On September 26, Target announced it was closing nine stores "because theft and organized retail crime are…contributing to unsustainable business performance." Target said that before making the decision to shutter the stores, it had "invested heavily in strategies to prevent and stop theft and organized retail crime." But ultimately, Target claimed, those efforts failed to make those stores "successful."
The various spin on the reasons for large chain stores having to shut some branches for the store's overall poor performance began to sound over-complicated. I decided to look up,
Organized Retail Crime
"Organized retail crime refers to professional criminal enterprises ranging from regional gangs to international crime rings and other organized crime occurring in retail environments. Operations include truckjacking, shoplifting, smash and grab, cargo theft, and cargo diversion. One person acting alone is not considered an example of organized retail crime. Working in teams, some create distractions while others steal items judiciously, indiscriminately or violently. "
Wikipedia
I am surmising that Republicans who repeatedly blame what's wrong in this country with Black Lives that don't matter and Hispanic marauders immigrating illegally were content with the blaming of gangs. Now, I see that cargo theft and truckjacking would account for large amounts of stolen goods, but that we, the public, would not have a clue about this factor. I'm so glad that Catherine Cortez Masto is being confronted--she's "better than this."
People lost their schitt over Target having anything Pride. Let alone a whole Pride section. I saw a tiktok where a woman went crazy because a onsie for a baby had a rainbow...lol She was boycotting.
You said it. Because those R's prefer to "suggest" that those Black and Hispanic folks are criminals and animals, not fit to live amongst real folken due to these inherent, in-bred tendancies towards criminality and violence, because it suits their purposes and sets the stage for the appeasement of their followers inherent and in-bred racism.
They do this because pandering to the "lost cause" can be richly rewarding, as we've all witnessed. The dollars that have been wafted, blown, thrown, no shovelled into the greedy maw of the Orange Crevasse have motivated many to emulate such odious behavior and have inspired criminals of all stripes at all levels to elevate their "game," as it were..
Judd this is such good work and I thank you for it. Without investigative reporting corporate America would continue undeterred. Corporations, now that they are people (note sarcasm) , must adhere to the ethical standards that a civil society demands.
Yes, I noticed that "to draw attention away from margin headwinds in the form of higher promotions and weaker inventory management in recent quarters."!
William Blair was able to "target" precisely much of the real truth here.
Perhaps to avoid accusations of racism? With all the virtue signaling and accusations thrown like so much feces at the zoo, simple answers are seen as a conspiracy.
That makes no sense. It also contradicts common sense and known facts. If the retail association has a problem it wants solved, it produces the data to support its position. Race does not need to enter the equation.
Instead:
-- I believe it was a Target manager in previous articles who blamed lack of profitability on corporate practices like sending the same merchandise in the same quantities to all stores (regardless of store size etc). This in turn led to a repeated cycle of deeply discounting for large quantities of unsold product to make room for more.
-- Stores in areas with lower crime rates had fewer reported thefts were closed while others remained open. The stores that closed happened to be newer & according to customers were often in inconvenient locations or difficult to find. This indicates poor planning or timing, lack of store visibility or foot traffic and other factors related to corporate decisions.
-- Walmart closed many of its newish “Neighborhood Markets” which are grocery oriented. The behavior of “citizens” has nothing to do with their miscalculations. Market saturation in areas where there is disposable income caused other groceries to also close. A Neighborhood Market near us closed in a community that would shop at Sams if they chose to buy groceries in a glorified warehouse. Walmart is notorious for moving into an area, becoming an ‘anchor’ in small shopping centers and then moving on leaving a gaping hole. It is their business model. Walmart typically blames ‘underperforming’ and shifts in the retail market.
There are other factors that contribute to shoplifting. As retailers continue to reduce the number of employees in their stores they are reducing the deterrent (risk of getting caught) and increasing opportunity. Forcing more customers to be the cashier and check themselves out because only one lane is open increases opportunity of intentional theft and accidental theft by customers unfamiliar with the process. Retail employees, especially cashiers are frequently subjected to rude behavior by customers. Add to that they are minimum wage employees with low expectations of pay increases or making a livable wage, and overworked due to staff reductions so that they barely have time to lift their heads and see what is happening around them. Throw in lax gun laws and the increased probability that a shoplifter who has decided to take the risk is carrying a gun and now an employee’s risk of getting hurt has increased.
