What is wrong with Americans? Target lost $400M due to mass theft

[Anonymous]

About half of retail theft is attributed to employee pilferage and process issues.

[Anonymous]

NP. Perhaps this has been said above but Target has $100+B in annual sales revenue. 0.4% theft or shrinkage doesn’t seem all that surprising. Sometimes it’s important to put big numbers in context. This is just clickbait.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:According to the Tenley Target staff it's been happening there -- though I don't know if it's some mass criminal ring. Everything is now locked up, including the large detergent bottles. I asked how someone would take that out and was told they just grab the stuff and run to the metro and sell it. I haven't ever seen a black market in the Tenley station, so not sure what's happening but Mayor Bowser would be wise to figure it out so we're not losing stores to Montgomery Co. It's such a pain to shop there now.

And look at what happened to Baltimore - Target closed at the Mowdawmin site, which served a huge marginalized population. They had huge problems with theft there. And look what happens - little old grannies in that area of Baltimore now have to make much longer hikes to where stores are open. Many of those people don't even own cars. There are real consequences for this despicable, selfish behavior. It isn't just 'corporations losing money, no one gets hurt'. The ridiculous tolerance for this anarchy harms many people across swaths of communities in the country.

What do you propose?

Prosecuting all theft hard. Or putting a lien or docking someone's paycheck/welfare benefits for 3x the cost of whatever they're caught stealing.

Stiff penalties, period.

Does that go for people like Donald Trump and Josh Hawley, too?

Orange Man certainly should be prosecuted and Scared Josh as well. But that is not relevant here. If stores are closing in poorer areas due to this type of crime, who gets hurt. Residents of those areas. I have no brilliant solutions. Hurting one's own neighbors.

[Anonymous]

Parents, teachers, counselors, mentors, clergy failing to teach morals and respect for laws.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Honestly, progressives are willing to tolerate a higher amount of crime than conservatives, at least in regard to quality of life crimes, to further an agenda.

I'd love to know what this "agenda" you're referring to is. I'm a liberal, and I don't know what you're talking about. Is it online? Can I read it somewhere?

But back to your point. Countless psychology and political science studies (just look up the topic) have shown that people who identify as conservatives are more likely to be concerned about law and order issues and more triggered by the sort of headline-grabbing incidents like looting, smash-and-grabs, and the most egregious examples of urban crime. Liberals don't like these things either and are also shocked by them, but they are less triggered by them at an instinctive, base level and more likely to ascribe them to structural factors rather than moral failure. We are just different.

What’s your rationale for California removing penalties for shoplifting under $1k? Genuinely curious how that’s a defensible position in a civilized society. After seeing the thousands of of mass thefts and smash and grabs it’s not clear to me we are such a civilized society. And the irony when retailersnpillnoutnodbjigh crime areas because they can’t profitably operate a business all of the progressives whine about their food deserts. Reap what you sow.

Wait — we can go to California and get anything on off at a a store under $1k for free? I think we should drop our Costco member ship and go shopping in California once a month!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Honestly, progressives are willing to tolerate a higher amount of crime than conservatives, at least in regard to quality of life crimes, to further an agenda.

I'd love to know what this "agenda" you're referring to is. I'm a liberal, and I don't know what you're talking about. Is it online? Can I read it somewhere?

But back to your point. Countless psychology and political science studies (just look up the topic) have shown that people who identify as conservatives are more likely to be concerned about law and order issues and more triggered by the sort of headline-grabbing incidents like looting, smash-and-grabs, and the most egregious examples of urban crime. Liberals don't like these things either and are also shocked by them, but they are less triggered by them at an instinctive, base level and more likely to ascribe them to structural factors rather than moral failure. We are just different.

What’s your rationale for California removing penalties for shoplifting under $1k? Genuinely curious how that’s a defensible position in a civilized society. After seeing the thousands of of mass thefts and smash and grabs it’s not clear to me we are such a civilized society. And the irony when retailersnpillnoutnodbjigh crime areas because they can’t profitably operate a business all of the progressives whine about their food deserts. Reap what you sow.

