As part of Retail Insider Reports, this Q3 2026 Security & Loss Prevention Report analyzes Q3 2026 developments in Canadian retail security and loss prevention. Drawing on Retail Insider coverage, industry research, government data, and broader market signals, it identifies key dynamics shaping employee safety, merchandise protection, fraud prevention, digital identity, and customer trust. These reports are designed to deliver executive-level insights across major retail sectors and can be accessed through the Retail Insider Report Hub.
This report examines retail loss prevention, physical security, cybersecurity, fraud prevention, shrink reduction, payments security, and retail risk management.
Report Contents
Executive Summary
Canadian retailers faced increasingly varied security risks during the third quarter, ranging from rising police-reported shoplifting and violence against frontline workers to repeated targeting of high-value merchandise, payment fraud and questions about digital identity.
Police reported 208,941 shoplifting incidents in Canada in 2025, according to Statistics Canada. The population-adjusted rate was 11% higher than a year earlier and 79% higher than in 2015. During Q3, police and retail organizations expanded coordinated responses to repeat and organized theft, while federal sentencing changes addressing retail crime came into force.
Individual retailers were also confronting more immediate operating questions. Pattison Food Group President Jamie Nelson publicly raised concerns about violence against grocery workers after a Save-On-Foods manager in Victoria was seriously assaulted. Jewellery stores and collectibles retailers were targeted in repeated thefts and robberies, illustrating the particular security challenges surrounding compact merchandise with high resale value.
Digital commerce presents a different set of risks involving identities, customer accounts, communications and payments. Fraud prevention can protect retailers and customers while also creating costs when legitimate transactions are incorrectly blocked. The appropriate security response increasingly depends on what is being protected, how the loss occurs and what the intervention costs the business.
Retail security extended well beyond conventional shoplifting during Q3 2026 as Canadian retailers confronted risks involving employees, merchandise, identities and transactions.
- Statistics Canada recorded 208,941 police-reported shoplifting incidents in 2025; the population-adjusted rate was up 11% from 2024 and 79% from 2015.
- Pattison Food Group raised concerns about aggression and violence faced by frontline grocery workers following serious incidents at company stores in British Columbia.
- Jewellery and trading-card retailers experienced repeated thefts and robberies, highlighting the exposure created by compact merchandise carrying substantial resale value.
- Toronto’s Organized Retail Crime Unit reported 546 arrests, 4,033 charges and more than $1.6 million in recovered merchandise since its creation, while Retail Council of Canada called for greater coordination around retail crime.
- Federal retail-theft sentencing provisions came into force July 15, although Q3 evidence does not establish whether the changes have affected crime levels.
- Fraud and identity risks are creating different security challenges online, where retailers must protect transactions without unnecessarily interfering with legitimate customers.
Retail Insider Coverage
Store Safety Becomes Part of Location Economics
Retail Insider’s August reporting from downtown Edmonton illustrated how security can become one component of a broader operating challenge. In an Edmonton Chamber of Commerce member survey cited in the article, 58% of respondents said they did not feel safe operating their businesses. Forty-four per cent reported spending at least $500 repairing damage associated with vandalism, break-ins or shoplifting, while 24% reported spending more than $2,500.
The findings describe participating businesses rather than a representative national measure of retail crime. They nevertheless demonstrate costs extending beyond stolen merchandise, including repairs, management attention and employee concerns. Security was also only one part of the operating environment. Businesses described parking constraints and simultaneous infrastructure projects, including prolonged light-rail construction, affecting customer access.
“No single decision brought us here,” GRETA co-founder Chris DeCock told Retail Insider. Security, access, construction and employee concerns can collectively affect staffing, operating hours, customer traffic and decisions about further investment. That context is important when crime is cited as a factor in the performance or closure of an individual retail location.
Retail Security Moves From Merchandise to Identity
Digital commerce creates a different security challenge: determining who or what has access to information and systems. Research from Thales published during the quarter found that 61% of surveyed retail IT and security professionals across 20 countries reported experiencing deepfake attacks, while 51% placed identity and access management among their top three priorities.
The research is an international supplier-sponsored study and does not establish the incidence of deepfake attacks among Canadian retailers. Only 37% of respondents said they knew where all of their data was stored, highlighting a more fundamental operating issue.
As retailers add digital and AI systems, they need visibility into where information resides, who or what can access it and whether permissions remain appropriate as systems change. The same questions increasingly apply to customer accounts, communications and transactions.
Fraud Costs Extend Beyond the Purchase
Retail Insider’s September reporting on merchant fraud examined costs beyond the face value of a fraudulent transaction. A LexisNexis estimate cited in the article put the merchant cost at $5.23 for every dollar of fraud loss across Canada and the United States. The combined geography matters, and the figure should not be presented as a separately measured Canadian ratio.
Payment providers are responding with additional authentication and tokenization. Konek’s reported proposition included bank-based authentication and a defined allocation of responsibility for eligible fraud losses, subject to the applicable product terms.
