Every ten minutes, a downtown San Francisco Target worker will reportedly see a theft.
While multiple products, such as deodorant, are under lock and key at the Metreon mall Target and security guards in bright vests wander the store, thieves are not deterred, as first reported by the San Francisco Standard.
A worker said that thieves are taking food, nail polish, liquor bottles, and even aluminum foil, which they allegedly use to smoke fentanyl. San Francisco saw a 40 percent jump in overdose deaths from January through March of this year, according to a press release from Gov. Gavin Newsom’s (D-CA) office.
Photos show the lipstick supply completely depleted, which a Target employee said was stocked just the morning the photo was taken.
Last November, it was reported that Target had lost $400 million due to inventory loss, attributed mostly to organized retail crime.
“Retail crime is an urgent issue that is increasingly impacting the team and guests at Target and other retailers,” a Target spokesperson told the San Francisco Standard. “It’s an issue that affects all of us, limiting product availability, creating a less convenient shopping experience, and most importantly, putting our team and guests in harm’s way.”
But it is not just organized criminals stealing, a worker said they will regularly see people who appear homeless eating food in the stores.
“I understand; they need to eat,” the worker told San Francisco Standard.
At the beginning of May, Breitbart News reported that two Nordstrom stores will be leaving San Francisco by the end of the summer.
In an email to employees, the CEO cited that the changing “dynamics of the downtown San Francisco market have changed dramatically over the past several years, impacting customer foot traffic to our stores and our ability to operate successfully.”
The San Francisco and Oakland areas were ranked the second most hard-hit in the country for theft in 2020 and 2021 after Los Angeles, according to a 2022 retail security survey by the National Retail Federation.
Watch: Products at Target Store SEALED Behind Glass in Crime-Ridden San Francisco