On Sept. 26, Target set off a nationwide firestorm when it said it would cease 9 shops in four states as a result of theft and organized retail crime had made them too terrible to stoop.
On its face, Target’s announcement changed into evidence that retail crime changed into struggling with one in every of the nation’s most eminent outlets from working shops profitably and safely. It challenged skeptics who believed that outlets had exaggerated the affect of organized retail crime and passe it as an excuse for depressed financial performance.
Target’s shuttered runt-format store on Folsom Avenue in San Francisco’s SoMa neighborhood, November 2023.
Gabrielle Fonrouge | CNBC
There changed into excellent one challenge with the clarification Target gave for closing shops: The locations it shuttered veritably seen fewer reported crimes than others it selected to withhold beginning nearby, a monthslong CNBC investigation has found.
CNBC’s findings cast doubt on Target’s clarification and expand questions on whether or no longer the company’s announcement changed into designed to advance its legislative agenda — seeking a crackdown on organized retail crime — and to vague depressed financial performance at the shops because it grapples with sliding sales.
In some conditions, Target selected to withhold working shops in busier areas that had greater foot web site visitors or increased median incomes, despite the indisputable truth that the locations seen extra theft and violence, the probe revealed. In these areas, police departments will seemingly be greater funded as a result of increased tax bases, and potentialities would possibly perchance well merely indulge in extra to tell on discretionary items.
Quite a bit of the locations Target closed were “runt-format” shops the company opened over the closing five years as fragment of an experiment to enlarge its footprint in dense, urban areas. The moves followed Target’s decision to shutter four a connected shops in the spring that it said were underperforming, Retail Dive beforehand reported.
On the time it announced the 9 store closures in September, Target said, “We won’t continue working these shops as a result of theft and organized retail crime are threatening the protection of our crew and guests, and contributing to unsustainable business performance. We can simplest be winning if the working and shopping ambiance is safe for all.”
The news came excellent hours after the National Retail Federation issued a key annual retail safety glimpse — by which it said violence at shops had increased nonetheless losses from theft hadn’t changed unparalleled — and exactly one month sooner than the exchange neighborhood changed into planning to lobby Congress for stiffer punishment for organized theft offenders. Target CEO Brian Cornell sits on the NRF’s board of administrators and is a member of its govt committee.
One longtime retail govt and knowledgeable puzzled whether or no longer Target’s claims about theft at the shops were designed to veil its struggles, as the retailer’s sales fell from the prior 365 days in both its 2nd and third quarters.
“I assemble no longer wish to make tell of the be conscious ‘stunt,’ as a result of I assemble no longer know exactly what went on in Minneapolis [where Target is based], nonetheless to me, it read fancy a stunt, taking a check out to divert attention from the company’s lack of performance overall,” said Stamp Cohen, a professor and director of retail reviews at Columbia Alternate School who beforehand served as the CEO of Sears Canada, Bradlees and Lazarus malls.
“They didn’t uncover their proper shortage statistics,” he added. “They talked about it in unparalleled phrases; they didn’t uncover another components that can perchance indulge in precipitated them to advance to a name to cease any of these shops. They implied that perchance the most easy reason they were closing the shops changed into as a result of of theft. That would merely or would possibly perchance well merely no longer be comely. My wager is: Not comely.”
In response, Target spokesperson Jim Joice told CNBC that as a enhance company, Target is “constantly opening new shops, initiating remodels, investing in our crew and infrastructure, and refining our operations as we glimpse to ship the shopping ride that americans indulge in advance to quiz of Target.”
“In 2023 on my own, we opened 21 new shops and revamped 150 shops as fragment of our nearly $5 billion investment in strategic initiatives. The lately announced store closures connected to safety, retail theft, and unsustainable business performance characterize less than 0.5% of our U.S. footprint, with 1,956 shops currently working and serving our guests,” Joice said.
Target potentialities are impressed to name for aid having access to products that are saved in locked conditions.
Gabrielle Fonrouge
CNBC passe public file requests and law enforcement sources to compose crime statistics and 911 name data for 21 Target shops in Unique York Metropolis, Seattle, the San Francisco Bay Residence, and Portland, Oregon — the four areas the get cling of the retailer closed shops. The details involves the 9 shops Target shuttered and a connected locations it saved beginning nearby, spanning from January 2021 by September 2023, when the closures were announced. The details display how repeatedly Target changed into listed as the sufferer of against the law at the locations, or how repeatedly police were known as to the shops and arrested somebody, said they addressed the challenge or generated a document or log of what took place.
