A new report has found 92% of retailers have experienced "some form" of retail crime in the 12 months to August this year.
That's in comparison with 81% when Retail NZ last surveyed in 2017.
The business association found the year's incidents came at a cost of $2.6 billion.
A new report has found over 90% of retail businesses have been affected by crime in the last year. (Source: 1News)
"Retail crime presents an increasing health and safety risk to retail employees and customers and to the financial sustainability of retail businesses," the business association said in a statement.
"The $2.6 billion annual cost of retail crime flows through from retailers to customers to the New Zealand economy."
Read more: Man tries to steal 9 legs of lamb as supermarket crime rises
That figure was broken down into $1.4bn of stolen goods, $1.1bn in loss prevention costs minus reimbursements, and $0.1bn in wellbeing costs including counselling and leave.
It comes as crime is heavily featuring in political rhetoric with an election around the corner – and it follows a number of high-profile incidents over the past year including the death of dairy worker Janak Patel, which triggered protests.
A spate of ram-raids saw the Government introduce a new offence earlier this year.
The Government has pledged millions towards prevention measures such as fog cannons, while both Labour and National have said they will expand the police force among a number of other measures if elected.
"Aggression, violence, and other retail crime is getting worse," Retail NZ said. "Criminals are becoming increasingly organised and brazen, putting retail employees and customers at risk."
"Offenders are from all parts of society and include children."
The group's report pointed to a number of possible causes including organised crime and "stealing to order", theft to fund addictions, and theft for the sake of social media notoriety.
"This is made worse by underlying attitudes and issues in society," the group argued.
Retail NZ said some people have "a perception of impunity", "lack of understanding of the impacts of the behaviour" and "a view that it's OK to 'look down' on retail workers".
The report also decried "inadequate resourcing of police to support retailers", a "clogged court system with offenders re-offending before being tried for an earlier offence" and the current high cost of living.
Alongside monetary and health costs, Retail NZ said the crimes were leading to staff retention issues.
Foodstuffs North Island chief executive Chris Quin added: "Retail crime is the worst it's ever been, we have families who own local stores who're really worried about the safety of their teams and their customers.
"We've got a responsibility to keep everyone safe in our stores and that's something we take very seriously.
"Repeat offenders commit over a third of all reported retail crime, we have to acknowledge the issue is real and look at every possible tool and technology available to help solve it."
It comes as Countdown is trialling body cameras for staff in a number of supermarkets amid safety concerns.
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