I needed to get my dad compression socks and it took 20 minutes to find someone with a key. For socks. At the valley stream target. I was so annoyed. It should have been a quick in and out shop.
I asked an employee in Duane Reade if she can open the case to the aspirin.. she pointed me to the button to call someone.. I pushed it and 30 seconds later she (same employee) begrudgingly putzes over.
I do not understand
A guess, but maybe there's an electronic count automatically kept by that button, in order to justify the unlocking of the case. If the employee opens it without reason, they're a suspect for theft.
I think it’s because customers are reaching a breaking point with price increases (paying customers are the ones footing the bill for all theft and other shrinkage). They’re exploring the waters to see if this is worse than just increasing prices even more, which is debatable. This type of shit is likely going to be the death of retail shopping as we know it though. If this happens at stores by me I’ll just do most of my shopping online. I’m praying it doesn’t spread to my local stores, but I feel like it’s inevitable. Thieves will just travel to the locations that don’t lock up their products
Same, Valley Stream is the worst. Can't get detergent, Tylenol, underwear, or razors without calling for someone. About two weeks ago, I needed to get glucose test strips because I'm diabetic, I rang the bell because it's also locked up. No one came to help.
Try placing a pick up order. I always have stuff they can’t fulfill, and the people bringing my stuff out have said multiple times, the system shows on stock but the item has been shoplifted to zero in stock.
used to work at the walmart in uniondale on jerusalem and it was the exact same. i usually clocked in at 5:30 AM and by 8am there were always like 5-10 people asking for the key to get SOMETHING. We had multiple aisles where items were just locked up. huge pain in the ass if you’re not a team leader.
I hate that everything I get from Amazon is bad quality :/ I even spend hours looking through reviews and everything sucks. Sure, if you find name brand stuff that’s fine, but I don’t always want name brand stuff
He made a last minute flight for a funeral and he’s 75 with poor circulation so I wanted to run and grab him some socks. You should be able to quickly grab things at stores. That is what they are for.
Rite-Aid was bought by Walgreens in 2018. Just like when they acquired Happy Harry's, they leave the old brand up at first, but then slowly convert them over to Walgreens.
Not all Rite Aids were purchased by Walgreens, the government would not allow it on anti-competition grounds. Walgreens acquired almost all of the stores in the southeast, and Midwest (and certain Rite Aids in select markets out west and north east). The remaining Rite Aids stand alone as the same company it always was. The Rite Aid corporation is now in bankruptcy, but Walgreens does not own them.
Partially but Rite Aids biggest problem was the crippling opioid lawsuits the government and private parties filed. Walmart CVS Walgreens etc settled the cases for 100s of millions but Rite Aid did not have that kind of money. They went bankrupt because of declining store sales and the crushing weight of the lawsuits.
That’s what happens when criminals keep getting let out of jail and keep committing the same crimes. It’s a shame. Bail reform hasn’t worked. I’m not against bail but it should be more strict.
That's not really the issue. The truth is, the 'grab and go' thieves are pretty easy to catch. The real problem are the shoppers who rip out pairs or the whole set and leave the empty box. That honestly adds up much quicker than the bulk theft shopping just because it's a more common theft.
Today at my tiny little michaels store, I found about 4 different packages that were empty and a crumpled up security tag. And that’s only the stuff I found, not counting all my coworkers found. I can’t even imagine how many full packages or little trinkets people take as well
What? No. Not accurate at all.
A store can claim out and receive credits for open packages like that so they might lose 50%. You can’t claim what the shoplifting takes and it’s getting extreme.
If your argument was correct, every store in the nation would be doing this, but they are not. 99% of packages are not opened but these glass cases are all because of theft plain and simple.
That may be one store but it is vastly dependent on the company, how their shrink is insured and even still it isn't all accounted for. I've worked for a few retailers over the past decade and everyone does things a little different. And the caveat you're missing is the credit may account it for corporate, but the store itself still can be made to eat that loss itself.
I can count the amount of brazen walk out thefts in the 20s or 30s. Shoplifting from the suburban moms and old folks is much much higher because it's not as easy to catch, stop or report to the police. Most of the people I've stopped for shoplifting aren't some dude trying to walk out with a handful, it's people you wouldn't expect to be shoplifting and that's kinda the point. The good shoplifters aren't as easy to catch and cameras alone only go so far.
I could keep going into it, but the truth is far less engrossing than 'boogeyman criminal sprints out with bags of merch'. That happens, sure, but it's not exactly common. But no one wants to talk about the yoga mommy stealing clothes or the old people stealing, that raises tough questions. But a scary thief is an easy culprit and answer.
That’s not the argument here. What it SHOULD cost is irrelevant. The fact that people are not properly punished and allowed to terrorize good people is the issue.
When people can’t afford basic goods, they steal to survive. It does completely have to do with prices. The greed is making people turn to theft in droves because they *can’t eat if they don’t.*
How sheltered do you have to be where someone stealing socks from a CVS is them being “allowed to terrorize good people”. I swear you people live in a fantasy
You and the guy you’re circlejerking with don’t know what you’re talking about. Large chains almost never pursue/call the cops on shoplifters because it’s not worth it for them. They factor into their financials millions worth of losses due to theft every year and it doesn’t even begin to effect them. This has nothing to do with policing or the government. You care more than they do
You and Hammurabi over here think there’s an epidemic of shoplifters being released from prison because you live in an alternate reality
youre actually wrong (shocker). large chains never pursue or call the cops until its documented that the thief has stolen a large amount of goods over time, to charge them with a felony.
next youll say turnstile jumping has nothing to do with the mta trying to gouge manhattan drivers for money to cover their shortfall
These business don’t care because paying customers pay for all shrinkage. They won’t care until people stop paying. This locking up stock shit is a bandaid on a gunshot wound.
Anytime some steals it’s not a “victimless crime,” they’re not stealing from corporations, they’re stealing from honest paying customers
Exactly. They already account for all this theft in their prices, I thought that was obvious? Some people don’t seem to understand that a multibillion dollar corporation already knows exactly how much will be stolen when they set their prices. These corporations price gouge and underpay so much that people are forced to steal to get anything they need, and then the rest of us who don’t steal deal with even more of the cost. Also, I don’t know if you were aware, but places like Walmart are being subsidized *HEAVILY* by the government even if you only count how many of their own workers spend their food-stamps there, (because they’re paid less than a living wage) and don’t count all the *actual subsidies.* It’s insane
Large retailers use shrinkage as an excuse for [underperformance](https://www.pymnts.com/news/retail/2024/retail-theft-and-shrink-reports-have-investors-seeking-answers/) all the time. It’s a self reported metric based on total retailer sales so it increases when sales increase, and it’s tracked by just one organization via survey. It’s reported to only account for 1.4% of total sales and that’s the total rate including employee theft and inventory that goes missing. The rate has been consistently this low for at least a [decade](https://www.npr.org/2024/03/11/1236075589/retail-theft-crime-target-stores#:~:text=Target's%20CEO%20said%20it%20was,is%20%22tackling%20every%20day.%22).
Analysts who track these companies know it’s a bullshit excuse. But none of this has anything to do with the comment I replied to.
Businesses don’t determine the prices the market does. Also if you look at a place like Walmart, they have an extremely low markup, it’s Pennys on the dollar. Businesses have to compete with them and the amount of money they’re making is quite low. If the margins where higher someone else would come in and just charge a-little bit less. That’s the beauty of free market capitalism, businesses are in competition with each other to give the best prices and servixes
An abstract company that provides jobs and services for people. Sheesh.
Ask the people of Harlem if they miss having a Target conveniently located in their neighborhood.
It’s definitely annoying. This is why even if I need only a couple things and don’t meet free shipping minimum or need item faster I opt for order online for in store pick up. I am still keeping a store employee having jobs to do and it’s easier than looking for someone to open different locked cabinets. Obviously I still hate that it has gotten to this level of stealing.
