US retailers face huge costs on theft: FT

LONDON -- A surge in the number of thefts has cost some retailers in the United States hundreds of millions of US dollars on extra security and surveillance, the Financial Times (FT) reported on Monday.

Retailers' concerns about shoplifting grew through the economic and social upheavals of the COVID-19 pandemic, the British newspaper said, citing data from the National Retail Federation.

More frequent, costlier, and more violent incidents this year had triggered a huge increase in spending to try to secure companies' merchandise and employees, Read Hayes, a criminologist at the University of Florida, was quoted as saying.

A survey found that 56 percent of retail workers felt unsafe, the newspaper added.