Target is pulling up stakes on select stores in crime-ridden, Democratic cities, joining the host of other retailers looking for greener pastures.Evidently the company's efforts to lock aisles of products behind security glass wasn't a winning solution.
The company is shuttering nine stores across four states: one in New York City's East Harlem neighborhood; three in the San Francisco Bay Area; three in Oregon's increasingly anarchical city of Portland; and two in Seattle, Washington.
A combined 150 stores will remain in the geographies affected by the Oct. 21 closures, reported ABC News.
According to Neighborhood Scout, the chances of becoming a victim of a property crime in these areas is: 1 in 51 in New York City; 1 in 20 in San Francisco and 1 in 17 in Oakland, CA; 1 in 17 in Portland; and 1 in 18 in Seattle.
The company made clear that the reason behind the closure was crime, reported CNN.
"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," the company said in a statement. "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."
In May, the woke company's CEO Brian Cornell said he expected theft "will reduce our profitability by more than $500 million compared with last year."
ABC News indicated losses for the company could top $1.2 billion this fiscal year.
The National Retail Federation, the largest trade group for the retail industry, said Tuesday that shrink — a catch-all term for internal and external theft and fraud — cost retailers $112.1 billion in losses last year. In 2021, the cost of shrink was $93.9 billion.
This appears to be an aggressively worsening trend.
"Retailers are seeing unprecedented levels of theft coupled with rampant crime in their stores, and the situation is only becoming more dire," said NRF vice president of asset protection and retail operations David Johnston. "Far beyond the financial impact of these crimes, the violence and concerns over safety continue to be the priority for all retailers, regardless of size or category."
Ever-worsening crime has similarly chased other stores and companies out of Democrat-run cities.
For instance, AT&T announced in June that it would be closing its flagship store in San Francisco — where police have indicated there have been 24,018 reports of larceny theft, 2,039 robberies, 4,186 burglaries, 1,789 assaults, and 40 murders so far this year — citing changing "shopping habits."
TheBlaze previously noted that consumer shopping habits in San Francisco have changed drastically since leftists successfully passed proposition 47 in 2014 — a leftist California ballot initiative that effectively decriminalized thefts under $950.
Cinemark Holdings, Inc. similarly revealed this summer that it too was ditching the crime-ridden and excrement-littered city, shuttering its theater in the downtown Westfield San Francisco Centre mall.
Nordstrom's chief store officer indicated in May it was closing its anchor location in the Westfield mall, citing dramatic changes in the "dynamics of the downtown San Francisco market." Whole Foods also cut and ran.
Crime statistics in neighboring Oakland, which has also done a great job repelling business, paint just as bleak a picture. As of Aug. 27, violent crime was up 19% this year over last year. Robberies are up 30%; rapes, 6%; burglaries, 44%; and motor vehicle thefts, 52%.
Portland too has seen an exodus of business in recent months.
In March, Walmart announced it was closing its last two remaining stores, not long after CEO Doug McMillon warned the company had seen a significant spike in thefts, reported the New York Post.
McMillon told CNBC, "Theft is an issue. It's higher than what it has historically been."
According to the Portland Police Bureau, there were 5,998 burglary, 24,675 larceny offenses, 1,407 robberies, 340 arson, 10,026 assault offenses, and 104 murder reports between August 2022 and August 2023.
Hundreds of businesses, including Starbucks and Nike, have fled Democrat-run Seattle in recent years, again owing to unchecked crime and violence.
So far this year, Seattle had over 25,000 property crimes and 3,470 violent crimes, including 42 murders and 205 rapes, according to the Seattle Police Department crime dashboard.
Police reckon Democratic policies barring judges from jailing or requiring bail for thieves, regardless of how many times the crooks have committed the act, have largely contributed to this problem, reported CNN.
The vast majority of respondents to the NRF's 2023 National Retail Security Survey appeared to agree with this assessment by police, with 72% claiming that they had seen an increase in the average value per incident in localities that raised minimum felony thresholds and another 67% reporting an increase in repeat offenders in geographies where cash bail was reduced or eliminated.