In summary there is a balance between risk, opportunity and desire. There will always be retail theft but as long as opportunity is limited and deterrence outweighs the desire there will manageable theft. I think retail companies have brought this current situation on themselves. By reducing staff and paying employees the minimum they can to increase profits they have caused an imbalance. In fact some risk due to guns and violence has shifted from the shoplifter to the employee. Retail companies are seeing the consequences.
Personally I don’t believe external theft has increased that much in general to close stores.
So... rather than figuring out what's really going on, and/or admitting that management has made some mistakes and misjudged what might happen in this changing retail/employee environment, management at Target (together with several other retailers) is finding scapegoats to blame when their strategies don't work out as they so breathlessly claimed they would just a few years ago?
Yet somehow, despite their strategy of dishonesty and refusing to take responsibility, not to mention sucking far more resources out of the company's coffers than they're worth, these corporate executives expect their employees not to follow their example of dishonesty and scapegoating?
Meanwhile, Wall Street continues to think the answer to every problem is fewer employees and more highly paid executives and corporate boards. Can we at least consider the possibility that all the paranoia about lower class people stealing from their companies is psychological projection on the part of the executives who levels of compensation far outweigh any theft in their stores?
Isn't is obvious that American corporate heads and often the managers too, are not worth the pay they get compared to the people actually doing the work?
It’s very true that our large chain stores, as well as our “mom and pop” owned stores, suffer from retail theft, shortages, etc. I will admit that I haven’t worked in this field since the mid to late 70s, so I’m positive it’s lot different now. But, back then I did gain employment with a large chain store as the head of security. I was in charge of 5 stores in two states on the east coast. All 5 of these stores were suffering from large amounts of theft. I’m not going to call it retail theft because it wasn’t all just that. But, I went into the stores one at a time, assessed the issues I saw, then set a plan to fix them. The store managers didn’t like the changes I proposed, but they, let’s say, ‘came around to my way of thinking’. Inside 1 year, I had cut their loss by theft by 2/3. It’s totally impossible to stop it all, but when enough arrest are made, and people prosecuted, it seemed the word got out that that store wasn’t a ‘free stealing’ store anymore.
Target stores have always been known to be extremely lax in security when it comes to theft. They haven’t had the right people for store security. You just can’t have an elderly person at the door greeting people as they come in, and helping people get shopping carts, and call that ‘security’. And, Target isn’t the only one that is lax. All of them are now. First, security personnel working aren’t producing income for the store. The store managers frown on them because it’s dollars out of their bonuses. You’d be surprised how many times I went into one of my stores and caught my security people unloading trucks, or putting stock out on the shelves, or some other ‘retail’ job other than watching fur theft, or doing their assigned duties. That’s where the store managers and I clashed, more than once, and they always lost that argument. Especially when I laid out their alternative solution to my problem.
Interesting history, but maybe not as applicable now. I think it was reported before by a previous PI report on Target and "crime", but Target made a point 2-3 years ago of adding old stock at reduced prices to their stores. Not as much profit in that, but a customer like me was able to buy a few items (new blender, citrus juice squeezer) at low prices.
True. As I said, this was kid 70s, and yes, things are a lot different now. But, theft is theft, and if a person could go into a store and study it for about a week, or so, changes in their system could be made to fix a lot of that. A lot of theft is internal, not external from shoplifting. This is one thing I found was things were being stolen right off the trucks by the unloaded, the stockroom personnel. They’d take an item off the truck. I stead of putting it where it was supposed to go, it never went to the stockroom. It went outside, hid, until they were off work. Then they’d return after closing and pick it up and take it home. These were usually big-ticket items. A tv, stereo, camera. Some big costing item. Same with clothes. I could tell you crap that checkout people were doing. Ringing up a $250.00 tv for $2.50, or clothing that cost $50.00 for $.50.
Yes and those are the things retailers (and their association) don’t want to emphasize. They mingle all the theft numbers together. Retailers choose to never mention certain things like vendor fraud. Things considered under their control.
Different environments of course call for different strategies to some extent. I almost laughed out loud when I read that theft influences how items are displayed. Hasn’t it for centuries?
CNBC did an analysis of ‘shrink’ based on 2nd quarter financial reports for a variety of retailers.
