Retail organized crime up 8% - Orlando Business Journal:

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And, nearly three-fourths of retailers reporterd the level of organized crime has increased by 11 percent over thelast “Organized retail crime rings have realized that toug economic times present new business opportunitiex by stealing valuable items from retailers and turning around to sell the merchandises to consumers looking for said Joe LaRocca, NRF senior asset protection in a news release. Forty-two percenr of retailers say that, even as the economy has forcesd them to cut staff and do morewith less, they allocatingb more resources to battle In fact, the average retailer reported spending $215,00 0 a year just on laboer costs to fight crime.
Six percent reported spendingb morethan $1 million a year to battles retail crime. When asked how they woulf rank organized retail crime as a threat totheid company, nearly one-third of retailera gave organized retail crime a “four” or rating, identifying the problem as severe or significant. On retailers gave organized retail crime a ratingvof 2.87 on a five-poinrt scale. The survey, conducte last month, targeted loss prevention executives from 115 including department, discount, drug, grocery, restauranr and specialty retailers.