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Published
Sep 17, 2015
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Organized Retail Crime continues to be problematic

Published
Sep 17, 2015

Organized Retail Crime is a $30 million problem that retailers face on a day-to-day basis. The National Retail Federation released its 11th annual Organize Retail Crime Survey and found that almost all of the retailers surveyed were victims of ORC.


Westfield Stratford City - AFP

 
The survey polled 67 senior retail loss prevention executives and nearly 97% said they have been victims of ORC in the past year, up from 88.2% in the previous year. Out of those surveyed, 15.4% said they have noticed an increase in support from federal law enforcement, up 9.6% from last year, 43.1% said they’ve noticed an increase in support from local law enforcement and 24.6% said they have seen an increase in state law enforcement support.
 
“Organized retail crime continues to be an issue plaguing retailers, and there continues to be a need to pass strong ORC legislation that defines the issues and provides law enforcement with the necessary tools to help retailers combat the issue,” said NRF Vice President of Supply Chain and Custom Policy Jon Gold. “These vast and often dangerous crimes are not limited to any state or jurisdiction and are why we continue to push for federal legislation.”

Five states enacted their own laws around ORC in 2015, which brings the total number of states to 30. Retailers are investing in tools to combat ORC as well. 47% of those surveyed said they are allocating resources to fight ORC, which has increased from 41.3% in the previous year. 31.8% of retailers have allocated resources to staffing and 24.2% added additional budget resources. Senior leaders of companies understand the importance of combating ORC, which has increased to 62.7% from 60.5% in the previous year.
 
Retailers experience theft in a multitude of ways, some of which include traditional stealing, when merchandise is taken from the store, as well as store credit and even cargo theft. 66.7% of respondents said they have experienced thieves returning stolen merchandise for store credit and almost 4 in 10 retailers have experienced stolen merchandise before it reached the store, exactly 37.4% compared to 35.4% in the previous year.
 
Every city in the US has retailers that have fallen victim to ORC, but many cities top the list ORC activity. The cities are Los Angeles, Miami, Chicago, New York, Houston, the Arlington/Dallas/Ft.Worth area, the San Francisco/Oakland area, Baltimore, Orange County, California and Northern New Jersey.

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