More Fallout from New York Gov's Veto of Statewide ORC Task Force
Editorial praises the governor's veto but calls for more research into the ORC problem

Editorial: Smart veto on retail crime

Organized retail crime is a real problem, but the state has yet to figure out its scope and possible solutions.

New York needs to address the issue of what's commonly referred to as organized retail crime. What it doesn't need, though, is a task force laden with political agendas to do it. So we commend Gov. Kathy Hochul for vetoing a bill that would likely have ended up spending millions of public dollars on a performative ideological exercise.

Comprehensive data on organized retail crime is lacking, not just the full scope and cost of it, but the underlying causes. It pointed out, for instance, that while some people insist laws need to be changed regarding what constitutes a felony theft, or that changes to the cash bail system have somehow encouraged more organized retail crime (a case Albany County District Attorney David Soares, among others, has made), good data doesn't exist to support those theories.

The study called for "rigorous non-partisan research," and we couldn't agree more. A task force like the one Gov. Hochul rejected last week, filled with appointees from the Legislature's majority and minority conferences along with some from the governor and attorney general, seemed hardly the way to achieve that.

In the executive budget she is set to unveil in January, the governor should include funding for a credible study, to be done by experts in crime and business, who can develop a picture of organized retail crime that fits the reality of it - not the narrative of those who would use it to further a political agenda against criminal justice reforms. New York needs a strategy based on what's really going on, not just another politically driven task force, full of sound and fury, accomplishing nothing. timesunion.com


Calculating the Scope of ORC is No Easy Task
NRF updates crime report to address faulty numbers

The group said it didn't realize an outside assessment of organized retail crime had used an old NRF estimate of total inventory loss, including loss unrelated to theft.

The National Retail Federation on Friday said it has edited a retail crime report released in April, and has withdrawn a claim regarding organized retail crime following an analysis from Retail Dive.

The group had cited an estimate of the financial impact of organized retail crime that turned out to be a six-year-old survey of aggregate inventory losses for all reasons, including those unrelated to theft. On Friday, after the publication of Retail Dive's story, the group said it had updated its report. It no longer includes any estimate of organized retail crime's overall impact in dollar terms, the assertion that nearly half of shrink is attributable to ORC, or any mention of the National Coalition of Law Enforcement.

This estimate from National Coalition of Law Enforcement and Retail, also known as CLEAR, was derived from U.S. Senate testimony two years ago from that group's president, Brendan Dugan. "CLEAR estimates that organized retail crime accounts for $45 billion in annual losses for retailers," he told the Senate's Committee on the Judiciary in November 2021.

However, in an email to Retail Dive, Dugan said that was from the NRF's 2016 report on total shrink, or unaccounted-for inventory. The NRF's annual shrink reports include estimations of inventory loss from organized retail crime and other types of theft, but also from process errors and other reasons for lost inventory that have nothing to do with crime.

The NRF previously said it wasn't aware that CLEAR's estimate was from its own research on shrink and that it would look into that section of its crime report. On Friday, the group said the report had been updated.

Trevor Wagener, the chief economist at the Computer & Communications Industry Association who has conducted research on these issues, found that using the NRF's methodology ORC's contribution to retail shrink is probably closer to 5%, in contrast to the 50% that results from using Dugan's number. However, calculating the scope of ORC is an onerous task, he told Retail Dive. retaildive.com


Can Boosting Staff Solve Friction Created By Anti-Theft Policies?
Target CEO defends unpopular theft-prevention policy

The boss of the popular retailer used some interesting logic to justify a controversial choice.

Target's Brian Cornell shares his take on customers

Target CEO Brian Cornell explained his company's theft problem during its second-quarter earnings call: "Our team continues to face an unacceptable amount of retail theft and organized retail crime," he said.

Keeping workers safe is a clear priority, but one Target solution - locking select merchandise up, creates added inconvenience for customers. That, however, is not how Cornell sees it.

Cornell sees inconvenience as a positive

"Just in the last week, I've been on the East Coast and on the West Coast in many of those stores that you've talked about where items have been locked up. And actually what we hear from the guests is a big thank you, because we are in stock with the brands that they need when they're shopping in our stores," he said.

It's hard to believe that shoppers are happy to have a less convenient process that requires them to ask for help from a Target worker. Cornell, however, explained why the inconvenient process isn't, in fact, all the inconvenient.

