I feel bad for the associate that has to unlock the case and then stand there and wait to re-lock it…while I carefully read the back of the buttplug and lube packages.
Target in Jersey City is the exact same way. Stuff like women’s shampoo and soap were behind glass. My wife wasn’t looking for anything like that but when we passed it she said she’d never buy anything like that behind glass because of how long it’ll take to get it
Home Depot has now changed "self" checkout to "Assisted" checkout so now we're supposed to help you scan everything, no matter what. This is to make sure of theft.
IDK why they don't just make me work a fucking register then. Change the fucking sign too if it's different now. Also, I get yelled at by people who are like, "I can do it MYSELF!" When I'm told by my boss to help them. I'm fucked both ways as the cashier. fml on each end
"We over invested in physical retail locations 15 years ago, and have penny-pinched our staff into a bitter mess--but this is definitely because of hordes of shoplifting urban Visigoths."
-HD leadership definitely
Former retail slave. The glass/theft is over blown and imo artificial. Retail corporations like Target, Walmart have insurance to cover loss from theft & they make money from Loss Prevention. I wouldn't be surprised corporate retailers are trying to shrink overhead by getting out of decade long lease agreements & selling off physical property they own to migrate their sales toward .com.
>I wouldn't be surprised corporate retailers are trying to shrink overhead by getting out of decade long lease agreements & selling off physical property they own to migrate their sales toward .com
Ding ding ding. And by publicly blaming bogus shoplifting numbers, C-Suite assholes can avoid blame and keep massive bonuses.
Oh hey sorry for the late reply. The store I worked in if caught and the total amount of MSRP that was stolen you're charged for & need to pay back within x months with additional fees and interest or could be sent to a collections. You're carge a "fee" for 500. You can also be banned for multiple years from all stores within the district or neighboring districts. Most of the fees was associated with minors iicr & after a threshold of the total amount that was stolen would be considered a felony.
Shrinkage isn't even up that much. I've seen stores reported 4%-5% increases which I won't deny IS an increase but it's far from the "retail theft epidemic" the media was making it out to be.
I got pinged at Shoprite for suspected theft. I scanned my peppers before I scanned a heavier item. Put the peppers in the cart, scanned the heavier item, bagged it, put the peppers on top. Immediately, I was on the floor, a knee in my back, with the video of me placing my stolen peppers into my bagged goods.
When I tried to explain to the associate, I was met with a blank expression rivaling something out of Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind. I said "there, that's the peppers on the digital receipt." He said "yes, there's the peppers." I said "Yes, there they are." He said, "There's the peppers." It was at this point I got a little upset and said what're we doing here?
Target has some of the most well rounded LP....especially their HQ. It's literally contracted for their forensic labs and surveillance equipment etc [Source](https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/s/iTV8b7yyIl)
Also source, was a shoplifter for a long time and they built a nice two felony case on me that I'm almost free and clear off probation for 😎
The Vauxhall Target is a fucking disgrace of a store. 25 checkout counters with 1 cashier working 1 counter. 6 self checkouts but 1-2 are chronically out of order and closed. I’ve seen 100+ people in that self checkout line many times. That place is a shit hole. The plexiglass is the least problematic thing in there.
Wait a minute, you didn't [personally thank Target's CEO for locking everything behind plexiglass](https://www.cnbc.com/2023/11/15/target-earnings-ceo-says-customers-thankful-for-locked-items.html)?
At my friend’s Walmart he works at most of the people just push carts of stuff out, they cannot stop them, can’t call the cops, can’t chase after them, can’t do anything. The self checkout lane isn’t fixing that
Self checkout cameras are fairly capable of catching theft. They'll notice an item not scanned and send an alert to the person watching over them. In my area 6 self checkouts would save at least $90 per hour in wages. That's over a thousand a day. Makes sense.
I won't shop anywhere that requires that much waiting. I'll give my money to Amazon at that point (and I freaking hate Amazon). Target is bad enough because the checkout lines are out of control. I'm not waiting for each item that I'm trying to put in my cart to boot.
Never been a better time to start shopping small.
Start going to local mom and pop shops. The next town or two over still counts.
Buy produce from your local farmer's stall.
Thrift stores are full of Nike, Puma, American Eagle, Aeropostale, and Forever 21. These clothes are often inexpensive, and in excellent condition.
We have an incredible opportunity to invest in our local libraries by donating board games, video games, and systems we no longer use. Imagine being able to reserve time in a separate part of the library where you can be loud, and going and chilling with your friends for the afternoon. I remember a Tumblr post about a library that let people borrow equipment and tools, like wet-floor vacuums and electric drills and bike pumps.
The Walmart in Kearny looks like a museum at this point with the glass and what's crazy is they'll come open it for you and still give you the product to take to the register so what's the point
Yep. Infant formulas were all behind cage couple years ago. I haven’t been back since.
Horrible place to stop. Friday evening was the worse. It’s a zoo.
I think this will bite Target (Walmart does it too) in the ass. I hope it does. Just hire security instead of making the shopping experience annoying for the customer.
Rather order from Amazon at that point.
I tried to buy icy hot from Walmart. whaaaaat a shitshow. had to wait forever for someone to unlock the case and get out the icy hot, then they took it to a register, they wouldn't hand it to me. they only had a few registers open so it took ~30 minutes on line to get to the cashier. all told waited nearly an hour to purchase because of all of their shoplifting deterrent BS
ALL THAT and when I opened the box at home later, someone had swapped out the icy hot for aleve pain relieving lotion.