• CNBC analyzed the balance sheets of seven retailers to determine how much money they’re actually losing from shrink and retail theft.
• Generally, the inventory losses are only a small fraction of the retailers’ net sales.
• They also pale in comparison to other factors squeezing margins, such as excessive discounting and promotions.
• Some retailers are pulling back on their contention that organized retail crime is a primary cause of losses.
Yep. It’s amazing when these retail box stores are faced with plain facts they change their tune. They also fail to tell you that a security specialist can walk into their stores and inside a few days there, they can tell them where their losses are, and how to fix them. They can show them things they can do to prevent goods from walking out the door without being paid for, and how to stop items going out the back door before it’s unloaded from the trucks to the stockroom. All it’s going to cost them is money. And that’s what they don’t want to spend any money on. Security, theft prevention, etc doesn’t make them money. It cost money, and that comes off their bottom line, which in turn comes off their bonus. Heaven forbid screwing with the store managements bonus money!
It seems like you’re describing decisions based on “who” loses money instead of “loss prevention”. Frankly every organization I’ve known of that had major issues also had a problem with management either being neglectful or turning a blind eye. Granted they were not retail organizations. I’m not a genius but management priorities and due diligence matter.
Ann, you are absolutely correct. And, even back in the mid to late 70s, this was the same.
You’d be surprised how many if the management staff of these stores I caught with “their fingers in the till”, so to speak. One manager, making mud 6 hired a year salary plus bonus, was also taking over $5,000 a month cash from the cash office and over $10,000 a month in goods from the store!!! He didn’t even know I was working the store until I had the deputy put handcuffs in him, in a store meeting, with every employee there. I also arrested 25 store employees, and two assistant managers at the same meeting.
I worked for a marketing firm that sold to retailers like Target and these stores, like so many others have so many people in and out of their warehouse space, their docks, their “secure” locations, it’s impossible to know what is happening. They depend heavily upon suppliers to display, maintain, and manage the product that comes into the store, as well. Additionally, so much of the merchandise is lost due to staffing shortages and mismanagement. Examples include improper turn and shrinkage due to misplacement on the planner. All of this could have been exacerbated by expansion into areas that could not have been a good fit for the model.
When I spoke with the managers, they were all overwhelmed and they often changed frequently. What I can also tell you is that corporate had no idea what was going on at the store level.
I surmise that corporate closed underperforming stores just because they were underperforming and like Judd said, they took the opportunity to make use of the political climate.
Whether they are pushing the narrative intentionally is to be seen but the consequences are that more black and brown people will be locked up and since they are the only people still shopping in person anymore, that’s the wrong move.
Great work. Thank you. This feels exactly like the oil companies stories about supply and demand to continually increase prices to maintain their astronomical profits. We buy it hook, line and sinker every time.
This was quite the eye opener for those of us who assume that our Congress has the ability to use the best data to support a bill. What we again see is they cherry pick the data that supports their agenda. It was also a disturbing sidebar that DHS is being more and more converted into some security apparatus.
The Retail Assoc. provides the data it wants to provide to ears willing to hear crime is out of control. CNBC found that some retailers are backing off their claims. Whether it is because they can’t pass closer scrutiny; “crime ridden” retail sites discourage customers or some other reason is hard to say.
It's not a surprise that CEO's would prefer to cast blame on something that they cannot easily control (theft) versus explaining that they made poor decisions (poor store locations, strategies, merchandise). However, it is truly shocking that major news organizations report so much of this information without doing their due diligence. While theft isn't prosecuted as much as it should be and it's never been easier to off load stolen merchandise, it's also not the extreme that is being pedaled in the news. Our cultural obsession with following the trends of the day also generates enormous merchandise waste and impacts profitability. Candor from the C-suite would be much appreciated.
I find reporters for MSM, including my local Washington Post, to be pretty lazy unless they're doing an "investigative" piece. The business and Economics reporters are the worst. They take corporate PR at face value and dial up Larry Summers for comments.
Having been a small retail store owner, the vast amount of shrink comes from behind the register, not in front of it. To further this thread, a large grocery store opened within feet from my location within a year of me closing my doors because of insufficient sales. Imagine my satisfied grin after they also closed for the same reason.
Companies large and small are loathe to admit bad decisions as accountability is something you hold others to and not oneself. Also the musical chairs of most companies means that the people who made the decisions are rarely around long enough to be held responsible.
