At Target, we take the decision to close stores very seriously, and only do so after taking meaningful steps to invest in the guest experience and improve business performance. With that said, we have made the difficult decision to close nine Target stores across four states, effective Oct. 21.
In this case, we cannot continue operating these stores because theft and organized retail crime are threatening the safety of our team and guests, and contributing to unsustainable business performance. We know that our stores serve an important role in their communities, but we can only be successful if the working and shopping environment is safe for all.
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.
The team members at these stores have worked hard to maintain our high standards by creating a positive working and shopping experience for each other, our guests and their communities. We are extremely thankful for their efforts and will be partnering closely with all eligible team members to offer them an opportunity to transfer to other Target locations.
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.
Our Efforts to Combat Theft and Organized Retail Crime
We will continue to combat theft and organized retail crime by making significant investments to keep our stores safe. These efforts include:
In our stores:
- Payroll investments in additional security team members, using third-party guard services, and implementing theft-deterrent tools across our business.
- On a limited basis, implementing tools such as locking cases for merchandise categories that are prone to theft.
- Investing time and resources in training our store leaders and security team members so they can protect themselves and de-escalate potential safety issues associated with organized retail crime incidents.
In technology:
- Making significant investments in cyber defense to combat retail theft, fraud and abuse.
- Partnering with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) division to combat retail theft.
- Applying our cyber capabilities to combat organized retail crime through a combination of:
- Advanced threat intelligence capabilities to track organized crime groups, tools and services.
- Developing custom tools that prevent and detect criminal activity and integrating them into online and in-store processes.
- Expanding the scope of data alerts and analysis to better capture fraudulent activity from organized crime groups.
While we will continue to make meaningful investments throughout our business, we cannot solve this issue on our own. In addition, we are taking a whole of community, government, and industry approach to seek solutions. This includes:
In our communities:
- Our Outreach Coordinator team connects guests experiencing hardship to community resources. Since launching in 2021, our Outreach Coordinator Program has engaged in over 5,700 meaningful guest interactions across 11 markets, delivered nearly 100 trainings, and hosted or partnered on more than 135 events.
In coordination with government officials, lawmakers and law enforcement:
- Supporting the recent passage of the INFORM Consumers Act, which gives marketplaces a larger role in combatting the second-hand sale of stolen goods.
- Advocating for the Combating Organized Retail Crime Act in Congress, which creates a taskforce of federal agencies to crack down on theft and organized retail crime.
- Creating Organized Retail Crime Task Forces at the state and local level to promote inter-agency efforts and cooperation.
- Hosting store walks with Members of Congress, state legislators, city officials, district attorneys, law enforcement, and local community partners to educate on our efforts to combat retail theft and organized retail crime, and advocate for solutions and cooperation.
In coordination with industry partners:
- Participating in National Store Walk Month, a new initiative in partnership with the Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA) and the National District Attorneys Association (NDAA) that seeks to address the urgent issues of organized retail crime and theft and its impact on our communities.
- Partnering with our national and local retail industry associations such as RILA and the National Retail Federation to fund advocacy and educational efforts like the Vibrant Communities initiative.
Locations
We greatly value our team members’ contributions to these stores. All eligible team members will be offered the opportunity to transfer to other Target locations. The following stores will be closing effective Oct. 21:
- New York City Market:
- Harlem: 517 E 117th Street
- 96 stores remain open in the New York City market, employing more than 20,000 team members.
- Target will continue its commitment to our New York City team members, guests, and community. In 2022 in the New York City area, Target gave over $10 million in cash and product donations, including over 4.8 million pounds of food to local food banks and our team members volunteered over 32,000 hours in the community.
- Seattle Market:
- Seattle University Way: 4535 University Way NE
- Seattle Ballard: 1448 NW Market St, Ste 100
- 22 stores remain open in the Seattle market, employing nearly 4,000 team members.
- Target will continue its commitment to our Seattle team members, guests, and community. In 2022 in the Seattle area, Target gave over $3.6 million in cash and product donations, including almost 2 million pounds of food to local food banks and our team members volunteered over 8,500 hours in the community.
- San Francisco/Oakland Market:
- SF Folsom and 13th St: 1690 Folsom St
- Oakland Broadway & 27th: 2650 Broadway
- Pittsburg: 4301 Century Blvd
- 32 stores remain open in the San Francisco/Oakland market, employing more than 6,400 team members.