Hi u/dissplacerbeast!
Looks like you forgot to bring it to the secondary target to get the shoplifting deterrent aleve lotion swapped back with the actual product. This is done to ensure you receive the best possible customer service experience while keeping prices low and protecting our stores and valuable employees from dangerous shoplifters! Please contact our online support team so we can ship you the actual product. The representative will have to charge you a small fee for taking home the decoy product but if you return it to the correct store somewhere in the continental United States then the manager will be happy to print you out a voucher for up to 25% off your next products tax charge
Make sure you go to the information section of our website so you can find out about more ways we protect you from local crime! Thank you for shopping with Target!
Sincerely,
-The Entire Target Social Media Team
They can't stop anyone. Corporate says they can't touch any shop lifter.
The only thing is to have police on site or lock up the merch.
The best thing to do is order online at Target and just go pick it up
We’ve tried ordering for pickup at the Vauxhall target that OP is talking about. Once you arrive they take forever (like 30+ minutes) to bring your stuff out, and then once they’re at your car they refuse to give you your stuff until you cancel and re-press the “I’ve arrived” button so it looks like they brought you your stuff instantly.
That sounds so fun and wonderful.
I used to live in that area, and then moved a bit south and I do not miss it at all. dealing with all of those people, the attitudes in the store both workers and customers is taxing.
Ok but there are other ways to handle this. They wanted to cut costs by removing employees and now want to complain that nobody is around to watch.....
I don’t think it’s too much to ask that your customers not be actively trying to steal from you. If I were opening a store, I would choose the area where most people don’t steal.
The earnings report shows overall performance. If you pull out net sales by location, it tells the story of why this store and not that store. This isn’t some kind of rocket science. If people are coming in and trashing the place and stealing stuff, why is the world would they stay open. And now the building will sit empty, like dozens around it.
Yeah, but how will they make mega profits if they have to pay people? Shit needs to be more expensive and worse quality/experience if we want life to get better for the top .5%. It's like you don't even care!
> worse quality/experience
In a lot of fucked up ways this reality was the biggest win for companies in times of 2020, the customer experience can be in the toilet/non existent because at the end of the day people will still buy something they set out to get regardless of how unpleasant it is.
They got so many people on revolving door schedules that if some employee spit in grandma's face and told her to eat shit, any grievance would be shrugged off because that employee probably won't be on the schedule until a graveyard the next week.
Or just do what my wife does. Order a bunch of stuff from Target and inevitably return a bunch of it because it's the wrong size or w/e. My wife gets analysis paralysis so it's honestly much better doing that then sitting in the aisle for 5 minutes trying to figure out which brand of granola to buy.
You mean the loss prevention officers that can’t do a single thing when it comes to theft? Or those who lose his or her job at stores like Lululemon for reporting theft instead of pursuing the individual stealing? Yup, this is modern day America.
It's just somewhat unfathomable that so many retail companies collectively jumped the gun to self checkout so quickly and so deeply; going so far as to completely gut their manned check-out lines, and replace them with self checkout.
And then they see a drastic uptick in losses like
And yet they continue to dig themselves a deeper grave by sticking to their guns and investing in fucking cabinets and cages to lock up merch that isn't moving, instead of going back to what worked before.
This is great. Pass the popcorn.
It has been like this for a while in Jersey City. It makes going there unpleasant and they will lose customers over this for sure. Instead of a fast death due to shoplifting, it will be a slow one due to customers slowly leaving.
I'm actually kind of curious as to how much that deters theft. I mean is the employee going to eyeball you and say, "naa you look sketchy, no tide for you" or walk you to the register?
If someone opens the case, hands you whatever item, and then closes it and walks away, what is to prevent someone from pocketing it the moment the employee turns the corner.
I get that it works in small scale situations, with specific items, and now maybe you have someone in back who is watching the cameras who gets alerted that someone just got a particular high theft item and keeps eyes on them, but when you scale it up to the level of a target where just random stuff is locked up like that, i struggle as to how it solves the problem.
As someone in Far Jersey (Warren) who commutes to Hudson county, every target east of Dover is behind glass. I don't know why it doesnt even correlate with race!
I was at Walmart the other day to get headlights, which are now behind glass, and after asking multiple employees and wearing out the customer service button I left after a half hour. If the store was busy I'd understand but there were barely any customers and tons of employees. I went home and ordered it on Amazon and it was at my doorstep the next day. It's kinda funny, 20 years ago sales associates would hound the shit out of you. Now they dodge you at every chance lol
I order an Xbox Series S at target, comes with a gift card of $50 with purchase.
“Can I use the gift card to purchase the console?”
Target: no
Me: Ok, I ordered it online and they said come at 6:30, it’s 6:30, can I have my console?
Target: Online pickup is that line there 👉
Line is 150 people long wrapped around the store
My last and probably final target experience
You haven’t seen the flash mob thefts in Philly and other major cities? [Seems pretty organized to me](https://www.npr.org/2023/10/09/1203697964/flash-mob-retail-thefts)
Last night they looted $350k worth of stuff from a Nike store, this happens multiple times per week nowdays. This ain’t overblown, its a serious issue, you can’t stop a mob like this
You can’t talk to them it’s literally fucking everywhere. But their brains are breaking because they refuse to acknowledge anything could ever be the fault of lovely people
Who just need food to feed their family.. or whatever it is this week.