Wait — we can go to California and get anything on off at a a store under $1k for free? I think we should drop our Costco member ship and go shopping in California once a month!

Go ahead! What’s stopping you?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:NP. Perhaps this has been said above but Target has $100+B in annual sales revenue. 0.4% theft or shrinkage doesn’t seem all that surprising. Sometimes it’s important to put big numbers in context. This is just clickbait.

Isn’t the point that some of the stores are more highly targeted and the risk is that the companies will decide to just close those stores? I remember when I moved to DC in the early 90s and there were almost no stores in the cities. There was woodies downtown and the nice hardware store at DuPont but otherwise I used to rent a car for the day (weekend rates from enterprise!) to drive out to seven corners to buy things like towels and trash cans and desk lamps. I guess with Amazon it’s not as big a deal now to lose urban retail?

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:TARGET is one of the absolute worst employers.

Target's numbers for this are off.

While yes there are plenty of criminals Target Co is one of them.

So Target deserves to have people shoplift from the store because they are a bad employer? What kind of insane logic is that?

This kind of logic is exactly what leads to the problem. Everything is being explained away. People are seen as victims of their circumstances; they steal because they are poor, marginalized, profiled, not given opportunity… young people are growing up feeling they are entitled to some sort of reparations from society, they can steal, they don’t have to work, and if they get in trouble - nice people explain to them how they are victims and that’s why they did what they did.

You went straight to race and reparations when identifying the perpetrators. How did you reach this conclusion?

Because young urban black peoples are overwhelmingly responsible for the looting and mass thefts that are being discussed.

Cool story, do you have a source for urban black people being the source of the thefts at target (a store largely located in the suburbs and exurbs)?

Look at Pentagon City. Most of the shoplifters flee to the Metro Station that brought then from DC and PG.

Totally anecdotal but the only shoplifters I have known have been UMC and not residents of DC and PG (your code for minority). Shoplifting was rampant in my DC's high-performing Fairfax Co. middle school, and let's not forget about the Oakton HS girls' basketball team a while back where multiple players were caught shoplifting while out of town. Winona Ryder is another person who comes to mind for having been caught shoplifting.

So you think shoplifting is the reserve of middle to upper class White people. That seems a bit elitist.

NP here. I don’t think shop lifting is reserved for upper class white people but my high school kid has come home home and told me that kids at her school—wealthy NWDC kids were going to Target to shoplift for fun. These were all white kids. I told her that I hoped they got caught like the rich white kids I knew growing up who did the same thing for the thrill of it. The kids I knew tied to get me to do it too. I just couldn’t even though the peer pressure was strong. I was not rich and I went and got a job and found new friends.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is utterly appalling:

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/target-organized-retail-crime-400-million-profits-113006396.html

What has happened to Americans' mindsets where they feel entitled and emboldened to pull this kind of crap off? Do we still have a civilized society anymore, or are we descending further and further into anarchy where it is take all as much as you want, whenever you want. Retail crime is so out of control in this country, and it has real consequences, because stores just get fed up and leave or close. Many vulnerable populations are then shutoff from access to necessities. The idea that we should not be going after and prosecuting retail crimes is a huge mistake.

Children are born feral and it is a parent's responsibility to teach morality and ethics. If you have none then you can't install them in your children.

[Anonymous]

Pilfering corporations is for rich people. If you want to rob corporations of hundreds of millions of dollars, you need to be rich enough to purchase them through leveraged buy outs, give yourself a nice dividend and then let them go bankrupt. It's really the American way

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NP. Perhaps this has been said above but Target has $100+B in annual sales revenue. 0.4% theft or shrinkage doesn’t seem all that surprising. Sometimes it’s important to put big numbers in context. This is just clickbait.

Isn’t the point that some of the stores are more highly targeted and the risk is that the companies will decide to just close those stores? I remember when I moved to DC in the early 90s and there were almost no stores in the cities. There was woodies downtown and the nice hardware store at DuPont but otherwise I used to rent a car for the day (weekend rates from enterprise!) to drive out to seven corners to buy things like towels and trash cans and desk lamps. I guess with Amazon it’s not as big a deal now to lose urban retail?

