I've actually seen job postings for the target forensics lab (I'm a DNA analyst at a government lab). They really are no joke. That being said, Sam! ASCLD/LAB doesn't exist anymore and they haven't since 2016. They got absorbed by ANAB, a different accrediting body. Just another thing to add to your yearly mistakes video. 😄
I used to work at Target. A few things to add: each store knows what their local county felony level for theft is, and they don't call the cops until they have footage implicating you in enough thefts that they total over that amount. Also, even though I'm confident that corporate is worried about shrink, not *once* was the word even mentioned to a single team member at my store. In contrast, every associate was required to memorize their store's weekly shrink number when I worked at Kroger. Finally, he's right. Target doesn't care about small-time shoplifting, only about the people who try to make careers out of it.
Every major retailer does the felony cutoff thing as far as I know. I know when I worked at Meijer they called the cops on a habitual shoplifter and caught her with not only a bunch of merchandise but a bag of weed the size of a throw pillow. "It's legal because I bought it in Colorado" did not work out as well for her as she thought it would. Shrink numbers were discussed, but at the employee level it was in terms of damaged and spoiled products rather than theft. Things we could control vs things we couldn't.
@@willythemailboy2lmao she really thought that would work? Regardless of where you are or how you obtained it crossing state borders with weed is a felony Even if you crossed a weed legal state to another weed legal state
@@thatdamncrow9197 She wasn't the sharpest knife in the drawer. I believe the charge was felony possession with intent to deliver, and I think that charge was one of those not included in the state's blanket pardons and record expungements. It wouldn't surprise me if she was still in prison even now 5 years later.
Not Target related, but I remember for my orientation at Walmart in 2020 when I was first hired, they took us into the AP room and showed off the cameras. Those things were insane, showing us how well the quality was even after a 12x zoom, the neural networks being trained on the overhead cameras at self checkout (they were checking if each individual product was moved from the basket and scanned to the register and back), and before the tour was complete, the manager used an outside camera and zoomed into the menu of the Taco Bell across the street and starting planning an order because he was about to head over for his lunch.
I worked for many years as a Loss Prevention Analyst for a large retail cooperation. I was building cases for serious financial crimes. I was giving more info to police then the police were every able to collect. We also got thousands of requests a year from police for our surveillance footage because of a criminal that passed through our store.
One of my favorite memories in retail. This guy who pocketed expensive items knew he was being tailed in the store. So he bolted. I'm outside on the opposite end in the garden section chatting it up with all the old ladies in my quiet section. The shoplifter runs right past, screaming obscenities. Then I see our LP lead attempting to run as he grabs his chest and screaming for the man to stop. Followed by the second LP guy who outruns the Lead. THEN see my manager in the forklift, speeding across into multiple parking lots chasing after the shoplifter also. It was pretty easy for the cops to find the shoplifter as the Lead LP told 911, "It's the guy who's being chased by two guys on foot and a forklift."
@@TheMajorStranger They don't update the template for Nebula descriptions very often. The uploads on Nebula had broken links to their socials for months before someone noticed and fixed it. It wouldn't surprise me if it just had the wrong writer copied and pasted in, especially since we see Amy go to Target.
Yeah, but if they do that, depending on who the retail officer and who the suspect are, they might risk having to watch their stores be looted across the country in the name of equity.
Depends on the risk of retaliation and or the probability that person will actually serve any time. Portland is not doing good right now and its spread to other cities as well. Repeal prop 110, bring back policing, get rid of the enabler judges letting everyone out left and right.
@@Your-Least-Favorite-Strangerjust did jury duty. Judges can send people to prison every week for the rest of their lives. Doesn't do shit when prisons are so full they actively look for reasons to let people out asap.
One thing to note, (many) Big Box retailers actually train their employees to literally do nothing if they witness shoplifting, as nobody knows what lengths a person would go to to steal their $2 candy bar. A certain navy blue hardware retailer I know requires that their associates use regular customer service skills on people who are suspected of theft and then fill out a web based report should they steal something or exhibit behaviors common to those who would be shoplifting.
I was going to say the same thing. Big companies would much rather lose the merchandise than have to deal with a worker’s compensation claim from an employee being injured trying to apprehend a shoplifter and/or pay damages to an injured shoplifter.
when i worked at a gas station, we were told to never confront the shoplifter then call our manager after the person left the premises even if the person was armed (ESPECIALLY if the person was armed). it was drilled into our heads that they will fire you immediately if you interfere with a shoplifter. once while i was working overnight, we got robbed & another customer arrived while it was happening. he just went back to his car and called the cops and i guess one must’ve been pretty close bc they arrived after like two minutes. the robber was still there so he got arrested & i called my manager to tell him what happened. i was told i was suspended effective immediately until corporate sent them footage that proved i wasn’t the one who called 911. i told them not to worry about the footage because i wouldn’t be returning to work there. even the cops said i hadn’t been the one to place the call and my manager didn’t give a fuck. i get not wanting an employee to intervene for safety reasons but to have my only source of income suddenly halted over a call i never made and didn’t know was being made was ridiculous. to add insult to injury, the manager put me in their system at not rehireable so i can never work at any of their gas station locations for the rest of my life 🙄
A citizen's arrest is usually only valid for a violent crime or grand larceny. Shoplifting would not qualify a citizen's arrest and would lead to the detaining party being open to civil and criminal liability. Can you initiate a citizen's arrest for someone stealing a car? Yes. For stealing a candy bar? No.
I grew up one mile from the very first Target. They were good at catching shoplifters in the 60s. (don’t ask me how I know). I’m not surprised they’ve maintained that ‘strength.’
Merchants do have the privilege to "detain" third parties when they have actual knowledge that a crime has been committed and reasonably know who did it.
That very much depends on the jurisdiction, and most retail chains won’t allow their staff to do so even if the law allows it for a couple reasons: (1) it’s a huge safety concern if the crook is armed and willing to get violent, and (2) if the low level and low paid staff make any kind of mistake, it’s a multi-million dollar lawsuit waiting to happen.
Where you live maybe. Here we don't have an average (!) of two mass shootings per day, nor do we have people walking around with guns who are unaware that their toddler will kill them with it tomorrow. Don't make sweeping statements on a global platform, banjo boy.
Yes. Some cities and states allow merchants to use reasonable force to stop someone from stealing from them. They still don't want employees to do it because the potential costs of a bad stop (an injury to the employee, or a lawsuit if they somehow go after the wrong person) are so high that the risk isn't worth it.
3:59 This is not true, there is such a thing as Shopkeeper's Privilege in most states that allows Loss Prevention to call the cops, and stop you from leaving until the cops arrive.
