The Retail Industry Leaders Association conducted a survey of 52 chain retailers and found that about 80 percent said organized retail crime has jumped, with 50 percent also reporting that robberies and burglaries also increased.
The bottom line to this shoplifting increase is that people are hurting. Some are desperate and resort to swiping product rather than swiping their maxed-out credit cards.
While retail crime usually increases during the holiday season, law enforcers say the economic tailspin is flaming more frequent and more aggressive crimes.
Retailers are hurting too: last year retailers lost an average of almost $35 billion (1.4 percent of inventory) due to theft. Most say they can’t bear that kind of loss—especially because shopping is down all across the board.
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Tags: bankruptcy, crime, economy
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