Closings Everywhere: What’s Going On?

When you think of a store, what’s the first thing that comes to mind? Perhaps your mind went to Target. Well recently, there’s been the closing of nine Target stores in New York( 4 stores ), San Francisco ( 3 stores), and Settle ( 2 stores). Why?

When you enter a Target store, you might see that some of the products such as makeup, skincare, and medicine are locked. The reason is that there have been a lot of stealing and retail crimes. Retail crimes are professional stealing or shoplifting but unlike regular shoplifting, the person intends to resell the item on websites such as eBay. Retail Crime has been a problem in Target stores. Target lost 112.1 billion dollars in 2022 because of Retail Crimes. Here’s a FOX news clip: link

Target is one of many stores facing problems with Retail Crimes. Walmart is also facing problems with Retail Crimes. Walmart lost 400 million dollars from Retail Crimes. Not nearly as much as Target but still a significant amount. In the city of Oregon, all the Walmart stores had to close down. CEO Doug McMilion from Walmart says “ Theft is an issue. It’s higher than it’s historically been.” If Retail Crime continues to happen, Walmarts will start to close, and/or prices will rise. Retail Crimes also raise safety concerns for employees and consumers alike.

Criminals need to stop this behavior. If this keeps happening, more stores will be forced to close down, leading to more people losing their jobs and fewer stores to shop at. What do you think? What are some solutions that we could use to prevent people from stealing? Comment below!

Sources: 

Target closing 9 stores due to “theft and organized retail crime”

Rising thefts at Walmart could lead to price jumps, store closures, CEO says

Organized Retail Crime (ORC): How It Works, Consequences, and How to Combat It

Target CEO warns rising crime, retail theft will hit profits

Target says it will close nine stores in major cities, citing violence and theft

THEFT CRISIS Walmart to close all stores in one city due to record-breaking rise in theft during US retail bloodbath