In Depth

Shoplifting and Organized Retail Crime: Mall Rats

John Talamo of The Limited knows exactly how profitable shoplifting can be. He explains the fight against organized retail crime.

By Sarah D. Scalet

We've assessed a value for every 30 days one of these professional criminals spends incarcerated. I would say in the last 18 months, our ORC teams' investigations have resulted in these criminals spending 618 months incarcerated, which equals 51.5 years, which is worth to us almost $2 million in out-of-business value. You add that to the $1.5 million of Limited Brands products, and now you're ­looking at $3.5 million ROI.

The other piece of it is the soft side of the ROI, but we still have to figure out a way of measuring this. If you want to come into Victoria's Secret, but someone came through—and we just had this yesterday—and stole $5,000 worth of merchandise, and now it's not available for sale, as a customer, what does that do to the experience? Do you buy something else, or do you go somewhere else?

Senior Editor Sarah D. Scalet can be reached at sscalet@cxo.com.

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