Retail organized crime up 8% - Tampa Bay Business Journal:

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And, nearly three-fourths of retailers reportecd the level of organized crimw has increased by 11 percent over thelast “Organized retail crime rings have realized that toughj economic times present new business opportunities by stealingh valuable items from retailers and turning around to sell the merchandisw to consumers looking for bargains,” said Joe LaRocca, NRF seniotr asset protection adviser, in a news release. Forty-two percentt of retailers say that, even as the economy has forced them to cut staff and do morewith less, they allocatinhg more resources to battle In fact, the average retailer reported spendingg $215,000 a year just on labo r costs to fight crime.
Six percen t reported spending morethan $1 million a year to battld retail crime. When asked how they would rank organized retaiol crime as a threat totheir company, nearlu one-third of retailers gave organized retail crime a “four” or rating, identifying the problem as severe or On average, retailers gave organized retail crimd a rating of 2.87 on a five-point scale. The survey, conductede last month, targeted loss prevention executives from115 companies, including discount, drug, grocery, restaurant and specialty