Once thought of as victimless crime, shoplifting has been taken to a whole new level. Organized retail crime has become widespread, violent and the criminals bolder. It is no longer a harmless and victimless crime.
Organized retail theft is responsible for retailers losing tens of billions of dollars a year. During these “smash and grabs”, employees and customers are being attacked and even killed. The retail store is then plagued with fear and “retail shrinks”.
After a nine month investigation involving multiple agency in South Florida, 14 people were arrested and charged with stealing over $20 million in merchandise in just one year.
“It is well-organized, it is profitable, it is criminal. This is the modern-day mafia and criminal organizations that we’re taking down,” Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody said
Unfortunately, these organized crime rings are similar to weeds, ‘pull one out and another one pops up’.
So, How Can You Deter This Type Of Crime In The First Place?
According to the Tampa Bay Times analysis, in just one year, the police in Tampa Florida logged almost 17,000 calls just to Walmarts. That adds up to two calls an hour, every hour of everyday!
“Instead of treating security as an expense the way most of the rest of retail does, in Walmart’s defense, treat security as an investment the way Target and Kroger and the independents do so well,” according to top retail consultant Burt Flickinger.
“We cannot continue operating these stores because theft and organized retail crime are threatening the safety of our team and guests,” Target said in a statement.
Target recently closed several stores around the country because of organized retail theft. They announced they are made significant investments in hiring third party security guard services as a result.
Hiring a third party security guard service is an investment, especially when stores like Target say the situation is getting worse. Because of organized crime, Target lost over $500 million more last year than the one before. This makes the estimated total for the year to over $1.2 billion.