"And because we've invested in team member labor in those aisles and make sure we're there to greet that guest, open up those cases and provide them the items they're looking for," he added.  thestreet.com


Retailers Hope New Alabama Theft Law Can Curb Holiday Shoplifting
Are cities seeing holiday shoplifting spike? Alabama law seeks to deter retail theft
Data from Capitol One shows, last year, retailers in Alabama lost more than one billion dollars due to theft. In Alabama, the Retail Theft Crime Prevention Act was passed and went into effect on September 1.

In Shelby County, in Calera, police are working with retailers to prosecute these cases more. Police Chief David Hyche said he believes the law that went into effect this year will eventually have a deterrent effect but word has to get out that they are prosecuting in conjunction with retailers.

"The importance of getting this retail theft package through, was it's become such a huge problem all over the country, not just here in Alabama. Theft can not be tolerated. There's studies that show, retail theft, it's bad enough in and of itself, but it causes increased violent crime, the loss of 700,000 jobs and billions in economy activity," said Cullman County District Attorney Champ Crocker.

Crocker said it took several people, from district attorneys to mayors and businesses who recognized this was a problem. "This just provides another mechanism of charging these types of crimes which allows for enhanced penalties which are targeted for retail thefts only under this legislation," said Crocker.

For example, under the law, retail theft between $500 and $2,500 is a Class C felony, which can result in up to ten years in prison. There's also felony punishment for those convicted of organized retail theft. abc3340.com


Targeted Sued Over Deadly Parking Lot Shooting
Father of man shot, killed at Oakley Target sues retailer over son's death
The father of a man shot and killed last year in the crowded parking lot of the Oakley Target store is suing the retailer, citing that a lack of store security contributed to his son's death.

Tracy Phillips of Huntington, West Virginia, originally filed the wrongful death suit against the Target Corporation in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court in October. It was removed to federal court in Cincinnati on Wednesday.

In court documents, Phillips said Target security failed to intervene in March 2022 when his son, 24-year-old Alias Phillips, was threatened with a gun inside the store, before he was chased and gunned down in the parking lot.

"Target was partially at fault for the death of Alias Phillips, for the lack of store security and monitoring, which could have prevented the outcome if security would have intervened," the lawsuit reads.

Tracy Phillips is seeking $50 million in compensatory damages, as well as an apology from Target. cincinnati.com


New D.C. Safety Bill Increases Penalties for Retail Theft
D.C. Residents Disapprove Of Mayor Bowser's ACT NOW Public Safety Bill

Disapproval at a public hearing for Mayor Bowser's ACT Now Act, which includes increased penalties and controversial policing measures, such as "drug-free zones."

Expressing disapproval of Mayor Muriel Bowser's policing modifications, several D.C. residents expressed concern during the first public hearing for the Addressing Crime Trends Now (ACT Now) Act introduced last month, as reported by WTOP News.

In an attempt to address recent crime trends in the District, the provisions of ACT Now include the creation of additional penalties for organized retail theft, limiting loitering through "drug-free zones", and the reinstatement of a law making masks illegal when committing a crime according to the Government of the District of Columbia.
 
Considering the bill's proposal for increased penalties for retail theft and temporary "drug-free zones," Burris believes that increased policing and harsher penalties increase the likelihood of crime. He emphasized that such provisions produce the illusion of crime reduction while failing to address the root causes of crime in the nation's capital. thehilltoponline.com


Shoppers Paying the Price for Shoplifters
Retail crime: They steal it, but you pay for it

On the larger scale, it's called Organized Retail Crime and it can have devastating consequences.

"You're starting to see national brands that are closing stores in certain cities because it's becoming more expensive for them to secure their stores than what they're actually profiting on the back end," says Crittenden.

Locally, the state of Virginia loses around $1.3 billion in merchandise a year through Organized Retail Crime. The good news is Virginia just passed a law making those large smash and grab robberies a Class 3 felony punishable by up 20 years in prison. The bad news is it only applies if the crooks get away with at least $5,000 worth of merchandise. And more bad news-those thieves will often set up shell companies on Amazon or eBay and sell those stolen items to unsuspecting consumers.

