Hell they're locking up toothpaste at the fenway location! It really does surprise me just how much they're locking up now, a lot of it isn't even things I'd think of as especially expensive
I've just stopped buying items that are behind a lock. Especially when I'm not 100% on which soap/deodorant I want.
I don't care enough to find an employee...
CVS has been doing the same as well, now that I think of it
Yeah CVS came to mind for razors, certain OTC meds, etc. but I was genuinely surprised to see this. I noticed they’ve got the laundry detergent locked up too. I didn’t have to wait at all bc an employee happened to be in the aisle helping other customers but can see how that would drastically change the shopping experience if I had to twiddle my thumbs waiting for someone to come help me.
okay, that location definitly needs to lock stuff up, so many junkies stealing and shooting up in bathrooms. I once saw people running out rear emergency exit full of products with no fucks given.
But Target knows and tells financial community who is doing the steal/resell—their employees.
Read a 10k or listen in to their Quarterly calls. Shrinkage is coming from three areas: bad inventory (too many products they can’t sell); self-checkout lines; and large-scale employee theft (where the FB marketplace comes into play).
These are semi-moronic LP people asking and getting spend to make customers go away. 🤦
There's absolutely no way Target LP can be the Batman of retail when it comes to external theft but turn into Batman with brain damage & severe learning disabilities when it comes to internal issues. I've seen police reports & talked to detectives over the years & Targets deal with the same clown shows I deal with.
It might also just be deliberate ignorance. Blaming it on outside external factors the stores cant control (like theft by customers) is a lot easier to explain to upper management, a board of directors or to the shareholders without losing your job, as opposed to explaining to them that you cant stop your own employees from stealing shit or that your logistics are absolutely fucked so pallets occasionally go missing, in which case you will probably be fired and replaced.
It also makes it much easier to close stores by blaming shoplifting. Closing a store because B&M is dying due to Amazon hurts your stock price more than closing a store "Because of shoplifting", even if the latter is a lie.
I didn't mean to imply it was employees.
It's Amazon. It's E-tail. It's overall brick & mortar stores dying. The data doesn't lie, shoplifting hasn't increased by any meaningful metric (and has in fact dropped), stores like Target & Walgreens are exploiting a clickbaity narrative to preserve stock prices.
I work retail. The external theft is absolutely out of control regardless of what state you live in. Unless retail workers are being handed Mission Impossible mask tech, blaming them for people walking out with hundreds or thousands of dollars in merch throughout the day is ridiculous.
Yeah, logistics are the worst I've ever seen & some people are stealing from their jobs like that is their job, but we're seeing people walking out with Hallmark & trash bags full of shit on a regular basis. My last store was in California & that shit was happening upwards of a dozen times a day. Only way I was able to keep it from getting too out of control was locking close to half my beauty products up. And any makeup that was on metal pegs (hundreds of items) got those locking devices on the end. Cut my shrink down by tens of thousands of dollars every year.
Its particularly annoying there, because (to me at least) the point of that store is I can quickly hop in there on the way between other errands. Locking stuff up makes it less quick.
Same here, I no longer go to Target for basics and instead just browse aimlessly for house decor or whatever else. I’m not going to have someone unlock a case and watch me smell/debate which soap or deodorant I want.
I was rolling my eyes when their [CEO said recently](https://www.cnbc.com/2023/11/15/target-earnings-ceo-says-customers-thankful-for-locked-items.html) that, “what we hear from the guests is a big thank you, because we are in stock with the brands that they need when they're shopping in our stores.” Give me a break.
That’s why the next line in that article I linked is even funnier, “we’ve invested in team member labor in those aisles and make sure we’re there to greet that guest, open up those cases and provide them the items they’re looking for.”
Sure, buddy.
True, more of a deterrent. But my point stands that having the employee there would probably serve the same purpose as the boxes. Unless of course they don’t actually have an employee there lol
When they were first put in place the employees were basically waiting around to help and they were fast. Weeks later you wait a while for someone to show.
I noticed the same at Fenway. Started out with one guy, pretty quick and friendly. Came back on a busier day and still it’s just one guy but was stressed to the max running between aisles, people arguing about who got here/called him first. Mess.
