The Centre for Retail Research has published a study which gives Austrian shoppers grade A for obeying the laws: Only 438 million € per year are attributed to “leakage” of goods aka shoplifting. That is only 0.96 % of the total turnover of retail industry in Austria. The second best in Europe after the traditionally law-abiding and obedient Swiss with 0.92 %. Germany is runners up at 1.07 %. The highest percentage of shoplifting is in the Czeck Republic (1.42 %), Slovakia (1.42 %) and Hungary (1.38 %).

Personally, I do believe that the “grantig sales people” are a major factor in the equation. Who’d dare to steal in a place where they are afraid to even shop?