October 6, 2008—Retailers, law enforcement and state officials joined together recently to form the Law Enforcement Retailer Alliance of New England, the first multi-state network developed to combat organized retail crime.
The alliance will launch an information sharing network between law enforcement and retailers. Nancy Kyle, president of the Retail Merchants Association of New Hampshire, said organized retail crime is “a huge problem” in New England.
The development of the network was spearheaded by the Retail Merchants Association of New Hampshire, the Retailers Association of Massachusetts, Connecticut Retail Merchants Association, Vermont Retailers Association the Rhode Island Retail Federation and the Maine Merchants Association. Kyle said it was critical for the states to join forces because of their relatively small geographic footprint.
The financial loss retailers experience to organized retail crime and its affect on New England retailers is growing, Kyle said, but that isn’t the only concern.
“The other side of this is that consumers that are buying this stuff online have no idea what type of atmosphere the product has been kept in,” she said. “It could be stored in an overheated environment or may be past its due date. It’s a health risk.”
For more information, see the Web site of the Maine Merchants Association.