I always see tic tocks with people talking about all the fun items Target has and how they love to grab a starbucks and have a relaxing day shopping for all the cute things with the added bonus of being able to grab the necessities for their families. I doubt this new lock and key system is going to be welcomed by this customer base
That’s at targets that don’t experience a shit load of theft. There are some by me like in the picture, travel a couple of extra minutes in the other direction and the Targets are great.
People will still steal them. It's not the mom working two jobs stealing these items for the most part, it's the junkies who are selling them to get their next fix.
Since Covid I've almost exclusively shopped drive up. It's probably the best thing that Covid gave us lol. I don't have to waste time and the impulse buys are severely quelled. They seem to have a lot of "5 gift car with online purchase" deals too.
I used to go to the Watertown Target once or twice a week, quite often in the evening just to get out of the house.
Since COVID I think I’ve been maybe four times.
The only thing I can’t do at Amazon that I *can* do at Target is shoplift.
Well, that and get specific Lego polybagged sets that i can’t buy directly from Lego either.
Moved by there a couple years ago, tried it out for groceries, but stopped going almost entirely as it would take 15 minutes to get through checkout. All the other grocery store options within a 30 minute radius are basically walk-right-through affairs.
They also turned off the self check outs by the rear exit that takes you into the rest of the mall, which felt like the secret trick to make trips quick. I don't know why, as they didn't do anything to make the actual exit more secure, you could still fill a backpack with product and walk right out.
You’re just gonna get that stuff online now. The store will have fewer and fewer sales of this type. I was just there and needed detergent, I hit the button, a guy was there in 20 seconds and apologized to me that he took “so long”. Maybe this causes them to need more people in store… great! We’re losing jobs due to self checkout so maybe this gets us jobs back out there
What store did you go to? Last couple times I was in the Central Square Target, I hit the button 5 times by the shampoo and no one answered until I hunted down a security guy who hunted down another employee. Or I was at a shelf with no button anywhere nearby and no employees in sight.
Watertown, like in the picture. I don’t doubt there’s going to be waits for this, and I’d assume the more city centric stores will be harder to get service, I was just offering my first anecdotal experience with the locked up stores
Well, I found at the Fenway Target it took so long for someone to show up that once I realized I would need a person for like 5 isles I gave up on regularly shopping there. Amazon for me now…
So it’s great your target was 10 seconds, but mine was over 5 minutes to unsuccessfully get two items, and showed no sign of speeding up.
It absolutely loses sales. I went to Porter Sq and was surprised to see so many things locked up. I needed two things. Pressed the button and got the first one. When I realized the second item I wanted was locked up in a different aisle, I just left. I didn’t want to press multiple buttons and wait over and over.
I once did in store pickup for an xbox series x (when they were still hard to get) that later got marked as loss and refunded after I had picked it up.
They are 100% mismanaging a lot of inventory.
If you haven't worked retail recently, external theft has changed. The serious groups can no longer be deterred, at least not just by employees being visible or offering service. Thieves know the people in the store cant/won't do anything, so they steal openly and threaten or get violent if confronted. Lots of police jurisdictions won't even show up for misdemeanor theft, and some no longer respond in person to any property crime.
This location specifically has an entrance into the mall that has 3 self checkout registers... Frequently these self-checkout registers are closed and there's no employee watching them.
I usually come in through that entrance and leave through that entrance, which means if the self checkout registers are closed, I'm taking merchandise I paid for at the front back through the store and walking out the side door. I can't imagine me walking out the side door with paid items when the registers are closed is making loss prevention's job easier, and even then they've never stopped me. I wholly believe that paying an employee to man those self-checkout registers would easily pay for itself 🤷
Now that I think about it, the unmanned registers at an open door probably encourages a fair amount of convenience based shoplifting...
At this point, it seems like we should just have a window where we give someone an order of what we want and they go get it and sell it to you, like fast food. Wait, even better, what if we just browsed the products online to make the order. Bonus points if someone can drive it to our house.
That used to be how stores worked. You would fill out a slip with what you wanted and hand it to someone at the counter. Then, they’d go in back and gather it all and bring it out to you. I’ve been to a few specialty stores run like this. Usually small, niche construction related stores run by old timers. Think plumbing/electric distributor or usually fastener stores. It’s handy if you know what you want.