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AT&T revealed Thursday it is joining the host of companies that have already shuttered their anchor stores in the Democrat-controlled city of San Francisco.
The company's 24,000-square-foot flagship store, a prominent fixture in the downtown's Union Square, will be closing August 1.
Chris Collins, a spokesman for the telecommunications giant, told the San Francisco Standard, "Consumer shopping habits continue to change, and we're changing with them. ... That means serving customers where they are through the right mix of retail stores, digital channels and our phone-based care team."
Consumer shopping habits have changed drastically since leftists successfully passed Proposition 47 in 2014 — a leftist California ballot initiative that effectively decriminalized thefts under $950.
Collins noted, "All retail employees affected by this change will be offered jobs at one of our other many retail locations within the city."
AT&T will still have a presence in the city, where it still has over 10 stores and licensed retailers.
The news of the closure broke just hours after Cinemark Holdings, Inc., revealed it too was ditching the crime-ridden and excrement-littered city, shuttering its theater in the downtown Westfield San Francisco Centre mall, which has seen 46% of its stores close since the pandemic.
A spokesman for the company told Fox Business, "Cinemark can confirm it has decided to permanently close the Century San Francisco Centre 9 and XD theater shortly before the conclusion of its lease term following a comprehensive review of local business conditions."
Months after announcing it would peel back its Banana Republic presence in Union Square and shutter the Atheleta store on Sutter Street, Gap announced in May that it was closing its 73,000-square-foot Old Navy flagship store, reported the Standard.
Nordstrom's chief store officer also indicated last month it was closing its anchor location in the Westfield Mall, citing dramatic changes in the "dynamics of the downtown San Francisco market."
A spokesman for the mall, which has said goodbye to Office Depot, the Container Store, Anthropologie, and Saks Off 5th flee, noted the Nordstrom closure "underscores the deteriorating situation in downtown San Francisco."
TheBlaze previously reported that number of the businesses still sticking it out, such as Target, have begun locking large sections of their products behind security glass.
When the glass breaks, proprietors are oftentimes reluctant to defend their exposed property from the hordes of thieves who roam the streets in the broad daylight because San Francisco's victims are oftentimes subject to greater scrutiny than the offenders.
Democratic socialist Dean Preston, on the city's board of supervisors, recently threatened legislation to prevent security guards from drawing their weapons in defense of property.
\u201cThe Looting going on in war-torn Kiev is INSANE \u2026. \n\nOh wait, this is Democrat controlled San Francisco. \n\nNo one look or RT please. \n\nhttps://t.co/Rrp2Y61hhw\u201d— Benny Johnson (@Benny Johnson) 1645984209
San Francisco, which comedian Dave Chappelle recently quipped has become "half 'Glee,' half zombie movie," scores a 2 out of 100 (100 being safest) on Neighborhood Watch's crime index.
The chance of becoming a victim of a violent crime is 1 in 186, and the likelihood of becoming a victim of a property crime is 1 in 20, as filmmaker Eli Steel recently discovered firsthand.
\u201cYou hear about how bad San Francisco is. I was filming a shot of my father , Shelby Steele, and in the ten minutes we were gone our SUV was broken into and nearly $15k of cameras stolen. Called 911 & they hung up twice.\u201d— Eli Steele (@Eli Steele) 1686767367
According to the SFPD, between Jan. 1 and June 11, there were 131 reports of arson; 13,445 reports of larceny theft; 2,378 burglary reports; 1,070 assaults; 1,150 robberies; 91 rapes; 2,889 motor vehicle thefts; and 22 murders.
The city's crime and decline is not just chasing out businesses.
A comprehensive survey conducted by the San Francisco Chronicle last year found that 37% of current residents plan to be living somewhere beside San Francisco in three-years time. The city had experienced a 7% numeric decline in its population between July 2020 and July 2021.
