For a host of reasons, numbers on retail shrink and theft are slippery. While the NRF offers the best analysis available, its calculations and conclusions carry hefty caveats, according to Trevor Wagener, director of the research center and chief economist at the Computer & Communications Industry Association, who studies these issues.
“The NRF, I believe, provides the best data that we have in the industry, but it’s recognized in the industry that there are data shortcomings here,” he said by phone.
