Target will close nine stores in major US cities due to rising crime

Target, one of America’s largest retailers, will close nine stores in major cities, including one in New York and three in San Francisco, amid rising crime rates. reports AP with reference to the company.

The chain has faced a sharp increase in shoplifting, which is causing losses and also posing a threat to workers and customers. The stores will close on October 21 and also include three locations in Portland and two in Seattle. Target will offer affected workers redeployment to other stores located in the same cities.

“We know our stores play an important role in communities, but we can only be successful if the working and shopping environment is safe for everyone,” the company said in a statement, describing the decision as “difficult.”

Before the closure, Target tried to beef up the security of its stores in a variety of ways, including additional video surveillance and security guards, but nothing worked. The chain has about 1,900 stores in the United States, but the agency notes that the decision to close is “significant” because it reflects a fundamental problem facing U.S. retailers: widespread shoplifting.

Target CEO Brian Cornell and some other industry leaders have long called for action to address rising crime rates. Last year, the network’s losses from theft amounted to $800 million, but this year, according to the company’s estimates, the figure could grow by another $500 million, that is, up to $1.2 billion.

Cornell also said that the number of attacks on network employees increased by 120% during the first five months of this year. According to the US National Federation of Retailers, industry losses as a result of lost inventory amounted to about $112 billion last year, an increase of 1.4% over the year. 65% of this amount comes from theft, which includes organized crime groups.

One of the reasons for this problem, which was previously indicated The media and the public are liberalized laws in some Democratic-controlled states, as a result of which the police stopped responding to petty shoplifting, and violators began to take advantage of this. In this regard, retail leaders have begun to promote a bill that will make it possible to more effectively combat theft.