The Tide is Going Out ..............

Tide laundry detergent is meant to be used for household cleaning purposes, but thieves are turning it into something dirty.

Authorities are reporting a spike in thefts of Tide, and in some cities they are setting up task forces where the detergent is sold to track the number of bottles in stores.

Police believe thieves are using the soap on the black market, which retails for $10-$20, to buy drugs. On the black market, Tide is often referred to as "liquid gold" and can go for $5-$10 per bottle.

Last year, in St. Paul, Minnesota, a man is alleged to have stolen $25,000 worth of Tide over 15 months before authorities captured him. Stores such as CVS have amped up security measures to prevent theft; at some locations the detergent is kept in a locked container and an employee must retrieve it for customers.

So why is Tide the only detergent being targeted? Authorities list several reasons: Tide is instantly recognizable because of its Day-Glo orange bottle; it is one of the most expensive brands of laundry detergent; and it does not have serial numbers, so it cannot be tracked.

On social media, people are calling the theft trend "bizarre" and many are blaming it on the tough economy and rising gas prices. One person tweeted that the thefts are "a result of inflation."

A spokesperson for Procter & Gamble, the manufacturer of Tide, called the thefts "unfortunate."

Sandwich arrest stirs debate over eating in stores

Now there is a debate about "eating in stores."  Eating while shopping and then paying for it .... BS

I could live very comfortably on what gets EATEN in Walmart and NEVER gets paid for. I see opened pop cans, candy wrappers, some half eaten sandwiches and more on each visit to Walmart.

Pay for it, then eat it. End of discussion. When doing demos at Walmart I have often had both food and drink and ALWAYS had a receipt taped to the item.

How many, I wonder, would take a tuna salad sandwich, slowly munch on it while shopping .... well, no one saw me .... its  eaten now ......... "maybe I will just drop the wrapper in the trash and not pay for it."

BUY IT ............. then ............. eat or drink it, just don't give me that crap ........ "I was gonna pay for it," Yea, right .......... that's why WALMART LOSES 3 BILLION DOLLARS A YEAR ..... to theft.

More retailers hit by organized crime

By Phil Wahba Phil Wahba
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Sophisticated technology, less staff at stores and more gang activity are all contributing to more U.S. stores being hit by organized crime, according to a survey by an industry group.

Of 129 retailers, primarily national store chains, surveyed this spring by the National Retail Federation, 94.5 percent said they were victimized by organized criminals in the past year. And 84.8 percent said the problem has only worsened in the past three years.

The NRF said cutbacks of security employees, the desire for low prices by consumers and the ease of selling stolen goods online or at pawn shops all contributed to the problem. NRF members range from Macy's Inc to mom-and-pop shops.

"Shoppers are conditioned to look for a deal," a senior NRF advisor, Joe LaRocca, told Reuters.

LaRocca said consumers do not actively seek stolen goods, but the appetite for low prices has spurred demand.

"Thieves are looking for highly desirable, easily resold items," he said.

In contrast to shoplifting, organized crime involves people conspiring to steal merchandise, often between distribution centers and stores, and reselling rather than keeping items for their own use.

The survey found that targeted items range from jeans by Levi Strauss and Sony Play Station 3 Consoles to medication such as Advil and Benadryl.

Shoplifting and theft cost retailers 1.6 percent of sales, or $32 billion in 2009, the last year for which data is available, the NRF said.

That does not include the damage from hits on cargo, or merchandise that has not yet reached stores.

The NRF's annual survey included questions about cargo theft for the first time and found that just under half of retailers, 49.6 percent, had been struck by this kind of theft.

Criminals are also growing more violent when caught by store employees. Some 13 percent of in-store apprehensions lead to violence such as assault, the survey found.

The NRF's seventh annual survey was conducted between April 19 and May 10 and was answered by senior loss prevention executives.

With the struggling economy, LaRocca said demand for stolen goods could remain strong.

"The weak economy has pushed consumers to look for better prices. Organized retail crime groups capitalize on that desperation," he added.

Banks, Credit-Card Issuers Warn Of Email Breach

by The Associated Press

I have received two or possibly three already that are suspicious, so I think that this is a real threat .............. BEWARE

With the possible theft of millions of consumer email addresses from an advertising company, several large companies have started warning customers to expect fraudulent emails that try to coax account login information from them.

A dozen companies said over the weekend that hackers may have learned their email addresses because of a security breach at a Dallas-based company called Epsilon that manages email communications.

Among the affected companies are banks like Capital One Financial Corp., Barclays Bank, U.S. Bancorp and Citigroup Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co., and retailers like Best Buy Co., TiVo Inc., Walgreen Co. and Kroger Co.

The College Board, the not-for-profit organization that runs the SATs, also warned that a hacker may have obtained student email addresses.

Walt Disney Co.'s travel subsidiary, Disney Destinations, sent emails warning customers on Sunday.

Epsilon said Friday that its system had been breached, exposing email addresses and customer names but no other personal information.

The email addresses could be used to target spam. It's also a standard tactic among online fraudsters to send emails to random people, purporting to be from a large bank and asking them to login in at a site that looks like the bank's site. Instead, the fraudulent site captures their login information and uses it to access the real account.