@@nunya___ No it’s not. North Carolina has all the same “Shopkeepers Privilege” laws. 14-72.1 (C) A merchant, or the merchant's agent or employee, or a peace officer who detains or causes the arrest of any person shall not be held civilly liable for detention, malicious prosecution, false imprisonment, or false arrest of the person detained or arrested, where such detention is upon the premises of the store or in a reasonable proximity thereto, is in a reasonable manner for a reasonable length of time, and, if in detaining or in causing the arrest of such person, the merchant, or the merchant's agent or employee, or the peace officer had at the time of the detention or arrest probable cause to believe that the person committed the offense created by this section. If the person being detained by the merchant, or the merchant's agent or employee, is a minor under the age of 18 years, the merchant or the merchant's agent or employee, shall call or notify, or make a reasonable effort to call or notify the parent or guardian of the minor, during the period of detention. A merchant, or the merchant's agent or employee, who makes a reasonable effort to call or notify the parent or guardian of the minor shall not be held civilly liable for failing to notify the parent or guardian of the minor.
This is very interesting, but what if they started selling bricks. Can you do a video on a store that used to sell more normal retail products, that now sells bricks?
Word on the street is that when Target does these pro bono cases, they ask for just a patch from the law enforcement agency in question in return, and have a wall of all of the patches at the lab. (I haven’t seen it myself, but I earned a Computer Forensics degree from a university in St. Paul, so odds are the second or third hand info being shared was reasonably likely to be accurate.)
Losing 1.2% of your sales is a massive deal! Retailers have a profit margin of around 4%. They could theoretically add 30% to their profit and value by eliminating stealing and losses.
Target's net profit margin is 3.4%. Walmart is 2.55%. Not sure how you get that they could theoretically add 30% to their net profit by eliminating shrink unless you think that eliminating those issues would not cost them anything. They let a lot of it slide specifically because stopping it costs more money.
Funny that Target can have a crime solving lab but can't secure their corporate network which let criminals steal user data. Then settled and paid the Target CEO at the time more than total of stolen data.
It's cheaper for them to pay settlements and small fines it seems. There's no incentive for these big corporations to protect user data because at the end of the day, being breached doesn't cost the company much money
@@neoxyte Exactly! It's all about relatively short term profits. People need to realize these corporations are ran by actual psychopaths that would put us in shackles to slave away 20 hours a day if they could get away with it.
I work at a grocery store in a shopping center with a Target in it. When ANYTHING goes down in the center we call them. They have 10x better security than the hired aecurity guards for the center and they respond immediately. Idk about the rest of their business practices but they do security right. Never knew about this stuff though ahahaha!!
The problem with organised shoplifting is they also often target stores in lower income areas which are also very often stores that are either losing money or at best breaking even. So mass organised shoplifting can very easily turn a slightly money losing store to an unsustainable store even before causing risk to staff and normal customers. It's why so many retail deserts are appearing across the US it's just no longer either safe or sustainable to have stores in those areas.
When I worked at K-Mart back in the 70's in Chicago, our security folks could grab folks. We had a bunch of off-duty police and they were amazing. We handled much more cash back then so security was necessary so we didn't have armed robberies at the cashier area. During Christmas time, we could easily take in a $1/4 million in cash in one day. We emptied the registers about once an hour and I had to carry the cash bag with security up to the vault. Most of the shoplifters were teenagers that were banned from the store. When we had professional thieves show up, things got quite interesting if they tried to leave before the police showed up. They were mostly worried about high value items like consumer electronics which were pretty pricey back then (no china). If they tried to fight their way out of the store, they always lost. The good old days when actions had consequences. I'm not sure retailers could afford security like that today when they are competing with Amazon.
I was in the local Rite Aid several years ago. I stopped in to grab something on my way to work. (Which meant I was in a bit of a hurry.) So I grabbed what I was there for, which was at the back of the store. Then I headed for the registers, at kind of a brisk walk. Well, this young guy was rummaging around on one of the shelves on that aisle. He looked so, saw me coming, and BOLTED out of the store. The cashier and I had a good laugh about it.
The fact that they budget for shrinkage means that in a real sense, you aren't stealing from the big faceless corporation like your buddies on r/shoplifting like to say, it means you are stealing from other shoppers.
Exactly. The amount stolen might only be 1.2% of sales, but all the loss prevention infrastructure is guaranteed to be expensive as well. You, as the consumer, pay for all of that in higher prices.
The reason shopllifting doesn't affect their bottom line is because they pass the cost onto YOU, the customer. They also don't pay their employees, electricity bill, taxes, rent, so on and so forth. They don't pay for anything. Because if the business starts operating at a loss, they RAISE THE PRICES. They (you) even pay people to figure out which stores and which products they can raise prices in withouth affecting how much money they can get from you. And also, which stores it's not worth it to keep open. YOU pay for crime. There's no free lunch.
So you basically describe every business. The whole point of running a business is to have your customers pay for all expenses plus a percentage to make a profit. Where else would the money come from?
@@DoomFinger511 Exactly. Not everyone has figured out how money and businesses work. Peole legit excuse crime as "the insurance will pay for it", "They're a big business, they can take the loss" withouth realising that EVERYONE pays for crime. There was even a POLICE CHIEF in an american big city shrugging off rising crime rates as "just a fact of iving in city". The entire world is degenerating into a low trust society because people are too complacent about the cost of crime. I live in Brazil, heed my warning. You WILL NOT WANT to live in a Brazil at a global scale.
@@ThZuao Already in New York many retailers have closed their stores because judges can no longer hold anyone on bail for non-violent misdemeanors. Meaning, even the NYPD knows if they arrest a shoplifter, they will be released hours later so it's not worth their time. As a result, the area not only loses a store to buy products in. but everyone from the local area who was employed there loses their jobs. And there is no such thing as shoplifting insurance, so it always gets passed onto the consumer and occasionally as large fines on the few shoplifters who get caught. Some intelligent small business owners started pricing all items at $1000 so if it was stolen it would be a felony, and would then offer a discount when you paid for it at the register.
Heh during my darker days with drug addiction, it was known among my fellow.......peers....., that Target is off limits for stealing. Would always hear how they have the most advanced and sophisticated surveillance and won't hesitate to throw the book at you. I think they gone the way of Walmart now with waiting until you hit felony $$$ before nabbing you.
When it comes down to it, if your losses due to shoplifting are up to $600,000,000 a year, your budget to prevent shoplifting is also up to $600,000,000 a year
@@DoomFinger511It makes total sense: you can invest as much into loss prevention as the value of the losses it will prevent, without impacting your budget negatively.
@@Chance-ny4bc I think that depends entirely on the situation. Businesses aren’t stupid: if they know that a given investment in loss prevention will more than make up for it, then they’ll do it. If it won’t, or proves not to after the fact, then they’ll stop.
If the average Target location sees an increase of 400$ in theft per day that's their entire profit margin gone, and many locations already operate at a loss to compete with Walmart
A lot of loss prevention specialists actually are accredited police, either off duty cops working part time or licensed security guards with police powers inside the store. It varies by jurisdiction, but some can and will tackle, cuff, and arrest shoplifters and hold them until the local PD arrives.
Most big box stores will not hire off duty police for AP/LP because of the blurred line of a police officer watching a crime. Many police officers will work off duty as security or assist AP.
It's a city in Minnesota, which is a state right smack in the middle of the border with Canada. Very cold and the state stereotype I've heard is soft spoken. A lot of people of Scandinavian descent, which also influences the accent.