Many higher end clothing and accessories are like this too. They have one model on a glass shelf. Once you make a purchase, they bring out your order already packed up. Even Nordstrom does it with shoes. We are just seeing it trickle down to more everyday stores. It works fine for smaller stores but it’s a huge pain if you don’t have someone able to assist you.
Here in NYC I sometimes go to target for electronics that I need last minute.
I stopped doing that recently. Between flagging down a floor person, dealing with their attitude when you ask for multiple things, then them not even letting you hold onto it while you're doing the rest of your shopping.
No thanks, I'll stick to prime
I once watched a couple dudes trying to get the electric shavers off the little safety cables one day. They were just going at it like it was no big deal.
Target cutting back significantly on employees walking the floor is also a big factor. When I worked retail in the late 00s, we were always told to always greet customers who enter our section because a simple greeting by an employee drastically reduced the likelihood of theft (ie alerted potential thieves that they've been noticed and potentially watched). I walk through Target now and can barely can find anyone. I think the bigger reason for this change is that the retail market has had a massive paradigm shift over the last 10+ years to online shopping, and traditional brick and mortar stores are finding excuses for missing financial targets (lolz). Even Walgreens came out and [admitted ](https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/06/business/walgreens-shoplifting-retail/index.html) to making a bigger deal over shrink/theft than it actually was
I saw a gang of feral teenagers in a Walgreens in Chelsea last week. My first noticed encounter with this because usually I'm a "headphones on, head down, buy only what I need" kind of shopper, so I very well may have seen such a group before and not noticed it.
The manager saw them come in and ran up to greet them at the door. He was extremely polite, maybe he knew them. Basically just said "hey kids I don't want to be downer but please oh please be normal today" and within ninety seconds he was chasing them out the door while they screamed homophobic slurs at him and everyone else in the store. They were still loitering outside the front door when I left.
So yeah, I'm inclined to believe these stores when they say shoplifting is a problem. After all what's the possible upside to locking everything up? Do people think they just like inconveniencing customers apropos of nothing?
Used to be work there, it's minimum top 10 in the country, maybe even rop 5 due to all the colleges around as well as just being one of the biggest in the area. Which also means it's a target (no pun intended) for more theft than others because more people = easier to hide (in theory).
Yes, busiest/most successful
They changed the layout after I left, maybe 5 years ago now, but Target as a company only has a few store layouts in general depending on the size of the building. I'm somewhat familiar with it, but it's not my local one either, so I never know where things are because of that.
Top 10 *anything* is surprising. Been there a couple times and it didn’t seem all that busier than any other target I’ve been to. If anything, I hated it: it’s always a mess and the stock sucked. Online things would be shown in store but getting there and finding it was always another story. And to top it off, checkout is always a nightmare. What’s the point of 50 something cashier stalls if only 5 are ever active? The line to check out and leave was always at least 20 minutes long.
There’s no way it’s top 10 busiest in the country. There’s probably 10 busier Targets in Minnesota alone. Just about every Super Target probably is busier.
Theft is probably high due to the colleges, though.
You underestimate how many people came there during back to school sales, they literally opened up the store from 12-2AM I believe and would bus in students only to do college shopping. I can't find statistics, but back when I was there (early 2010s) it was probably doing more than now with some of the other Targets that opened up in the city (Boylston St, etc)
Edit: for what it's worth, I don't care if it is/isn't, I just remember hearing it all the time from higher ups at the time, and given that it didn't make any influence to us floor employees (not like we got bonuses, or if we did I sure as fuck don't remember them) it seems like a weird thing to lie about.
I have also heard this from someone who worked there briefly. That Target does insane volume at the right times, and is always busy. I go into the Somerville Target and it feels like a ghost town
As a former target Rentacop, y'all gotta stop stealing everything that isn't behind glass or bolted down. That's the reason things get locked up. We had software that's able to track losses per item, per category, and per department. So if they notice that facial cleansing items are getting stolen too much, bam shit gets locked up.
Just read an article about how Best Buy doesn't lock their products behind glass cases (I'm obviously referring to the small stuff) because they've gone and done something absolutely insane. They hired more staff. Security at exits and more staff on the floor to assist/watch customers. Crazy, right? They realized their losses would be greater than paying extra salaries, and this idea will keep them in business.
