(GoRealNewsNow.com) – A Target store in San Francisco has been forced to put its entire cosmetic and toiletry department on lockdown because of a rampant shoplifting crisis.
A social media video of the store in the Democrat-run Californian city shows that all its standard drug store products are secured under lock and key to keep them out of reach from “would-be shoplifters.”
The Target store is located on Folsom Street near San Francisco’s Mission District, reports The New York Post, citing WNCT-TV.
It notes that stores typically lock up certain valuable items, such as razors. However, the Target store in San Francisco has locked up everything – including lotion, shampoo, and mouthwash.
The anti-crime measures at the Target store have been in place since at least October 2022.
“Like other retailers, organized retail crime is a concern across our business. We’re taking proactive measures to keep our teams and guests safe while deterring and preventing theft,” a Target spokesperson stated in comments to the Post.
The report emphasizes that the San Francisco Bay Area has “been especially hard hit by a national organized retail crime epidemic that ballooned during the COVID-19 pandemic.”
As a result of the rampant theft, retail chains such as Walgreens have shut down five stores in San Francisco.
The metropolitan areas of Los Angeles and San Francisco-Oakland are ranked as the first and second hardest hit by retail theft in 2020 and 2021, according to the 2022 security survey of the National Retail Federation (NRF).
Third on the list is New York City, followed by a fourth Democrat-run city, Chicago.
According to the NRF, products such as over-the-counter pharmaceuticals and body wash are especially attractive to shoplifters who, after that, sell them to smaller stores on the black market.
As per the NRF survey, 71% of retailers have seen a “substantial” or “moderate” increase in organized retail crime.
At the same time, 55% say the theft spike is caused by policies in cities such as San Francisco and New York which have decreased or removed cash bail for non-violent crimes.
Retail theft, crime, and safety concerns recently led to the closure of a Whole Foods Market store in Golden Gate City.
Last week, San Francisco’s city legislature, the all-Democrat Board of Supervisors, approved a new “lucrative police contract” in an attempt to combat a law enforcement staffing shortage.
San Francisco Police Department Chief Bill Scott told KRON-TV that the city’s law enforcement was understaffed by 25% because it couldn’t fill in the spots of 562 police officers who resigned or retired.
“People want our officers to focus on the open-air drug dealing, retail theft, home burglaries, and violence impacting our neighborhoods, but we need more police to deliver,” Mayor London Breed said.
San Francisco Target puts entire inventory on lockdown amid shoplifting crisis https://t.co/lclJu05km7 pic.twitter.com/xG1TJNrzvz
— New York Post (@nypost) April 24, 2023