Northern US in the center of the country. A couple hundred kilometers south of the western tip of the Great Lakes. There’s 3 million people in the metro.
Hmmm I've seen Walmart loss prevention tackle a shoplifter from a full run. They waited til he exited the inner door to the foyer then ran and tackled him. Then Walmart employees were threatening the people recording the struggle on their phones, saying it was illegal to record and they'd be arrested for it.
This kinda reminds me of AWS. Amazon had such good digital infrastructure that they said "hey anyone want help managing servers" and now basically half the internet is hosted on AWS.
It's worth noting that the "security can't do anything" concept varies by location. Any person in Canada who witnesses someone committing a crime in relation to property they have an interest in has the lawful authority to use reasonable force to stop the crime, recover the property, effect an arrest, and use reasonable force to defend themselves while doing so.
Super interesting video, but it’s totally off base to say that theft doesn’t affect Target that much. Shrink might be roughly 1.2% of revenue, but it’s a far larger percentage of Target’s profit. If we take the $600 million figure from this video and Target’s 2022 net earnings from its most recent 10K form ($2.78 billion), that’s 22% of profit robbed every year. We’ll have to wait for this year’s data to see how accurate the shrink estimate is and what Target’s earnings were in 2023, but no matter what we’re talking about a lot more than 1%. Even that figure understates the harms of shoplifting, because stores in more crime-ridden neighborhoods are much more vulnerable to theft, and when Target has to shut down because they’re not profitable, they leave people in the neighborhood without a place to shop for groceries and basic products. Anacostia, a majority-black neighborhood in DC, is a food desert because grocery stores are routinely targeted by shoplifters and companies can’t afford to stay open.
A fine point, retailers have very small margins, so while sheinkage might only lead to 1.2% loss in revenue, the loss to profits are probably many times higher
I’m not a target type of person, but this is admirable. What I find most impressive about the whole system is they do it pro bono. Unless you’re a large agency, the budget just isn’t there for more intricate forensic analysis.
I sat on a jury for a case of a passenger in a car being charged with possession of a crack pipe found under his seat. The prosecutor and cop witness tried to make the case that simple proximity meant it belonged to him and not the owner of the car. What threw me is they brought the pipe to the trial, opened the sealed bag and handled it without gloves - but it had never been dusted for fingerprints at all! They hadn't bothered to do the bare minimum to show the suspect had ever touched the pipe. I think we "deliberated" for all of five minutes before telling the judge where the prosecutor could shove his case.
@@photosinensis I don't so much care about billionaires getting richer. I do, however, care about the fact that the majority of the cost of retail theft, plus the cost of the infrastructure employed to deter it, is borne by customers through artificially increased prices, and employees through artificially suppressed wages. Don't you?
Revenue is a terrible metric for shrink losses as revenue is sales before costs and expenses. Operating income is a better measure and the $600 million in shrinkage would be 16% of yearly operating income.
Really fascinating to learn about how Target's quest to prevent shoplifting evolved into solving major crimes. Never knew that retail chains had such high-tech forensic capabilities.
I can't believe the police did nothing even when there was clear evidence of theft! It's frustrating to see criminals getting away with it while hardworking employees have to deal with the consequences.
@@lv1543 Fine, I'm just glad this isn't the 1850s, which'd punish me with fines and imprison for harbouring escaped slaves, because you could not exercise compassion for same if you wished to "obey the law".
…I’m fairly confident it hasn’t been shoplifting that’s bankrupted businesses these past years. I think you may be forgetting a small global pandemic that f’ed up the worlds economy
on why so few people report known cases of shop lifting. i have a friendo who works retail, according to him if he does anything to stop shoplifting or reports the case, he could be fired. I feel like this might be a contributing factor
The report part is related to if he contacted the police. Retail stores want to keep that internal and choose whether to have a public record of shoplifting in order to control reports of their loss/profit margins. Also to prevent any situations where police might investigate and stumble upon something the store did wrong. It has nothing to do with any form of shoplifter protection.
From watching Fishing Garret I have learned you can get those Tokay Geckos by just going to the Florida Everglades and yoinking them off the trees and such. I guess that means you can sell them for super high profits based on your research.
Not sure where he got those prices from they are $100 in most pet shops. So looked up the article it's the price for smuggling 'pure' (rolls eyes) wild caught Tokay's from their natural range where they are endangered for use in Chinese medicine.
Most of these very expensive lizards are bred for specific colours. These morphs, as they are called, take a lot of time and effort to achieve. It's important to note that unlike special dog breeds, these lizards are still perfectly healthy. They would have little issue surviving in the wild, although some species would lack their natural camouflage. A regular Tokay gecko isn't going to go for much. You can find them in pretty much every shop for under a $100.
The vid says losses from theft are 1.2% of Target’s revenue. 1.2% doesn’t sound like a lot because the vid fails to put this in the context that Target’s overall profit margin is only 3%. 1.2% is the average across all stores. In some stores the losses are much higher and are enough to flip a store from being profitable to unprofitable and ultimately closing. This is why we have “food deserts”.
Back in college I worked for Lowe's and we were told about a group of truck unloaders that were stealing large amounts of power tools, they would drop it in gap around the bay door then retrieve it after their shift. Allegedly they got away with $250K before getting caught
F Lowe’s… they sold us a $100 gift card that, when redeemed a week later had already been cleared out by an online shopper who had gotten the number and was just waiting on funds to be applied to the card. Lowe’s refused to reimburse me for the loss. When I made a police report, even the cops said Lowe’s doesn’t prosecute shoplifters…with a subtle nod and wink that I should just take matters into my own hands and “redeem” my gift card by “alternative” methods. I have avoided Lowe’s ever since and spend my money elsewhere.
This was Full·on interesting! I had NO idea they had anything to do with forensics, but it kinda fits because of circumstances. Weird how a group can start in one area, and end up in an entirely different field.
You need to be really strong to do shoplifting... But when you do... I bet the store really hates it... Imagine all the property damage you cause from lifting and using the store for exercise! Then again, you can help them out afterwards by eating traffic jam... :D
I don't feel like this video accurately states the damage to Target's business that is caused by shoplifting. I don't have a link at hand right now, but I believe there are Targets that have closed in certain high-crime areas simply due to the amount of shoplifting that was going on. As someone else said in the comments, if the revenue figure quoted was net, then the percent of loss to shrinkage could make a significant difference to profit margins. In the city where I live, there are two Targets relatively close by. The one that is easier to walk to has a large amount of products in locked cases, including baby formula. The one that's part of a strip mall has just regular security guards, except in the pharmacy & cosmetics sections. I don't think they would inconvenience their customers to that extent if shoplifting wasn't hurting their profits. Also, regarding baby formula specifically, I think more people steal it to resell than for their own use.
