Even with the world's most sophisticated inventory control systems in place, a merchandising business usually conducts a physical count of the inventory at least once a year. A physical count serves many purposes. First and foremost, however, it identifies "shrinkage." There are many types of inventory shrinkage.

Use your experience as a consumer and possibly as a store employee to:

- identify four ways inventory that was not sold might be missing from a physical count - add specific and relevant examples to your shrinkage example - suggest a type of technology that may help to reduce the types of shrinkage you choose to discuss