U.S. Chamber of Commerce report concludes organized retail crime could double this year

In a new report that urged governmental action, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce this week found that organized retail crime this year surpassed those in 2022 by 43 percent, and could nearly double it by year’s end.

“The scourge of organized retail crime has become increasingly pervasive, with retailer losses driven by retail crime totaling nearly $100 billion dollars last year,” Tom Wickham, U.S. Chamber senior vice president of state and local policy, said. “No store should have to close because of theft, but we are sadly seeing more stores – particular smaller ones – shuttering their doors because of theft and other crime in their neighborhoods.”

A separate survey run by the Chamber in 2022 concluded that 56 percent of small businesses in the U.S. reported retail theft and nearly half claimed the issue was worsening. Now, in this Crime Risk to Business 2023 report, the organization doubled down on the idea, and stated that more concrete policy actions were needed to combat it at the local, state and national levels.

Since the Chamber raised the issue last year, some new legislation has come to the fore, with states deploying new statutes and raising penalties against organized retail crime, while at the national level, passage of the INFORM act slapped new requirements on online marketplaces, requiring them to collect, verify and disclose certain information about high-volume third party sellers to the government, or face penalties of $50,120 per violation.

Building on this, the report pushed for increased public-private cooperation on gangs in particular, legal changes allowing prosecutors to aggregate multiple offenses across jurisdictions, and more aggressive actions from local prosecutors – or the removal of those prosecutors that fail to take aggressive action.

Details on businesses from the report came from a mix of corporate documents, including 10-K filings, earnings calls, presentations, and other records of companies listed on the S&P 500.