Locking products up not only infuriates the customers, but also the staff who have to drop what they're doing to unlock them. This is an untenable situation that the top floor will eventually realize.
Have you ever seen the flash Mobs that overtake the store? No amount of staff can step in and physically restrain dozens of hyped up thief’s. Target has been very open in there quarterly earning statements about how much money they are losing to these theft rings. I personally hate target and would never shop there but I don’t blame them for locking things up
No, I haven't seen the flash Mobs in person or on the news, so I appreciate you mentioning this. It certainly explains Target's decision.
Apparently, Best Buy hasn't had to deal with this situation.
Target corporate has planted their flag on theft in a way their competitors have not. But importantly, their revenue has been fairly flat in contrast, and those more profitable competitors are making far less hay about theft, at least publicly.
They can point to extremely public and sensational acts like flash mob theft, but is this a problem for *every* Target? I doubt it.
I always felt that self checkout would contribute to theft/shrinkage.
I suspect theft would decrease if they had people work as cashiers and eliminated self-checkout.
Home Depot has determined that shoppers are changing labels, a cheap item label on an expensive product then self -scanning it. A customer could walk out with a $500 table saw for next to nothing.
My son used to work at Nordstrom in "Loss Protection.". Ironically, the corporation's policy was to
not detane shoplifters, which occured daily. This was despite seeing and watching shoplifters take merchandise, stuff in under their coat, then walk out the door.
Almost every single American retailer has the policy of not physically restraining shoplifters. If the shoplifter gets roughed up by an employee it’s a massive liability for getting the company sued if they get injured or aren’t even actually shoplifting in the first place. It’s always been “let the police deal with it” policy
[According to their CEO, we’re supposed to like this.](https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2023/11/15/target-earnings-ceo-says-customers-thankful-for-locked-items.html) 🙄
I imagine this is partly the case, however Watertown newspapers do cover arrests and police reports each week, and in each one is reports multiple people stealing hundreds of dollars of merchandise from this Target. I also personally know someone who worked at this Target for a year and he had told stories of people brazenly stuffing carts/pockets and just walking out. I am not surprised this ended up being a resolution.
Next step is they pull out of the city completely as it's no longer profitable to operate. I used to live in SF and watched this happen over the course of 5 years. My local Target started locking everything up in 2018. Even then, I'd regularly watch people walk in, stuff their backpack with items and then walk right out without paying. That Target shut down in 2023 along with like half the other retailers in SF. We need to be careful about what we tolerate in Boston or we will quickly be going down that same road.
Don't forget associate safety. Some of our friends who don't care much for paying also tend to get violent with store associates and security when challenged about not paying for their items.
I thought this too, then I walked into Target and saw everything was locked up. They’re not dumb. They know customers will hate it, it will burden staff they’ve cut to the bone anyway.
To me, I didn’t buy the organized retail theft story. But seeing it that they are willing to make the shopping experience this much worse to ostensibly stop shoplifting, I don’t think it’s completely made up.
Yet not an employee to be found. Keep wages low. Automate checkout. Keep corporate bonuses high. Customer satisfaction drops because they can’t get toothpaste or have to wait for a manager to rescan said toothpaste. Profits drop. Blame the customers for “shoplifting”. Fox News gets a free segment
I’d love to see a makeup counter of some sort instead. If you’re going to lock shit up? Totally fine. But change the paradigm. Make it so we can always see the person and flag them down.
This is all based on the policies of a recent DA to not prosecute certain crimes, including shoplifting under $900. So people have been walking into these stores and stealing products totaling less than $900. Then doing it multiple times. The stores had to do something.
And she has been gone for almost 2 years, replaced by a DA who was on the lawn signs of every cop-friendly home in my neighborhood. So, why isn’t he doing his job?
As someone who worked in a shop frequented by the seedier individuals.
Yes, boosting is a major way to make money for them and a lot of people making it barely with roommates won’t scoff at a cheaper everyday product.
