Most consumers could never imagine walking into a store on multiple occasions and stealing thousands of dollars in merchandise in a single swoop, then reselling the merchandise over the Internet, to a fencing organization, or out of their home. But retailers can attest that this type of crime, labeled organized retail theft, is happening in stores throughout the country every day.
In continuation of its efforts to fight organized retail theft, the National Retail Federation (NRF) recently conducted a survey to gauge the impact that this type of crime is having on the retail community. The first of its kind, the survey polled 41 senior loss prevention executives nationwide in May 2005 to see how this steadily increasing activity is affecting their companies. NRF released the results of the survey Tuesday at its Loss Prevention Conference in San Diego.
According to the survey, more than three-fourths (78%) of executives polled said that their company has been a victim of organized retail theft in the past 12 months and nearly one-half (46%) have witnessed an increase in organized criminal activity over the past year. In addition, 61 percent believe that organized retail theft accounts for the majority of the shrinkage dollars lost in their company due to external theft. As a result, more than half of the respondents (51%) are allocating additional resources to address this rising problem in their companies.
“From small 'mom and pop' stores to big-box retailers, the entire retail industry is feeling the impact of this growing problem,” said Joseph LaRocca, NRF Vice President of Loss Prevention. “Organized retail theft impacts everyone. Retailers lose billions of dollars annually to these criminal enterprises, hurting retail sales, reducing the taxes to fund federal state and local law enforcement and raising consumer prices to cover the cost of lost goods. Most retailers recognize the need to work together, tackling this problem with the assistance of their law enforcement partners.”
Retailers across the nation agree that organized retail theft has become a risk to their companies, according to the survey. When asked to rank its threat to their company, 29 percent of respondents categorized organized retail theft as a significant or severe threat and another 44 percent classified it as important.
Retail executives said that they are looking at alternative measures to tackle this rising problem. An overwhelming 98 percent of executives polled believe that there is a need for a national database designed specifically to track ORT. Furthermore, most retail executives said that their companies would participate in the database.
As a result, NRF has announced an initiative to help retailers and law enforcement work together to eliminate organized retail theft. The newly-formed Retail Loss Prevention Intelligence Network Database, created by NRF, will allow retailers and law enforcement to share organized retail theft information and intelligence with one another.