I’m not sure how stores would be underreporting retail theft: managers don’t like reporting that they messed up and lost goods to error, seem more likely to over report theft.
“We’re not going to report our measurements because they don’t support the claims our lobbyists want to be paid to make,” is kind of like regulator capture in reverse.
Big box stores suffer the most at the hands of Amazon and other competitors. Hey, these are the ‘market conditions’ corporate bigwigs swear by, live their lives by, especially the pure or fasci-capitalists. It’s one of the reasons WalMart (who suck even more) superserves more rural areas; less competition from any of em. Because blame is the new problem solving, and sacrifice has great tax implications for them.
Thanks for your hard work and excellent reporting. I still ask what are the racial compositions of the neighborhoods around the stores being closed? Any red-lining going on here or with the “smaller” stores?
I can tell you that was definitely the case with the 2 Target stores that closed on the south side area of Chicago (119th & 87th street stores). The same with the 4 Walmart stores that announced on a Tuesday that they'd be closing that coming Sunday and all you old folks who need your meds? Good luck.
They blamed "retail theft" too and if you looked at the store locations and immediately jumped to conclusions with no other data, well what is someone in some other area left to assume?
Poor reportage from the MSM only exacerbates this effect.
Anyone have the emails of these congressmen to be able to forward this? I’m sure their office has seen it, but it would be great to share from us so they know WE’VE seen it. Work on bills that matter. Work on bills that help. They’re not that to provide cover for corporations’ management issues
The various spin on the reasons for large chain stores having to shut some branches for the store's overall poor performance began to sound over-complicated. I decided to look up,
Organized Retail Crime
"Organized retail crime refers to professional criminal enterprises ranging from regional gangs to international crime rings and other organized crime occurring in retail environments. Operations include truckjacking, shoplifting, smash and grab, cargo theft, and cargo diversion. One person acting alone is not considered an example of organized retail crime. Working in teams, some create distractions while others steal items judiciously, indiscriminately or violently. "
Wikipedia
I am surmising that Republicans who repeatedly blame what's wrong in this country with Black Lives that don't matter and Hispanic marauders immigrating illegally were content with the blaming of gangs. Now, I see that cargo theft and truckjacking would account for large amounts of stolen goods, but that we, the public, would not have a clue about this factor. I'm so glad that Catherine Cortez Masto is being confronted--she's "better than this."
Thankyou for your diligent scrutiny and research!
Don't forget the LGBTQ community as a whole, too!
People lost their schitt over Target having anything Pride. Let alone a whole Pride section. I saw a tiktok where a woman went crazy because a onsie for a baby had a rainbow...lol She was boycotting.
You said it. Because those R's prefer to "suggest" that those Black and Hispanic folks are criminals and animals, not fit to live amongst real folken due to these inherent, in-bred tendancies towards criminality and violence, because it suits their purposes and sets the stage for the appeasement of their followers inherent and in-bred racism.
They do this because pandering to the "lost cause" can be richly rewarding, as we've all witnessed. The dollars that have been wafted, blown, thrown, no shovelled into the greedy maw of the Orange Crevasse have motivated many to emulate such odious behavior and have inspired criminals of all stripes at all levels to elevate their "game," as it were..
Judd this is such good work and I thank you for it. Without investigative reporting corporate America would continue undeterred. Corporations, now that they are people (note sarcasm) , must adhere to the ethical standards that a civil society demands.
What about standards of being a citizen?
What’s your point, David? If Target’s small format stores aren’t working, why don’t they just say so rather than constructing this alternative reason?
Hmmm. Performance affecting share price and exec compensation? Isn’t it always about the money?
Yes, I noticed that "to draw attention away from margin headwinds in the form of higher promotions and weaker inventory management in recent quarters."!
William Blair was able to "target" precisely much of the real truth here.
Perhaps to avoid accusations of racism? With all the virtue signaling and accusations thrown like so much feces at the zoo, simple answers are seen as a conspiracy.
So David, using a racist trope to avoid being falsely accused of racism is okay?
So, closing a store because “crime”iis less racist than saying you made a bad business decision?
That makes no sense. It also contradicts common sense and known facts. If the retail association has a problem it wants solved, it produces the data to support its position. Race does not need to enter the equation.
