NRF survey: Organized crime continues to plague retailers

WASHINGTON — Results from the National Retail Federations annual Organized Retail Crime (ORC) Survey is shining light on the continued prevalence of a perennial problem for retailers.

Ninety-seven percent of the retailers surveyed admitted that they had fallen prey to ORC in the last year — a number that’s up almost 10% since last year, according to the survey. The losses reported by retailers from ORC are about $453,940 per $1 billion in annual sales this past year, with an average allocation of $434,032 being made toward preventing crime. 

Some of the crimes that retailers are facing include pawn shops and kiosks that are used as fence locations for stolen goods, thieves who return stolen goods for store credit (something 66.7% of survey respondents have dealt with in the last year) and stolen merchandise credit cards. Additionally, 37.9% of those surveyed have had to combat cargo theft in the past year, up from 35.4% in 2014’s survey.

“Brazen and often dangerous criminals are finding new ways every day to manipulate the retail supply chain; from the docks where merchandise comes in to criminal flash mobs that involve several individuals running into a store at once, the methods used by crime gangs today run the gamut,” NRF’s VP loss prevention Bob Moraca said. “These new criminal methods are making it even more crucial for retailers and law enforcement to work together to combat this crime.” 

In a discussion of the survey’s results, the NRF noted that though there are now 30 states with legislation concerning ORC (five of which were added in 2015), there is still a need for federal penalties against criminals affiliated with ORC gangs. About 15% of those surveyed have noticed increased support from federal law enforcement, an almost-6% improvement over last year.

“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,” NRF VP supply chain and custom policy Jon Gold said. “These vast and often dangerous crimes are not limited to any state or jurisdiction and are why we continue to push for federal legislation.”  

The last year has also seen an increase in funds allocated to combating ORC, with 47% of respondents allocating additional resources toward loss prevention — 31.8% of these are focusing on staffing and 24.2% are focusing on additional budget resources. Senior leadership at companies are increasingly aware of the challenges faced by ORC, as 62.7% of loss prevention executives said they felt top leaders were aware of the issue’s complexity. 

The survey also ranked the 10 cities that those surveyed felt had the highest rate of criminal activity. They were: 

1. 
   Los Angeles


2. 
   Miami


3. 
   Chicago


4. 
   New York


5. 
   Houston


6. 
   Arlington/Dallas/Ft.Worth


7. 
   San Francisco/Oakland


8. 
   Baltimore


9. 
   Orange County, Calif.


10. 
    Northern New Jersey