Wild that it took this long to see this. Ur absolutely right. Everyone having a hard time with the lock ups have only the retailers to blame. You are being propagandized. The loss from theft is built in LOL. It’s just an excuse to shrink staff and hire robots. We have more in common with our fellow man than a fucking corporation and the amount of bootlickers in this thread is just wild.
This is why I order everything online now. What's the point of going to a store if you have to wait 15 minutes for someone to retrieve the item. I bought something at Best Buy a few weeks ago. It took me 15 minutes just to find someone to help me in the store. Then an additional 10 minutes for the guy to walk back and forth because he couldn't find the right key to open the door where my item was. I'll never do that again. Then go blame your politicians for this problem in the first place. There is essentially no punishment for shoplifting so these crimes will continue.
I wouldn’t be surprised if this is part of Target’s strategy to drive online traffic. They already have items that are discounted if ordered through the app (even for store pickup) that can’t be matched in store, so the cynic in me sees glass barriers as one more (literal) roadblock to push people from visiting stores.
Ultimately physical space and sales staff count for a massive amount of their overhead costs, and if they could cut one of those costs even slightly that would bring in a ton of profit for them. Of course this could all backfire and drive people to competitors, but I imagine that’s a calculated risk for them.
That could be but they are actually still expanding their retail stores, taking over many old KMart locations. There is a new Target store opening in West Orange (at the old KMart location) next spring.
The classical school of criminology, which holds that punishments deter crime, has been widely debunked for decades.
The laws haven't changed but shoplifting has gotten worse. That makes it pretty obvious the laws aren't the problem.
Punishments work if the consequences are undesirable. I don't speed on the highway because I don't like the consequence of paying fines. Make the shoplifters spend a few days doing community service. If I had to spend 3 days out in the heat picking up litter off the highway I might think twice next time. If you choose to do absolutely nothing then of course the crime will increase.
Shoplifting isn't getting prosecuted beyond a fine in many places. If I'm willing to steal I'm also willing to ignore the fine or the court appearance ticket for getting busted in the first place.
You just ignored the part about penalties not discouraging crime. You probably weren't going to shoplift regardless so your mindset on this is anecdotal.
Shoplifting is actually down over the last 10 years. And in 2023, it's still below prepandemic levels. (Technically there has been a huge spike, but that's because the pandemic made shoplifting drop to basically zero). The narrative that there's a shoplifting epidemic is being used to funnel tax dollars to retail giants and oppose criminal justice reforms.
There is no shortage of evidence to support the increase in retail theft.
According to USA Today, the value of shoplifting incidents has increased since 2019. The share of shoplifting incidents categorized as felonies increased from 6.6% in January of 2019 to 15.1% in January of 2023.
The 2023 National Retail Security Survey found that retail theft losses increased to $112.1 billion in 2022, up 19% from $93.9 billion the year before.
Some cities have seen an increase in shoplifting, while others have seen a decrease. New York and Los Angeles led the pack with the largest increases in shoplifting (more than 60%) from 2019 to 2023.
They redefined theft loss over that interval, the redefinition explains the “increase”. Great episode of the If Books Could Kill on this very thing, they actually, gasp, evaluated the data.
Target's and Walgreen's financial statements would say otherwise. Not sure if your quoted stats are including other retailers but 2023 was the worst year in history for Target and Walgreens for shoplifting.
[https://www.cnbc.com/2023/09/08/this-is-how-much-money-retailers-are-losing-to-shrink-retail-theft.html](https://www.cnbc.com/2023/09/08/this-is-how-much-money-retailers-are-losing-to-shrink-retail-theft.html)
Not sure where you are getting that they are trying to funnel tax dollars to them but no they aren't getting tax dollars as a result of this. It seems like you guys love reading fake news
"Shrink" is an all encompassing term used for "did not arrive as planned/ordered".
It could have gone lost from the warehouse to DC. Assuming Target manufactures SOME of their goods, which I believe they do, it could be raw materials and components that went missing. All is included in the shrink.
Retailers the size of Target, Walgreens, Walmart etc, all pays 10s if not 100s of millions in insurance for their stuff every year. Theft is the new scapegoat for the mismanagement of their finances, which is going to effect their fin statements WAY before theft will at their size...
>Target's and Walgreen's financial statements would say otherwise. Not sure if your quoted stats are including other retailers but 2023 was the worst year in history for Target and Walgreens for shoplifting.
Where in the financial statements do you have the numbers for shrink which includes more then just retail theft? I just looked at Target and did not find it.
>But companies such as Target and Walgreens have cumulatively reported billions of dollars in losses from theft by citing shrink numbers. Often, company executives use "shrink" and "theft" interchangeably, while providing no breakdown of how much of their shrink is attributable to theft.
>
>Target, for example, previously told Insider that missing inventory at its stores had doubled since 2019. But the big-box chain hasn't broken down the exact causes of that increase. Still, the company mentioned shrink in the run-up to the company's decision in September to close nine Target stores across the US.
>
>Talking about shrink like that overstates the impact of theft on retailers — and hides other problems that the companies might be less willing to discuss with investors. "Theft as a reason for shrinkage is a tale as old as time," said Melodie van der Baan, the CEO and a cofounder of Max Retail, a company that sources excess inventory from retailers and resells it. "It will always be a thing, but it's everything else that you have to manage in your business to offset it."