As a former tween who stole kit-kats to "feel alive," i thank you for making me feel both 'seen' and also wholly generic. :) (technically it was keychains on a mormon youth temple trip not kit-kats but the motivational spirit was the same)
What is maldito it's important to remember that shrink also includes products damaged in shipping as well as products that are generally can't be sold for XYZ reason. It's not just theft
Macy's is facing a multimillion dollar lawsuit, because they farmed out their facial recognition system to another store and incorrectly fingered an innocent man for a robbery, despite the man in question being in another state at the time of the robbery. He was arrested and thrown in jail where he was beaten and raped before being released with no charges.
Doing it pro-bono means they develop a good relationship with the law enforcement in that area, and a good reputation with law enforcement in other places too. That's more valuable than the lost revenue, and is something that's just not the same when you just buy that connection.
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation had an episode where they asked help from the forensics lab of a Target-like store, and the CSIs was envious of how the store's equipment are much more state-of-the-art than their own
"Even though it doesn't meaningfully hurt them" The average Target only makes 100,000$ in profit per year, the parts in this video trying to downplay the harm shoplifting isn't being disingenuous, it's just a straight up lie.
5:19 You would not believe the amount of murder cases and generally bad things that happened in the month of April! I watch a lot of crime shows and more often than not, it happens in April... Which happens to be my birthday month.. 😬
Correction: depending on what state you are in, they CAN legally tackle you and detain you for shoplifting. It is covered under "shopkeeper's privilege" laws. They just don't because it isn't considered financially the best idea, as even a frivolous lawsuit with no merit would cost more to defend against than whatever was stolen, and the liability of your employee being injured.
It's been a few years since I worked assets protection for Target, but yes, we stopped small-time shoplifters as well organized shoplifters. We also followed shoplifters out of the store and put them in handcuffs.
Hey, if airlines can be banks, and the punishment of violators of government laws can be a source of private income, a department store can have a detective agency investigating major crimes that police ought to be working on (almost like that's what they're PAID to do!).
Target and other store can absolutely and sometimes will grab your ass the moment you hit the door threshold and hold you for police. Walmart, Frys, Albertsons and other large grocers are notorious for this if the store has actual licensed security and not just a LP associate monitoring cameras. Heck I watched a Best Buy LP associate at the front door dam near body slam a guy to the ground because he was refusing to empty stolen the items in his pockets and pushed the LP associate.
Here's an idea. Why don't Target make a protocol with local LE agencies nationwide where they give pro Bono forensics services in exchange for police officers being stationed at Target stores? That would like make loss prevention much more effective while also making police much more effective at getting convictions for more serious crimes.
I've actually seen job postings for the target forensics lab (I'm a DNA analyst at a government lab). They really are no joke. That being said, Sam! ASCLD/LAB doesn't exist anymore and they haven't since 2016. They got absorbed by ANAB, a different accrediting body. Just another thing to add to your yearly mistakes video. 😄
Idk why but this has almost made me cry.
@@UA-camsViewerReviewer Do you perhaps, have sugma?
Indeed
@@UA-camsViewerReviewer
Death from a ridiculously long and witty acronym 😢
Too much sauce on that name, lol.
This is sauce guys, i'm here before this blows up.
I used to work at Target. A few things to add: each store knows what their local county felony level for theft is, and they don't call the cops until they have footage implicating you in enough thefts that they total over that amount. Also, even though I'm confident that corporate is worried about shrink, not *once* was the word even mentioned to a single team member at my store. In contrast, every associate was required to memorize their store's weekly shrink number when I worked at Kroger.
Finally, he's right. Target doesn't care about small-time shoplifting, only about the people who try to make careers out of it.
Every major retailer does the felony cutoff thing as far as I know. I know when I worked at Meijer they called the cops on a habitual shoplifter and caught her with not only a bunch of merchandise but a bag of weed the size of a throw pillow. "It's legal because I bought it in Colorado" did not work out as well for her as she thought it would.
Shrink numbers were discussed, but at the employee level it was in terms of damaged and spoiled products rather than theft. Things we could control vs things we couldn't.
@@willythemailboy2lmao she really thought that would work?
Regardless of where you are or how you obtained it crossing state borders with weed is a felony
Even if you crossed a weed legal state to another weed legal state
@@thatdamncrow9197 She wasn't the sharpest knife in the drawer.
I believe the charge was felony possession with intent to deliver, and I think that charge was one of those not included in the state's blanket pardons and record expungements. It wouldn't surprise me if she was still in prison even now 5 years later.
Tell that to the Target LP that caught me stealing a Tomogachi 30 years ago.
@@clucero1986 I'd love to, lol. You got a time machine?
Not Target related, but I remember for my orientation at Walmart in 2020 when I was first hired, they took us into the AP room and showed off the cameras. Those things were insane, showing us how well the quality was even after a 12x zoom, the neural networks being trained on the overhead cameras at self checkout (they were checking if each individual product was moved from the basket and scanned to the register and back), and before the tour was complete, the manager used an outside camera and zoomed into the menu of the Taco Bell across the street and starting planning an order because he was about to head over for his lunch.
Some security cameras also have insane optical zooms. There's one at my school which has a 50x optical zoom and is controllable like a ball turret.
LOL WOW
What a cool way of saying don’t even try it lol
So like Vegas, then.
That’s there maybe not so subtle way to let employees know not to steal shit. Employee theft is actually a very significant part of shrink losses.
"Dead Men Buy No Candles" -- a lesser known classic Noir film.
I think it was withdrawn after the creators of the classic "Dead Men Buy No Candies" movie sued them for plagiarism.
It also spawned a really bizarre crossover film about basketball, "Dead Men Can't Jump"
No Candles for Dead Men
I worked for many years as a Loss Prevention Analyst for a large retail cooperation. I was building cases for serious financial crimes. I was giving more info to police then the police were every able to collect. We also got thousands of requests a year from police for our surveillance footage because of a criminal that passed through our store.
Hmmmmmm. I smell a former Walmartian
@@goosenotmaverick1156 nope! Canadian corporation!
@@cdnpoli101I’m going to guess under the Loblaws umbrella
@@cdnpoli101 dang! Was worth a shot haha. Be glad you're not one, I live near the home of Walmart and it's not great working for them.
Did you like ruining people’s lives?
Dead men really do buy no candles.
Or do they?
Nevermind Sam is well researched when it comes to dead people.
Lots of candles around a coffin at a funeral though 💰
You’re not wrong about that
But do they tell tales about the candles?
One of my favorite memories in retail. This guy who pocketed expensive items knew he was being tailed in the store. So he bolted. I'm outside on the opposite end in the garden section chatting it up with all the old ladies in my quiet section. The shoplifter runs right past, screaming obscenities. Then I see our LP lead attempting to run as he grabs his chest and screaming for the man to stop. Followed by the second LP guy who outruns the Lead. THEN see my manager in the forklift, speeding across into multiple parking lots chasing after the shoplifter also. It was pretty easy for the cops to find the shoplifter as the Lead LP told 911, "It's the guy who's being chased by two guys on foot and a forklift."
Little known fact: Forklifts are the shoplifter's natural predator.
Illegal
Speeding across a parking lot sounds dangerous AS HELL! I would never go to that store again if I saw that play out!
The Benny Hill theme would be a fitting addition to this scene 😂
@@JoeRogansForehead Depending on the state - it was very likely LEGAL.