CNBC’s methodology
When analyzing 911 name logs and other crime data for this document, CNBC included in its tally simplest incidents that ended in an arrest, police document or log, or incidents that police said they spoke back to and handled. Unfounded complaints, reproduction calls, requests for backup, and store and welfare tests were weeded out from the logs and no longer counted, alongside with other irrelevant files. Psychological health crises, overdoses, vehicle thefts, vehicle burglaries and other events that weren’t without extend connected to Target or seemed as if it would happen outside the confines of the store were furthermore no longer included.
The details paint a startling list of the frequent crime at the locations. However they furthermore display a transparent enhance. Practically every store the retailer closed seen less police tell and fewer reported crime incidents than the locations it saved beginning nearby.
Glorious one in every of the 9 shops that Target closed across the four areas, a design in Pittsburg, California, seen extra crime and police tell than its closest comparable design, in Antioch, California, in step with CNBC’s prognosis.
Store-converse crime data for the 9 locations Target closed has no longer been beforehand reported.
Love most data on theft, organized retail crime, and “shrink,” or outlets’ inventory loss, the details obtained by CNBC are usually no longer full. Theft and crime overall are refined to measure, as they recurrently plod unreported and undetected, experts indulge in told CNBC.
Target declined to give its inner crime figures. Without these numbers, the details obtained by CNBC are “perchance the most easy list that that you just’ll be be going to ranking” about what crime seemed fancy at the locations the retailer closed and the ones it didn’t, said Christopher Herrmann, an assistant professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and an knowledgeable in crime prognosis and mapping.
“Or no longer it is attention-grabbing that they’re the utilization of public safety, or employee safety, as an excuse, form of, for closing the shops,” said Herrmann. “Since in truth, they’re no longer closing the shops with the absolute best rate of retail theft.”
In response, Target’s Joice told CNBC that “store-stage incidents fluctuate broadly in severity, and police data would possibly perchance well no longer display the corpulent extent of what our teams ride on the floor.”
“We indulge in many cases shared financial data and inner data on the develop of theft-connected crime,” Joice said. “We indulge in furthermore constantly conveyed our emphasis on safety and highlighted crew people’ experiences that display the affect that theft and organized retail crime indulge in had on our company, our guests, and the communities we serve.”
“We continue to speculate closely in safety, alongside with solutions to cease and prevent theft and organized retail crime in our shops, as correctly as partnering with law enforcement, legislators, and retail peers to glimpse long-time frame alternatives,” Joice said.
Target has beforehand said it seen a “marked develop” in theft sharp violence or threats between 2021 and 2022, and at the open of 2023. Within the foremost five months of this 365 days, shops seen a nearly 120% develop in these incidents, the company has said.
Table of Contents
The San Francisco Bay Residence
Target closed three shops in the San Francisco Bay Residence — one in San Francisco, one in Oakland and one more in Pittsburg, a suburb about 40 miles outside the city.
All the locations were within a pair of miles or a immediate drive a long way from one more Target that remained beginning, which would possibly perchance well indulge in played a role in the company’s decision to shutter them, experts said.
Retailers recurrently “miscalculate how unparalleled the brand new store will cannibalize present shops,” said Cohen, of Columbia Alternate School.
Target opened its now-closed runt-format store in Oakland in 2019, excellent two miles a long way from its Emeryville design. Between January 2021 and September 2023, 96 crime incidents were reported at the Oakland store when put next with 440 at the Emeryville store over the a connected time body.
Target’s Emeryville, California, design remains beginning about two miles a long way from a store the retailer closed in Oakland.
Gabrielle Fonrouge | CNBC
The findings contemplate some overall theft trends in Oakland and Emeryville in 2023. Total theft, with the exception of car theft, changed into down 15% in Oakland from Jan. 1 to Oct. 29, when put next with the a connected length a 365 days ago, in step with police data. In Emeryville, petty theft and immense theft were up 16% and 14%, respectively, for the length from Jan. 1 to Oct. 31, when put next with the a connected length a 365 days ago, police data display.
Demographics is one more part that would possibly perchance also be at play. Within the ZIP code the get cling of the Oakland store is located, the median revenue stage is $76,953, when put next with $114,286 in Emeryville, in step with U.S. Census Records.
Other people with increased incomes are inclined to indulge in extra cash to tell on discretionary items. Police departments in these areas would possibly perchance well merely furthermore be extra inclined to put into effect property crimes similar to theft if there would possibly be less violent crime to serve to, which would possibly perchance well present the adaptation in police responses between shops, experts who discover crime indulge in told CNBC. As an illustration, one atomize and three rapes had been reported in Emeryville to this level this 365 days. In comparability, 106 homicides and 159 rapes had been reported in Oakland in the a connected time body.