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The mass exodus out of Democrat-controlled California continues unabated, driven in large part by crime, high living costs, corruption, and homelessness.
Even the man of steel can't take it any more.
Former "Louis and Clark" star and gun-rights activist Dean Cain recently joined the hundreds-of-thousands who have ditched the state over the past three years.
"I love California. It's the most beautiful state. Everything's wonderful about it except for the policies," he told Fox News' Brian Kilmeade Wednesday. "The policies are just terrible. The fiscal policies, the soft-on-crime policies, the homelessness policies."
Fox News Digital reported that Cain listed his Malibu home for $6.25 million in April and hightailed it for Las Vegas, where he reckons his family will be be better off.
Cain said, "I've been here for two weeks now, and I can tell you, [it's a] smart move ... my son is ten times happier here in Las Vegas. If I wanted to do anything out of Malibu, it took me 45 minutes to an hour to get anywhere. Here, the longest I'm driving is 20 minutes."
Extra to a slimmed-down commute, Cain will no longer have worry about a state income tax as Nevada doesn't have one.
According to NerdWallet, California, alternatively, has a progressive income tax system with nine tax rates ranging from 1% to 12.3%. The state also imposes an additional 1% "mental health services tax" on income exceeding $1 million.
To Cain's delight, Nevada may also end up supplanting Hollywood as the headquarters of the film industry — at least if Mark Wahlberg gets his way.
TheBlaze previously reported that Wahlberg, who similarly fled California hoping to give his "kids a better life," is lobbying lawmakers in Carson City, Nevada, to pass a bill that would incentivize the television and film industry to establish studios in Las Vegas.
Wahlberg and representatives from Sony Pictures and Howard Hughes Corp. impressed upon Nevadans the benefits of diversifying their economy and reducing reliance on the gaming industry. In his corresponding pitch to filmmakers, Wahlberg referenced Las Vegas' affordable housing, community-minded neighborhoods, and less frenzied living.
Wahlberg put his 12-bedroom, 20-bathroom Los Angeles mansion on the market for $87.5. million in April 2022.
According to the Los Angeles Times, it sold for $55 million in February.
"Obviously, Mark Wahlberg is a huge star and drives a huge number of dollars to the films that he does. Bless him for it. I think he’s done something very smart for his family," said Cain. "Mark did a smart thing, and, hopefully, I believe I’ve done a very, very smart thing."
The two actors are among roughly 343,000 people who have left the state to elsewhere in the country since 2020, reported KTLA.
Los Angeles County alone saw a population shrinkage of over 90,000 between July 2021 and July 2022.
The Public Policy Institute of California indicated that from 2010 through 2021, roughly 7.7 million people fled California to other states, whereas only 5.8 million people moved from elsewhere in the nation to California.
The Los Angeles Times reported that "low and middle-income Californians are most likely to leave. Those who move here tend to have higher incomes and more education, underscoring the state's affordability challenges."
While affordability is a big factor, so is crime and homelessness.
Many of the state's major cities are rife with both violent and property crimes.
San Francisco scores 2 on Neighborhood Scout's crime index, whereby 100 is considered safest. The chances of becoming a victim of a violent crime or a property crime are 1 in 186 and 1 in 20, respectively.
Los Angeles ranks 9 on the index, but the likelihood of becoming a victim of a violent crime is much higher, at 1 in 135.
Sacramento, where the odds of becoming victim of a property crime is 1 in 31 and the odds of becoming a victim of a violent crime is 1 in 148, ranks 6.
California's streets are not just home to crime but to hundreds of thousands of people.
There were over 69,000 homeless in Los Angeles as of September 2022. According to McKinsey, on any given night, there are approximately 38,000 homeless individuals in the Bay Area. A federally mandated headcount in February 2022 found that there were nearly 10,000 homeless on the streets of Sacramento.
"The things that our leaders in California have been doing have driven out anybody who can really afford to get out. People are flocking out of there in droves," said Cain.
