San Francisco Target Store Forced to Lock Basic Items Behind Security Glass as Theft Rises

Customers shop at a Target store in San Rafael, California, on June 8, 2022. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

A Target store in San Francisco has been forced to place many of its products, including everyday basic items, inside locked security cabinets in a bid to deter shoplifters.

Video footage of the interior of the store, reportedly located at Folsom Street near the city’s Mission District, was posted to TikTok on April 20 and showed items including toiletries and cosmetics like toothpaste, shampoo, and women’s sanitary products locked behind the security glass.

According to CBS affiliate WNCT-TV, some cosmetic products at the store have been locked in the cabinets since at least October last year.

A Target spokesperson told MailOnline that the products being placed in locked security cabinets are just one of many ways officials are tackling rising theft at the store.

“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. These mitigation efforts include hiring additional security guards, adding third-party guard services at select locations, and using new technologies and tools to protect merchandise from being stolen,” the spokesperson said.

“We are working with legislators, law enforcement, and retail industry partners to support public policy that would help achieve our goals of creating a safe environment in our stores and keeping our doors open in communities across the country,” they added.

Newsom Boosts Police Presence

The Epoch Times has contacted a Target spokesperson for comment.

Despite the video footage showing the extreme lengths some retailers are going to in preventing thefts, California Gov. Gavin Newsom declared at an April 21 press conference that “San Francisco’s violent crime rate is below comparably sized cities” like Jacksonville, Florida, and Fort Worth in Texas.

Newsom made the comments while unveiling a new agreement between the California Highway Patrol, California National Guard, San Francisco Police Department, and the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office aimed at assisting the city in its ongoing efforts to combat the fentanyl crisis.

The partnership will also bolster law enforcement presence and improve “public safety and public confidence in San Francisco,” according to Newsom.

Newsom’s comments differ from the findings of a 2022 retail security survey (pdf) from the National Retail Federation (NEF), which ranked San Francisco/Oakland as the second-highest metropolitan area affected by organized retail crime (ORC) in 2020 and 2021, just behind Los Angeles.

Cash App Founder Stabbed to Death

According to that survey, which found theft became a nearly $100 billion problem for the retail industry in 2021, health and beauty products including medications, fragrances, blades and razors, and body wash are some of the items most likely to be targeted by ORC offenders.

NEF surveyed 63 retailers and found that 71 percent said they had seen a “substantial” or “moderate” increase in ORC, with 55 percent reporting that initiatives to reduce or eliminate cash bail have been associated with a substantial increase in repeat offending,

California eliminated cash bail as a condition for defendants’ pretrial release in 2020.

The video footage comes shortly after Whole Foods said it is temporarily shuttering one of its flagship stores at Trinity Place in San Francisco just a year after it opened, citing concerns over rising crime rates which endanger staff members.

Pharmacy giant Walgreens announced in 2021 that it was shuttering some of its San Francisco stores owing to rampant theft.

And on April 4, Cash App CEO Bob Lee was stabbed to death in San Francisco. Nima Momeni, a 38-year-old tech consultant was subsequently taken into custody on suspicion of murder following Lee’s death.

Just one day after Lee’s death, former San Francisco Fire Commissioner Don Carmignani was attacked with a crowbar just feet away from his family’s front door in San Francisco’s Marina District, leaving him with serious injuries, the New York Post reported.