Video: Top Targeted Items for Retail Crime

Retailers have seen increases of the average loss from shoplifting and robberies alongside rising prices. In its 2021 National Retail Security Survey, published in August 2021, the National Retail Federation (NRF) reported that about 64 percent of loss prevention professionals indicated that organized retail crime (ORC) has become more of a priority within the last five years.

And while many ORC groups went after designer clothes (making up 22.2 percent of goods stolen by ORC gangs), items available in grocery stores took up more than half of the list of the most-reported items stolen by these gangs.

This included laundry detergent (16.7 percent), razors (14.8 percent), pain relievers (13.0 percent), baby formula (11.1 percent), teeth whitening strips (11.1 percent) energy drinks (9.3 percent), deodorant (7.4 percent), and contraceptives (5.6 percent). Stolen items are later resold by ORC groups, often in online marketplaces.

“Those types of things that are easily transportable, have a stable shelf life, they are used as commodity goods for resale and by organized crime groups,” explains Christian Beckner, vice president of retail technology and cybersecurity for NRF.

For more about retail crime, read “Solutions for Hangry Shoplifting.”