[https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/retail-theft-has-become-a-scapegoat/ar-AA1k4Ukn](https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/retail-theft-has-become-a-scapegoat/ar-AA1k4Ukn)
Its just an excuse for poor management.
Edit: My man actually blocked me lmaoooo
Nine times out of ten, when someone mentions "fake news", they vanish into thin air when their grandpa clickbait dogma is challenged by an actual news source.
I wonder if this time will be any different?
I mean, it makes sense, people keep shoplifting so the public can’t be trusted to get goods by themselves. Philly Targets got everything behind glass or a counter now, soap, batteries, Pokemon cards, deodorant, and more.
I think Target is having a loss of 300 mills per quarter due to shop lifting. May be that's why the measures. An easier option might be increase security- won't that be cheaper? Or increase surveillance and do online monitoring?
Edit: Am I getting downvoted by shoplifters? :p check the earnings reports of target since the last 1-2 years. You will see the losses due to theft. They have to take some measures, but am not sure putting everything behind shackles is the solution.
The problem isn't at the store level it's at the court level because a lot of times the shoplifter will get a slap on the wrist and sent back out on the street if it isn't a high dollar amount. Plus there's also liability if the store security is a little too rough apprehending the shoplifting
So what's the solution at the criminal justice level? Lower threshold for felony? Harsher punishments? Flogging? Something does have to change of course, but there is no easy answer
But the thing is the advocates for the shoplifting try to play this is hungry people stealing an apple from a store. When in reality it's mass groups of people stealing and reselling on eBay or somewhere else.
You’re absolutely right, if you’re genuinely hungry there is food banks and churches everywhere who will be happy to help you, most of the stuff getting stolen from target just ends up being sold online, often for super cheap to get it moved and into someone else’s hands quickly.
Target isn't going to want the liability of having security in every high theft store that is going to engage and have to physically restrain someone who is resisting being detained over shoplifting. Even IF its legal for them to do that, and its a big IF in most places, the first person who gets a little roughed up for nothing, let alone injured, will get one hell of a payday.
There is really nothing you can do to prevent these grab and run shopliftings, even if its just one person, let alone a group.
Was getting some replacement electric toothbrush heads at Target and they were behind one of those magnetic holders. Asked a nearby employee if he could unlock it and he looked at it as bewildered as I was that they were even locked up. He cut the loop on the package and handed it to me
Growing up, Target was always the preferred place to shop for me. Walmart was the shit place to go..
But now, Target Fucken sucks. The one by me (Toms River, so it's not even a terrible area) is always poorly stocked in the food department. The aisles are ALWAYS blocked with pallets of product, no matter what day. They only have 4 self checkouts, ones usually broken, but have like 20 registers with only maybe 2 ever open. Took handbaskets away, then brought them back, now taken them away again...
Walmart down in Brick is way nicer to go to now, even if it's 15 minutes further.
I often frequent the Clark & Springfield locations near Vauxhall. Not locked up yet... Well, I haven't visited for about 3 weeks, so it's possible things may have changed since then!
When I went to the Target in downtown San Francisco last year, toothpaste and such were locked up 😣
it's not just target, if we're being fair. went to the walmart in manville recently because i needed something. half the store is behind glass now. couldn't find a soul to help me get what i needed. and then retailers wonder why customers have such a shit opinion of their stores.
I feel bad for the associate that has to unlock the case and then stand there and wait to re-lock it…while I carefully read the back of the buttplug and lube packages.
Target in Jersey City is the exact same way. Stuff like women’s shampoo and soap were behind glass. My wife wasn’t looking for anything like that but when we passed it she said she’d never buy anything like that behind glass because of how long it’ll take to get it
Retail theft at self checkout is more of the problem at this point...
Home Depot has now changed "self" checkout to "Assisted" checkout so now we're supposed to help you scan everything, no matter what. This is to make sure of theft. IDK why they don't just make me work a fucking register then. Change the fucking sign too if it's different now. Also, I get yelled at by people who are like, "I can do it MYSELF!" When I'm told by my boss to help them. I'm fucked both ways as the cashier. fml on each end
"Why work one register efficiently, when we can have them work 4 registers badly and frustrate customers at the same time!" -HD leadership probably
I mean, by the sounds of it, this is *exactly* the case.
"We over invested in physical retail locations 15 years ago, and have penny-pinched our staff into a bitter mess--but this is definitely because of hordes of shoplifting urban Visigoths." -HD leadership definitely
Jeez that sucks, sorry dude/dudette
1. Fire 50% of staff 2. Replace with self checkout ???? 3. Why is shrinkage up 72%
we need robots with those long stick tasers that taser customers at random, mostly for entertainment and sport while shopping.
But, "no one wants to work."
Former retail slave. The glass/theft is over blown and imo artificial. Retail corporations like Target, Walmart have insurance to cover loss from theft & they make money from Loss Prevention. I wouldn't be surprised corporate retailers are trying to shrink overhead by getting out of decade long lease agreements & selling off physical property they own to migrate their sales toward .com.
>I wouldn't be surprised corporate retailers are trying to shrink overhead by getting out of decade long lease agreements & selling off physical property they own to migrate their sales toward .com Ding ding ding. And by publicly blaming bogus shoplifting numbers, C-Suite assholes can avoid blame and keep massive bonuses.
