Is this term describing thieves a real one or just a means to hype up attention to people that steal for a living?
I have always felt the term ORC was too broad and tended to pull in all types of people that steal for more than personal consumption. You have folks that steal everyday from retailers and sell the product via swap meets, local businesses, friends and EBay. They also work the refund process and sell the cash valued cards on various sites. To me, these types of people are not ORC but, people that steal on a daily basis for profit and in some times, a sole means of income.
The other group of folks would be classified as ORC and tend to be the largest threat to retailers. These are groups of people that recruit people to shoplift on a daily basis to obtain large quantities of product. They can be organized by groups associated with gangs and are often from outside the United States. They have different options to them to move the product after it is stolen. They can re-introduce it back into the logistics chain, sell it to businesses or work the lower channels of selling. The main difference is the degree of stealing and quantities stolen over a period of time.
Product categories tend to be the same and usually fit the standards of high price points, small, name brand and attractive for re sell. Some targeted items are razor blades, teeth whitening products, ink jet cartridges, denim, purses and even baby formula.
Hard to imagine Al Capone organizing the theft of baby formula. But, if there is good money there...
Next Monday I will discuss retailer's efforts to curb these losses by asking if they are doing enough??
