A Target in San Francisco has placed absolutely all of its products behind locked glass amid a theft crisis that has been harming retailers in the city. Images from inside the store posted on TikTok showed aisle after aisle of personal care and cosmetic products locked away.
The Bay Area has been particularly hit by a wave of retail thefts, which increased during the COVID-19 pandemic, leading some chains, like Walgreens, to close stores in San Francisco.
A security survey in the retail sector conducted by the National Retail Federation (NRF) in 2022 ranked San Francisco/Oakland as the second most affected metropolitan area by theft in 2020 and 2021, behind only Los Angeles, which tops the list.
Other states in the country are also being affected by this wave of thefts, prompting retailers to take the same action. New York City was in third place on the list in 2021, ahead of Chicago.
The same study found that 71% of retailers surveyed by the association reported seeing a “substantial” or “moderate” increase in organized retail crime.
However, placing products behind locked glass comes at a cost. The lockdown also deters honest consumers, who are prevented from handling the product and must wait for a store employee to unlock the glass to complete their purchase. These extra steps in the process can cause sales to drop by 15% to 25%, according to the anti-theft technology company Indyme.
Retail theft is a nearly $100 billion problem, according to the NRF survey.
And what is being stolen?
Almost everything that is not anchored to the floor is a target, but many of the top stolen items are those that can be resold and easily hidden.
Pain and allergy medications, razors and shaving blades, fragrances, cosmetics, alcohol, gift cards, power tools, printer cartridges, clothing, shoes, bags, and jewelry were listed as the top stolen items by organized retail crime in the NRF’s 2022 security survey.
Source: The New York Post and AXIOS