Who would have thought a product as innocuous as Tide laundry detergent would be so popular among the criminal element? But when police in suburban Washington raided the home of a suspected drug dealer last fall, they found nearly 20 large bottles of the liquid laundry detergent right next to all the cocaine. And it turns out that people were actually using the $20-plus bottles to pay for the illegal drugs…and the dealer was glad to take them as payment.
Enter the world of Organized Retail Crime (ORC), where one day the target is laundry detergent and the next day the target might be infant formula, and the next potentially razorblades. It's enough to give today's retail security and loss prevention professionals a migraine.The media firestorm surrounding the “grime wave” of ORC and widespread Tide laundry detergent theft has all but run its course; however, retailers and loss prevention (LP) managers are far from washing their hands clean of the multi-billion dollar ORC problem.
In its wake, the LP industry has been left to focus on what might be next in the way of targeted goods and ORC plots. Staying on top of these trends poses a great challenge to LP professionals.Diamond sells for $9.7 million at Swiss auction.What can be learned in the wake of the grime wave? What steps can retailers and LP managers take to respond to emerging threats, while at the same time putting preventive measures in place to deter thieves? Here are some suggestions that can help us learn from these experiences and respond more effectively.
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