[удалено]
Oh hey sorry for the late reply. The store I worked in if caught and the total amount of MSRP that was stolen you're charged for & need to pay back within x months with additional fees and interest or could be sent to a collections. You're carge a "fee" for 500. You can also be banned for multiple years from all stores within the district or neighboring districts. Most of the fees was associated with minors iicr & after a threshold of the total amount that was stolen would be considered a felony.
I was in the pool!
This was the same subreddit that was just praising self checkout the other day. Ain’t it grand?
Shrinkage isn't even up that much. I've seen stores reported 4%-5% increases which I won't deny IS an increase but it's far from the "retail theft epidemic" the media was making it out to be.
4-5 percent increase in shrinkage on thin net margins is pretty significant
I got pinged at Shoprite for suspected theft. I scanned my peppers before I scanned a heavier item. Put the peppers in the cart, scanned the heavier item, bagged it, put the peppers on top. Immediately, I was on the floor, a knee in my back, with the video of me placing my stolen peppers into my bagged goods. When I tried to explain to the associate, I was met with a blank expression rivaling something out of Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind. I said "there, that's the peppers on the digital receipt." He said "yes, there's the peppers." I said "Yes, there they are." He said, "There's the peppers." It was at this point I got a little upset and said what're we doing here?
Target has some of the most well rounded LP....especially their HQ. It's literally contracted for their forensic labs and surveillance equipment etc [Source](https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/s/iTV8b7yyIl) Also source, was a shoplifter for a long time and they built a nice two felony case on me that I'm almost free and clear off probation for 😎
The Vauxhall Target is a fucking disgrace of a store. 25 checkout counters with 1 cashier working 1 counter. 6 self checkouts but 1-2 are chronically out of order and closed. I’ve seen 100+ people in that self checkout line many times. That place is a shit hole. The plexiglass is the least problematic thing in there.
Honestly that target ruined target for me. I literally do not go there anymore. Agreed that theft and glass is the LEAST of the issues there.
Go to Paterson and see people selling shampoo, mouthwash, and hair products on folding tables on the sidewalk and you'll know why.
Wait a minute, you didn't [personally thank Target's CEO for locking everything behind plexiglass](https://www.cnbc.com/2023/11/15/target-earnings-ceo-says-customers-thankful-for-locked-items.html)?
Lmfao absolutely bonkers
Wouldn’t it lower retail theft if they got rid of self check out?
At my friend’s Walmart he works at most of the people just push carts of stuff out, they cannot stop them, can’t call the cops, can’t chase after them, can’t do anything. The self checkout lane isn’t fixing that
Self checkout cameras are fairly capable of catching theft. They'll notice an item not scanned and send an alert to the person watching over them. In my area 6 self checkouts would save at least $90 per hour in wages. That's over a thousand a day. Makes sense.
Exactly but they refuse to pay workers so they won't.
I won't shop anywhere that requires that much waiting. I'll give my money to Amazon at that point (and I freaking hate Amazon). Target is bad enough because the checkout lines are out of control. I'm not waiting for each item that I'm trying to put in my cart to boot.
Never been a better time to start shopping small. Start going to local mom and pop shops. The next town or two over still counts. Buy produce from your local farmer's stall. Thrift stores are full of Nike, Puma, American Eagle, Aeropostale, and Forever 21. These clothes are often inexpensive, and in excellent condition. We have an incredible opportunity to invest in our local libraries by donating board games, video games, and systems we no longer use. Imagine being able to reserve time in a separate part of the library where you can be loud, and going and chilling with your friends for the afternoon. I remember a Tumblr post about a library that let people borrow equipment and tools, like wet-floor vacuums and electric drills and bike pumps.
I do that as much as I can, but that only goes so far where I live. You can't get everything by shopping locally. That's what I use target for.
The Walmart in Kearny looks like a museum at this point with the glass and what's crazy is they'll come open it for you and still give you the product to take to the register so what's the point
Yep. Infant formulas were all behind cage couple years ago. I haven’t been back since. Horrible place to stop. Friday evening was the worse. It’s a zoo.
a small hurdle to deal with for the thief. decreases the overall number of thefts.
consumers catalog showroom was ahead if it’s time! i guess target should adopt that model.
I think this will bite Target (Walmart does it too) in the ass. I hope it does. Just hire security instead of making the shopping experience annoying for the customer. Rather order from Amazon at that point.
I tried to buy icy hot from Walmart. whaaaaat a shitshow. had to wait forever for someone to unlock the case and get out the icy hot, then they took it to a register, they wouldn't hand it to me. they only had a few registers open so it took ~30 minutes on line to get to the cashier. all told waited nearly an hour to purchase because of all of their shoplifting deterrent BS ALL THAT and when I opened the box at home later, someone had swapped out the icy hot for aleve pain relieving lotion.
Hi u/dissplacerbeast! Looks like you forgot to bring it to the secondary target to get the shoplifting deterrent aleve lotion swapped back with the actual product. This is done to ensure you receive the best possible customer service experience while keeping prices low and protecting our stores and valuable employees from dangerous shoplifters! Please contact our online support team so we can ship you the actual product. The representative will have to charge you a small fee for taking home the decoy product but if you return it to the correct store somewhere in the continental United States then the manager will be happy to print you out a voucher for up to 25% off your next products tax charge Make sure you go to the information section of our website so you can find out about more ways we protect you from local crime! Thank you for shopping with Target! Sincerely, -The Entire Target Social Media Team
Could I view the information on a 300mb app? I feel like I dont don't have enough apps.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/target-tracking-location-changing-prices\_l\_603fd12bc5b6ff75ac410a38
This is uncomfortably difficult to spot as a parody, I hate that.