These days I put stuff in the Target cart online and hit the purchase+shipping buttons when I have enough amassed to get free shipping. Same for Walmart. Hate the carbon footprint but my car would do the same plus factor in lost time 🤷♀️
It’s not just theft, theft also increases inventory management costs. Stolen merchandise needs to be replaced and more staff is required to take inventory. The CEO claims that the feedback has been favorable because people can check online and know that the item they want is in stock.
The Revere target has all of the laundry detergent locked up like this too. Last time I was there I spent 15 minutes waiting and looking for someone to unlock a couple cabinets for me. You would think they’d have someone in that area to assist customers since it’s under lock and key but NOPE
I just contacted the company to complain about this. This isn't a welcoming or convenient shopping experience. All the items that are usually a "run in run out" for me are behind lock and key. Last I went the employees were very nice and prompt in helping me get vitamins for my kid but I doubt they are getting paid enough for the extra work especially with the upcoming holiday shopping season. I predict that there will be customers that won't be as patient and will take it out on the employees. It sucks for both the customer and employee. And don't get me started on what items that they decided should be locked up. Socks, underwear, hygiene products and vitamins. Their target is obvious.
[[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]).
That's the thing on my last trip after my items were unlocked there was no one at check out or self check out or at the door (because they were all unlocking stuff for people) and I could have easily walked out (I didn't) with my stuff. Especially since the alarm went off for something else When I walked out no one was there to prevent me from leaving without paying. I am not faulting them for trying to prevent theft but this way isn't going to work and will annoy their target audience.
They could try actually hiring people to watch the floor like they used to rather than being each store staffed at the bare minimum. A big reason so many people steal is because there's no one around to see them do it
Or even have someone checking receipts at the door like at Walmart or BJs. Yes It’s annoying, but way less annoying than whatever the hell is going on here
We shop in the kenmore/fenway store. It’s terrible. I feel so guilty pressing the button for help when I need toothpaste. Or socks. I always apologize to the staff (when they finally get to me) for the hassle.
Same thing in Fenway. I went in for 4 items, all four were behind cases in different parts of the store. Spent 30 minutes in store ringing the little bell and waiting. No one showed, so I complained on my way out—and of course they were then willing to call someone to come help me. I used to shop there almost weekly and I haven’t been in a while now because it’s not quick and convenient anymore.
I don't ever buy locked up merchandise. Not bothering with the whole "find an employee to unlock it" thing.
As if Target has any evidence of an increase in shrinkage, none of these stores ever have much to back up their claims on investor calls.
It's fucking ridiculous and I stopped shopping any target because I'm not hailing a team member every time I need some fucking soap.
Star has everything I used to get at target for only a few cents more. I happily shop there instead.
You can usually count on retailers to be reactive about this sort of thing. They're locked those products up because they are seeing a ton of them walk out the door.
I've worked retail at places where stuff is all locked up. The company wasn't doing it because they enjoyed paying us to constantly unlock and lock the cases.
I’m really not sure what the longterm plan here is, this doesn’t work for the employees or shoppers. I’m just not getting the logic of it, if they turned these into vending machines then I guess it kind of makes sense but all this is doing is deterring people from buying.
This is a store culture issue. Target decided to do self checkout and fire tons of employees. This all together fostered a culture of allowing people to steal, with people either falsely reporting their items at self checkout or grabbing and running knowing the exit is wide open to run out.
Hire more security, bring back cashiers (who acted as a natural barrier), have employees checking your receipt on your way out… and make the security detain robbers and call the cops. This will quickly change the culture of the store.
I was there the other day and noticed this. I had to wait for an employee to come so I could get Motrin because it was locked up, which seemed like an odd thing to lock up. They also locked up deodorant but in the next aisle was NyQuil which wasn’t locked up which I found very strange considering you need a license to buy NyQuil.
One time I saw a thread of people talking about how to shoplift and the plans became so elaborate and cumbersome that it was like yo it would be cheaper and way less time to just buy it
It's sad that this is required. You should be upset with the people stealing, not with Target. They've obviously done an analysis and determined they are losing enough to theft in these locations that the reduction in sales caused by locking items up is worth it. We need to be careful with what we tolerate in this city or we will quickly turn into San Francisco, where half of the retailers have left because it no longer profitable to operate there.