Off the top of my head: There was Hechts/Macys. Then Filenes. Garfinkel’s. Raleigh’s. Brooks Brothers. Ann Taylor. Talbots’. Britches. With Pentagon City a couple of Metro stops away for Nordstrom. Plus

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Just a quick reminder that compared to other developed nations, we incarcerate more people and for longer periods of time than any other developed nation. We also have more gun violence and other types of crime than many other nations. So jailing even more people people and giving them even harsher sentences doesn’t seem to be enough. Any other suggestions my friends on the right?

Maybe Americans commit more crime because we are less civilized? Stop committing crime. Americans have a disease social contract mentality compared to citizens of other nations.

What does your last sentence mean?

Probably more progressive gibberish. Less prosecution of property crimes, a progressive agenda, leads to more crime. Pretty simple.

Instead of regurgitating GOP talking points, would you care to address the RED Murder State problem that I addressed on page one? Or, will you just admit to your cognitive dissonance?

Red state murder problem as you call it is overwhelming in left Dem led cities within those red states.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just a quick reminder that compared to other developed nations, we incarcerate more people and for longer periods of time than any other developed nation. We also have more gun violence and other types of crime than many other nations. So jailing even more people people and giving them even harsher sentences doesn’t seem to be enough. Any other suggestions my friends on the right?

Maybe Americans commit more crime because we are less civilized? Stop committing crime. Americans have a disease social contract mentality compared to citizens of other nations.

What does your last sentence mean?

Probably more progressive gibberish. Less prosecution of property crimes, a progressive agenda, leads to more crime. Pretty simple.

Instead of regurgitating GOP talking points, would you care to address the RED Murder State problem that I addressed on page one? Or, will you just admit to your cognitive dissonance?

Red state murder problem as you call it is overwhelming in left Dem led cities within those red states.

Why do you keep peddling this fake BS?

Republican-run cities like Jacksonville also have a huge crime problem.

And on a per-capita basis, many rural red counties have more crime per population than those "Dem cities" do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just a quick reminder that compared to other developed nations, we incarcerate more people and for longer periods of time than any other developed nation. We also have more gun violence and other types of crime than many other nations. So jailing even more people people and giving them even harsher sentences doesn’t seem to be enough. Any other suggestions my friends on the right?

Maybe Americans commit more crime because we are less civilized? Stop committing crime. Americans have a disease social contract mentality compared to citizens of other nations.

What does your last sentence mean?

It means Americans have a completely f*cked sense of community and citizenship. Everyone is an entitled ahole out for themselves, so they feel emboldened to take whatever they want, when they want, because they feel 'owed'. A complete morally bankrupt nation of imbeciles and criminals run amok.

No, it is because US spend 300+ billion dollars a year on arms and wars, instead of feeding and educating its people. European countries such as Germany spend a lot of their money taking care of their people, including nice homes and highly trained/educated staff for mentally ill people. Of course crimes would be lower.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just a quick reminder that compared to other developed nations, we incarcerate more people and for longer periods of time than any other developed nation. We also have more gun violence and other types of crime than many other nations. So jailing even more people people and giving them even harsher sentences doesn’t seem to be enough. Any other suggestions my friends on the right?

Maybe Americans commit more crime because we are less civilized? Stop committing crime. Americans have a disease social contract mentality compared to citizens of other nations.

What does your last sentence mean?

It means Americans have a completely f*cked sense of community and citizenship. Everyone is an entitled ahole out for themselves, so they feel emboldened to take whatever they want, when they want, because they feel 'owed'. A complete morally bankrupt nation of imbeciles and criminals run amok.

No, it is because US spend 300+ billion dollars a year on arms and wars, instead of feeding and educating its people. European countries such as Germany spend a lot of their money taking care of their people, including nice homes and highly trained/educated staff for mentally ill people. Of course crimes would be lower.

We actually spend closer to a trillion a year on 'defense'