That quick Target run isn’t as speedy as it used to be with everything from deodorant to boxer briefs under lock and key at a growing number of stores as retailers take a more forceful approach to stymie shoplifting.
In many ways, the lockdown — including wheel-locking carts if shoppers venture too far from the store — has worked. Minneapolis-based Target and several other retail chains this summer have shrunk their rate of shrink, the industry term for physical product losses. But keeping rows of products behind plexiglass, among other theft deterrents, could eventually drive shoppers out of stores or leave them feeling alienated, loss prevention experts say.
“They’ve locked up a lot,” said Joey Mueller, 31, about his local Target store in northeast Minneapolis. “It’s toothpaste, deodorant, laundry detergent. … Out of principle, if it’s locked up, I don’t buy it.”
For more than two years, companies such as Target and CVS have suffered from an increase in retail losses. Target reported its shrink costs grew more than $500 million last year compared to 2022. In October, the retailer controversially closed nine stores across the country because of theft.
But Target reported in its most recent quarterly report in August that it expects its shrink costs to be about even with last year. Walmart and Home Depot have also reported improved shrink numbers this year as compared to 2023.
Michael Fiddelke, serving as both chief operating and chief financial officer at Target, credited the retailer’s partnership with federal, state and local agencies as well as some of the in-store tools to protect often-stolen merchandise as reasons for the improved numbers.
“For certain, some of the tactics that we deploy within the store are paying off as well,” he said in a call with media. “But it’s going to take all of that work to continue to make the progress that we expect and hope for over the quarters and years to come.”
Customers, though, might not consider such disruptions to their errand runs the same way.