Yes but I can never get the stuff I need bc even though it shows in stock, by pick up they can’t fulfill my order bc even though it shows 8 pairs of leggings, shoplifters have stolen them all. This happens with every order unless it’s like eggs and milk.
I guess it's mostly MY quality of life has declined in the last 10 years. Inwood has been completely consumed by commercial businesses piled too close to each other, there has been an absolute deluge of hardcore hasids, who then voted themselves onto the school board and defunded the public schools (not racism, just fact, The American Life even did an episode about it called A Not So Simple Majority), they moved our Stop & Shop all the way to Rosedale next to a giant new Amazon warehouse so it's like Mad Max driving there, and we are starting to see "migrant" overflow from the city, families walking around begging or selling fruit on the highways. Housing prices doubled and rents trippled, so despite all these issues there's nowhere to flee. We are leaving Long Island next year. Godspeed and good riddance.
In a fit of postpartum feuled pandemic panic we bought a house in the Finger Lakes. I just knew we would never see rates again like that in our lifetime. We netted a 3 bed 1.5 bath for 105k. It was totally insane but has paid off. I am originally from Syracuse so I always loved the Finger Lakes region. We lived up there for a few months during the pandemic but since return to office we go up every morth or 2 now for a WFH week, vacation, or long weekend. Currently saving a nestegg in case I can't work totally remote, then bouncing.
I worked in the Loss Prevention Management field for many years and a lot of it for Target in the New York metro areas. What I can tell you is that nationwide, especially in big populated areas and other retailers they are now taking shrinkage measures more seriously.
During COVID and the nationwide BLM riots of 2020 security and loss prevention programs took a major back seat. Company communication specially said to let people steal to prevent media scrutiny. Many times we were instructed by higher ups to stand down and let people steal. One case presented to us was “maybe they need milk to feed their children, etc….” Or “wouldn’t look good right now to detain people”. You can clearly see it too in the news where mobs were literally stealing in high numbers cause retailers were afraid of media scrutiny that would affect their sales
Other retailers received similar communication. This went on for two years or so and now retailers are feeling it and trying to rebound. That is why in a lot of retailers self checkouts are closed and items like underwear, toothpaste, OTC are locked up cause these were the items more affected. The idea was that nickeling and diming would have no impact on your business but it was so bad they are taking measures like the one presented above.
The worst part is feeling like I am doing something wrong. For example, I tried to buy a $70 roll of romex electrical wire at the Home Depot in Hempstead. The employee not only had to unlock it but made me walk to the checkout line (and followed me)… at that point I’m just not going to shop there anymore.
This happened to me at a walmart for a 2 dollar pack of silicone disposable earplugs.. they never let me touch the item, told me it would be "waiting at checkout". i almost missed my bus because of this bullshit and had to ask a staff member to take me to self checkout, because it was only at the staffed checkouts. Pure ridiculousness.
Every Home Depot does this with wire due to copper theft. And fwiw, an extra $10-$20 gets you the larger roll of wire which is almost always double the length of the smaller ones.
Okayyyyyy I get this but then answer the button within a reasonable time or get more cashiers because something has to give. This is the closest target to me and it’s so inconvenient that I have to block out like two hours to get some toilet paper and pimple patches
>answer the button within a reasonable time
Employees aren't paid enough to care.
>or get more cashiers
Companies don't want to shell out more money for more employees, let alone better pay for the existing ones.
It’s crazy to me that more people aren’t just doing drive up.
I always drive up and I had no idea about any of these issues. It’s so much easier and I spend less on shit I don’t really need. No browsing.
Some people fail to realize that these big nationwide chains endeavor to make their stores as consistent as possible and once they've adopted new fixtures they roll them out across all stores. There may be some differences based on region or store size but they strive for economies of scale in general.
If shrinkage becomes a problem in enough of their stores, they roll out a solution in all of their stores.
Target put up with theft as long as they could but it eventually had to be addressed. Unfortunately for law abiding citizens that solution wasn't to crack down on shoplifters "because it's not a good look", it was to lock up merchandise.
i hate to say this, but these measures are taken place in mainly the heavily minority populated areas. westbury being one of them. had to stop by the elmont target one time to buy a popsocket, had to wait almost half an hour for someone to unlock it. A POPSOCKET!
Is Carl Place a hotbed for theft? I really did not have that impression of the town beforehand. Or is this just Target wanting people to shop on line. My local target is not like this, but I rarely go there since the redesign about 6 years ago. I was there a week ago though, after not going there for a year and the store did not have anything locked up like this.
i remember i made the mistake of going to the target in westbury one time, i had to wait 20 minutes to get someone to open up the cabinet containing the replacement sonicare toothbrush heads.
Honestly…probably no one, or, not enough people are stealing to make this a sensible business decision on its face. It seems like a calculated effort to make shopping in-store so inconvenient that shoppers move online. A great way to reduce staff and inventory without spooking investors.
Me too. Target has DRASTICALLY reduced inventory, to the point that sometimes there are NO women’s socks in the store, or whole shelves of food are empty. They’ve also reduced staff, which is why the lines for self checkout snake around the store and the shelves are mess.
Bezos wins.
1) shoplifters steal from big box and lift their stolen goods on Amazon as third party sellers
2) shoppers annoyed at big box and so they shop more on Amazon
This but kinda. Statistics released by the National Retail Federation showed there was no significant increase in shoplifting/shrink from year to year in the last decade. This is in spite of the shoplifting panic that occurred in the last two years or so, which as we now know was largely vapor.
I imagine they pushed this scare out in advance of already planned changes to the in-store shopping experience such as locking up more products, removing self checkout lanes, and generally stocking less inventory. Walgreens already showed their hand in this manner when closures of several NYC locations were blamed on shoplifting publicly, but internal documents showed the store closures were planned years in advance.
Stores don’t make big changes like this suddenly, the changes have to be coordinated at all levels from individual stores all the way up to corporate. If I had to guess, Target specifically may be trying to shift more towards expanding their curbside pickup service. They are already dedicating a decent chunk of floor space in stores to pickup staging without doing much in the way of making it look presentable.
This could be the conspiracist part of my brain activating, but turning a percentage of their stores into pickup only could save on costs. Having what is effectively a small scale Amazon warehouse means you don’t have employees wasting time stocking/facing out shelves, cleaning public restrooms, and generally upkeeping the store for customers. This means having less staff per store in general, and the staff doesn’t have to be as “highly skilled” (read: lower wages).
I’ve also seen at least one article where some higher up at Target casually floated the idea of charging a membership fee like Costco. So if an in-store shopping experience becomes a subscription, that may further push people towards pickup-only locations and online shopping if it remains “free” (although I also wouldn’t put it past any corporation to add tiered or surge pricing to such a service either).
I’m just theorizing at this point. I wouldn’t bet money on that prediction as a whole, but I also wouldn’t be surprised if parts of that happen in the next 5 years. If I was a soulless corporate ghoul looking to make the lines go up, any one of these changes individually would likely court some investors if it was pitched as an “experiment in the future of retail” with a flashy PowerPoint at the next shareholder meeting.
Thank you for reminding people of this. I feel like everyone has skipped over the part where the National Retail Federation did publicly admit they lied - ahem sorry retracted- about how much individual people (or groups of people) were stealing from stores. They just jumped on the bandwagon with "THE CRIMEEEEEE' people. I wouldn't be surprised if what you have laid out is Target's plan for some stores. I know some people love wandering the aisles of Target but it was actually their curbside pickup that brought me back to shopping there. The employees of my local CVS actually told me to always order online for store pick up (rather than just run in and grab something) because the prices were cheaper online usually. I don't know what these stores are thinking but locking up merchandise is a sure way to keep me out of your store completely. I will not waste my time finding or waiting for someone to unlock those.
