These are people who make a living stealing and reselling. This is not a one-time opportunistic or need-based robbery.

Cory Lowe

The anatomy of these attacks show they are more aggressive, dangerous and happening more frequently, when I talk to retail loss prevention veterans, the best comparison they come up with is what crime was like in New York in the 1970s. But even then, it was more street robberies and not like retail theft as brazen as this.

Think about retailers that are staffed predominantly by women, like cosmetics stores and high-end fashion, criminals target these stores because these are high-dollar items and they anticipate little pushback from the staff. But the fear makes it difficult to keep employees.