Silly Ben trying to get rid of Sam so he and Adam can win the next season of Jet Lag by default.
The budget for the season will still come from Sam’s pockets, of course
This time he hired Amy to do it.
@@SpeedBird6780 That's weird on Nebula it said it writer was Ben Doyle?
@@TheMajorStranger They don't update the template for Nebula descriptions very often. The uploads on Nebula had broken links to their socials for months before someone noticed and fixed it. It wouldn't surprise me if it just had the wrong writer copied and pasted in, especially since we see Amy go to Target.
@@SpeedBird6780 or Amy want's to replace Sam in the next season and conspires with Ben
Depending on the State, retail security officers can absolutely tackle and cuff you. In Oregon I know this is the case.
Yeah, that part of the video was a bit of a double take, as I am pretty sure that it wasn't as simple as that.
Yeah, but if they do that, depending on who the retail officer and who the suspect are, they might risk having to watch their stores be looted across the country in the name of equity.
Depends on the risk of retaliation and or the probability that person will actually serve any time. Portland is not doing good right now and its spread to other cities as well.
Repeal prop 110, bring back policing, get rid of the enabler judges letting everyone out left and right.
The biggest problem is keeping people in jail is rather expensive.
@@Your-Least-Favorite-Strangerjust did jury duty. Judges can send people to prison every week for the rest of their lives. Doesn't do shit when prisons are so full they actively look for reasons to let people out asap.
One thing to note, (many) Big Box retailers actually train their employees to literally do nothing if they witness shoplifting, as nobody knows what lengths a person would go to to steal their $2 candy bar.
A certain navy blue hardware retailer I know requires that their associates use regular customer service skills on people who are suspected of theft and then fill out a web based report should they steal something or exhibit behaviors common to those who would be shoplifting.
I was going to say the same thing. Big companies would much rather lose the merchandise than have to deal with a worker’s compensation claim from an employee being injured trying to apprehend a shoplifter and/or pay damages to an injured shoplifter.
when i worked at a gas station, we were told to never confront the shoplifter then call our manager after the person left the premises even if the person was armed (ESPECIALLY if the person was armed). it was drilled into our heads that they will fire you immediately if you interfere with a shoplifter. once while i was working overnight, we got robbed & another customer arrived while it was happening. he just went back to his car and called the cops and i guess one must’ve been pretty close bc they arrived after like two minutes. the robber was still there so he got arrested & i called my manager to tell him what happened. i was told i was suspended effective immediately until corporate sent them footage that proved i wasn’t the one who called 911. i told them not to worry about the footage because i wouldn’t be returning to work there. even the cops said i hadn’t been the one to place the call and my manager didn’t give a fuck. i get not wanting an employee to intervene for safety reasons but to have my only source of income suddenly halted over a call i never made and didn’t know was being made was ridiculous. to add insult to injury, the manager put me in their system at not rehireable so i can never work at any of their gas station locations for the rest of my life 🙄
Retail loss prevention actually does have arrest power in a lot of states.
And in places where they don't, I'd imagine any off-duty cop who wants to make a bit of extra cash is welcome to apply.
Not arrest power, but they can detain you physically until the police arrive.
even if loss prevention doesn't have it by virtue of being loss prevention, citizens arrest is absolutely a thing
dont civilians have arrest powers? if someone grabs my wallet, i can citizens arrest them, at least for a reasonable time until police arrives
A citizen's arrest is usually only valid for a violent crime or grand larceny. Shoplifting would not qualify a citizen's arrest and would lead to the detaining party being open to civil and criminal liability.
Can you initiate a citizen's arrest for someone stealing a car? Yes. For stealing a candy bar? No.
I grew up one mile from the very first Target. They were good at catching shoplifters in the 60s. (don’t ask me how I know). I’m not surprised they’ve maintained that ‘strength.’
How do you know?
No one's going to mention the amazing acronym that is LAB, the Laboratory Accreditation Board??
Most shrink isn't theft. The vast majority of it is damaged goods and the like.
Exactly.
Fr fr
Merchants do have the privilege to "detain" third parties when they have actual knowledge that a crime has been committed and reasonably know who did it.
Ive def seen a target security guard tackle someone too
That very much depends on the jurisdiction, and most retail chains won’t allow their staff to do so even if the law allows it for a couple reasons: (1) it’s a huge safety concern if the crook is armed and willing to get violent, and (2) if the low level and low paid staff make any kind of mistake, it’s a multi-million dollar lawsuit waiting to happen.
Where you live maybe. Here we don't have an average (!) of two mass shootings per day, nor do we have people walking around with guns who are unaware that their toddler will kill them with it tomorrow.
Don't make sweeping statements on a global platform, banjo boy.
@@benjaminlynch9958There are two jobs making million-dollar decisions every day at the Big Box Store: the CEO and the store-level security people.
Yes. Some cities and states allow merchants to use reasonable force to stop someone from stealing from them. They still don't want employees to do it because the potential costs of a bad stop (an injury to the employee, or a lawsuit if they somehow go after the wrong person) are so high that the risk isn't worth it.
The wispered “I cannot be killed” out of nowhere got me so well
3:59
This is not true, there is such a thing as Shopkeeper's Privilege in most states that allows Loss Prevention to call the cops, and stop you from leaving until the cops arrive.
@@nunya___
No it’s not. North Carolina has all the same “Shopkeepers Privilege” laws.
14-72.1 (C)
A merchant, or the merchant's agent or employee, or a peace officer who detains or causes the arrest of any person shall not be held civilly liable for detention, malicious prosecution, false imprisonment, or false arrest of the person detained or arrested, where such detention is upon the premises of the store or in a reasonable proximity thereto, is in a reasonable manner for a reasonable length of time, and, if in detaining or in causing the arrest of such person, the merchant, or the merchant's agent or employee, or the peace officer had at the time of the detention or arrest probable cause to believe that the person committed the offense created by this section. If the person being detained by the merchant, or the merchant's agent or employee, is a minor under the age of 18 years, the merchant or the merchant's agent or employee, shall call or notify, or make a reasonable effort to call or notify the parent or guardian of the minor, during the period of detention. A merchant, or the merchant's agent or employee, who makes a reasonable effort to call or notify the parent or guardian of the minor shall not be held civilly liable for failing to notify the parent or guardian of the minor.
@@nunya___no it’s not, NC has shopkeepers privilege. N.C.G.S.§14-72.1
I have yet to see a SINGLE video on this channel that didn't contain false "information"
This is very interesting, but what if they started selling bricks. Can you do a video on a store that used to sell more normal retail products, that now sells bricks?
What do you mean by this
4:49 here’s one for a future correction video: the video appears to be motor oil going in a crankcase rather than gasoline into a tank as Sam said
I noticed that, too.
I've seen people steal baby formula and always turn a blind eye. They're not doing it for kicks.
Baby Formula is often stolen because it is so easy to resell online or at swap meets.