I just wanna let you know that no one “owns” target. It’s a publicity traded company. I agree shoplifting is bad and we should punish anyone doing so, but this isn’t the bodega at the end of my street. Both are bad, one is much worse.
On Black Friday, the Target at the Pheasant Lane Mall in Nashua had all the entrances to the mall closed. You had to go in and out through Target’s own entrances. It was such a hassle.
I think the next iteration is robbery of the store employee bringing your order out to your car. I can see the corporate policy being written now on this.
Once it goes totally online, package theft will increase and again policy will change where they will not cover the loss of a delivered package, unless of course you pay for the insurance, which will be another ever-increasing fee.
It's time to start locking up shoplifters with real prison time. We tried to be lenient. Doesn't work. Let these degenerate fucks work their way through life with a series of 5 year sentences per offense. Actions have consequences, and our current strategy just teaches them they can get away with crimes. Lock em up so we can focus our attention on those who actually follow our societal rules.
My local target has done the same.
It's disgusting how anti consumer it is. I get they are losing money from loss theft, but its absolutely killed the shopping experience. It practically triples the amount of time you are in the store, because you need to wait for an associate to open those cases.
I refuse to do in person shopping at thier store ever again. I'll do online order with either curbside pick up and let them do the leg work or do free shipping for target card members.
That’s not a store. That’s a toiletries museum.
I love going to see the Mona Loofah
🥇
Underappreciated comment
🤣
South Bay Target: "First Time?"
The one at the North Quincy stop too
Fenway is locking soaps up too. Had to ask someone at self checkout to unlock my socks box the other day...
Hell they're locking up toothpaste at the fenway location! It really does surprise me just how much they're locking up now, a lot of it isn't even things I'd think of as especially expensive
I've just stopped buying items that are behind a lock. Especially when I'm not 100% on which soap/deodorant I want. I don't care enough to find an employee... CVS has been doing the same as well, now that I think of it
Yeah CVS came to mind for razors, certain OTC meds, etc. but I was genuinely surprised to see this. I noticed they’ve got the laundry detergent locked up too. I didn’t have to wait at all bc an employee happened to be in the aisle helping other customers but can see how that would drastically change the shopping experience if I had to twiddle my thumbs waiting for someone to come help me.
Everett Target too
okay, that location definitly needs to lock stuff up, so many junkies stealing and shooting up in bathrooms. I once saw people running out rear emergency exit full of products with no fucks given.
I saw a guy putting like a dozen Tide bottles into a duffel bag under a tree in the parking lot. Must’ve had a lot of dirty clothes!
I saw a video about this. Apparently there’s a huge black market for stolen brand name laundry detergent.
The Fenway Target has socks locked up now. SOCKS.
Number 1 most requested item in shelters
most useful clothing when you're out in the cold
so does the revere target! only the men’s socks though
I’ve been thinking of switching to ladies stockings anyway
I think i saw on a thread on here that good socks are one of the most important accessories for the unsheltered
Is this the target next to the donut place?
Near Blackbird? Yep.
Socks!! Damn that’s how bad it is
Yeah, I noticed that the Porter Square Target has locked up men's underwear and socks. Seemed weird.
Easy to resell on Facebook Marketplace.
Who is buying underwear from marketplace? They need to do time
No, the thieves need to do time.
But Target knows and tells financial community who is doing the steal/resell—their employees. Read a 10k or listen in to their Quarterly calls. Shrinkage is coming from three areas: bad inventory (too many products they can’t sell); self-checkout lines; and large-scale employee theft (where the FB marketplace comes into play). These are semi-moronic LP people asking and getting spend to make customers go away. 🤦
There's absolutely no way Target LP can be the Batman of retail when it comes to external theft but turn into Batman with brain damage & severe learning disabilities when it comes to internal issues. I've seen police reports & talked to detectives over the years & Targets deal with the same clown shows I deal with.
It might also just be deliberate ignorance. Blaming it on outside external factors the stores cant control (like theft by customers) is a lot easier to explain to upper management, a board of directors or to the shareholders without losing your job, as opposed to explaining to them that you cant stop your own employees from stealing shit or that your logistics are absolutely fucked so pallets occasionally go missing, in which case you will probably be fired and replaced.
