When it comes to looking at retail crime by the numbers, the statistics are staggering. Shrink – the loss of inventory due to employee theft, shoplifting, paperwork errors, or supplier fraud – cost retailers more than $34 billion in 2011, or more than 1.4% of their total sales, with shoplifting accounting for 35% of those [...]
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 [...]
It was a challenging weekend for retail loss prevention professionals. In the run-up to one of the busiest and often most successful times of year for retailers, there are still distressing reminders of dangerous situations retail employees can face on an all-too-regular basis. Unfortunately, two separate incidents from this last weekend provided such reminders. On [...]
Last week one of our members told me about several incidents of his employees being pepper sprayed while making basic shoplifting apprehensions. It only took a few minutes of research to find incidents just like these across the country. This serves as a good reminder for all of us to stress the importance of safety [...]
With over 90% of retailers impacted by organized retail crime last year, it’s no surprise that retailers have found their relationships with law enforcement personnel to be more valuable than ever. Armed with an information sharing program and a Chief of Police committed to working with retailers to get the job done, one shining example [...]