Instead:
-- I believe it was a Target manager in previous articles who blamed lack of profitability on corporate practices like sending the same merchandise in the same quantities to all stores (regardless of store size etc). This in turn led to a repeated cycle of deeply discounting for large quantities of unsold product to make room for more.
-- Stores in areas with lower crime rates had fewer reported thefts were closed while others remained open. The stores that closed happened to be newer & according to customers were often in inconvenient locations or difficult to find. This indicates poor planning or timing, lack of store visibility or foot traffic and other factors related to corporate decisions.
-- Walmart closed many of its newish “Neighborhood Markets” which are grocery oriented. The behavior of “citizens” has nothing to do with their miscalculations. Market saturation in areas where there is disposable income caused other groceries to also close. A Neighborhood Market near us closed in a community that would shop at Sams if they chose to buy groceries in a glorified warehouse. Walmart is notorious for moving into an area, becoming an ‘anchor’ in small shopping centers and then moving on leaving a gaping hole. It is their business model. Walmart typically blames ‘underperforming’ and shifts in the retail market.
Why would "they" want to "Perhaps to avoid accusations of racism?"
What would motivate you to say that David? Got something "else" you want to say? It's an open forum. Go ahead. Say it. Say what's really on your mind.
There are other factors that contribute to shoplifting. As retailers continue to reduce the number of employees in their stores they are reducing the deterrent (risk of getting caught) and increasing opportunity. Forcing more customers to be the cashier and check themselves out because only one lane is open increases opportunity of intentional theft and accidental theft by customers unfamiliar with the process. Retail employees, especially cashiers are frequently subjected to rude behavior by customers. Add to that they are minimum wage employees with low expectations of pay increases or making a livable wage, and overworked due to staff reductions so that they barely have time to lift their heads and see what is happening around them. Throw in lax gun laws and the increased probability that a shoplifter who has decided to take the risk is carrying a gun and now an employee’s risk of getting hurt has increased.
In summary there is a balance between risk, opportunity and desire. There will always be retail theft but as long as opportunity is limited and deterrence outweighs the desire there will manageable theft. I think retail companies have brought this current situation on themselves. By reducing staff and paying employees the minimum they can to increase profits they have caused an imbalance. In fact some risk due to guns and violence has shifted from the shoplifter to the employee. Retail companies are seeing the consequences.
Personally I don’t believe external theft has increased that much in general to close stores.
I don't either. But it's a handy excuse to use that allows poor decisions made at the executive level to be excused.
So... rather than figuring out what's really going on, and/or admitting that management has made some mistakes and misjudged what might happen in this changing retail/employee environment, management at Target (together with several other retailers) is finding scapegoats to blame when their strategies don't work out as they so breathlessly claimed they would just a few years ago?
Yet somehow, despite their strategy of dishonesty and refusing to take responsibility, not to mention sucking far more resources out of the company's coffers than they're worth, these corporate executives expect their employees not to follow their example of dishonesty and scapegoating?
Meanwhile, Wall Street continues to think the answer to every problem is fewer employees and more highly paid executives and corporate boards. Can we at least consider the possibility that all the paranoia about lower class people stealing from their companies is psychological projection on the part of the executives who levels of compensation far outweigh any theft in their stores?
Isn't is obvious that American corporate heads and often the managers too, are not worth the pay they get compared to the people actually doing the work?
Yes, yes and yes!!!
It’s very true that our large chain stores, as well as our “mom and pop” owned stores, suffer from retail theft, shortages, etc. I will admit that I haven’t worked in this field since the mid to late 70s, so I’m positive it’s lot different now. But, back then I did gain employment with a large chain store as the head of security. I was in charge of 5 stores in two states on the east coast. All 5 of these stores were suffering from large amounts of theft. I’m not going to call it retail theft because it wasn’t all just that. But, I went into the stores one at a time, assessed the issues I saw, then set a plan to fix them. The store managers didn’t like the changes I proposed, but they, let’s say, ‘came around to my way of thinking’. Inside 1 year, I had cut their loss by theft by 2/3. It’s totally impossible to stop it all, but when enough arrest are made, and people prosecuted, it seemed the word got out that that store wasn’t a ‘free stealing’ store anymore.
