I can’t help but wonder if there is a positive correlation with the amount of theft and the number of shoppers using self checkout. Since March 2020 I try to stay out of stores so I could easily be off base.
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All of the above. There is no real profiling for shoplifters. It can be anyone and you can never judge a book by its cover.
It does not have to be the self-checkout. I can be the empty pocket.
The three Target stores in Portland that are being closed were continued targets of organized shoplifting rings that overrun with store with a band of 15-20 thieves at one time and ransack the store. Even with increased security, Target said there’s no business reason to continue operations in those stores. The City and County have arrested and prosecuted about 60 people associated with these organized rings of thieves, but it was insufficient to eliminate the problem.
Good news for Amazon and other online retailers. Too much risk in maintaining a physical store in some neighborhoods.
intercst
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I have seen self checkout in towns and cities across the country. At the same time here are the cities that Target mentioned:
NYC
Seattle
San Francisco
Oakland
Portland
Make of it what you will, but it does not appear to be a random selection.
DB2
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Considering that they have the numbers for each of their 2000 stores, it’s clearly not random. They chose the stores with the worst performance on the metrics that matter to them. And they will continue to choose the worst stores to close. Why? Because they are a business and their goal is to manage the business such that it can provide profits to the owners of that business.
Stores in localities where theft/vandalism crime is condoned or ignored to a large extent will slowly (maybe quickly) lose their stores. They may end up served only by delivery or might have some of those stores with bars on the windows where the attendant gets your items for you. And, yes, the products at those kinds of stores will be more expensive. But localities can choose to live that way, or they can choose to live other ways.
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Big box stores have struggled since the beginning of the genre in urban markets. It’s a combination of expensive parking, business not as well suited to pedestrians, multi-level stores, different core customers than the suburbs, and yes, theft.
It’s probably not a coincidence that urban was the last place WalMart has tried to enter, often unsuccessfully (they just closed one here, theft never mentioned), and that Home Depot and Lowe’s have struggled to tame this segment of the market as well.
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Shrinkage is the retail term for theft and other forms of product loss.
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And looting breaks out in Philly…
The young people involved, Stanford said, appeared to have organized their efforts on social media, and once one group started, others followed suit. He said police believe there was a caravan of cars moving between locations across the city and breaking into stores and pharmacies…
Videos posted online showed groups of young people breaking into the Apple Store near 16th and Walnut Streets. As police pursued fleeing teens, officers recovered dropped iPhones and, in one location, a “pile of iPads.” The groups also broke into Foot Locker and Lululemon, and videos showed numerous teens fleeing the store with clothing.
DB2
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I read many were captured. Should be a great opportunity to break out those RICO laws.
Multiple 20 yr prison sentences (20 years for each count) for those folks would be sure to get a number of them to flip.
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As Goofy pointed out parking lots and the lease itself are lower in suburbia. When high school students rob the stores blind at least their overhead is lower.
Our white high school and college students are often taking whatever they want. RICO? Would we arrest entire high school classes?
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Meanwhile Ikea for one seems to prefer big city, non-retail centers. Do they not worry about theft? Their products hard to steal? Hard to resell?
Yes and yes.
Their small, easily carried items are cheap (in multiple senses of the word). Their more expensive items are large and heavy.
Besides, who is going to go their fence and say, “What will you give me for two cases of FÄRGKLAR and a case of GLADELIG?”
—Peter
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I don’t know if y’all even noticed, but Ikea is a maze. Not only is it a maze, but the exit doors are quite far from where the products are located. It’s a long walk to get from grabbing a product to exiting to freedom. And considering that most of the products have low street value, why take the risk?
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We wouldn’t want to offend the looters, would we? 
The Captain
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I don’t understand your point. Are you trying to suggest that “shrinkage” is some sort of woke PC term that is a recent euphemism for looting?
I don’t know how old the term is but I first heard the term “shrink” when I was 17 working part-time at Zayre dept store in 1989. No mass looting then but we still had employee meetings about how to reduce “shrink.”
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It’s essentially an accounting term and has been around for quite a while.
It is defined as:
shrinkage = previous inventory + deliveries - sales - current inventory
For example, if Target store #146 had 100 widgets on 1-July (counted the night of 30-Jun), and received deliveries of 400 widgets between 1-Jul and 30-Sep, and sold 360 widgets during that period, and the inventory on the night of 30-Sep shows 110 widgets, then the shrinkage is 100 + 400 - 360 - 110 = 30 widgets for that quarter.
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1969, JCPenny associate training introduced the term to me.
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Wiki tells me that the top 10 US cities for larceny/theft are:
Vancouver WA
San Francisco
Albuquerque
Memphis
St Louis
Orlando
Oakland
Garden City KS
Tucson
Portland OR
When Target says shrinkage is a reason they are closing those stores, I believe them. But I don’t believe it is the only reason. For example, the two Seattle stores being closed are both small format stores that opened just before the pandemic, one of which has no on-site parking. The full-size Target on 2nd Ave downtown which you think would have the biggest crime problem is remaining open. The other Seattle Target is also full-size, at a mall with plenty of parking and it is remaining open too.
I highly suspect that as Goofy suggests, if you a a big box retailer you need a big box. A JC however, will never admit she gambled and lost. Much better to blame outside factors beyond their control.
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There are 3 SF Bay Area Targets closing. Besides SF & Oakland, Pittsburg, CA is also on the list, all because of repeated theft cycles, can’t really blame Target, maybe a passkey to get into a gated parking lot? Security officers didn’t help, just overwhelmed… Too many creeps, who sometimes hit other retail shops about anywhere, keeps everyone, hopefully, on their toes aware of your surroundings… It’s really sick, sad to see…
https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/target-closing-3-bay-area-stores-permanently-18390163.php