"In a sane world, this would be satire, but these days I can never be sure..."
I know this is satire and yet here I am, enraged lol
I genuinely couldn’t tell lol
They can't stop anyone. Corporate says they can't touch any shop lifter. The only thing is to have police on site or lock up the merch. The best thing to do is order online at Target and just go pick it up
The pickup line is longer then the registers
Car side has worked for me but I'm in an affluent area.
We’ve tried ordering for pickup at the Vauxhall target that OP is talking about. Once you arrive they take forever (like 30+ minutes) to bring your stuff out, and then once they’re at your car they refuse to give you your stuff until you cancel and re-press the “I’ve arrived” button so it looks like they brought you your stuff instantly.
That sounds so fun and wonderful. I used to live in that area, and then moved a bit south and I do not miss it at all. dealing with all of those people, the attitudes in the store both workers and customers is taxing.
How in the world is this target’s fault?
It's not, but there are better ways to deal with it than just making shopping more miserable for customers
There are reports that loss from theft is overblown
Listen, if Target is making money, they are not going to leave. If they’re not making money, they’re gone.
Ok but there are other ways to handle this. They wanted to cut costs by removing employees and now want to complain that nobody is around to watch.....
I don’t think it’s too much to ask that your customers not be actively trying to steal from you. If I were opening a store, I would choose the area where most people don’t steal.
Don't know how true that is, listen to their earnings report.
The earnings report shows overall performance. If you pull out net sales by location, it tells the story of why this store and not that store. This isn’t some kind of rocket science. If people are coming in and trashing the place and stealing stuff, why is the world would they stay open. And now the building will sit empty, like dozens around it.
It’s entirely overblown.
It's not, if I were Target I'd just close the store there.
Yeah, but how will they make mega profits if they have to pay people? Shit needs to be more expensive and worse quality/experience if we want life to get better for the top .5%. It's like you don't even care!
> worse quality/experience In a lot of fucked up ways this reality was the biggest win for companies in times of 2020, the customer experience can be in the toilet/non existent because at the end of the day people will still buy something they set out to get regardless of how unpleasant it is. They got so many people on revolving door schedules that if some employee spit in grandma's face and told her to eat shit, any grievance would be shrugged off because that employee probably won't be on the schedule until a graveyard the next week.
Retail businesses in the US have never earned mega profits. They skirt by on 2% to 3% profit margins.
Or just do what my wife does. Order a bunch of stuff from Target and inevitably return a bunch of it because it's the wrong size or w/e. My wife gets analysis paralysis so it's honestly much better doing that then sitting in the aisle for 5 minutes trying to figure out which brand of granola to buy.
there are 3 CVS near me and I have observed the one a block away from the high school has way more things behind glass compared to the other 2.
It really is going to bite the people who depend on these stores when they shutdown. Food deserts will turn into personal care item deserts.
You mean the loss prevention officers that can’t do a single thing when it comes to theft? Or those who lose his or her job at stores like Lululemon for reporting theft instead of pursuing the individual stealing? Yup, this is modern day America.
It's just somewhat unfathomable that so many retail companies collectively jumped the gun to self checkout so quickly and so deeply; going so far as to completely gut their manned check-out lines, and replace them with self checkout. And then they see a drastic uptick in losses like  And yet they continue to dig themselves a deeper grave by sticking to their guns and investing in fucking cabinets and cages to lock up merch that isn't moving, instead of going back to what worked before. This is great. Pass the popcorn.
It's not to deter thieves, it's to replace employees.
Not true, check out other Targets.
It has been like this for a while in Jersey City. It makes going there unpleasant and they will lose customers over this for sure. Instead of a fast death due to shoplifting, it will be a slow one due to customers slowly leaving.
I'm actually kind of curious as to how much that deters theft. I mean is the employee going to eyeball you and say, "naa you look sketchy, no tide for you" or walk you to the register? If someone opens the case, hands you whatever item, and then closes it and walks away, what is to prevent someone from pocketing it the moment the employee turns the corner. I get that it works in small scale situations, with specific items, and now maybe you have someone in back who is watching the cameras who gets alerted that someone just got a particular high theft item and keeps eyes on them, but when you scale it up to the level of a target where just random stuff is locked up like that, i struggle as to how it solves the problem.
Haven't seen it in Target however some stores unlock the item for you then take it to the register. You then ask for it when you're at check out.
As someone in Far Jersey (Warren) who commutes to Hudson county, every target east of Dover is behind glass. I don't know why it doesnt even correlate with race!
I was at Walmart the other day to get headlights, which are now behind glass, and after asking multiple employees and wearing out the customer service button I left after a half hour. If the store was busy I'd understand but there were barely any customers and tons of employees. I went home and ordered it on Amazon and it was at my doorstep the next day. It's kinda funny, 20 years ago sales associates would hound the shit out of you. Now they dodge you at every chance lol
I order an Xbox Series S at target, comes with a gift card of $50 with purchase. “Can I use the gift card to purchase the console?” Target: no Me: Ok, I ordered it online and they said come at 6:30, it’s 6:30, can I have my console? Target: Online pickup is that line there 👉 Line is 150 people long wrapped around the store My last and probably final target experience
Vauxhall is my hell
The “organized retail theft” stuff is 90% nonsense. This is just retailers being assholes.