Looters rob a Target store all the strategy by protests in Oakland, California, on Can also 30, 2020, over the demise of George Floyd.
Josh Edelson | AFP | Getty Images
Within the city of San Francisco, the runt-format store on Folsom Avenue that Target closed seen as a minimum 84 crime incidents that resulted in police reports between January 2021 and September 2023.
Two miles away at Target’s sprawling Union Sq. design, which remains beginning, 486 incidents were recorded all the strategy by the a connected time body.
The shops’ neighborhoods and the foot web site visitors they seen furthermore differentiated them.
The Target signal from its Mission Avenue store in San Francisco’s Union Sq. glows on a constructing across the road, November 2023.
Gabrielle Fonrouge | CNBC
The closed store changed into sandwiched between a vehicle dealership and a freeway in an dwelling that locals said had gentle foot web site visitors and had attracted a homeless encampment all the strategy by the Covid pandemic. In comparability, Target’s Union Sq. design is in the coronary heart of San Francisco’s bustling vacationer and shopping district.
Portland
Target closed three shops in the city of Portland that seen less crime than locations it saved beginning.
As an illustration, the Target on Southeast Washington Avenue, which remains beginning, had 718 reported incidents between January 2021 and the tip of September 2023, which is bigger than all three closed shops seen combined over the a connected time frame, in step with police data.
One of many locations, a runt-format store on Northeast Halsey Avenue, changed into beginning for beneath three years sooner than it changed into closed.
Per accessible data in Portland, CNBC’s findings echo some dwelling crime statistics.
Within the Hazelwood neighborhood, the get cling of Target’s store on Southeast Washington Avenue remains beginning, reported larcenies are up 5% in 2023 between Jan. 1 and the tip of October, when put next with the a connected length a 365 days ago. In Hollywood and Richmond, the get cling of Target closed shops, reported larcenies were down 37% and eight%, respectively, for the a connected time frame.
On the opposite hand, in downtown Portland, the get cling of Target’s store on Southwest Morrison Avenue changed into closed, reported larcenies were up 13% for that time frame.
Seattle
Target closed two shops in Seattle, both runt-format locations that seen fewer crimes than the nearest Target shops.
As an illustration, the shuttered Targets on Northwest Market Avenue and College Manner Northeast had 235 and 395 reported incidents, respectively, between January 2021 and the tip of September 2023. In comparability, two locations about five miles away that remain beginning, on 2nd Avenue and Northeast Northgate Manner, seen 878 and 901 reported incidents, respectively, all the strategy by the a connected time frame.
In some conditions, the details furthermore suits local crime statistics. Between Jan. 1, 2021, and Oct. 31, 2023, reported larcenies were 30% decrease in the house of Target’s Northwest Market Avenue design and 33% decrease in the house of the College Manner store, both of that had been closed, than in the house the get cling of Target’s Northeast Northgate Manner store remains beginning.
Unique York Metropolis
Target closed one store in Unique York Metropolis. The design changed into in East Harlem and housed within an even bigger shopping complex that borders the East River, a pair of 15-minute stroll from the nearest subway plight.
It recorded as a minimum 844 incidents between January 2021 and the tip of September 2023, nonetheless the figures gentle in comparability with these all the strategy by the a connected time frame at other Target shops dotted across the Huge Apple.
A store on Greenwich Avenue in Decrease Long island seen 2,090 reported incidents, bigger than double the volume in East Harlem in that time frame. At one more design, on Gigantic Avenue, 1,628 incidents were recorded.
The locations are vastly a number of. The two Decrease Long island locations are in busier areas with extra foot web site visitors and increased median revenue phases. Within the ZIP code the get cling of the East Harlem store changed into located, the median revenue is $36,989, when put next with bigger than $250,000 in the house across the Greenwich Avenue store and $43,362 in the house across the Gigantic Avenue design, U.S. Census data shows.
Target closed the East Harlem design — as a result of of crime and safety, it said — at the a connected time it planned to beginning a store a pair of mile and a half of away on West 125th Avenue in Harlem. Crime trends are worse in the house the get cling of the brand new store is opening, in step with police data.
Target’s Unique York Metropolis store in East Harlem changed into housed within an even bigger shopping complex.
Gabrielle Fonrouge | CNBC
On the time Target announced the East Harlem closure, reported petty theft incidents were down 2.5% between Jan. 1 and Sept. 24, 2023, in the house the get cling of the East Harlem store changed into and up 9% all the strategy by the a connected length in the house the get cling of the proposed store will seemingly be, when put next with the a connected length a 365 days ago. Target didn’t comment on the discrepancy.
— Graphics by CNBC’s Gabriel Cortes