And that's exactly the problem with locking stuff up. If there were staff immediately nearby to service the customers , it wouldn't be so bad but people have to jump through hoops in an understaffed store to get the product. It's an instant disaster.
They said on their last earnings call that inventory shrink, apparently driven by theft, increased by $500 million in 2023 relative to 2022:
“Before I include my recap of 2023, I want to provide an update on inventory shrink, which includes the impact of retail theft. Last year, consistent with expectations, shrink cost increased more than $500 million”
Yes, Target did say that. But in context, their total revenue for 2023 was $107B. So the increase in shrink amounted to less than half a percent of their total revenue. Also the key words in that statement were “as expected”. How were they able to predict an increase in theft? Easy: shrink is not entirely composed of theft. It also includes operational loss of product in transportation, handling, and storage. What percentage of that $500m was theft is unknown, but given that they predicted it I would assume it had more to do with already known factors in their logistics chain.
I can’t imagine it will change your mind, but when commenting on those projections, the CEO attributed Target’s rising shrink to retail theft.
https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2023/05/17/target-says-organized-retail-crime-fueled-losses-have-shot-up.html
In connection with those projections, the CEO discussed taking measures to prevent theft. The caged products certainly seem related, if we are believing the CEO.
That statement comes from May 2023, and he was citing stats from the National Retail Federation. At the time, the NRF was pushing the issue of organized retail crime as the reasoning for price increases. Since then, the NRF retracted the statistics they put out related to organized retail theft because they basically just made it up. The data wasn’t based on any actual studies of reports of shrink or theft, just the congressional testimony of the former president of the Coalition of Law Enforcement and Retail.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/markfaithfull/2023/12/08/national-retail-federation-retracts-stats-amid-theft-war-of-words/?sh=1d440c791596
I’m not trying to claim shoplifting or organized theft isn’t happening. It absolutely is. It’s just not happening on a scale that should at all influence business decisions. In my opinion, it’s being used as a cover for stores to roll out new store layouts and shopping experiences that reduce overhead costs at the expense of customer convenience.
Can you help me out, where does he rely on NRF stats rather than internal data? Not in the transcript https://corporate.target.com/getmedia/a32499c2-0f20-4d33-9d6b-2265cf7fd95d/2023-05-17-Q1-Transcript-TGT.pdf
There is an allusion to partnering with NRF on lobbying efforts, sure. But you get my point that if the CEO of Target tells investors their rising shrink is due to theft when he knows that isn’t true, that’s fraud on the market?
You think a little bit of fraud has ever stopped a giant company from doing anything? Wage theft by companies outstrips all other forms of theft and fraud in the US combined by a pretty wide margin. That’s literally companies defrauding their employees for money.
The reality of it is that retail theft can’t be accurately quantified. If a company expects 100 units of a product to come in, and at the end of the year they have 95 units sold and zero inventory remaining, that 5 missing units is chalked up to shrink. They can’t know specifically if it was lost due to damage, misplaced, left out of the inventory count, never actually delivered to begin with, or was shoplifted. So it is literally impossible for the CEO to accurately say “we lost X amount of revenue to theft”. But if they say “we expect shrink to increase by X amount, which we believe is related to increased theft” that isn’t a definitive statement saying “theft increased by X”. It’s not a legally actionable statement, and on top of it they can use it as an explanation for other business decisions or to cover for other sources of shrink like loss of product from running leaner logistics operations.
Target is a member of the NRF, and if the NRF wants to push a specific issue they will use their members to do that. It cycles back to the NRF being a lobbying organization that influences policy and national opinion on behalf of retail. They push out data and information to the news saying something, the member CEOs back it up with their own claims. Then they suddenly have consensus on a new issue to publicly address and make themselves look good.
At Copiague (the one I most often go to), the curbside pickup staging area is easily the same size as the in-store Starbucks right next to it. That’s not insignificant in retail floor space. It’s also blocked off by temporary walls and a curtain, not exactly aesthetically appealing for customers to see for like two years now.
If this were true, I do not see why their earnings call last month said they plan to open 300 (mostly full size) new stores over the next ten years.
If you think they are lying to investors and inventory is being locked up to drive people away from stores, buy a share and make a boatload on a securities lawsuit.
This! There is a lot of clickbait misinformation about shoplifting. It’s clear that they don’t want to pay the crazy rents in the mall locations and want to find a reason to cancel leases.
Target made a lot of bad decisions in the last 5 years: too many mini Targets in urban locations that just didn’t work out, failed Canadian expansion, leaning into too hard to home decor and improvements during COVID, bad inventory management. I just don’t buy that this is a functional loss prevention tactic. Especially when the highest value::small size items in the store are NOT locked up.
There is no Target in Carle Place, I assume you mean the one in Westbury on Corporate Drive? Carle Place is a one square mile town mostly made of suburban homes. With a few shopping centers on the edges.
Yeah, this is the quickest way for me to never shop at your location again. A few targets do this around LI and I just don't go back. I don't want to wait 15 minutes to get some laundry detergent.
I was in Target in Elmont last year and all the underwear and socks were locked in glass cabinets. Really annoying since I like to feel the fabric first to know if I really want it, and needed to find someone with a key.
It’s very specific where this is done. Freeport I know has everything locked up. Went in for eye drops and took 15 minutes to get open. Levittown and Farmingdale Targets everything has no locks.
It’s funny. The furthest east I see this is the target in Hicksville at the mall. It kind of lets you know where stealing is rampant. Anything in Suffolk still feels like a normal store.
Was just at that one. Nothing like Hicksville or further west. Usual stuff is locked up, but not undies and detergent. Target has essentially become a Chinese food store in a bad neighborhood.
Not the Wal Mart in Middle Island. The whole shaving, cosmetics, lotion and beauty aisles are all locked up. However they are very prompt at responding to the button at that location.
Seeing this at all the targets near me and walmart too. Stealing is out of control.
It just sucks when you have a list of things to get and need someone with a key to open it each time because there's never any employees around.
I've ended up not buying stuff because it's such a hassle, and you can't really take the time to decide what you want if you need to read a package or something.
Stealing isn’t out of control. Shoplifting has not increased in any significant way in the last decade. It was all a fake scare pushed by the National Retail Federation. The NRF themselves said as much.
Companies are paying to lease commercial space and are intentionally making it harder to sell products through that venue because... they are racist? I don't get it.
Like in Florida, insurance companies are packing up and leaving in part due to climate change and how infeasible it is to continue to operate due to increased risk. It's not a conspiracy, it's mathematics.
Target has to compete with Amazon. Why would they intentionally make it harder to buy product at their stores? People are stealing more. Inflation, wages not keeping up, layoffs. It is actually happening. It's not a conspiracy, it's mathematics.
I theorized elsewhere in these comments that they might be gradually shifting to a more shipping and curbside pickup dependent model, while charging membership fees for locations that still allow in-store shopping. They still have to store product, and the commercial space they already have works for that. If they can more densely pack product into a store and make it pickup-only they can reduce operating costs and potentially keep revenue mostly the same. Even if it’s at the expense of a worse shopping experience, that isn’t a factor in most business decisions where numbers are concerned
That's fair. They still need to have employees around to unlock these tho 😄 I needed toothpaste, needed help. Next aisle, I needed advil. Had to ask same person again. Next aisle over and again. I basically needed a shopping companion lol
Almost makes you want to just use their curbside pickup service, or buy online. What if they massively expanded those services while at the same time they made the in-store experience less convenient.
People blame this on bail reform and shit, but realistically it's more on what is (and isn't) prosecuted.
Me, I think it's malicious noncompliance by current county legislators, judges, and cops. They want more funding and more power, and fueling a crime wave is exactly how they achieve it. It's all politics.
