…the data does not point to any clear changing crime trend that would justify rapid closures of these five stores for specifically crime reasons. Given these trends I’m highly skeptical that rising crime at these stores is the main explanation for the store closures.
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My theory is that the above graphs are actually telling a deeper story. Those stores may not be closing in spite of lower levels of crime but rather because of them.
Crime isn’t good — obviously — but shopliftings at a store imply something about that store’s performance. That the stores that are closing have lower crime levels may suggest that they are seeing fewer customers than the other stores. The number of crimes isn’t just a measure of criminal activity, it’s also a measure of customers (NOTE: A few readers have pointed out that some of these stores are physically smaller than normal Target stores which certainly fits the data and is good context to have).
You can’t have pickpockets on Bourbon Street if there are no tourists around, so a ton of pickpocket incidents being reported can be taken as a sign of a rollicking good Mardi Gras.
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Unfortunately, crime makes an easy and simple boogeyman for complex decisions that may only be tangentially related to crime — if at all. We are fortunate to have open crime data that allows for a deeper dive into the factors that may or may not be impacting corporate moves such as this.
Find out who on the board of directors is shorting Target stock. There’s your culprit.
Sears/Kmart all over again.
All of them? Sounds right.
Sounds like they fucked around and found out what happens when you completely gut your system to cut corners and make data look pretty.
I work at a target and so much this. This past month has been absolute hell, the inventory system does not work, they send shit that doesn’t go on the floor for 3+ weeks all while we still have empty shelves of the things we sell right now.
I worked there before it went to shit and left riiiiiight as they started gutting inventory teams. It has had absolutely spectacular fallout across the board just because they didn’t like inventory team + system telling them their stock counts were totally fucked as a result of never giving overnight time to properly unload trucks.
It’s even funnier because it’s like this at almost any store you go into, same shit different spoon. Oh and pushing overnight to dayside so they didn’t give them the extra money on their pay + hire less people lol. What a joke.
Shit, a company I worked for had stuff on Target shelves and after we pulled the items we were still getting inventory back almost 1 year later. That seems so inefficient to me. I could be wrong but to my knowledge it’s like this because each department acts as their own business unit so there is no cohesion it feels like.
You are correct about how everything is weirdly split, we even now have 2 different beauty departments as they decided to add an Ulta into my target. Never will they schedule enough people in any single department though.
Crime isn’t good — obviously
That greatly depends on the crime being committed
I don’t know why they can’t then just say “these stores are closing because they don’t get enough business to justify staying open”. Is there something wrong with saying that?
because that would hurt their stocks and thats all they care about
I’m bummed they’re closing the 117th street Target but it’s been pretty barren for the past year or so. Target also just opened the smaller store at 86. It looks like they’re reducing their retail footprint.
As far as retail theft, there’s a Costco in that same mall and Costco recently reported significantly less shrinkage than other retailers. That makes me question the crime narrative.
File this under “No fucking shit.”
Anecdotally speaking as someone close to the one they’re closing in SF the store really didn’t make sense. It was too small to offer the variety of goods you want from target. For the stuff they did have they couldn’t compete with other stores in the area. For groceries there’s a Costco, trader Joe’s and local coop close by that have more variety, and for electronics there’s a Best buy across the street. Combine all that with competition with Amazon for misc. Home goods and they have no market.
Guess it’s easier to blame theft then a failed business model, especially to shareholders.
isn’t target the one that sells with low profit margin but has membership fees? or is that costco?
Costco is membership. Target is not.
On a purely anecdotal level from shopping at both, the Folsom St. Target in SF and the Harlem Target are both wack locations/spaces that Target shoehorned smaller operations into.
The 117th one? I dunno, it seems normal sized to me. The one on 34th street is definitely one of their “micro-store” concepts though.
My issue with the E Harlem location is more that it’s SO picked-over. It seems like there’s never any restock and the store is always a mess.
💀
If they cared about crime, they would be removing the stores in Fresno lol.
read this whole original article, closing a store because of crime AND in spite of crime are the same things. kudos on doing some work in trying to justify your feelings towards what “may be” the reasons, in the end though, it’s crime which is the impetus, so the differential doesn’t matter at all.
Got any empirical evidence to back that bullshit up? Corpo stores are never going to close due to shoplifting