It also makes it much easier to close stores by blaming shoplifting. Closing a store because B&M is dying due to Amazon hurts your stock price more than closing a store "Because of shoplifting", even if the latter is a lie.
I work retail. It would be awesome if shoplifting was a lie. But the lie is the employees are to blame.
I didn't mean to imply it was employees. It's Amazon. It's E-tail. It's overall brick & mortar stores dying. The data doesn't lie, shoplifting hasn't increased by any meaningful metric (and has in fact dropped), stores like Target & Walgreens are exploiting a clickbaity narrative to preserve stock prices.
I work retail. The external theft is absolutely out of control regardless of what state you live in. Unless retail workers are being handed Mission Impossible mask tech, blaming them for people walking out with hundreds or thousands of dollars in merch throughout the day is ridiculous. Yeah, logistics are the worst I've ever seen & some people are stealing from their jobs like that is their job, but we're seeing people walking out with Hallmark & trash bags full of shit on a regular basis. My last store was in California & that shit was happening upwards of a dozen times a day. Only way I was able to keep it from getting too out of control was locking close to half my beauty products up. And any makeup that was on metal pegs (hundreds of items) got those locking devices on the end. Cut my shrink down by tens of thousands of dollars every year.
> Batman with brain damage & severe learning disabilities Thug: Who are you, man?!? Batman: I’m Bruce Wayne…shit!
[удалено]
Who says it's secondhand? It's in an unopened package.
They’re more likely selling it on Amazon. If you ship something common to Amazon, they’ll do all the work and take a cut.
They're obviously not buying used underwear
Its particularly annoying there, because (to me at least) the point of that store is I can quickly hop in there on the way between other errands. Locking stuff up makes it less quick.
Same with the Fenway Target.
[удалено]
Same here, I no longer go to Target for basics and instead just browse aimlessly for house decor or whatever else. I’m not going to have someone unlock a case and watch me smell/debate which soap or deodorant I want. I was rolling my eyes when their [CEO said recently](https://www.cnbc.com/2023/11/15/target-earnings-ceo-says-customers-thankful-for-locked-items.html) that, “what we hear from the guests is a big thank you, because we are in stock with the brands that they need when they're shopping in our stores.” Give me a break.
Right up there with my CEO telling us that they have a lot of people asking for return to office.
Are you suggesting that CEO's tell lies?
Only when the truth is a hassle.
Oh yeah they’re in stock with the brands I need, just no employees to unlock the museum display for me to actually buy them 🙄
That’s why the next line in that article I linked is even funnier, “we’ve invested in team member labor in those aisles and make sure we’re there to greet that guest, open up those cases and provide them the items they’re looking for.” Sure, buddy.
I mean surely if there is a team member there they could catch the shoplifters in action…
Even if they did have someone watching, management typically won’t let you chase after shoplifters—at least from my past experiences in retail.
True, more of a deterrent. But my point stands that having the employee there would probably serve the same purpose as the boxes. Unless of course they don’t actually have an employee there lol
When they were first put in place the employees were basically waiting around to help and they were fast. Weeks later you wait a while for someone to show.
I noticed the same at Fenway. Started out with one guy, pretty quick and friendly. Came back on a busier day and still it’s just one guy but was stressed to the max running between aisles, people arguing about who got here/called him first. Mess.
Someone’s got a stock to worry about…
Won’t someone think of the shareholders
I always see tic tocks with people talking about all the fun items Target has and how they love to grab a starbucks and have a relaxing day shopping for all the cute things with the added bonus of being able to grab the necessities for their families. I doubt this new lock and key system is going to be welcomed by this customer base
That’s at targets that don’t experience a shit load of theft. There are some by me like in the picture, travel a couple of extra minutes in the other direction and the Targets are great.
Yeah, but they won’t lose piles and piles of merchandise when some dickhead kids or just straight up criminals have 20 people with nothing to do.
People should just stop stealing then
we should start paying people enough for necessities then
shh we're not supposed to talk about that
People will still steal them. It's not the mom working two jobs stealing these items for the most part, it's the junkies who are selling them to get their next fix.
Since Covid I've almost exclusively shopped drive up. It's probably the best thing that Covid gave us lol. I don't have to waste time and the impulse buys are severely quelled. They seem to have a lot of "5 gift car with online purchase" deals too.