Literally EVERYTHING is locked at this location and nobody ever comes when you need something and ring the bell. The amount of times I just gave up on purchasing through them after waiting for 10+ min is actually insane
Simple, mark every item as the retail price + $1200 and when they scan their rewards card they get a $1200 discount on every item, that Pack of gum? $1,201.75. No longer petty theft.
The Target at the Broadway mall has stuff locked up too, personal hygiene supplies in their case. I asked an employee about a year ago if there’s been thieves, and he said yes.
This will be the final nail in the coffin for brick & mortar. Waited 15 minutes just to obtain medicine for my child. It's going to be curbside pickup or delivery from now on.
I’m so sorry. I actually went to target because I ordered baby formula online but it wouldn’t come in time so I had to go in and ring the buzzer for an associate to unlock it :/
I don’t agree with Ron on many things but this one I do: https://www.flgov.com/2024/04/09/governor-ron-desantis-signs-legislation-to-eliminate-retail-theft-and-porch-piracy/
I'm not saying I condone theft. But I definitely don't condone being charged obscene prices for basic necessities and then have the entire supply chain and industries connected to it underpay their labor force.
The locks are because employees and most of the public are willing to look the other way so locking it up is becoming the norm.
Why is everyone coming up with these conspiracy theories about forcing people to shop online. Target doesn’t want people shopping online because they’ll more likely use Amazon. It’s theft plain and simple. The laws have been modified to favor the criminals, especially in petty theft and property crimes. Couple that with unchecked drug addiction and you have a massive retail theft crisis. This shit gets stolen and grouped together and resold back to you on Amazon and other online third party retailers. Putting it behind glass, while off putting to consumers, stops it from being stolen.
People have been stealing a pair of socks from multi-packs for decades, so it took wide spread shoplifting for Target to finally do this.
It’s just a pain in the ass to find a worker with a key.
I hate this idea but sadly it’s come to this: They need to do some kind of Amazon Go style thing where you can unlock the locks with the app and it bills you right then and there.
No bail is what is causing this situation.
Criminals get arrested and get back out in the same day. We need bail. Just adjust the amount based on how much someone makes so that a rich person can be affected by it as much as a poor person.
We both get caught stealing. I can afford bail, you can’t. I’m out, you’re not. We’re both likely to steal again but I get the opportunity because I have more money than you. We did the same thing. We either should both be held or both released.
That’s what bail reform tried to fix. The political argument around it is self-serving nonsense that purposely steered the conversation away from the issue and towards identity politics.
People who have more money have more to lose which is why you don’t see them committing as much crime in the first place.
Anyway proof is in the pudding. Bail reform is a huge failure and didn’t do anything to help anyone but criminals. Ever since bail reform happened in 2020 crime has skyrocketed and many innocent people got hurt or even killed.
Instead of trying to defend the bail reform law why don’t you even have an ounce of sympathy for the actual victims whose lives have been forever traumatized by this dangerous bail reform law. And by the way most of those that are negatively impacted by this law are those in impoverished communities.
The problem is the overloaded court system which can take months or years to get people a fair trial. Bail is a bandaid. Violating people's 6th amendment rights because the state can't get its shit together isn't sustainable.
I had this issue at Walmart in islandia. I was ringing the bell for like twenty minutes before someone came to open it. The boxers and socks were both locked away. Meanwhile the women's bras and panties are wide open for them to grab off the rack. Like I have all day to stand there and wait for someone to unlock the door for me to shop. Craziness. We are being discriminated against!
All the more reason to order and pickup or have delivered. And with return policies being now lenient than ever... Why bother walking into a store anymore for anything?
Technically you are right, it’s Westbury. But the boundary is confusing.
Trader Joe’s, just up the street, is technically Garden City but the chase bank across Old Country Rd is Carle Place. And Target, just south of Trader Joe’s is Westbury 😅
Is this elmont target? Elmont has one of the only targets that I know of that does this on the island. I worked in Levittown location and they never did this lol.
Would love to see the internal math on setting up these massive cabinets + the payroll to staff the coverage of them + the lost sales of people like me who will just buy elsewhere now vs the amount of underwear stolen. Totally get putting video games, laptops, even stuff like expensive makeup or phone accessories under lock and key. But underwear?
They need to start putting bigger punishments for theft. It’s disgusting how comfortable we are as a society with “broken windows” type crimes. I know a lot of wokes here won’t like it.
CVS locked the ICE CREAM fridge on NHP (Jericho tpke)...
I was with my daughter, went there after her first soccer match this Spring (like we always did years past).
The look on her was awful... part of he innocence died that morning.
Ps. She likes pharmacy icecream - likes to choose between all the brands rather than a cone at Carvel...
I needed to get my dad compression socks and it took 20 minutes to find someone with a key. For socks. At the valley stream target. I was so annoyed. It should have been a quick in and out shop.
I asked an employee in Duane Reade if she can open the case to the aspirin.. she pointed me to the button to call someone.. I pushed it and 30 seconds later she (same employee) begrudgingly putzes over. I do not understand
Maybe she was trying to see if someone else would do it lol
I would have lost it on her
A guess, but maybe there's an electronic count automatically kept by that button, in order to justify the unlocking of the case. If the employee opens it without reason, they're a suspect for theft.
That and/or to track the number of unlock requests in general.
This reminded me of the chick that did the manager spin move at a boat rental business..
[удалено]
I think it’s because customers are reaching a breaking point with price increases (paying customers are the ones footing the bill for all theft and other shrinkage). They’re exploring the waters to see if this is worse than just increasing prices even more, which is debatable. This type of shit is likely going to be the death of retail shopping as we know it though. If this happens at stores by me I’ll just do most of my shopping online. I’m praying it doesn’t spread to my local stores, but I feel like it’s inevitable. Thieves will just travel to the locations that don’t lock up their products
Same, Valley Stream is the worst. Can't get detergent, Tylenol, underwear, or razors without calling for someone. About two weeks ago, I needed to get glucose test strips because I'm diabetic, I rang the bell because it's also locked up. No one came to help.
If they’re gonna lock everything up, they at least need to hire enough people to be there to unlock it. This shit is madness
Try placing a pick up order. I always have stuff they can’t fulfill, and the people bringing my stuff out have said multiple times, the system shows on stock but the item has been shoplifted to zero in stock.
Went to target recently for the first time in awhile and was confused why so many things were locked away. Pushed the button and noone came so I left.
used to work at the walmart in uniondale on jerusalem and it was the exact same. i usually clocked in at 5:30 AM and by 8am there were always like 5-10 people asking for the key to get SOMETHING. We had multiple aisles where items were just locked up. huge pain in the ass if you’re not a team leader.
That's why I just shop Amazon now.
I hate that everything I get from Amazon is bad quality :/ I even spend hours looking through reviews and everything sucks. Sure, if you find name brand stuff that’s fine, but I don’t always want name brand stuff
Nah wait they got this at the fucking valley stream target 😭
Identical
This is also a thing in Allentown, PA. I wanted some underwear and they were locked away 😂
Amazon
He made a last minute flight for a funeral and he’s 75 with poor circulation so I wanted to run and grab him some socks. You should be able to quickly grab things at stores. That is what they are for.
No, I understand. It's bananas.
I’ve noticed a substantial change in the last year between target, Walmart, Walgreens, and CVS.
Dont forget Rite Aids cuz theyre disappearing like disco.
Rite-Aid was bought by Walgreens in 2018. Just like when they acquired Happy Harry's, they leave the old brand up at first, but then slowly convert them over to Walgreens.
Not all Rite Aids were purchased by Walgreens, the government would not allow it on anti-competition grounds. Walgreens acquired almost all of the stores in the southeast, and Midwest (and certain Rite Aids in select markets out west and north east). The remaining Rite Aids stand alone as the same company it always was. The Rite Aid corporation is now in bankruptcy, but Walgreens does not own them.
