Retailers have always been vulnerable to shoplifting. But the emergence of coordinated and organized robberies at high-value stores, even during shopping hours, has the industry on edge.
In November, a group of 14 individuals barged into a Louis Vuitton store in Oakbrook, Illinois, while customers were inside and audaciously drove away with a $100,000 worth of merchandise. The entire incident was caught on the store’s surveillance video.
That same month, a group of at least 18 people broke into a closed Nordstrom store at LA’s famous high-end The Grove shopping mall using a sledgehammer and an electric bicycle. They made off with several thousand dollars in merchandise. And on Black Friday, one of the busiest shopping days of the year, as many as 30 people robbed a Best Buy in Minneapolis.
The crime typically involves groups of people targeting stores that carry higher-value items like electronics, designer handbags and designer clothing, who resell the merchandise in secondary marketplaces, such as eBay, OfferUp and Facebook Marketplace or even back into the legitimate supply chain.
“These are people who make a living stealing and reselling. This is not a one-time opportunistic or need-based robbery,” said Cory Lowe, an expert on retail crime and research scientist at the Loss Prevention Research Council, an industry coalition that researches retail crime, its impact and solutions to address it.