Word on the street is that when Target does these pro bono cases, they ask for just a patch from the law enforcement agency in question in return, and have a wall of all of the patches at the lab. (I haven’t seen it myself, but I earned a Computer Forensics degree from a university in St. Paul, so odds are the second or third hand info being shared was reasonably likely to be accurate.)
I don’t know if that’s a formal request. I do know they have a wall of patches.
Losing 1.2% of your sales is a massive deal! Retailers have a profit margin of around 4%. They could theoretically add 30% to their profit and value by eliminating stealing and losses.
And yet wage theft still dwarfs all other kinds of theft by several times 🥲
Where is the loss prevention for everyone else?
Target's net profit margin is 3.4%. Walmart is 2.55%. Not sure how you get that they could theoretically add 30% to their net profit by eliminating shrink unless you think that eliminating those issues would not cost them anything. They let a lot of it slide specifically because stopping it costs more money.
@@ian3580 1.2% is 30% of 4%
@j.d.714 I am definitely not a Marxist, lol
thats not how maths work
One of my forensic science students now works for Target lab in MN doing fingerprint analysis.
Funny that Target can have a crime solving lab but can't secure their corporate network which let criminals steal user data. Then settled and paid the Target CEO at the time more than total of stolen data.
It's cheaper for them to pay settlements and small fines it seems. There's no incentive for these big corporations to protect user data because at the end of the day, being breached doesn't cost the company much money
@@neoxyte Exactly! It's all about relatively short term profits. People need to realize these corporations are ran by actual psychopaths that would put us in shackles to slave away 20 hours a day if they could get away with it.
It’s almost like they are two entirely different things. But don’t let facts get in the way of your tantrum there little buddy 😂
It wasn’t a tantrum bruh, you have less chill than the other poster. 🤔
They need to have a monetary value for the user data and its breach.
Shrink meaningfully hurts all retailers. 1.2% requires most retailers at least 3.6% to cover just that 1.2% before regaining profit on sales.
2:31 Therapist: Don't worry, mouth HAI doesn't exist, it can't hurt you.
Mouth HAI:
I work at a grocery store in a shopping center with a Target in it. When ANYTHING goes down in the center we call them. They have 10x better security than the hired aecurity guards for the center and they respond immediately. Idk about the rest of their business practices but they do security right. Never knew about this stuff though ahahaha!!
The problem with organised shoplifting is they also often target stores in lower income areas which are also very often stores that are either losing money or at best breaking even.
So mass organised shoplifting can very easily turn a slightly money losing store to an unsustainable store even before causing risk to staff and normal customers.
It's why so many retail deserts are appearing across the US it's just no longer either safe or sustainable to have stores in those areas.
Almost like.. the call is coming from inside the house (lower income area)
When I worked at K-Mart back in the 70's in Chicago, our security folks could grab folks. We had a bunch of off-duty police and they were amazing. We handled much more cash back then so security was necessary so we didn't have armed robberies at the cashier area. During Christmas time, we could easily take in a $1/4 million in cash in one day. We emptied the registers about once an hour and I had to carry the cash bag with security up to the vault. Most of the shoplifters were teenagers that were banned from the store. When we had professional thieves show up, things got quite interesting if they tried to leave before the police showed up. They were mostly worried about high value items like consumer electronics which were pretty pricey back then (no china). If they tried to fight their way out of the store, they always lost. The good old days when actions had consequences. I'm not sure retailers could afford security like that today when they are competing with Amazon.
I was in the local Rite Aid several years ago. I stopped in to grab something on my way to work. (Which meant I was in a bit of a hurry.) So I grabbed what I was there for, which was at the back of the store. Then I headed for the registers, at kind of a brisk walk.
Well, this young guy was rummaging around on one of the shelves on that aisle. He looked so, saw me coming, and BOLTED out of the store. The cashier and I had a good laugh about it.
The fact that they budget for shrinkage means that in a real sense, you aren't stealing from the big faceless corporation like your buddies on r/shoplifting like to say, it means you are stealing from other shoppers.
Redditors will rationalize shitty behavior at all costs
Exactly. The amount stolen might only be 1.2% of sales, but all the loss prevention infrastructure is guaranteed to be expensive as well. You, as the consumer, pay for all of that in higher prices.
The obvious solution is to steal from target but not buy from target.
@@magesalmanac6424 im going to shop at walmart and buy nestle products to undo any virtue signaling you are attempting to do
@@magesalmanac6424 Right, because the only thing to think about is yourself.
The reason shopllifting doesn't affect their bottom line is because they pass the cost onto YOU, the customer.
They also don't pay their employees, electricity bill, taxes, rent, so on and so forth.
They don't pay for anything. Because if the business starts operating at a loss, they RAISE THE PRICES. They (you) even pay people to figure out which stores and which products they can raise prices in withouth affecting how much money they can get from you. And also, which stores it's not worth it to keep open.
YOU pay for crime. There's no free lunch.
So you basically describe every business. The whole point of running a business is to have your customers pay for all expenses plus a percentage to make a profit. Where else would the money come from?
@@DoomFinger511 Exactly. Not everyone has figured out how money and businesses work. Peole legit excuse crime as "the insurance will pay for it", "They're a big business, they can take the loss" withouth realising that EVERYONE pays for crime. There was even a POLICE CHIEF in an american big city shrugging off rising crime rates as "just a fact of iving in city".
The entire world is degenerating into a low trust society because people are too complacent about the cost of crime. I live in Brazil, heed my warning. You WILL NOT WANT to live in a Brazil at a global scale.
@@ThZuao Already in New York many retailers have closed their stores because judges can no longer hold anyone on bail for non-violent misdemeanors. Meaning, even the NYPD knows if they arrest a shoplifter, they will be released hours later so it's not worth their time. As a result, the area not only loses a store to buy products in. but everyone from the local area who was employed there loses their jobs. And there is no such thing as shoplifting insurance, so it always gets passed onto the consumer and occasionally as large fines on the few shoplifters who get caught. Some intelligent small business owners started pricing all items at $1000 so if it was stolen it would be a felony, and would then offer a discount when you paid for it at the register.
Heh during my darker days with drug addiction, it was known among my fellow.......peers....., that Target is off limits for stealing. Would always hear how they have the most advanced and sophisticated surveillance and won't hesitate to throw the book at you. I think they gone the way of Walmart now with waiting until you hit felony $$$ before nabbing you.
When it comes down to it, if your losses due to shoplifting are up to $600,000,000 a year, your budget to prevent shoplifting is also up to $600,000,000 a year
That makes no sense. There is one budget to cover losses, then there is another budget for prevention.
@@DoomFinger511It makes total sense: you can invest as much into loss prevention as the value of the losses it will prevent, without impacting your budget negatively.
@@tookitogoonly if every dollar spent saves a dollar in shinkage, which is a wild assumption to make
@@Chance-ny4bc I think that depends entirely on the situation. Businesses aren’t stupid: if they know that a given investment in loss prevention will more than make up for it, then they’ll do it. If it won’t, or proves not to after the fact, then they’ll stop.
Target's profit margin is only 3.4%. 1.2% lost to shrink is important.
