Target has lost $400 million in 2022 and projects $600 million by the end of the year thanks to smash and grabs
· Nov 17, 2022 · NottheBee.com

The increased crime wave over the last two years since the BLM riots have greatly impacted several major businesses across the United States.

One of the businesses suffering most in this wave of organized crime, like the smash-and-grabs that occur daily in California and NYC, is Target.

According to reports, the retail giant has already lost $400 million due to organized retail theft this year and expects to lose $200 million more.

"At Target, year-to-date, incremental shortage has already reduced our gross margin by more than $400 million vs. last year," Target CFO Michael Fiddelke said on the earnings call, "and we expect it will reduce our gross margin by more than $600 million for the full year."

Fiddelke detailed how there are "a handful of things that can drive shrink in our business and theft is certainly a key driver. We know we're not alone across retail in seeing a trend that I think has gotten increasingly worse over the last 12 to 18 months. So we're taking the right actions in our stores to help curb that trend where we can, but that becomes an increasing headwind on our business and we know the business of others."

A Target spokesperson told Yahoo Finance via email after the call the shrinkage was mostly specifically attributed to "organized retail crime."

The economy is a disaster, inflation is killing families and they're spending less. But none of these factors has the impact of these smash-and-grabs.

Here's one such incident:

Of course, this isn't isolated to Target.

Goods stolen from stores increased to $94.5 billion in losses in 2021, up from $90.8 billion in 2020, according to a new report from the National Retail Federation (NRF). The report found that the average inventory shrinkage rate last year was 1.44%. While that's a modest decline from the prior two years, it remains comparable to the five-year average of 1.5%.

"Retailers face security-related challenges on many fronts," the NRF said. "Most of the retailers surveyed report in-store, e-commerce and omni-channel fraud are all on the rise. The majority of respondents also reported that guest-on-associate violence, external theft, ORC and cyber crimes have become higher priorities for their organizations. Challenges with labor shortages, employee retention and hiring – as well as issues related to masking and maintaining COVID precautions – have contributed to the risks of violence and hostility."

Isn't it funny that a society that required masks for multiple years would suddenly find itself overcome with bandits wearing these masks to hide their identities?

The irony of stores requiring masks and then being robbed by masked men is palpable.

Also, these corporations supporting the anti-police BLM riots and then reaping the whirlwind of the increase in crime as a direct result is also painfully ironic.

You hurt for the people who have to work at Target who are put in danger and will lose their jobs thanks to these crimes. But the higher-ups asked for this.

And many Americans voted for it.


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