They steal it, but you pay for it. "If you have shoplifting, you're going to have to absorb the cost somehow, so you're going to raise your price," said Scotti. wavy.com


Law Enforcement Leaders Share Plan to Fight Smash-and-Grab Retail Theft During Holiday Season

In Case You Missed It: Retail crime wave in U.S. is more like a few ripples

Another Scam to Keep On Your Holiday Radar
Police warn of 'card-draining' scam that impacted 100+ gift cards at local stores
PHILADELPHIA - Police are warning shoppers of an ongoing gift card scam known as "card draining" that recently impacted over 100 gift cards at a Pennsylvania grocery store.

The scam, according to police, involves thieves removing a gift card from store shelves and carefully procuring the card's information before returning it to the rack. When a victim unknowingly purchases a compromised gift card, police say the thieves use the stolen card number and pin-codes to drain the card's value.

University of San Diego Finance Professor Dan Roccato had this to say about the scammers, "They're looking at gift card purchases and basically stealing the numbers before the consumer buys the card."

The New Britain Township Police department reported over 100 Visa Vanilla and Apple gift cards were recently compromised at a local Giant grocery store. The department says the nationwide card draining scam has been reported across Bucks and Montgomery counties.

Roccato says before making a gift card purchase, consumers should, "Make sure the card is sealed. Make sure the protective cover is still on, it doesn't look like it's been tampered with in any way."

He says keep the receipts and if, in the end, you find you've been scammed, he says call the company and take a picture of the card with the serial number and codes on it for when a report needs to be made. fox29.com


FaceFirst Can Help Stop Gift Card Fraudsters
Retailer IDs extensive gift card fraud, stops it cold

How a retailer's face match interrupted nationwide scam in just hours

Step one in any crisis: Stop the bleeding. Retailers lost $112.1 billion to thieves in 2022. Now they're stemming that figurative tide and preventing new wounds with FaceFirst's powerful investigative tools.

Here's how one retailer identified an extensive gift card scam and stopped it cold in less than three hours. A store manager notified the retailer's AP team that a masked man removed 50 Apple gift cards from the store without activating them. (This is the first step in a known, complex gift card fraud scheme.) The AP team ran a FaceFirst search. Even with the mask covering half of the man's face, the search quickly revealed that he repeated the gift card thefts in 21 stores.

As a result of the first search, the AP team noted the man's frequent accomplice. They ran a FaceFirst search on the accomplice and quickly found the second man had placed altered gift cards back on display in 61 of their stores. (This is the second step in the gift card fraud scheme.)

In less than three hours, the retailer identified the gift card theft pattern-at least 84 incidents with 2,000+ stolen and altered gift cards in the prior 14 days. The retailer temporarily removed all Apple gift cards from the stores and began working with the kiosk vendor to address the problem nationwide.

The retailer enrolled the two men in its custom FaceFirst database. FaceFirst alerted the retailer instantly when the men entered the stores again. The men returned three more times, determined that the Apple gift cards had been removed, and have not been back since.

Click here to read the full feature
 

S.F. Downtown Retail Exodus Update
Map shows every major retail closure this year
A wave of retail store closures has impacted downtown San Francisco, with more than two dozen notable businesses shuttering or scheduling closures so far this year. AT&T, Banana Republic and First Republic have closed in the past months. Starbucks, Target and CVS closed stores in downtown in October.

In August, Westfield gave up its San Francisco mall to lenders after Nordstrom announced its departure, which left the mall only 55% leased.  sfchronicle.com

Rite Aid Closing 31 More Stores as Bankruptcy Proceedings Continue
Drugstore retailer Rite Aid is shuttering another 31 stores in a dozen states as part of its ongoing restructuring efforts.

The retailer will close seven stores in California, four in Pennsylvania, three each in Ohio, Virginia, and Washington, and two each in Michigan, New Jersey, Oregon, and New York. Once the latest round of closures is complete, Rite Aid will have around 2,000 stores remaining in the U.S. risnews.com


Kroger delivers the clearest sign yet that grocery price increases are slowing
Food inflation is slowing down heading into 2024, according to the supermarket chain.

The full list of major US companies slashing staff this year, from Spotify to Amazon

Final weeks until TJ Maxx shuts down location
 
Shoppers cut back on non-essential items to add to UK retail gloom