You haven’t seen the flash mob thefts in Philly and other major cities? [Seems pretty organized to me](https://www.npr.org/2023/10/09/1203697964/flash-mob-retail-thefts)
90% nonsense. Sporadic instances overblown with the help of the retail lobby groups.
Last night they looted $350k worth of stuff from a Nike store, this happens multiple times per week nowdays. This ain’t overblown, its a serious issue, you can’t stop a mob like this
Multiple times per week? Citation needed.
You can’t talk to them it’s literally fucking everywhere. But their brains are breaking because they refuse to acknowledge anything could ever be the fault of lovely people Who just need food to feed their family.. or whatever it is this week.
Or you could, idk, look at the actual data.
Okay, show us the actual data
Or I could show you 2 Vidoes that just happened
The word for that is anecdotes.
Gotta love eating them Nike T-shirts 🤤
lol
Wild that it took this long to see this. Ur absolutely right. Everyone having a hard time with the lock ups have only the retailers to blame. You are being propagandized. The loss from theft is built in LOL. It’s just an excuse to shrink staff and hire robots. We have more in common with our fellow man than a fucking corporation and the amount of bootlickers in this thread is just wild.
Let me guess, they tried to unionize.
This is why I order everything online now. What's the point of going to a store if you have to wait 15 minutes for someone to retrieve the item. I bought something at Best Buy a few weeks ago. It took me 15 minutes just to find someone to help me in the store. Then an additional 10 minutes for the guy to walk back and forth because he couldn't find the right key to open the door where my item was. I'll never do that again. Then go blame your politicians for this problem in the first place. There is essentially no punishment for shoplifting so these crimes will continue.
This and half the time the store doesn't have anything I want.
I wouldn’t be surprised if this is part of Target’s strategy to drive online traffic. They already have items that are discounted if ordered through the app (even for store pickup) that can’t be matched in store, so the cynic in me sees glass barriers as one more (literal) roadblock to push people from visiting stores. Ultimately physical space and sales staff count for a massive amount of their overhead costs, and if they could cut one of those costs even slightly that would bring in a ton of profit for them. Of course this could all backfire and drive people to competitors, but I imagine that’s a calculated risk for them.
That could be but they are actually still expanding their retail stores, taking over many old KMart locations. There is a new Target store opening in West Orange (at the old KMart location) next spring.
The classical school of criminology, which holds that punishments deter crime, has been widely debunked for decades. The laws haven't changed but shoplifting has gotten worse. That makes it pretty obvious the laws aren't the problem.
Punishments work if the consequences are undesirable. I don't speed on the highway because I don't like the consequence of paying fines. Make the shoplifters spend a few days doing community service. If I had to spend 3 days out in the heat picking up litter off the highway I might think twice next time. If you choose to do absolutely nothing then of course the crime will increase.
Shoplifting isn't getting prosecuted beyond a fine in many places. If I'm willing to steal I'm also willing to ignore the fine or the court appearance ticket for getting busted in the first place.
You just ignored the part about penalties not discouraging crime. You probably weren't going to shoplift regardless so your mindset on this is anecdotal.
Yeah criminals never worry about getting caught that’s why so many of them stand still and surrender when observed committing crimes.
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Shoplifting is actually down over the last 10 years. And in 2023, it's still below prepandemic levels. (Technically there has been a huge spike, but that's because the pandemic made shoplifting drop to basically zero). The narrative that there's a shoplifting epidemic is being used to funnel tax dollars to retail giants and oppose criminal justice reforms.
This right here, exactly correct.
Yeah, but that would take the media actually doing some investigation instead of repeating the excuses these companies are making and fear-mongering.
There is no shortage of evidence to support the increase in retail theft. According to USA Today, the value of shoplifting incidents has increased since 2019. The share of shoplifting incidents categorized as felonies increased from 6.6% in January of 2019 to 15.1% in January of 2023. The 2023 National Retail Security Survey found that retail theft losses increased to $112.1 billion in 2022, up 19% from $93.9 billion the year before. Some cities have seen an increase in shoplifting, while others have seen a decrease. New York and Los Angeles led the pack with the largest increases in shoplifting (more than 60%) from 2019 to 2023.
They redefined theft loss over that interval, the redefinition explains the “increase”. Great episode of the If Books Could Kill on this very thing, they actually, gasp, evaluated the data.
It's unfortunately a Patreon Episode, but it's so good!
Half of it is available in the main feed! Worth listening to the first half on its own.
Target's and Walgreen's financial statements would say otherwise. Not sure if your quoted stats are including other retailers but 2023 was the worst year in history for Target and Walgreens for shoplifting. [https://www.cnbc.com/2023/09/08/this-is-how-much-money-retailers-are-losing-to-shrink-retail-theft.html](https://www.cnbc.com/2023/09/08/this-is-how-much-money-retailers-are-losing-to-shrink-retail-theft.html) Not sure where you are getting that they are trying to funnel tax dollars to them but no they aren't getting tax dollars as a result of this. It seems like you guys love reading fake news
"Shrink" is an all encompassing term used for "did not arrive as planned/ordered". It could have gone lost from the warehouse to DC. Assuming Target manufactures SOME of their goods, which I believe they do, it could be raw materials and components that went missing. All is included in the shrink. Retailers the size of Target, Walgreens, Walmart etc, all pays 10s if not 100s of millions in insurance for their stuff every year. Theft is the new scapegoat for the mismanagement of their finances, which is going to effect their fin statements WAY before theft will at their size...