- Target will continue its commitment to our San Francisco and Oakland team members, guests, and community. In 2022 in the San Francisco/Oakland area, Target gave over $8.6 million in cash and product donations, including over 4 million pounds of food to local food banks and our team members volunteered over 20,000 hours in the community.
- Portland Market:
- Portland Galleria: 939 SW Morrison St
- Portland Powell: 3031 SE Powell Blvd
- Portland Hollywood: 4030 NE Halsey St
- 15 stores remain open in the Portland market, employing more than 2,500 team members.
- Target will continue its commitment to our Portland team members, guests, and community. In 2022 in the Portland area, Target gave over $2.3 million in cash and product donations, including over 1 million pounds of food to local food banks and our team members volunteered over 5,800 hours in the community.
13 comments
No consequences, no jail time, no punishment to discourage the behavior, thieves will just target the remaining stores.
All these stores are in all cities run by leftist run governments. Would suspect that they won’t change their ways in which they go after thugs. Continue to turn a blind eye to crime and this is what happens.
The solution is simpler than we are led to believe. For whatever reason the CA voting public hasn’t quite come to terms with this.
1. Voters must repeal Prop 47 which effectively decriminalized virtually all property crime. It’s a failure. We know that now.
2. Stop voting for District Attorneys funded by George Soros. His sole goal in life is to create chaos in America and disrupt American values. DA’s like our own Diana Becton bought her election and reelection with Soros’ millions and coddles criminals as victims. Alameda County, LA County, San Francisco County (and others) were also all bought and paid for by George Soros. Why would anyone see big foreign money being injected into “local politics” and not pause?
3. Stop voting for Superior Court Judges that believe in social programs, restorative justice, and second chances rather than “law and order.”.
4. Do not accept the argument of AB 109 to reduce state prison population by shipping convicted criminals back to county jails with watered down sentences. Yet another failure further supporting the “catch and release” policies of county jails forced to absorb a state problem and dumping criminals right back into our local communities.. Maybe we should be building more prisons instead of high speed rail from nowhere to nowhere.
5. Stop electing (and reelecting) city officials that are convicted of ANY crime EVER. Seriously why would anyone vote for someone that has demonstrated poor judgment to make honest and just decisions on behalf of their community?!?
100 along with bring back the death penalty and enforce it!
One rotten egg spoils the whole basket
Are you guys enjoying the crime you voted for? What if I told you things could get worse and they probably will? And yet people keep voting for representatives and policies that would see us enter an era of third world levels of quality of life.
Not all Californians are liberal. There’s 30-40% that aren’t. A lot of it depends where you live.
I view California as a fine example of the opposite of the “we need to get rid of the Electoral College” argument. Land mass wise, there are more center to right leaning, red areas. Land mass wise, we do not like this. The dense cities steamroll our desires as conservatives. It accentuates the concept of “democracy” being 49 sheep and 51 wolves deciding what’s for dinner.
Area-wise, CA is majority red. Population wise, it’s blue.
I think they need to bring guard dogs into the store near the doors! These dogs need to be vicious! Bring in something like a Rottweiler, a bull mastiff, huge dogs that have Commandments from the security in the store to grab the people not harm them, but I grab them by their clothes and pull them down! They will need to have warnings on the store windows about these dogs, and that there is no holding back. They will need to get some type of insurance to cover this problem.
To be perfectly honest, I’m not sure it Hass to do all with retail theft. Since May target lost $9 billion a month because of their pride merchandise. People are boycotting their store, boycotting their merchandise and not shopping there. I believe they’re just trying to save their ass and they’re using retail theft as an excuse cause I’m not telling you the truth do your homework, just saying !
It will not stop until you make it more difficult for all of us. I flew before the TSA and it was great but the hijackers and terrorists got worse and now it is a royal pain to fly but it is SAFE. How about the stores bar the exits and install gates that don’t open until you scan your receipt. Yes, it would be a pain for all of us but it would stop the theft. Our politicians won’t fix this and we continue to vote for incompetents. So business has to step in and make a difference.
I agree with all of that! There needs to be some kind of deterrent, something that will stop them from stealing. It’s been bad enough around Pittsburg where I live, and it’s gotten even worse in the last 3 years. Now with Pittsburg closing it’s going to send those thieves out to Concord, and Antioch and I don’t like that idea at all! We have a very liberal mayor who’s done nothing to stop the crime out here.
Well we can’t do anything about him being in office at this point, but we can certainly make sure to turn out in number for the next election, lest we’ll experience an even further decline. Public safety should be the top priority for everyone, especially the mayor.
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