Target stores have always been known to be extremely lax in security when it comes to theft. They haven’t had the right people for store security. You just can’t have an elderly person at the door greeting people as they come in, and helping people get shopping carts, and call that ‘security’. And, Target isn’t the only one that is lax. All of them are now. First, security personnel working aren’t producing income for the store. The store managers frown on them because it’s dollars out of their bonuses. You’d be surprised how many times I went into one of my stores and caught my security people unloading trucks, or putting stock out on the shelves, or some other ‘retail’ job other than watching fur theft, or doing their assigned duties. That’s where the store managers and I clashed, more than once, and they always lost that argument. Especially when I laid out their alternative solution to my problem.
Interesting history, but maybe not as applicable now. I think it was reported before by a previous PI report on Target and "crime", but Target made a point 2-3 years ago of adding old stock at reduced prices to their stores. Not as much profit in that, but a customer like me was able to buy a few items (new blender, citrus juice squeezer) at low prices.
True. As I said, this was kid 70s, and yes, things are a lot different now. But, theft is theft, and if a person could go into a store and study it for about a week, or so, changes in their system could be made to fix a lot of that. A lot of theft is internal, not external from shoplifting. This is one thing I found was things were being stolen right off the trucks by the unloaded, the stockroom personnel. They’d take an item off the truck. I stead of putting it where it was supposed to go, it never went to the stockroom. It went outside, hid, until they were off work. Then they’d return after closing and pick it up and take it home. These were usually big-ticket items. A tv, stereo, camera. Some big costing item. Same with clothes. I could tell you crap that checkout people were doing. Ringing up a $250.00 tv for $2.50, or clothing that cost $50.00 for $.50.
Yes and those are the things retailers (and their association) don’t want to emphasize. They mingle all the theft numbers together. Retailers choose to never mention certain things like vendor fraud. Things considered under their control.
Different environments of course call for different strategies to some extent. I almost laughed out loud when I read that theft influences how items are displayed. Hasn’t it for centuries?
CNBC did an analysis of ‘shrink’ based on 2nd quarter financial reports for a variety of retailers.
• CNBC analyzed the balance sheets of seven retailers to determine how much money they’re actually losing from shrink and retail theft.
• Generally, the inventory losses are only a small fraction of the retailers’ net sales.
• They also pale in comparison to other factors squeezing margins, such as excessive discounting and promotions.
• Some retailers are pulling back on their contention that organized retail crime is a primary cause of losses.
https://www.cnbc.com/2023/09/08/this-is-how-much-money-retailers-are-losing-to-shrink-retail-theft.html
Yep. It’s amazing when these retail box stores are faced with plain facts they change their tune. They also fail to tell you that a security specialist can walk into their stores and inside a few days there, they can tell them where their losses are, and how to fix them. They can show them things they can do to prevent goods from walking out the door without being paid for, and how to stop items going out the back door before it’s unloaded from the trucks to the stockroom. All it’s going to cost them is money. And that’s what they don’t want to spend any money on. Security, theft prevention, etc doesn’t make them money. It cost money, and that comes off their bottom line, which in turn comes off their bonus. Heaven forbid screwing with the store managements bonus money!
It seems like you’re describing decisions based on “who” loses money instead of “loss prevention”. Frankly every organization I’ve known of that had major issues also had a problem with management either being neglectful or turning a blind eye. Granted they were not retail organizations. I’m not a genius but management priorities and due diligence matter.
Ann, you are absolutely correct. And, even back in the mid to late 70s, this was the same.
You’d be surprised how many if the management staff of these stores I caught with “their fingers in the till”, so to speak. One manager, making mud 6 hired a year salary plus bonus, was also taking over $5,000 a month cash from the cash office and over $10,000 a month in goods from the store!!! He didn’t even know I was working the store until I had the deputy put handcuffs in him, in a store meeting, with every employee there. I also arrested 25 store employees, and two assistant managers at the same meeting.
I worked for a marketing firm that sold to retailers like Target and these stores, like so many others have so many people in and out of their warehouse space, their docks, their “secure” locations, it’s impossible to know what is happening. They depend heavily upon suppliers to display, maintain, and manage the product that comes into the store, as well. Additionally, so much of the merchandise is lost due to staffing shortages and mismanagement. Examples include improper turn and shrinkage due to misplacement on the planner. All of this could have been exacerbated by expansion into areas that could not have been a good fit for the model.
