Target points to retail crime as reason as company set to shutter nine stores

Theft and organized retail crime that put safety and local business performance at risk is prompting Target to shutter a handful of stores.

The retailer announced the move on Tuesday, setting an Oct. 21 closure date for the nine total impacted stores. The four states where the impacted stores are located include New York, Washington, California and Oregon, according to Target’s release. 

Target identified the following locations as being impacted by the planned closures:

-517 E 117th Street in New York, New York

-4535 University Way NE in Seattle, Washington

-448 NW Market St, Ste 100 in Seattle, Washington

-1690 Folsom St in San Francisco, California

-2650 Broadway in Oakland, California

-4301 Century Blvd in Pittsburg, California

-939 SW Morrison St in Portland, Oregon

-3031 SE Powell Blvd in Portland, Oregon

-4030 NE Halsey St in Portland, Oregon

RETAIL INDUSTRY ADVOCATE PROPOSES SOLUTION TO ‘PERSISTENT THREAT’ OF SKYROCKETING RETAIL CRIME

"Before making this decision, we invested heavily in strategies to prevent and stop theft and organized retail crime in our stores, such as adding more security team members, using third-party guard services, and implementing theft-deterrent tools across our business. Despite our efforts, unfortunately, we continue to face fundamental challenges to operating these stores safely and successfully," Target said.

For those that work at the soon-to-be-closing stores, Target said offers to move to other sites would go out to those eligible. 

"Looking ahead, we remain committed to serving these guests with more than 150 locations open in markets where the closures are taking place and an always-open experience at Target.com," the company said. 

On its website, Target has reported operating a total of nearly 1,960 locations. The Minneapolis-based company also has offices and supply chain facilities on top of those.

To curb retail crime and promote safety, Target said Tuesday it would "continue to make meaningful investments" throughout its business.

On the store-level, store leader and security team training was one of the investments Target had pursued in addition to the security and physical anti-theft measures, according to the company. It has also said it was upping its cyber defense, collaborating with the Department of Homeland Security and using "advanced threat intelligence capabilities" for tracking organized crime groups, among other things.

CRIME-FIGHTING FOG HITS SHOPLIFTERS AS RETAIL THEFT SPIRALS OUT OF CONTROL

For retail crime, it said it was working in the communities where it has stores, with industry partners and with politicians and law enforcement. 

Target said it was in favor of the INFORM Consumers Act and advocated for another piece of legislation, the Combating Organized Retail Crime Act. The latter got reintroduced earlier in the year.

In another move, the company was "partnering with our national and local retail industry associations such as RILA and the National Retail Federation to fund advocacy and educational efforts." 

Target executives have brought up retail crime as it has discussed recent quarterly financial results on earnings calls, pointing to it as an issue that it and other companies have to grapple with on an ongoing basis.

WALMART AND TARGET EXECUTIVES SPEAK OUT ON RETAIL CRIME

In the retail industry, total losses from shrink increased year-over-year, coming in at $112.1 billion in 2022, the National Retail Federation reported Tuesday. In the prior year, it had been $93.9 billion. 

"Shrink" typically means theft and other types of inventory losses.

Target’s stock has experienced a drop of nearly 2.5%.