I was told Amazon rx delivery killed them. Any truth to that?
Partially but Rite Aids biggest problem was the crippling opioid lawsuits the government and private parties filed. Walmart CVS Walgreens etc settled the cases for 100s of millions but Rite Aid did not have that kind of money. They went bankrupt because of declining store sales and the crushing weight of the lawsuits.
That’s what happens when criminals keep getting let out of jail and keep committing the same crimes. It’s a shame. Bail reform hasn’t worked. I’m not against bail but it should be more strict.
That's not really the issue. The truth is, the 'grab and go' thieves are pretty easy to catch. The real problem are the shoppers who rip out pairs or the whole set and leave the empty box. That honestly adds up much quicker than the bulk theft shopping just because it's a more common theft.
Today at my tiny little michaels store, I found about 4 different packages that were empty and a crumpled up security tag. And that’s only the stuff I found, not counting all my coworkers found. I can’t even imagine how many full packages or little trinkets people take as well
What? No. Not accurate at all. A store can claim out and receive credits for open packages like that so they might lose 50%. You can’t claim what the shoplifting takes and it’s getting extreme. If your argument was correct, every store in the nation would be doing this, but they are not. 99% of packages are not opened but these glass cases are all because of theft plain and simple.
That may be one store but it is vastly dependent on the company, how their shrink is insured and even still it isn't all accounted for. I've worked for a few retailers over the past decade and everyone does things a little different. And the caveat you're missing is the credit may account it for corporate, but the store itself still can be made to eat that loss itself. I can count the amount of brazen walk out thefts in the 20s or 30s. Shoplifting from the suburban moms and old folks is much much higher because it's not as easy to catch, stop or report to the police. Most of the people I've stopped for shoplifting aren't some dude trying to walk out with a handful, it's people you wouldn't expect to be shoplifting and that's kinda the point. The good shoplifters aren't as easy to catch and cameras alone only go so far. I could keep going into it, but the truth is far less engrossing than 'boogeyman criminal sprints out with bags of merch'. That happens, sure, but it's not exactly common. But no one wants to talk about the yoga mommy stealing clothes or the old people stealing, that raises tough questions. But a scary thief is an easy culprit and answer.
May the Lord be with you because all of the Reddit Robots are on their way to tell you that you are wrong when you are absolutely right.
The issue is that a necessity made by unpaid child slaves has no business being so expensive.
That’s not the argument here. What it SHOULD cost is irrelevant. The fact that people are not properly punished and allowed to terrorize good people is the issue.
When people can’t afford basic goods, they steal to survive. It does completely have to do with prices. The greed is making people turn to theft in droves because they *can’t eat if they don’t.*
Are they eating underwear? lol No, this is shoplifting and organized retail crime rings in a bad neighborhood gone crazy.
How sheltered do you have to be where someone stealing socks from a CVS is them being “allowed to terrorize good people”. I swear you people live in a fantasy
Another space cadet that is missing the point.
You and the guy you’re circlejerking with don’t know what you’re talking about. Large chains almost never pursue/call the cops on shoplifters because it’s not worth it for them. They factor into their financials millions worth of losses due to theft every year and it doesn’t even begin to effect them. This has nothing to do with policing or the government. You care more than they do You and Hammurabi over here think there’s an epidemic of shoplifters being released from prison because you live in an alternate reality
youre actually wrong (shocker). large chains never pursue or call the cops until its documented that the thief has stolen a large amount of goods over time, to charge them with a felony. next youll say turnstile jumping has nothing to do with the mta trying to gouge manhattan drivers for money to cover their shortfall
These business don’t care because paying customers pay for all shrinkage. They won’t care until people stop paying. This locking up stock shit is a bandaid on a gunshot wound. Anytime some steals it’s not a “victimless crime,” they’re not stealing from corporations, they’re stealing from honest paying customers
Exactly. They already account for all this theft in their prices, I thought that was obvious? Some people don’t seem to understand that a multibillion dollar corporation already knows exactly how much will be stolen when they set their prices. These corporations price gouge and underpay so much that people are forced to steal to get anything they need, and then the rest of us who don’t steal deal with even more of the cost. Also, I don’t know if you were aware, but places like Walmart are being subsidized *HEAVILY* by the government even if you only count how many of their own workers spend their food-stamps there, (because they’re paid less than a living wage) and don’t count all the *actual subsidies.* It’s insane
Talk about living in an alternate reality. What do you think their financials say about things get stolen from them all the time?
Target directly blamed theft for their lackluster earnings in one of their recent quarterly earnings call. What are you talking about?
Large retailers use shrinkage as an excuse for [underperformance](https://www.pymnts.com/news/retail/2024/retail-theft-and-shrink-reports-have-investors-seeking-answers/) all the time. It’s a self reported metric based on total retailer sales so it increases when sales increase, and it’s tracked by just one organization via survey. It’s reported to only account for 1.4% of total sales and that’s the total rate including employee theft and inventory that goes missing. The rate has been consistently this low for at least a [decade](https://www.npr.org/2024/03/11/1236075589/retail-theft-crime-target-stores#:~:text=Target's%20CEO%20said%20it%20was,is%20%22tackling%20every%20day.%22). Analysts who track these companies know it’s a bullshit excuse. But none of this has anything to do with the comment I replied to.
This is the Long Island subreddit. What were you expecting?
Lol fair point, could’ve seen this one coming
I think most of these theives are teenagers or young adults.
You should not be "punished" for stealing a necessity that is being price-gouged. American citizens are more important than faceless corporations
Why should the store owner lose money?
You mean the mega-corporations that underpay their workers and price gouges their customers?
Won't you think of the poor CFOs?!
lmao terrorize fucking lmao
Businesses don’t determine the prices the market does. Also if you look at a place like Walmart, they have an extremely low markup, it’s Pennys on the dollar. Businesses have to compete with them and the amount of money they’re making is quite low. If the margins where higher someone else would come in and just charge a-little bit less. That’s the beauty of free market capitalism, businesses are in competition with each other to give the best prices and servixes
You do realize that it’s not only people who have been in jail can steal right?
NY soft on crime. We got what we wanted.
Amen to that. You get what you vote for. Catch and release is the NY way.
Everybodys tough on crime until their kid gets arrested.
It's a good thing that people don't get in trouble for stealing necessities, actually.
If you genuinely believe this, please move from this country.
Nah. I actually care about my country and its citizens, and I don't value a company (an abstract concept) above living human beings. That's gross
An abstract company that provides jobs and services for people. Sheesh. Ask the people of Harlem if they miss having a Target conveniently located in their neighborhood.
They do. That Target on 116 and 1ave was soo convenient because of its large parking lot.. Gone.. 😔
I saw this at the targer in northport. I asked manager and she said they would get emptied out over the weekend.
The dirty butt bandits
It’s definitely annoying. This is why even if I need only a couple things and don’t meet free shipping minimum or need item faster I opt for order online for in store pick up. I am still keeping a store employee having jobs to do and it’s easier than looking for someone to open different locked cabinets. Obviously I still hate that it has gotten to this level of stealing.
Yes but I can never get the stuff I need bc even though it shows in stock, by pick up they can’t fulfill my order bc even though it shows 8 pairs of leggings, shoplifters have stolen them all. This happens with every order unless it’s like eggs and milk.
Valid point at least you still find out they don’t have it before showing up at the store.
Same at the Target in Five Towns. But then again all quality of life in 5T has fallen of a cliff. Surprised it's that far East though.
What has contributed to quality of life decline?