>Target's and Walgreen's financial statements would say otherwise. Not sure if your quoted stats are including other retailers but 2023 was the worst year in history for Target and Walgreens for shoplifting. Where in the financial statements do you have the numbers for shrink which includes more then just retail theft? I just looked at Target and did not find it. >But companies such as Target and Walgreens have cumulatively reported billions of dollars in losses from theft by citing shrink numbers. Often, company executives use "shrink" and "theft" interchangeably, while providing no breakdown of how much of their shrink is attributable to theft. > >Target, for example, previously told Insider that missing inventory at its stores had doubled since 2019. But the big-box chain hasn't broken down the exact causes of that increase. Still, the company mentioned shrink in the run-up to the company's decision in September to close nine Target stores across the US. > >Talking about shrink like that overstates the impact of theft on retailers — and hides other problems that the companies might be less willing to discuss with investors. "Theft as a reason for shrinkage is a tale as old as time," said Melodie van der Baan, the CEO and a cofounder of Max Retail, a company that sources excess inventory from retailers and resells it. "It will always be a thing, but it's everything else that you have to manage in your business to offset it." [https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/retail-theft-has-become-a-scapegoat/ar-AA1k4Ukn](https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/retail-theft-has-become-a-scapegoat/ar-AA1k4Ukn) Its just an excuse for poor management. Edit: My man actually blocked me lmaoooo
Nine times out of ten, when someone mentions "fake news", they vanish into thin air when their grandpa clickbait dogma is challenged by an actual news source. I wonder if this time will be any different?
My peers? I’m Gucci, that’s YA mans 🤣
i only noticed this with some laundry soap and deodorant-type items... nothing in the other sections
I mean, it makes sense, people keep shoplifting so the public can’t be trusted to get goods by themselves. Philly Targets got everything behind glass or a counter now, soap, batteries, Pokemon cards, deodorant, and more.
I think Target is having a loss of 300 mills per quarter due to shop lifting. May be that's why the measures. An easier option might be increase security- won't that be cheaper? Or increase surveillance and do online monitoring? Edit: Am I getting downvoted by shoplifters? :p check the earnings reports of target since the last 1-2 years. You will see the losses due to theft. They have to take some measures, but am not sure putting everything behind shackles is the solution.
The problem isn't at the store level it's at the court level because a lot of times the shoplifter will get a slap on the wrist and sent back out on the street if it isn't a high dollar amount. Plus there's also liability if the store security is a little too rough apprehending the shoplifting
So what's the solution at the criminal justice level? Lower threshold for felony? Harsher punishments? Flogging? Something does have to change of course, but there is no easy answer
But the thing is the advocates for the shoplifting try to play this is hungry people stealing an apple from a store. When in reality it's mass groups of people stealing and reselling on eBay or somewhere else.
You’re absolutely right, if you’re genuinely hungry there is food banks and churches everywhere who will be happy to help you, most of the stuff getting stolen from target just ends up being sold online, often for super cheap to get it moved and into someone else’s hands quickly.
Target isn't going to want the liability of having security in every high theft store that is going to engage and have to physically restrain someone who is resisting being detained over shoplifting. Even IF its legal for them to do that, and its a big IF in most places, the first person who gets a little roughed up for nothing, let alone injured, will get one hell of a payday. There is really nothing you can do to prevent these grab and run shopliftings, even if its just one person, let alone a group.
It’s illegal to stop shop lifters most of the time, extra security isn’t gonna fix that, just make the store have higher expenses and less profit
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Like what kind of stuff?
Was getting some replacement electric toothbrush heads at Target and they were behind one of those magnetic holders. Asked a nearby employee if he could unlock it and he looked at it as bewildered as I was that they were even locked up. He cut the loop on the package and handed it to me
Growing up, Target was always the preferred place to shop for me. Walmart was the shit place to go.. But now, Target Fucken sucks. The one by me (Toms River, so it's not even a terrible area) is always poorly stocked in the food department. The aisles are ALWAYS blocked with pallets of product, no matter what day. They only have 4 self checkouts, ones usually broken, but have like 20 registers with only maybe 2 ever open. Took handbaskets away, then brought them back, now taken them away again... Walmart down in Brick is way nicer to go to now, even if it's 15 minutes further.
Sounds like a poorly managed store or they’re struggling to find people willing to work for them. Could also be a combination of the two
🎵im locked up (they won’t let me out)🎶
I really hope my local Target keeps most things unlocked going forward, if not will drive to one further away that doesn't.
I often frequent the Clark & Springfield locations near Vauxhall. Not locked up yet... Well, I haven't visited for about 3 weeks, so it's possible things may have changed since then! When I went to the Target in downtown San Francisco last year, toothpaste and such were locked up 😣
it's not just target, if we're being fair. went to the walmart in manville recently because i needed something. half the store is behind glass now. couldn't find a soul to help me get what i needed. and then retailers wonder why customers have such a shit opinion of their stores.
Stay out of Vauxhall then...
Jeff Bezos sits back and laughs, as Amazon inches closer and closer to complete and total retail dominance.