Fraud review, disputed transactions, customer support and the rejection of genuine purchases can all affect transaction economics. A control that misses fraud creates an obvious cost. A control that incorrectly blocks a genuine customer creates another. Retailers therefore need to evaluate fraud prevention alongside approval rates and the customer experience surrounding authentication and payment.
AI Shopping Introduces an Authorization Question
AI-assisted shopping adds another identity and payment consideration. A September Retail Insider article examining Worldpay’s perspective identified customer identity, authorization and liability as important questions for transactions initiated or assisted by an AI agent. The technology remains an emerging commerce model, and Q3 evidence does not establish autonomous shopping as a substantial share of Canadian retail activity.
An agent may be acting for a genuine customer, but the merchant still needs a reliable record of what was authorized, particularly when instructions change or a transaction is disputed. Existing fraud signals may remain useful, but new purchasing interfaces also require clear records of consent and responsibility. Faster transaction initiation does not eliminate the need to establish who authorized the purchase and what they agreed to buy.
Broader Industry Coverage
Police-Reported Shoplifting Continues to Rise
Statistics Canada’s annual police-reported crime data provide a national measure of one component of retail crime. Police reported 208,941 shoplifting incidents in Canada in 2025, equivalent to 502 incidents per 100,000 people. The rate increased 11% from 2024 and 79% from 2015, marking a fifth consecutive annual increase.
The trend differed from several broader property-crime measures. Overall police-reported property crime declined 4% in 2025, while breaking and entering fell 11% and motor-vehicle theft declined 16%. The definitions matter. Police-reported shoplifting is not a measure of all retail crime, nor does it capture every incident experienced by retailers.
Shoplifting should also remain distinct from merchandise shrink. Shrink can include administrative errors, damage and other inventory losses in addition to internal or external theft. A total shrink estimate therefore cannot be presented as the amount stolen from Canadian retailers.
Violence Raises the Stakes for Frontline Retail Workers
Pattison Food Group brought employee safety to the forefront late in the quarter after serious incidents involving its stores in British Columbia. President Jamie Nelson issued an open letter following the September assault of a Save-On-Foods manager in Victoria. Nelson said the manager lost consciousness, suffered a concussion and sustained significant injuries.
He also pointed to an earlier incident at the Nesters Market in Vancouver’s Woodward’s building, where a fire was deliberately set while employees and customers were inside. The fire caused more than $500,000 in damage and temporarily closed the grocery store. Nelson argued that frontline employees are increasingly encountering aggression and violence while performing routine retail work. The concern extends beyond merchandise loss when incidents expose cashiers, managers, security personnel and customers to physical harm.
Security can also become a substantial operating expense. Retailers can add guards, gates and other controls, but the cost and effectiveness of those measures vary by location and the incidents they are intended to prevent. For grocery retailers in particular, stores operate long hours, employ large frontline workforces and provide services that require extensive interaction with the public. Employee safety therefore becomes part of the economics of operating a location.
High-Value Merchandise Creates Different Theft Risks
Jewellery and collectible retailers faced another security problem during the quarter: substantial value concentrated in merchandise that can be carried away quickly and potentially resold. Jewellery stores in several Canadian markets were targeted through smash-and-grab robberies and other thefts during Q3. The pattern was particularly visible in Quebec. By late August, Montréal had recorded 32 jewellery-store thefts during 2026, already exceeding the annual total recorded in each of the previous five years.
Laval and other Greater Montréal communities also experienced repeated jewellery-store robberies. In September, Montréal police arrested five people following a smash-and-grab at a downtown jewellery store and said evidence suggested the group may have been involved in similar robberies elsewhere in Greater Montréal.
The incidents illustrate a different risk profile from routine shoplifting. Jewellery combines high unit values with small physical size, while precious metals can provide an additional resale channel.
Trading cards have developed some of the same characteristics. In July, an Edmonton collectibles store was broken into for the second time in less than 10 months, with Pokémon and One Piece cards taken. Edmonton Police said nine break-ins at collectible, hobby and card stores had been reported during 2026 by that point.
In September, approximately $70,000 worth of Pokémon cards were reported stolen from Winnipeg’s Mulvey Market. Other Canadian markets have also experienced thefts and robberies involving high-value trading cards. The relevant issue extends beyond the product category. A small amount of physical merchandise can represent tens of thousands of dollars in value, making storage, display, insurance and after-hours security materially different from those of many conventional retail categories. Controls appropriate for a supermarket, jewellery store and collectibles retailer will not necessarily address the same loss pattern.
Police and Retailers Expand Coordinated Responses
Law enforcement and the retail industry increased attention to repeat and organized retail theft during Q3. Toronto Police reported in August that its Organized Retail Crime Unit had generated 546 arrests, 4,033 charges and recovered more than $1.6 million in stolen merchandise since the unit was established roughly two years earlier.