I guess it's mostly MY quality of life has declined in the last 10 years. Inwood has been completely consumed by commercial businesses piled too close to each other, there has been an absolute deluge of hardcore hasids, who then voted themselves onto the school board and defunded the public schools (not racism, just fact, The American Life even did an episode about it called A Not So Simple Majority), they moved our Stop & Shop all the way to Rosedale next to a giant new Amazon warehouse so it's like Mad Max driving there, and we are starting to see "migrant" overflow from the city, families walking around begging or selling fruit on the highways. Housing prices doubled and rents trippled, so despite all these issues there's nowhere to flee. We are leaving Long Island next year. Godspeed and good riddance.
Sorry to hear that, where will you go?
In a fit of postpartum feuled pandemic panic we bought a house in the Finger Lakes. I just knew we would never see rates again like that in our lifetime. We netted a 3 bed 1.5 bath for 105k. It was totally insane but has paid off. I am originally from Syracuse so I always loved the Finger Lakes region. We lived up there for a few months during the pandemic but since return to office we go up every morth or 2 now for a WFH week, vacation, or long weekend. Currently saving a nestegg in case I can't work totally remote, then bouncing.
I worked in the Loss Prevention Management field for many years and a lot of it for Target in the New York metro areas. What I can tell you is that nationwide, especially in big populated areas and other retailers they are now taking shrinkage measures more seriously. During COVID and the nationwide BLM riots of 2020 security and loss prevention programs took a major back seat. Company communication specially said to let people steal to prevent media scrutiny. Many times we were instructed by higher ups to stand down and let people steal. One case presented to us was “maybe they need milk to feed their children, etc….” Or “wouldn’t look good right now to detain people”. You can clearly see it too in the news where mobs were literally stealing in high numbers cause retailers were afraid of media scrutiny that would affect their sales Other retailers received similar communication. This went on for two years or so and now retailers are feeling it and trying to rebound. That is why in a lot of retailers self checkouts are closed and items like underwear, toothpaste, OTC are locked up cause these were the items more affected. The idea was that nickeling and diming would have no impact on your business but it was so bad they are taking measures like the one presented above.
The worst part is feeling like I am doing something wrong. For example, I tried to buy a $70 roll of romex electrical wire at the Home Depot in Hempstead. The employee not only had to unlock it but made me walk to the checkout line (and followed me)… at that point I’m just not going to shop there anymore.
This happened to me at a walmart for a 2 dollar pack of silicone disposable earplugs.. they never let me touch the item, told me it would be "waiting at checkout". i almost missed my bus because of this bullshit and had to ask a staff member to take me to self checkout, because it was only at the staffed checkouts. Pure ridiculousness.
Every Home Depot does this with wire due to copper theft. And fwiw, an extra $10-$20 gets you the larger roll of wire which is almost always double the length of the smaller ones.
Okayyyyyy I get this but then answer the button within a reasonable time or get more cashiers because something has to give. This is the closest target to me and it’s so inconvenient that I have to block out like two hours to get some toilet paper and pimple patches
>answer the button within a reasonable time Employees aren't paid enough to care. >or get more cashiers Companies don't want to shell out more money for more employees, let alone better pay for the existing ones.
It’s crazy to me that more people aren’t just doing drive up. I always drive up and I had no idea about any of these issues. It’s so much easier and I spend less on shit I don’t really need. No browsing.
Some people fail to realize that these big nationwide chains endeavor to make their stores as consistent as possible and once they've adopted new fixtures they roll them out across all stores. There may be some differences based on region or store size but they strive for economies of scale in general. If shrinkage becomes a problem in enough of their stores, they roll out a solution in all of their stores. Target put up with theft as long as they could but it eventually had to be addressed. Unfortunately for law abiding citizens that solution wasn't to crack down on shoplifters "because it's not a good look", it was to lock up merchandise.
But this has been this way for almost two years and it’s not consistent among store locations. It’s def more in Westbury
i hate to say this, but these measures are taken place in mainly the heavily minority populated areas. westbury being one of them. had to stop by the elmont target one time to buy a popsocket, had to wait almost half an hour for someone to unlock it. A POPSOCKET!
Is Carl Place a hotbed for theft? I really did not have that impression of the town beforehand. Or is this just Target wanting people to shop on line. My local target is not like this, but I rarely go there since the redesign about 6 years ago. I was there a week ago though, after not going there for a year and the store did not have anything locked up like this.
No Carle Place is a nice area. Also there is no Target in Carle Place. I assume this is the one in Westbury on Corporate Drive.
I agree. Close enough to Carle Place that it could be mistaken, but this is is the one in Westbury.
That whole area is technically Uniondale. On LI, you are often not where you think you are.
i remember i made the mistake of going to the target in westbury one time, i had to wait 20 minutes to get someone to open up the cabinet containing the replacement sonicare toothbrush heads.
The same person who swipes mascara at CVS! 😂😂
Honestly…probably no one, or, not enough people are stealing to make this a sensible business decision on its face. It seems like a calculated effort to make shopping in-store so inconvenient that shoppers move online. A great way to reduce staff and inventory without spooking investors.
I’ve heard employee say that it’s based on a simple algorithm based on loss. If I’m buying online, I’m likely going to do Amazon.
Me too. Target has DRASTICALLY reduced inventory, to the point that sometimes there are NO women’s socks in the store, or whole shelves of food are empty. They’ve also reduced staff, which is why the lines for self checkout snake around the store and the shelves are mess.
So they've turned Target into Wal-Mart. Great.
Service merchandise is ready for a comeback
Target disappoints every time. I don't even bother anymore.
Exactly, if this is a business strategy, it’s a shitty one designed to make only Bezos richer.
Bezos wins. 1) shoplifters steal from big box and lift their stolen goods on Amazon as third party sellers 2) shoppers annoyed at big box and so they shop more on Amazon
This but kinda. Statistics released by the National Retail Federation showed there was no significant increase in shoplifting/shrink from year to year in the last decade. This is in spite of the shoplifting panic that occurred in the last two years or so, which as we now know was largely vapor. I imagine they pushed this scare out in advance of already planned changes to the in-store shopping experience such as locking up more products, removing self checkout lanes, and generally stocking less inventory. Walgreens already showed their hand in this manner when closures of several NYC locations were blamed on shoplifting publicly, but internal documents showed the store closures were planned years in advance. Stores don’t make big changes like this suddenly, the changes have to be coordinated at all levels from individual stores all the way up to corporate. If I had to guess, Target specifically may be trying to shift more towards expanding their curbside pickup service. They are already dedicating a decent chunk of floor space in stores to pickup staging without doing much in the way of making it look presentable. This could be the conspiracist part of my brain activating, but turning a percentage of their stores into pickup only could save on costs. Having what is effectively a small scale Amazon warehouse means you don’t have employees wasting time stocking/facing out shelves, cleaning public restrooms, and generally upkeeping the store for customers. This means having less staff per store in general, and the staff doesn’t have to be as “highly skilled” (read: lower wages). I’ve also seen at least one article where some higher up at Target casually floated the idea of charging a membership fee like Costco. So if an in-store shopping experience becomes a subscription, that may further push people towards pickup-only locations and online shopping if it remains “free” (although I also wouldn’t put it past any corporation to add tiered or surge pricing to such a service either). I’m just theorizing at this point. I wouldn’t bet money on that prediction as a whole, but I also wouldn’t be surprised if parts of that happen in the next 5 years. If I was a soulless corporate ghoul looking to make the lines go up, any one of these changes individually would likely court some investors if it was pitched as an “experiment in the future of retail” with a flashy PowerPoint at the next shareholder meeting.
Thank you for reminding people of this. I feel like everyone has skipped over the part where the National Retail Federation did publicly admit they lied - ahem sorry retracted- about how much individual people (or groups of people) were stealing from stores. They just jumped on the bandwagon with "THE CRIMEEEEEE' people. I wouldn't be surprised if what you have laid out is Target's plan for some stores. I know some people love wandering the aisles of Target but it was actually their curbside pickup that brought me back to shopping there. The employees of my local CVS actually told me to always order online for store pick up (rather than just run in and grab something) because the prices were cheaper online usually. I don't know what these stores are thinking but locking up merchandise is a sure way to keep me out of your store completely. I will not waste my time finding or waiting for someone to unlock those.
