Odd Lots · Thursday, September 10, 2026
Scott Glenn explained that 'shrinkage' encompasses all inventory loss, not just theft. Home Depot categorizes shrink into operational/administrative ('self-inflicted') and malicious (external theft). While about 30% of their shrink is operational, the remaining 70% is attributed to external factors, with a focus on higher-end, organized theft rather than opportunistic shoplifting.
“When we talk about shrink in retail, we're talking about at the end of the day, I have inventory on my books. And when I physically go to count that inventory, it's not there.”
“So about 30 percent of our shrink is falls into that operational administrative things we do to ourself type of category. And then the balance of it falls into more of the malicious side or things that people do to us.”
“But we tend to focus our time and our energy and our resources on the higher end.”