft and organized retail crime,” Kroger CFO Gary Millerchip said in the company’s latest earnings call, which took place in November. “We are investing in initiatives to mitigate shrink and protect our associates and customers in our stores.”

This year, Millerchip expects shrink to remain a headwind “because of the crime and organized retail crime factors I mentioned earlier,” but noted “it’s probably somewhat less dramatic for us than maybe some of our peer group because while we have a general merchandise business that’s impacted, it’s less impacted than probably some of the big-box retailers.”

And still, solutions won out, with Millerchip stressing “it’s still something that we have to work through and continue to offset.”