The scale of the problem
This is not a small-business-only issue, and it is not shrinking. According to the Retail Council of Canada, total losses from theft and shrinkage in Canada reached $9.1 billion in 2024, nearly double the $5 billion recorded in 2018. Shrink now sits at about 1.5% of total retail sales in Canada, putting Canadian retailers.
The Retail Council’s most recent report on retail crime paints a picture that goes beyond dollar figures. A large majority of retailers, over three-quarters, reported an increase in violence connected to theft incidents. Many retailers are responding by rethinking store layouts, increasing security budgets, and in some cases limiting product availability or pulling out of high-crime areas altogether. At the same time, fewer than half of retailers feel confident that theft incidents get meaningfully followed up on once reported to police, and Crown prosecutors frequently decline to pursue charges even with evidence in hand.
That combination, rising losses paired with inconsistent enforcement outside the store, means the responsibility for prevention increasingly sits with the retailer, not with the system around them.
Why back-to-school specifically
Higher-volume seasons compound existing vulnerabilities in a few specific ways. More stock sits on shelves at once, meaning more total value exposed on any given day. More staff, often seasonal or newly hired specifically for the back-to-school rush, are working the floor without the instincts a longtime employee develops over time. And higher customer traffic means more distraction, more crowded aisles, and more opportunities for a five-second window to go unnoticed.
A gap in coverage that costs a business very little in a slow month in June can cost significantly more in a peak week in late August, simply because there’s more moving through the store to lose.
Practical prep before the season hits
A seasonal loss prevention check doesn’t need to be a full operational overhaul. It’s about closing the obvious, predictable gaps before volume goes up:
- Confirm every entry, exit, and stockroom camera is working and positioned correctly. Cameras that were fine in a quieter layout can suddenly have a blind spot once a seasonal display or new shelving unit goes up.
- Review who has access to high-value areas, and make sure seasonal staff are added to, and eventually removed from, your access control system properly.
- Walk the floor for blind spots created by new back-to-school displays, end caps, or promotional signage that might be blocking a camera’s line of sight.
- Make sure your monitoring provider knows about extended or adjusted hours. If you’re opening earlier or staying open later during peak weeks, your alarm schedule needs to reflect that.
- Brief seasonal staff on the basics. A five-minute conversation about what to watch for and who to flag concerns to goes a long way.
Where AI monitoring helps
This is not just about cameras recording footage for someone to review later, after the loss has already happened. AI-powered monitoring, reviewed by a real person, means unusual activity gets flagged and acted on while it’s happening, not discovered the next morning buried in a loss report three weeks later.
This is not security, it is business risk reduction. AI monitors constantly. Our people respond decisively. Your exposure is minimized. For a retailer heading into the busiest stretch of the year, that’s the actual difference between catching a problem in real time and finding out about it after the damage is already done.
A quick pre-season walkthrough with your Security ONE consultant, before the back-to-school rush hits full swing, is one of the lowest-effort, highest-value things a retailer can do this month.