Breeding hundreds of criminals each and every day, organized retail crime has never been so problematic for retail companies. In fact, NRF’s latest Organized Retail Crime survey found that 96 percent of retailers over the past year have been victims of this opportunistic crime. Retail loss prevention executives, knowing full well how sophisticated these criminal enterprises have become in recent years, are even going as far as creating and developing internal task forces to specifically deal with ORC incidents.
These savvy criminals are wreaking havoc on retailers’ bottom lines during an already trying time in our nation’s economy. The FBI estimates these gangs cost retailers nearly $30 billion every year, money that companies could use towards store improvements, more inventory for their shelves and even promotions and coupons for their customers.
Recently, NBC’s Nightly News with Brian Williams covered this issue, speaking to Kroger’s Corporate Manager of Organized Retail Crime Dennis Dansak, Los Angeles Police Department’s Kent Oda and NRF’s Senior Asset Protection Advisor Joe LaRocca. Check out the segment below.