Those are cumulative enforcement results rather than Q3 theft statistics. Police said many arrested individuals were repeat offenders and that some had links to organized groups stealing and reselling merchandise. Retail Council of Canada joined Toronto Police in announcing the results and called for consistent enforcement, prosecution and use of existing Criminal Code tools. RCC also renewed its call for an Ontario provincially funded joint force dedicated to retail crime.
RCC’s Quebec organization announced further coordinated enforcement operations in September involving retailers and police in Gatineau, Terrebonne, Quebec City, Laval and Longueuil. The organization pointed to organized groups and repeat offenders as concerns and cited recent jewellery-store robberies among the incidents affecting retailers. The response reflects a distinction between isolated shoplifting and repeated theft involving multiple retailers, resale activity or organized groups. It also places greater emphasis on information sharing when offenders or theft patterns cross individual store locations.
Retail Theft Sentencing Changes Take Effect
The federal legal framework changed during the quarter as well. Bill C-14 received Royal Assent on June 15, with relevant bail and sentencing reforms taking effect July 15. Courts must now consider an aggravating circumstance where certain offences were committed with the intention of selling or bartering stolen property or fraudulently returning it to a retailer.
The provision increases sentencing attention on circumstances associated with organized or commercially motivated retail theft. Its practical effect will depend on policing, prosecution and the courts. Q3 evidence does not establish that the legislation subsequently reduced theft. The legal change should therefore remain separate from claims about crime or enforcement outcomes.
Fraud Can Hurt Retailers Before a Transaction Happens
The Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre reported approximately $351 million in fraud losses during the first six months of 2026. The figure covers reported fraud across Canada and should not be interpreted as retail fraud losses. Consumer research commissioned by Interac provides another view. Fifty-three per cent of Canadians surveyed said they had questioned whether authentic messages from trusted organizations were genuine because scams had become increasingly convincing. Forty-seven per cent said they were avoiding unfamiliar retailers.
The survey measures reported attitudes and behaviour, not lost retail sales. It nevertheless identifies a potential cost to legitimate merchants when consumers become more suspicious of communications, offers and businesses they do not recognize. An authentic offer can be ignored because a customer suspects a scam, while an unfamiliar retailer can lose consideration because the consumer is uncertain whether the merchant is genuine. Retail Insider’s earlier reporting similarly found that fraud concerns can affect retailers before a transaction takes place.
Editor’s Take & Outlook
Outlook: Different Risks Require Different Security Decisions
Q3’s developments show why retail security cannot be reduced to a single crime measure or technology response. A supermarket dealing with employee aggression faces different operating risks from a jewellery store protecting concentrated inventory value. A collectibles retailer may need to reconsider how high-value merchandise is stored and displayed. An online merchant needs to authenticate customers and transactions without unnecessarily rejecting genuine purchases.
The evidence behind security claims requires similar differentiation. Shrink is not a theft total. A global technology survey is not a Canadian incident rate. Consumer concern does not establish a dollar amount of lost sales. A sentencing change does not prove crime has declined, and an arrest total does not establish the prevalence of organized retail crime nationally.
Security investments become easier to evaluate when the risk is clearly defined and the outcome can be observed. Depending on the business, that could involve fewer incidents, safer employees, reduced inventory losses, better response times, stronger access controls, lower fraud or fewer genuine transactions incorrectly declined.
The appropriate measure depends on what the retailer is trying to protect.
Editor’s Take
Canadian retail security became a more specialized operating issue during Q3. The national shoplifting numbers establish a continuing theft problem, while Pattison Food Group’s concerns demonstrate the additional consequences when incidents threaten employees. Jewellery and trading-card thefts show how merchandise characteristics can create distinct vulnerabilities when substantial value is concentrated in products that can be quickly removed and resold.
Police, retailers and governments are responding through specialized enforcement, greater information sharing and changes to the legal framework. The effectiveness of those responses will ultimately need to be judged through measurable outcomes. Digital commerce presents its own security requirements. Retailers need identity and payment controls capable of identifying fraudulent activity without unnecessarily interfering with genuine customers and transactions. There is no single retail-security problem, and there is no single security solution. The relevant investment depends on the asset, location, customer interaction and method of loss involved.
The strongest security strategy is therefore likely to be the one that defines the risk precisely, applies a proportionate response and measures whether that intervention is actually working.
Representative Articles
- Public safety and construction deal heavy blows to Edmonton downtown businesses — Aug 20, 2026
- AI security spending rises as retailers face surge in deepfake and identity attacks: Thales — Jul 27, 2026
- Fraud Is Costing Canadian Merchants More Than They May Realize — Sep 11, 2026
- Preparing Retail for the Age of Autonomous Commerce: Why Trust and Fraud Prevention Matter — Sep 30, 2026
- AI-Driven Fraud Scams Impact Canadian Retail: Interac — Mar 10, 2026
- New Retail-Theft Sentencing Rules Take Effect in Canada July 15 — Jul 13, 2026
