In the latest Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research data coming out of New South Wales, retail theft increased 23.7% year-on-year.
This is a vital area of focus and advocacy for our members and the ARA has been a strong voice in media in recent weeks highlighting the impact of this activity on our retail teams and customers. It’s also important to be mindful these numbers are cycling off a low base from the previous year when pandemic restrictions were in effect.
The ARA continues its work with our Retail Crime Advisory Committee which focuses on collaborations between retailers, government and police.
We are also pleased to launch the newly created Retail Crime Resource Hub to our community. This features tips and advice to prevent and respond to common types of retail crimes. You can view it here.
The ABS this week released statistics about January household spending showing an increase in eight of the nine spending categories.
We are keen to receive your feedback in our ARA Members surveys – particularly our survey on the rising cost of doing business. With rising operating costs associated with fuel, energy, labour, supply chains, rent and loans – we anticipate this will be an area of challenge moving forward.
The ARA has long been a supporter of achieving a single, strong and unified voice to represent the retail community. Although the AAFD has a strong history of more than 45 years in advocating on behalf of their members at the state and federal levels the new members will benefit from the powerful national resources of the industry’s largest and most established retail body to take its representation to the next level.
