Organized Crime Continues to Flourish

With the advent of the pandemic and societal unrest, today’s retailers are faced with evolving threats like never before. The pandemic, which has created higher unemployment rates and civil unrest across the nation, has created the ‘perfect storm’ for increased retail crime. In the midst of the pandemic, many retailers report that organized retail crime networks are becoming more aggressive than ever.

The National Retail Federation’s 2020 National Retail Security Survey “finds shrink at an all-time high, accounting for 1.62% of a retailer’s bottom line – costing the industry $61.7 billion.”  In addition, retailers report losing $703,320 per $1 billion in annual sales volume due to organized retail crime (ORC) activity in the past 12 months.  This is the fourth year in a row losses have topped $700K. Technology and social media have made it easier for malicious groups targeting retail organizations to communicate with each other, as well as find an active market for the resale of stolen goods.

Learn more about what Businesses are doing to safeguard themselves from ORC rings.

Joshua Skule is Senior Vice President of the Risk Advisory and Consulting Services division at Allied Universal. He joined Allied Universal after a distinguished 21-year career in the FBI, where he was recently the Executive Assistant Director for Intelligence leading the organization’s Intelligence Branch. He can be reached at [email protected].

Craig Matsumoto is Vice President of the Risk Advisory and Consulting Services division at Allied Universal. Previously, he was Managing Director of Loss Prevention at Protiviti Risk Consulting, which followed a 26-year career in retail risk, loss prevention, audit and security, which included serving as Director and Vice President of Loss Prevention and Audit for Mervyn’s Department Stores, T.J. Maxx and Reebok International. He has served as President of Radius under the Creative Options umbrella, and COO of LP Innovations where he specialized in providing inclusive security guidance and consulting. Craig has been interviewed by several major media outlets, including CBS, where he appeared in a “60 Minutes” segment exploring the impact of organized crime on the retail industry. He can be reached at [email protected].