Big Lots workers urged to treat shrink as a shared business problem

Shrink is a measurement, not a crime report

Shrink is not a real-time alarm, and that matters for Big Lots workers trying to understand what is actually going wrong in a store. The National Retail Federation defines shrink as inventory loss measured as a percentage of sales during a specific inventory period, which makes it a trailing indicator, not a live theft detector. That means the number can capture a mix of problems at once, including theft, receipt errors, miscounts, damaged goods, process failures, and poor inventory planning.

That broader definition is the right lens for a chain like Big Lots, where the pressure on stores is not just about security. A store can lose inventory because freight was received incorrectly, because counts were off, because an item was damaged before it reached the sales floor, or because a return was handled badly. If teams treat shrink as only a shoplifting issue, they miss the operational failures that quietly drain margin day after day.

The biggest loss points usually start before a thief ever enters the building

At store level, the most expensive shrink problems often begin in routine work: receiving, stocking, recovering, and reconciling product. A missing case count in the back room can turn into a phantom on-hand balance, which then creates bad replenishment decisions and empty pegs on the floor. Damaged goods matter too, especially when breakage, handling mistakes, or poor storage turn sellable product into markdowns or write-offs.

Returns are another pressure point. NRF’s newer security guidance connects return fraud, online fraud, organized retail crime, and enterprise risk, which reflects how much shrink now travels across channels instead of staying inside one store aisle. For Big Lots, that means the problem is not solved by cameras alone. Accurate receiving, careful return processing, clean recordkeeping, and attention from customer-service teams all play a role in stopping losses before they spread.

What store teams can control

• Count product carefully at receiving and after replenishment, not just when inventory is high-stakes.
• Reconcile damages quickly so broken or unsellable goods do not disappear into bad records.
• Watch return patterns for abuse, especially when items cycle back too often or in suspicious condition.
• Keep on-hand data clean so replenishment decisions reflect reality, not guesswork.
• Treat empty spots, mislabeled items, and mis-scanned merchandise as shrink risks, not minor annoyances.

Those tasks may sound basic, but in a high-pressure store they are often the difference between a manageable loss rate and a compounding one. The shared lesson from NRF’s framing is simple: shrink is as much about accuracy and discipline as it is about security.

Big Lots enters this problem from a weak financial position

The stakes are especially high because Big Lots has been operating under severe financial strain. In its fiscal 2024 filing, the company said it operated 1,392 stores and an e-commerce platform as of February 3, 2024, showing the scale of the business that had to be kept accurate. In its May 4, 2024 Form 10-Q, the company said its net losses and cash use in 2022, 2023, and the first quarter of 2024 raised substantial doubt about its ability to continue as a going concern.

That language matters to workers because it shows shrink is not a side issue when a retailer is fighting to preserve cash. Big Lots reported fiscal 2023 net sales of about $4.7 billion, down 13.6% from fiscal 2022, and a net loss of nearly $482 million. In a business already dealing with declining sales and heavy losses, every missed count, every damaged pallet that is not tracked correctly, and every fraudulent return can hit much harder than it would at a healthier chain.

Closures, Chapter 11, and the operational squeeze

The company’s restructuring history adds another layer of urgency. Big Lots first planned to close 35 to 40 stores in 2024, then expanded that plan to as many as 315 stores, and later listed 344 closures across 41 states in September 2024. The company filed voluntary Chapter 11 petitions on September 9, 2024, with Kroll Restructuring Administration handling case background tied to the proceedings in Delaware.

For store teams, that kind of contraction changes the day-to-day meaning of shrink. Fewer stores, tighter payroll, and more uncertainty can weaken execution just when accuracy matters most. Inventory must move through the system cleanly, because every mistake in a shrinking footprint carries more weight, and every store that is still open has to protect what it can sell.

Why the theft conversation keeps coming back, but still misses part of the story

NRF’s 2024 theft and violence work helps explain why the industry keeps talking about shrink, but it also shows why the conversation cannot stop at theft alone. The survey, conducted online among senior loss prevention and security executives between June 10 and July 12, was later summarized as showing a 93% increase in shoplifting incidents since 2019 and a 90% rise in dollar losses. Those numbers capture the pressure retail security leaders feel, but they do not erase the operational causes that sit beside crime.

That is where Big Lots workers have the most practical leverage. Cameras can document behavior, but they do not fix a receiving error, a bad count, or a damaged item that was never written off correctly. A store that wants to reduce shrink has to ask a harder question than “Was this stolen?” It has to ask where the process failed, who owns the fix, and how quickly the next mistake can be prevented.

Shrink works best as a shared business problem

The best loss prevention strategy is cross-functional. Store teams, supply-chain teams, and leadership all have a role, because shrink can be created in the dock, on the sales floor, at the register, or in the returns process. NRF’s newer framing is useful here because it treats digital and physical threats as connected, which is how Big Lots employees should think about the problem too.

For workers, the day-to-day takeaway is straightforward: shrink is not just a security department problem, and it is not solved only by confrontation. It is a business problem that shows up in accuracy, process discipline, and customer-service execution. At a company that has been fighting losses, store closures, and going-concern pressure all at once, the most valuable defense is a store that knows exactly what it has, what it lost, and why.