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A Siena College Poll conducted March 6-9 has provided some damning insights into how New Yorkers view their state.
When asked whether they felt that New York was a place they felt safe from crime, 49% of the 795 respondents answered in the negative. Women appeared especially concerned about their safety, with 57% providing a negative response.
Nearly 40% of respondents suggested New York is not a good place to raise children; 60% of respondents cast doubt on whether New York is a suitable place to retire; 31% said they would retire someplace else.
When asked whether they plan to continue to live in New York or intend to leave within the next five years, 27% of respondents said they were planning on leaving.
Don Levy, polling director at the Siena College Research Institute, told the New York Post, "These are high numbers. These are take your breath away numbers."
Angela Gutierrez, 38, told the Post that she had moved to East Harlem from the Bronx, partly to get away from "all the crazy people," but stressed that it was "still not safe."
"And everything is expensive! They’re raising the rent again and we can’t. It’s going up almost $800 a month," added Gutierrez, noting that she was "going to Pennsylvania at the end of the month."
Unlike Gutierrez, tens of thousands of Americans are going a great deal farther than Pennsylvania to escape New York.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams bet on LGBT activism to stop the exodus of New Yorkers to Florida and potentially even reverse the trend.
Adams denounced Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis last April over his ratification of the "Parental Rights in Education" bill and called on Floridians to head north to "celebrate the diversity and acceptance of New York City," reported CNN.
The Democratic mayor's efforts — repeated in spirit by the LGBT lobby groups who issued a Florida travel warning this week — were evidently in vain.
Despite the rainbow posters and celebrations of diversity, the exodus of New Yorkers from Adams' city and elsewhere in the state has not let up, with many continuing to flock en masse to the Sunshine State.
10,824 New Yorkers swapped out their state driver's licenses for Florida licenses in the first three months of 2023, reported the Post, citing new figures from the Florida Department of Highway Safety. This is reportedly a slight slowdown over the same stretch last year, which saw 14,834 move their licenses to Florida.
USA Today reported that over 65,000 New Yorkers ultimately made the switch in 2022 and another 62,000 the year before.
U.S. Census Bureau data released this week indicated that Kings, Queens, and Bronx Counties in New York were among the five hemorrhaging the most residents between July 2021 and 2022, with a total of 213,000.
Conversely, Polk, Lee, and Pasco Counties in Florida saw some of the greatest gains, picking up nearly 85,000 people combined.
While New York's authoritarian COVID policies and Florida's earlier reopening reportedly played a significant part in driving the exodus during the pandemic, some Americans are following businesses that migrated down to save on taxes.
Jackie Bild, a real estate agent at Douglas Elliman based in Miami, told USA Today, "You have successful people with big businesses who want to create their residency in Florida to save on taxes. ... Many jobs have become more flexible, and you no longer need to go into the office and be in the cold. And it’s more affordable than New York. Like, why not live in Florida?"
There is zero income tax in Florida, whereas New York's top rate is 10.9%.
DeSantis suggested to Fox Radio host Guy Benson in 2022, "They tax and regulate so they repel people to leave their state," referencing New York's loss of 400,000 residents in 2021 alone.
In addition to greater freedom and less tax, the median sale price of a home was significantly less in Florida than in New York, at least as of January.
The real estate site Redfin indicated in a March report that Miami and Tampa are among the most popular destinations for house hunters looking to move to a different city. New York was the top out-of-state origin for buyers in these cities, as well as in Orlando, which ranked sixth on the list of "Top 10 Metros Homebuyers Are Moving Into, by Net Inflow."
As suggested by the Siena poll, crime may have chased out a great many people. After all, major crimes rose 22% last year in New York City, reported the New York Times.
Neighborhood Scout indicated that the odds of becoming a victim of a violent crime and a property crime in the state are 1 in 319 and 1 in 74, respectively.
While crime, affordability, and taxes are factors, some in the diaspora may simply be Republicans who heeded Gov. Kathy Hochul's order to leave.
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