Target, the ubiquitous chain store known for selling everything from coffee machines, toothpaste, and big screen TVs, said last week that it will lose about $1.3 billion from its bottom line this year thanks to “theft and organized retail crime.”

The company released its first-quarter earnings report and said its “inventory shrink” will exceed last year’s $800 million by another $500 million. The company noted that “organized retail crime” is an important driver of the issue and it is making “significant investments in strategies to prevent this from happening in our stores.”

Local news broadcasts routinely see shoplifters make their way out of these massive stores with a shopping cart filled with unpaid-for items. One worker at a Target in downtown San Francisco told The San Francisco Standard that the store is robbed—at least—10 times a day.

Cities across the U.S. are grappling with how to respond to the increase in shoplifting. (See “AS FORECAST: COVID WAR WOULD SPIKE CRIME” 22 Nov 2022, “CRIME WAVE AMERICA: HELL’S A POPPIN” 20 Sep 2022, and “NEW YORK, NEW YORK. IT’S CRIME TIME” 22 Nov 2022.)

Eric Adams, the New York City mayor, announced last week that the city will begin to keep a list of its biggest offenders called the Precision Repeat Offender Program. The city saw a 77 percent jump in retail theft over the past five years, The New York Post reported.

TRENDPOST: Gerald Celente has long said: When people lose everything, they lose it … and especially in areas where prosecutors encourage the problem by being deliberately soft on crime.

It’s simple: COVID-19 lockdowns destroyed livelihoods and the spirit of an untold number of Americans who are fighting for survival.

Consumer debt in the U.S. surged past $17 trillion for the first time ever last week and 61 of Americans say recent price increases have caused financial hardship for their household, according to a new Gallup survey. The survey noted that the reading is a six-percent increase from November 2022 and the highest ever recorded. 

The Retail Industry Leaders Association reported that there was about $69.9 billion in products swiped from stores in the U.S. in 2019. That number surged after non-essential stores began to reopen. The National Retail Federation says losses from theft accounted for more than $94 billion in losses last year.

We reported last year that stores are beginning to lock up their merchandise to prevent theft. (See “MAJOR STORES LOCK MERCHANDISE AS THEFTS SKYROCKET, FURTHER CEMENTING OUR FORECAST,” 4 Oct 2022.) 

We forecast that there will be more vigilantism because of the lack of prosecution in these cases. 

Last week, the San Francisco district attorney did not bring charges against a Walgreens security guard who fatally shot a 24-year-old transgender man accused of shoplifting. Another employee inside a Chicago Target was stabbed this month when attempting to stop a shoplifter. 

“As demonstrated by this unfortunate incident, retail crime is an urgent issue that is increasingly impacting the team and guests at Target and other retailers,” the company said.

And the problem is worldwide. As we had forecast, thanks to the draconian COVID War measures imposed on populations by politicians, a bad situation has become much worse.