When I spoke with the managers, they were all overwhelmed and they often changed frequently. What I can also tell you is that corporate had no idea what was going on at the store level.
I surmise that corporate closed underperforming stores just because they were underperforming and like Judd said, they took the opportunity to make use of the political climate.
Whether they are pushing the narrative intentionally is to be seen but the consequences are that more black and brown people will be locked up and since they are the only people still shopping in person anymore, that’s the wrong move.
Great work. Thank you. This feels exactly like the oil companies stories about supply and demand to continually increase prices to maintain their astronomical profits. We buy it hook, line and sinker every time.
This was quite the eye opener for those of us who assume that our Congress has the ability to use the best data to support a bill. What we again see is they cherry pick the data that supports their agenda. It was also a disturbing sidebar that DHS is being more and more converted into some security apparatus.
The Retail Assoc. provides the data it wants to provide to ears willing to hear crime is out of control. CNBC found that some retailers are backing off their claims. Whether it is because they can’t pass closer scrutiny; “crime ridden” retail sites discourage customers or some other reason is hard to say.
https://www.cnbc.com/2023/09/08/this-is-how-much-money-retailers-are-losing-to-shrink-retail-theft.html
The minute Bush said he was starting a new department called “The Department of Homeland Security” I knew that’s what it would turn out to be.
Big brother
It's not a surprise that CEO's would prefer to cast blame on something that they cannot easily control (theft) versus explaining that they made poor decisions (poor store locations, strategies, merchandise). However, it is truly shocking that major news organizations report so much of this information without doing their due diligence. While theft isn't prosecuted as much as it should be and it's never been easier to off load stolen merchandise, it's also not the extreme that is being pedaled in the news. Our cultural obsession with following the trends of the day also generates enormous merchandise waste and impacts profitability. Candor from the C-suite would be much appreciated.
I find reporters for MSM, including my local Washington Post, to be pretty lazy unless they're doing an "investigative" piece. The business and Economics reporters are the worst. They take corporate PR at face value and dial up Larry Summers for comments.
This began in earnest several years ago. Pitiful excuse for “journalism” to take press releases and repackage them as news articles.
Having been a small retail store owner, the vast amount of shrink comes from behind the register, not in front of it. To further this thread, a large grocery store opened within feet from my location within a year of me closing my doors because of insufficient sales. Imagine my satisfied grin after they also closed for the same reason.
I am sorry your small business closed. Small businesses are the backbone of this country.
Thanks, I took it as a life lesson and am no worse for it.
Bingo.
Companies large and small are loathe to admit bad decisions as accountability is something you hold others to and not oneself. Also the musical chairs of most companies means that the people who made the decisions are rarely around long enough to be held responsible.
I’m not sure how stores would be underreporting retail theft: managers don’t like reporting that they messed up and lost goods to error, seem more likely to over report theft.
“We’re not going to report our measurements because they don’t support the claims our lobbyists want to be paid to make,” is kind of like regulator capture in reverse.
Big box stores suffer the most at the hands of Amazon and other competitors. Hey, these are the ‘market conditions’ corporate bigwigs swear by, live their lives by, especially the pure or fasci-capitalists. It’s one of the reasons WalMart (who suck even more) superserves more rural areas; less competition from any of em. Because blame is the new problem solving, and sacrifice has great tax implications for them.
Thanks for your hard work and excellent reporting. I still ask what are the racial compositions of the neighborhoods around the stores being closed? Any red-lining going on here or with the “smaller” stores?
I can tell you that was definitely the case with the 2 Target stores that closed on the south side area of Chicago (119th & 87th street stores). The same with the 4 Walmart stores that announced on a Tuesday that they'd be closing that coming Sunday and all you old folks who need your meds? Good luck.
They blamed "retail theft" too and if you looked at the store locations and immediately jumped to conclusions with no other data, well what is someone in some other area left to assume?
Poor reportage from the MSM only exacerbates this effect.
When I saw where the closures were happening, I wondered the same thing.
Superb and original report, as always.
Anyone have the emails of these congressmen to be able to forward this? I’m sure their office has seen it, but it would be great to share from us so they know WE’VE seen it. Work on bills that matter. Work on bills that help. They’re not that to provide cover for corporations’ management issues