SEATTLE — No state in the U.S. is more heavily impacted by retail theft than Washington, a new Forbes study shows.
The Forbes Retail Theft Index found that Washington gets 48% more reported retail thefts than the state should based on its population. Only the District of Columbia and North Dakota, which both have much smaller populations than Washington, had a larger Retail Theft Index figure.
Washington also was the third-worst state when it comes to the total value of stolen goods per resident, with $347 being lost for each resident of the state. Pennsylvania and California were the only two states with a higher total, and the study's average was $173.
Only the District of Columbia sees a larger proportion of larceny thefts per 100,000 residents than Washington, which had 2,306 incidents per 100,000 residents in 2022.
The 24% rise in larceny thefts from 2019 to 2022 is also the second-largest in the nation behind Vermont, per FBI crime data.
Forbes also cited U.S. Chamber of Commerce data from 2021 that shows Washington lost an average of $78 per resident in tax revenue due to retail theft. West Virginia ($119 per resident) lost the most with Pennsylvania and California also ahead of the Evergreen State.
The four states coming in behind Washington on Forbes' list are District of Columbia, Maine, Hawaii and Pennsylvania, respectively. Wyoming was the state least affected by retail theft, with Idaho, Mississippi, Georgia and Alabama rounding out the bottom five.
Major retailer Target announced earlier this year that it was shuttering two Seattle locations due in part to a rise in retail theft.
Target said in May that theft was cutting into its bottom line and it expected related losses could be $500 million more than last year, when losses from theft were estimated to be anywhere from $700 million to $800 million. So that means losses could top $1.2 billion this fiscal year.
The National Retail Federation, the nation’s largest retail trade group, said its latest security survey of roughly 177 retailers found that inventory loss — called shrink — clocked in at an average rate of 1.6% last year, representing $112.1 billion in losses. That's up from 1.4% the previous year.
Attorney General Bob Ferguson, who is a candidate for governor of Washington, announced the first criminal prosecution by his new Organized Crime Retail Unit last week. Shawn Nanez, a 33-year-old from Bremerton, was charged in connection with 11 thefts where over $50,000 of merchandise was stolen from Target locations in King and Kitsap counties.