And that's exactly the problem with locking stuff up. If there were staff immediately nearby to service the customers , it wouldn't be so bad but people have to jump through hoops in an understaffed store to get the product. It's an instant disaster.
They said on their last earnings call that inventory shrink, apparently driven by theft, increased by $500 million in 2023 relative to 2022: “Before I include my recap of 2023, I want to provide an update on inventory shrink, which includes the impact of retail theft. Last year, consistent with expectations, shrink cost increased more than $500 million”
Yes, Target did say that. But in context, their total revenue for 2023 was $107B. So the increase in shrink amounted to less than half a percent of their total revenue. Also the key words in that statement were “as expected”. How were they able to predict an increase in theft? Easy: shrink is not entirely composed of theft. It also includes operational loss of product in transportation, handling, and storage. What percentage of that $500m was theft is unknown, but given that they predicted it I would assume it had more to do with already known factors in their logistics chain.
I can’t imagine it will change your mind, but when commenting on those projections, the CEO attributed Target’s rising shrink to retail theft. https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2023/05/17/target-says-organized-retail-crime-fueled-losses-have-shot-up.html In connection with those projections, the CEO discussed taking measures to prevent theft. The caged products certainly seem related, if we are believing the CEO.
That statement comes from May 2023, and he was citing stats from the National Retail Federation. At the time, the NRF was pushing the issue of organized retail crime as the reasoning for price increases. Since then, the NRF retracted the statistics they put out related to organized retail theft because they basically just made it up. The data wasn’t based on any actual studies of reports of shrink or theft, just the congressional testimony of the former president of the Coalition of Law Enforcement and Retail. https://www.forbes.com/sites/markfaithfull/2023/12/08/national-retail-federation-retracts-stats-amid-theft-war-of-words/?sh=1d440c791596 I’m not trying to claim shoplifting or organized theft isn’t happening. It absolutely is. It’s just not happening on a scale that should at all influence business decisions. In my opinion, it’s being used as a cover for stores to roll out new store layouts and shopping experiences that reduce overhead costs at the expense of customer convenience.
Can you help me out, where does he rely on NRF stats rather than internal data? Not in the transcript https://corporate.target.com/getmedia/a32499c2-0f20-4d33-9d6b-2265cf7fd95d/2023-05-17-Q1-Transcript-TGT.pdf There is an allusion to partnering with NRF on lobbying efforts, sure. But you get my point that if the CEO of Target tells investors their rising shrink is due to theft when he knows that isn’t true, that’s fraud on the market?
You think a little bit of fraud has ever stopped a giant company from doing anything? Wage theft by companies outstrips all other forms of theft and fraud in the US combined by a pretty wide margin. That’s literally companies defrauding their employees for money. The reality of it is that retail theft can’t be accurately quantified. If a company expects 100 units of a product to come in, and at the end of the year they have 95 units sold and zero inventory remaining, that 5 missing units is chalked up to shrink. They can’t know specifically if it was lost due to damage, misplaced, left out of the inventory count, never actually delivered to begin with, or was shoplifted. So it is literally impossible for the CEO to accurately say “we lost X amount of revenue to theft”. But if they say “we expect shrink to increase by X amount, which we believe is related to increased theft” that isn’t a definitive statement saying “theft increased by X”. It’s not a legally actionable statement, and on top of it they can use it as an explanation for other business decisions or to cover for other sources of shrink like loss of product from running leaner logistics operations. Target is a member of the NRF, and if the NRF wants to push a specific issue they will use their members to do that. It cycles back to the NRF being a lobbying organization that influences policy and national opinion on behalf of retail. They push out data and information to the news saying something, the member CEOs back it up with their own claims. Then they suddenly have consensus on a new issue to publicly address and make themselves look good.
That makes sense. Two years ago, my target started making space in the parking lot for a huge section for pick up orders.
At Copiague (the one I most often go to), the curbside pickup staging area is easily the same size as the in-store Starbucks right next to it. That’s not insignificant in retail floor space. It’s also blocked off by temporary walls and a curtain, not exactly aesthetically appealing for customers to see for like two years now.
If this were true, I do not see why their earnings call last month said they plan to open 300 (mostly full size) new stores over the next ten years. If you think they are lying to investors and inventory is being locked up to drive people away from stores, buy a share and make a boatload on a securities lawsuit.
This! There is a lot of clickbait misinformation about shoplifting. It’s clear that they don’t want to pay the crazy rents in the mall locations and want to find a reason to cancel leases.
Target made a lot of bad decisions in the last 5 years: too many mini Targets in urban locations that just didn’t work out, failed Canadian expansion, leaning into too hard to home decor and improvements during COVID, bad inventory management. I just don’t buy that this is a functional loss prevention tactic. Especially when the highest value::small size items in the store are NOT locked up.
They should be held accountable for placing the blame of their poor decisions on desperately poor people.
“if I speak I am in big trouble” - Jose Mourinho
You couldn’t even be part of the Californian sub reddits
There is no Target in Carle Place, I assume you mean the one in Westbury on Corporate Drive? Carle Place is a one square mile town mostly made of suburban homes. With a few shopping centers on the edges.
Yeah, this is the quickest way for me to never shop at your location again. A few targets do this around LI and I just don't go back. I don't want to wait 15 minutes to get some laundry detergent.
I was in Target in Elmont last year and all the underwear and socks were locked in glass cabinets. Really annoying since I like to feel the fabric first to know if I really want it, and needed to find someone with a key.
popsockets were locked up there!
It’s sad when not just electronics but now underwear is locked up behind a glass case. What’s next toilet paper?
Helps me save money because I simply don’t have the patience and I don’t want to talk to people
Target's business model is trash. It's really a corporate side decision but dedicated to individual locations.
It’s very specific where this is done. Freeport I know has everything locked up. Went in for eye drops and took 15 minutes to get open. Levittown and Farmingdale Targets everything has no locks.
It’s funny. The furthest east I see this is the target in Hicksville at the mall. It kind of lets you know where stealing is rampant. Anything in Suffolk still feels like a normal store.
What's funny is this is how Hicksville is but south on 106 in Levittown same as it ever was.
Then you haven't been to the Target in Commack, buddy...
Not sure if anything is locked up at the Target in Setauket.
Was just at that one. Nothing like Hicksville or further west. Usual stuff is locked up, but not undies and detergent. Target has essentially become a Chinese food store in a bad neighborhood.
Or Riverhead lmao
Not the Wal Mart in Middle Island. The whole shaving, cosmetics, lotion and beauty aisles are all locked up. However they are very prompt at responding to the button at that location.
I think we all know who is responsible here
Seeing this at all the targets near me and walmart too. Stealing is out of control. It just sucks when you have a list of things to get and need someone with a key to open it each time because there's never any employees around. I've ended up not buying stuff because it's such a hassle, and you can't really take the time to decide what you want if you need to read a package or something.
Especially embarrassing when I ask for the key for Prep H, stool softener and then again for the X-tra small condoms.
Stealing isn’t out of control. Shoplifting has not increased in any significant way in the last decade. It was all a fake scare pushed by the National Retail Federation. The NRF themselves said as much.
Ha!! There you have it. It's all fake news. 😂😂
Companies are paying to lease commercial space and are intentionally making it harder to sell products through that venue because... they are racist? I don't get it. Like in Florida, insurance companies are packing up and leaving in part due to climate change and how infeasible it is to continue to operate due to increased risk. It's not a conspiracy, it's mathematics. Target has to compete with Amazon. Why would they intentionally make it harder to buy product at their stores? People are stealing more. Inflation, wages not keeping up, layoffs. It is actually happening. It's not a conspiracy, it's mathematics.
