Dive Brief:

• Major retailers like Macy’s, J.C. Penney, Target, Home Depot, and Rite Aid have joined the 100 companies that, along with law enforcement, form the Metropolitan Organized Retail Crime Alliance.

• At regular meetings, the retailers gather to share information about thefts at their stores with each other and more than 50 law enforcement agencies, including the New York Police Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

• The alliance was modeled after the Los Angeles Area Organized Retail Crimes Association, which since its formation in 2009 has found success in fighting organized retail theft.

Dive Insight:

Due in some part to the intense competition among them, many retailers that have recently joined this alliance previously worked in isolation to prevent loss from organized retail theft. That has left an opening for well-organized scams and thefts to feed a black market, which the National Retail Federation says costs retailers some $30 billion a year.