If the average Target location sees an increase of 400$ in theft per day that's their entire profit margin gone, and many locations already operate at a loss to compete with Walmart
A lot of loss prevention specialists actually are accredited police, either off duty cops working part time or licensed security guards with police powers inside the store. It varies by jurisdiction, but some can and will tackle, cuff, and arrest shoplifters and hold them until the local PD arrives.
Most big box stores will not hire off duty police for AP/LP because of the blurred line of a police officer watching a crime. Many police officers will work off duty as security or assist AP.
Actually HAI video editor, as a European, I DO need that label on Minneapolis.
I have no clue where or what that place is
i'm american and idk where it is
It's a city in Minnesota, which is a state right smack in the middle of the border with Canada. Very cold and the state stereotype I've heard is soft spoken. A lot of people of Scandinavian descent, which also influences the accent.
Northern US in the center of the country. A couple hundred kilometers south of the western tip of the Great Lakes. There’s 3 million people in the metro.
Hmmm I've seen Walmart loss prevention tackle a shoplifter from a full run. They waited til he exited the inner door to the foyer then ran and tackled him.
Then Walmart employees were threatening the people recording the struggle on their phones, saying it was illegal to record and they'd be arrested for it.
well, there is a difference on what People allowed to do and what they actually do
Target has a prodit margin of 3.8% . So shrink is 1/3 of the size of the profit margin. Kinda a big deal , this video went hard on down playing it.
i dunno man i think theyre doing fine 🙄🙄🙄
This kinda reminds me of AWS. Amazon had such good digital infrastructure that they said "hey anyone want help managing servers" and now basically half the internet is hosted on AWS.
It's worth noting that the "security can't do anything" concept varies by location. Any person in Canada who witnesses someone committing a crime in relation to property they have an interest in has the lawful authority to use reasonable force to stop the crime, recover the property, effect an arrest, and use reasonable force to defend themselves while doing so.
Wow, that's the sanest thing about Canada I've heard in months. I'm surprised that hasn't been changed.
In Sweden you can do it if jail time is a possible penalty of the crime
Super interesting video, but it’s totally off base to say that theft doesn’t affect Target that much. Shrink might be roughly 1.2% of revenue, but it’s a far larger percentage of Target’s profit. If we take the $600 million figure from this video and Target’s 2022 net earnings from its most recent 10K form ($2.78 billion), that’s 22% of profit robbed every year. We’ll have to wait for this year’s data to see how accurate the shrink estimate is and what Target’s earnings were in 2023, but no matter what we’re talking about a lot more than 1%.
Even that figure understates the harms of shoplifting, because stores in more crime-ridden neighborhoods are much more vulnerable to theft, and when Target has to shut down because they’re not profitable, they leave people in the neighborhood without a place to shop for groceries and basic products. Anacostia, a majority-black neighborhood in DC, is a food desert because grocery stores are routinely targeted by shoplifters and companies can’t afford to stay open.
A lack of property rights and low intelligence are the foundation for poverty.
A fine point, retailers have very small margins, so while sheinkage might only lead to 1.2% loss in revenue, the loss to profits are probably many times higher
3.8% is Target's profit margin last year.
I was gonna say, if their profit margin is 5% of the total, theft would eat up almost a quarter of their profits.
I’m not a target type of person, but this is admirable. What I find most impressive about the whole system is they do it pro bono. Unless you’re a large agency, the budget just isn’t there for more intricate forensic analysis.
I sat on a jury for a case of a passenger in a car being charged with possession of a crack pipe found under his seat. The prosecutor and cop witness tried to make the case that simple proximity meant it belonged to him and not the owner of the car. What threw me is they brought the pipe to the trial, opened the sealed bag and handled it without gloves - but it had never been dusted for fingerprints at all! They hadn't bothered to do the bare minimum to show the suspect had ever touched the pipe. I think we "deliberated" for all of five minutes before telling the judge where the prosecutor could shove his case.
Shrink may be 1.2% of revenue, but it's a way bigger slice of profit. You should have shown that instead.
Imagine wanting people to care about billionaires' ability to get richer being diminished in a mostly insignificant way.
@@photosinensisTarget's publically owned, countless average folk have retirement savings invested in the company.
@@photosinensis I don't so much care about billionaires getting richer. I do, however, care about the fact that the majority of the cost of retail theft, plus the cost of the infrastructure employed to deter it, is borne by customers through artificially increased prices, and employees through artificially suppressed wages. Don't you?
Revenue is a terrible metric for shrink losses as revenue is sales before costs and expenses.
Operating income is a better measure and the $600 million in shrinkage would be 16% of yearly operating income.
Really fascinating to learn about how Target's quest to prevent shoplifting evolved into solving major crimes. Never knew that retail chains had such high-tech forensic capabilities.
I can't believe the police did nothing even when there was clear evidence of theft! It's frustrating to see criminals getting away with it while hardworking employees have to deal with the consequences.
"Dead men buy no candles" may be the best line ever spoken on UA-cam
I suddenly have an urge to go shoplift a Kit Kat. Weird
woop woop thats the sound of the police
Woop woop thats the sound of the police
Be straight, obey the law
@@rennoc6478 I eat drywall
@@lv1543 Fine, I'm just glad this isn't the 1850s, which'd punish me with fines and imprison for harbouring escaped slaves, because you could not exercise compassion for same if you wished to "obey the law".
I feel like I've been challenged to try and steal a candle when I die.
Challenge accepted
“It doesn’t meaningfully hurt them”
I think the last few years has proven that shoplifting can outright bankrupt a business.
These guys are leftists. Very buddy buddy with outspoken socialists. So "corporations bad".
…I’m fairly confident it hasn’t been shoplifting that’s bankrupted businesses these past years. I think you may be forgetting a small global pandemic that f’ed up the worlds economy
Wage theft is about $50,000,000,000 a year
It's awesome that Target went from going overboard for money to doing police work for free-capitalism for the win!
on why so few people report known cases of shop lifting.
i have a friendo who works retail, according to him if he does anything to stop shoplifting or reports the case, he could be fired.
I feel like this might be a contributing factor
Stopping, I understand (even if I don't agree) given the danger. But why the heck would they object to reporting the crime?
@@zirconiumdiamond1416 i think theres a law that protects shop lifters
The report part is related to if he contacted the police. Retail stores want to keep that internal and choose whether to have a public record of shoplifting in order to control reports of their loss/profit margins. Also to prevent any situations where police might investigate and stumble upon something the store did wrong. It has nothing to do with any form of shoplifter protection.
@@DoomFinger511 alright thank you for the further clarity on the specifics of it.
From watching Fishing Garret I have learned you can get those Tokay Geckos by just going to the Florida Everglades and yoinking them off the trees and such. I guess that means you can sell them for super high profits based on your research.
Not sure where he got those prices from they are $100 in most pet shops.
So looked up the article it's the price for smuggling 'pure' (rolls eyes) wild caught Tokay's from their natural range where they are endangered for use in Chinese medicine.
