Organized Retail Crime and the Effects on Small Business

Organized Retail Crime, or ORC is something you have probably heard very little about. ORC is, by definition, the organized and planned stealing of merchandise with the expressed intent to resell in order to make a profit. Plainly, it is a group of shoplifters whose full time job is to steal from you in order to make a profit for themselves. If you think that your small business isn’t a target, or hasn’t been targeted by an ORC group, you are wrong. These are not your average shoplifter stealing for personal use. These are well organized, well trained and equipped individuals who can take a single store for thousands of dollars in mere minutes.

I recently worked an ORC case dealing with the theft of a certain product. Over a two month period of time, I had a group of 5 individuals steal this product, then immediately sell them to a pawn shop. This handful of people were able to cause a $20k loss in a very short amount of time. They had a plan, stuck to a routine and committed the theft with near surgical precision. It was well organized, and it took months to uncover. $20k might not be a big deal for a national retailer, but if this were my own store, it very well may have put me out of business. This is the case for small businesses across the country. These groups often target the smaller stores as they feel they are a softer target. 

Smaller stores may not have the security measures larger retailers do. Something as simple as CCTV may not even be installed. The store may not have security devices on commonly shoplifted items. More importantly, those smaller stores most likely do not have a Loss Prevention team, and the owners may be unwillingly to prosecute individuals caught shoplifting.  This all makes the small retailer a prime target for ORC. 

The first step you should take to prevent your store from being a target is to minimize your exposure to the risk of shoplifting. CCTV systems are not big, bulky and expensive pieces of equipment anymore. You can most definitely find a solution for your store under a few hundred bucks. Next, you should be familiar with product security. While you may not have the capital for the newest trends in EAS, a simple checkpoint system will discourage ORC, especially if you are using tags that have your store’s name, or logo on them.

Organized retail crime has gotten the attention of the law enforcement community. In fact, several states now have ORC laws on the books, which carry heavier penalties for individuals convicted of this type of theft. The only way these individuals can be brought to justice is if they are held accountable for their actions. That starts with you and is why it’s always important to prosecute a shoplifter. That guy you just caught stealing all of your razor blades could be the tipping point for a much larger operation. Just because you have a small store, doesn’t mean you can’t lose big from these groups.