Target closing 3 Portland stores, citing theft and organized retail crime
Target closing 3 Portland stores, citing theft and organized retail crime
Three Target stores will be closing in Portland due to an increase in crime.
Stores in question:
Portland Galleria: 939 SW Morrison St.
Portland Powell: 3031 SE Powell Blvd.
Portland Hollywood: 4030 NE Halsey St.
So Galleria, the one by the Hollywood MAX stop, aaand... 30th and Powell? No idea there was even one there...
Fox News snooze. Making the poor "scary", nothing new here.
Anecdotally, I have seen people calmly and slowly walk out of Target with a full shopping cart of unpaid stuff, on more than one occasion- right past security guards and minders, who do little more than ask “don’t you think you should pay for that?” in an annoyed tone.
I’m not sure what they could have done better but one assumes something. I can’t understate how little the security staff seemed to care about blatant shoplifting. Not a huge surprise they’re closing given that.
Saw this twice at the Galeria one downtown and once at the one over by PDX.
Security is told explicitly not to engage because Target is afraid of lawsuits.
It seems the Portland police are either stretched too thin and need more resources, or they are too lazy to be bothered, or the distribution of police resources is not very efficient. I don't know which it is but I definitely think there's something wrong if theft is not being seriously prosecuted. It's pretty easy to catch thieves–even a security camera and a number plate lookup will catch a large portion of the laziest shoplifters.
Of course, the underlying social issues that cause people to shoplift ought to be looked into as well. But there's nothing more I can say about that because I'm not well-informed enough to comment.
@sparky @jordanlund Nah, their stores are lacking customers and they are blaming crime just like Wal-Mart did.
This is really unfortunate for people living downtown. Target is one of the few retailers of its type in the downtown area. Less so for the Hollywood location, but that's a prime location right next to the Hollywood Transit Center.