Most of these very expensive lizards are bred for specific colours. These morphs, as they are called, take a lot of time and effort to achieve. It's important to note that unlike special dog breeds, these lizards are still perfectly healthy. They would have little issue surviving in the wild, although some species would lack their natural camouflage. A regular Tokay gecko isn't going to go for much. You can find them in pretty much every shop for under a $100.
0:20 ok HAI... you need to do a video on candles now... and thats your fault.
The vid says losses from theft are 1.2% of Target’s revenue. 1.2% doesn’t sound like a lot because the vid fails to put this in the context that Target’s overall profit margin is only 3%. 1.2% is the average across all stores. In some stores the losses are much higher and are enough to flip a store from being profitable to unprofitable and ultimately closing. This is why we have “food deserts”.
Back in college I worked for Lowe's and we were told about a group of truck unloaders that were stealing large amounts of power tools, they would drop it in gap around the bay door then retrieve it after their shift. Allegedly they got away with $250K before getting caught
At Lowes prices, that means they stole what, three power tools?
I worked at Walmart, and the same exact thing happened with TVs
F Lowe’s… they sold us a $100 gift card that, when redeemed a week later had already been cleared out by an online shopper who had gotten the number and was just waiting on funds to be applied to the card. Lowe’s refused to reimburse me for the loss. When I made a police report, even the cops said Lowe’s doesn’t prosecute shoplifters…with a subtle nod and wink that I should just take matters into my own hands and “redeem” my gift card by “alternative” methods.
I have avoided Lowe’s ever since and spend my money elsewhere.
This was Full·on interesting! I had NO idea they had anything to do with forensics, but it kinda fits because of circumstances. Weird how a group can start in one area, and end up in an entirely different field.
You need to be really strong to do shoplifting... But when you do... I bet the store really hates it... Imagine all the property damage you cause from lifting and using the store for exercise!
Then again, you can help them out afterwards by eating traffic jam... :D
Target having a world class forensics facility is proof that the march towards a dystopian cyberpunk future is possible
I worked security for most of 2010s. Cops asked for our observations and camera footage all the time.
Because the big boxes were filled with clues?
I don't feel like this video accurately states the damage to Target's business that is caused by shoplifting. I don't have a link at hand right now, but I believe there are Targets that have closed in certain high-crime areas simply due to the amount of shoplifting that was going on. As someone else said in the comments, if the revenue figure quoted was net, then the percent of loss to shrinkage could make a significant difference to profit margins.
In the city where I live, there are two Targets relatively close by. The one that is easier to walk to has a large amount of products in locked cases, including baby formula. The one that's part of a strip mall has just regular security guards, except in the pharmacy & cosmetics sections.
I don't think they would inconvenience their customers to that extent if shoplifting wasn't hurting their profits.
Also, regarding baby formula specifically, I think more people steal it to resell than for their own use.
Target has pretty much admitted that they used that as an excuse to shut down stores and that they overstated the impact of crime.
Don't give up Ben & Amy. You'll get Sam someday! 😖
As a former tween who stole kit-kats to "feel alive," i thank you for making me feel both 'seen' and also wholly generic. :)
(technically it was keychains on a mormon youth temple trip not kit-kats but the motivational spirit was the same)
What is maldito it's important to remember that shrink also includes products damaged in shipping as well as products that are generally can't be sold for XYZ reason. It's not just theft
Macy's is facing a multimillion dollar lawsuit, because they farmed out their facial recognition system to another store and incorrectly fingered an innocent man for a robbery, despite the man in question being in another state at the time of the robbery. He was arrested and thrown in jail where he was beaten and raped before being released with no charges.
The most surprising part for me is that they do it for free. I figured they were running a little side hustle to monetize loss prevention.
Doing it pro-bono means they develop a good relationship with the law enforcement in that area, and a good reputation with law enforcement in other places too. That's more valuable than the lost revenue, and is something that's just not the same when you just buy that connection.
You compared the shrinkage to their total sales instead of their total profits which after overhead are very narrow
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation had an episode where they asked help from the forensics lab of a Target-like store, and the CSIs was envious of how the store's equipment are much more state-of-the-art than their own
Next up: TESCO Addiction Awareness "Every Little Helps..."
2:24 Liked the video just for that
Edit: It wasn't just for that joke but I wanted my commnt to sound better. Being honest here.
Fun fact: the unicorn chair at the being of the video is $70 in target!
This guy has the exact same voice as long-haired guy from the Jet Lag series.
There is a kernel of a REALLY good fictional story here.
As a worker at target, finally some good content
Minor point, HAI is confirmed as immortal.
"I CANNOT BE KILLED"
-person who cannot be killed
"Even though it doesn't meaningfully hurt them"
The average Target only makes 100,000$ in profit per year, the parts in this video trying to downplay the harm shoplifting isn't being disingenuous, it's just a straight up lie.
5:19 You would not believe the amount of murder cases and generally bad things that happened in the month of April! I watch a lot of crime shows and more often than not, it happens in April... Which happens to be my birthday month.. 😬
What if the murder weapon is a brick?!?
Now I want an HAI video about candles.
Amy is just cool.
they’re legendary in the tech industry too for their incident response and monitoring capabilities. they’re a wild company.
actually target asset protection often carries handcuffs and self defense spray, etc.
Lol no
Thanks Target. You were already a favorite store, now even higher on my list of good stores to shop.
Many stores are not able to follow you out or physically detain you, but that’s never stopped them.
they really do put a Target on criminals name...
There's a lizard that costs almost $100,000???
That's not even bad. There's some (endangered) tree frogs that hit 7 figures.
Can't wait for the new NCIS-like show based off of Target Investigate Team Services
TITS
Correction: depending on what state you are in, they CAN legally tackle you and detain you for shoplifting. It is covered under "shopkeeper's privilege" laws. They just don't because it isn't considered financially the best idea, as even a frivolous lawsuit with no merit would cost more to defend against than whatever was stolen, and the liability of your employee being injured.
It's been a few years since I worked assets protection for Target, but yes, we stopped small-time shoplifters as well organized shoplifters. We also followed shoplifters out of the store and put them in handcuffs.
That's a great way to keep your forensic scientists busy when work is slow while getting a charitable write-off for tax purposes.
Here in Germany you are allowed to arrest a thief if you catch him in the act of stealing
Hey, if airlines can be banks, and the punishment of violators of government laws can be a source of private income, a department store can have a detective agency investigating major crimes that police ought to be working on (almost like that's what they're PAID to do!).
Guys we ALMOST had our HAI video about the logistics of scentsd candles!!!
Target and other store can absolutely and sometimes will grab your ass the moment you hit the door threshold and hold you for police. Walmart, Frys, Albertsons and other large grocers are notorious for this if the store has actual licensed security and not just a LP associate monitoring cameras. Heck I watched a Best Buy LP associate at the front door dam near body slam a guy to the ground because he was refusing to empty stolen the items in his pockets and pushed the LP associate.
Here's an idea. Why don't Target make a protocol with local LE agencies nationwide where they give pro Bono forensics services in exchange for police officers being stationed at Target stores? That would like make loss prevention much more effective while also making police much more effective at getting convictions for more serious crimes.