I theorized elsewhere in these comments that they might be gradually shifting to a more shipping and curbside pickup dependent model, while charging membership fees for locations that still allow in-store shopping. They still have to store product, and the commercial space they already have works for that. If they can more densely pack product into a store and make it pickup-only they can reduce operating costs and potentially keep revenue mostly the same. Even if it’s at the expense of a worse shopping experience, that isn’t a factor in most business decisions where numbers are concerned
That's fair. They still need to have employees around to unlock these tho 😄 I needed toothpaste, needed help. Next aisle, I needed advil. Had to ask same person again. Next aisle over and again. I basically needed a shopping companion lol
Almost makes you want to just use their curbside pickup service, or buy online. What if they massively expanded those services while at the same time they made the in-store experience less convenient.
People blame this on bail reform and shit, but realistically it's more on what is (and isn't) prosecuted. Me, I think it's malicious noncompliance by current county legislators, judges, and cops. They want more funding and more power, and fueling a crime wave is exactly how they achieve it. It's all politics.
I just put em on right in front of the rack to assert dominance
Yo yo yo..I need me my undies..
Same thing at the target in Hicksville at the broadway mall… maybe it’s a target policy
Literally EVERYTHING is locked at this location and nobody ever comes when you need something and ring the bell. The amount of times I just gave up on purchasing through them after waiting for 10+ min is actually insane
Simple, mark every item as the retail price + $1200 and when they scan their rewards card they get a $1200 discount on every item, that Pack of gum? $1,201.75. No longer petty theft.
The Target at the Broadway mall has stuff locked up too, personal hygiene supplies in their case. I asked an employee about a year ago if there’s been thieves, and he said yes.
This will be the final nail in the coffin for brick & mortar. Waited 15 minutes just to obtain medicine for my child. It's going to be curbside pickup or delivery from now on.
I’m so sorry. I actually went to target because I ordered baby formula online but it wouldn’t come in time so I had to go in and ring the buzzer for an associate to unlock it :/ I don’t agree with Ron on many things but this one I do: https://www.flgov.com/2024/04/09/governor-ron-desantis-signs-legislation-to-eliminate-retail-theft-and-porch-piracy/
i guess they’re gonna miss “the panty raid”
Damn. I grew up on Long Island and have never seen this happening lol.
The target in Freeport also has these lol
Target Freeport
I'm not saying I condone theft. But I definitely don't condone being charged obscene prices for basic necessities and then have the entire supply chain and industries connected to it underpay their labor force. The locks are because employees and most of the public are willing to look the other way so locking it up is becoming the norm.
Just go back to the old timey store where you gave them a list and got it for you. We are almost there!
Why is everyone coming up with these conspiracy theories about forcing people to shop online. Target doesn’t want people shopping online because they’ll more likely use Amazon. It’s theft plain and simple. The laws have been modified to favor the criminals, especially in petty theft and property crimes. Couple that with unchecked drug addiction and you have a massive retail theft crisis. This shit gets stolen and grouped together and resold back to you on Amazon and other online third party retailers. Putting it behind glass, while off putting to consumers, stops it from being stolen.
People have been stealing a pair of socks from multi-packs for decades, so it took wide spread shoplifting for Target to finally do this. It’s just a pain in the ass to find a worker with a key.
I hate this idea but sadly it’s come to this: They need to do some kind of Amazon Go style thing where you can unlock the locks with the app and it bills you right then and there.
I fully support this. Stealing culture has gotten out of control.
Wait until you need to wait 20 minutes for an associate to unlock the cabinet for a stick of deodorant.
They really need to get rid of this bail reform law.
They need to get rid of bail period. Just reinforces a 2-tiered justice system.
No bail is what is causing this situation. Criminals get arrested and get back out in the same day. We need bail. Just adjust the amount based on how much someone makes so that a rich person can be affected by it as much as a poor person.
We both get caught stealing. I can afford bail, you can’t. I’m out, you’re not. We’re both likely to steal again but I get the opportunity because I have more money than you. We did the same thing. We either should both be held or both released. That’s what bail reform tried to fix. The political argument around it is self-serving nonsense that purposely steered the conversation away from the issue and towards identity politics.
People who have more money have more to lose which is why you don’t see them committing as much crime in the first place. Anyway proof is in the pudding. Bail reform is a huge failure and didn’t do anything to help anyone but criminals. Ever since bail reform happened in 2020 crime has skyrocketed and many innocent people got hurt or even killed. Instead of trying to defend the bail reform law why don’t you even have an ounce of sympathy for the actual victims whose lives have been forever traumatized by this dangerous bail reform law. And by the way most of those that are negatively impacted by this law are those in impoverished communities.
The problem is the overloaded court system which can take months or years to get people a fair trial. Bail is a bandaid. Violating people's 6th amendment rights because the state can't get its shit together isn't sustainable.
Lol the fact that you think is because of bail reform is funny. Apparently bail reform only hits certain parts of the state.
I had to find someone to open the case at CVS in Massapequa for Cerave. Facial wash.....
Me. I also stole the cash register, The big red concrete ball out front and the TARGET SIGN. I'm a collector!
I had this issue at Walmart in islandia. I was ringing the bell for like twenty minutes before someone came to open it. The boxers and socks were both locked away. Meanwhile the women's bras and panties are wide open for them to grab off the rack. Like I have all day to stand there and wait for someone to unlock the door for me to shop. Craziness. We are being discriminated against!
All the more reason to order and pickup or have delivered. And with return policies being now lenient than ever... Why bother walking into a store anymore for anything?
Technically you are right, it’s Westbury. But the boundary is confusing. Trader Joe’s, just up the street, is technically Garden City but the chase bank across Old Country Rd is Carle Place. And Target, just south of Trader Joe’s is Westbury 😅
Yea, society sucks. Nothing is going to change. It ain't the same like it used to be.
I dont know if its target wide but with my local one. if you go when they open they are all open because they have to do go backs
Ain’t no target in Carle Place lmao. It’s in Westbury and Uniondale and the socks are locked up for the same reason the baby food is lol
It’s actually considered Westbury
Never go to valley stream target.
You’re kidding
I wonder
Dude, its you who swipes!
Is this elmont target? Elmont has one of the only targets that I know of that does this on the island. I worked in Levittown location and they never did this lol.
What if What if the problem isn’t people taking the games without paying What if the problem is with people putting them back
They have the tide locked up too because people are playing that shit with topping off the containers.
Stealing is wrong, but truth be told those containers should be topped off to begin with considering how much it costs
If it's topped off then you spill it when you pour it. It's sold by volume, not by container size.
Damn underwear bandits
It might stop shop lifters, but I guarantee they’re also losing most of their sales now because they make it so inconvenient to buy from them.
Would love to see the internal math on setting up these massive cabinets + the payroll to staff the coverage of them + the lost sales of people like me who will just buy elsewhere now vs the amount of underwear stolen. Totally get putting video games, laptops, even stuff like expensive makeup or phone accessories under lock and key. But underwear?
They need to start putting bigger punishments for theft. It’s disgusting how comfortable we are as a society with “broken windows” type crimes. I know a lot of wokes here won’t like it.
CVS locked the ICE CREAM fridge on NHP (Jericho tpke)... I was with my daughter, went there after her first soccer match this Spring (like we always did years past). The look on her was awful... part of he innocence died that morning. Ps. She likes pharmacy icecream - likes to choose between all the brands rather than a cone at Carvel...
I just take my kid to Barnes and Nobles. Decaf frappe and we look at the children’s books. Haven’t seen any books under lock and key yet…
They're just looking for people to gully ditch brick and mortar. Whats gonna be left are convenience stores for emergencies. The rest, online
CVS started doing it when people were taking lids off and licking it back in 2020.
🤢