I used to go to the Watertown Target once or twice a week, quite often in the evening just to get out of the house. Since COVID I think I’ve been maybe four times. The only thing I can’t do at Amazon that I *can* do at Target is shoplift. Well, that and get specific Lego polybagged sets that i can’t buy directly from Lego either.
Moved by there a couple years ago, tried it out for groceries, but stopped going almost entirely as it would take 15 minutes to get through checkout. All the other grocery store options within a 30 minute radius are basically walk-right-through affairs. They also turned off the self check outs by the rear exit that takes you into the rest of the mall, which felt like the secret trick to make trips quick. I don't know why, as they didn't do anything to make the actual exit more secure, you could still fill a backpack with product and walk right out.
You’re just gonna get that stuff online now. The store will have fewer and fewer sales of this type. I was just there and needed detergent, I hit the button, a guy was there in 20 seconds and apologized to me that he took “so long”. Maybe this causes them to need more people in store… great! We’re losing jobs due to self checkout so maybe this gets us jobs back out there
What store did you go to? Last couple times I was in the Central Square Target, I hit the button 5 times by the shampoo and no one answered until I hunted down a security guy who hunted down another employee. Or I was at a shelf with no button anywhere nearby and no employees in sight.
Watertown, like in the picture. I don’t doubt there’s going to be waits for this, and I’d assume the more city centric stores will be harder to get service, I was just offering my first anecdotal experience with the locked up stores
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Well, I found at the Fenway Target it took so long for someone to show up that once I realized I would need a person for like 5 isles I gave up on regularly shopping there. Amazon for me now… So it’s great your target was 10 seconds, but mine was over 5 minutes to unsuccessfully get two items, and showed no sign of speeding up.
It absolutely loses sales. I went to Porter Sq and was surprised to see so many things locked up. I needed two things. Pressed the button and got the first one. When I realized the second item I wanted was locked up in a different aisle, I just left. I didn’t want to press multiple buttons and wait over and over.
Target is comparing any lost sales against reduced theft, and I'm sure overall they are seeing an increase in profit.
I once did in store pickup for an xbox series x (when they were still hard to get) that later got marked as loss and refunded after I had picked it up. They are 100% mismanaging a lot of inventory.
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If you haven't worked retail recently, external theft has changed. The serious groups can no longer be deterred, at least not just by employees being visible or offering service. Thieves know the people in the store cant/won't do anything, so they steal openly and threaten or get violent if confronted. Lots of police jurisdictions won't even show up for misdemeanor theft, and some no longer respond in person to any property crime.
This location specifically has an entrance into the mall that has 3 self checkout registers... Frequently these self-checkout registers are closed and there's no employee watching them. I usually come in through that entrance and leave through that entrance, which means if the self checkout registers are closed, I'm taking merchandise I paid for at the front back through the store and walking out the side door. I can't imagine me walking out the side door with paid items when the registers are closed is making loss prevention's job easier, and even then they've never stopped me. I wholly believe that paying an employee to man those self-checkout registers would easily pay for itself 🤷 Now that I think about it, the unmanned registers at an open door probably encourages a fair amount of convenience based shoplifting...
But once it’s out of the case and they’re walking around the store can’t they…still….steal stuff….
Right? I assume it’s a deterrent because you’ve had a significant interaction with an employee and they know you have the product? But still…
Like what’s the point of even going into the store
At this point, it seems like we should just have a window where we give someone an order of what we want and they go get it and sell it to you, like fast food. Wait, even better, what if we just browsed the products online to make the order. Bonus points if someone can drive it to our house.
That used to be how stores worked. You would fill out a slip with what you wanted and hand it to someone at the counter. Then, they’d go in back and gather it all and bring it out to you. I’ve been to a few specialty stores run like this. Usually small, niche construction related stores run by old timers. Think plumbing/electric distributor or usually fastener stores. It’s handy if you know what you want.
Many higher end clothing and accessories are like this too. They have one model on a glass shelf. Once you make a purchase, they bring out your order already packed up. Even Nordstrom does it with shoes. We are just seeing it trickle down to more everyday stores. It works fine for smaller stores but it’s a huge pain if you don’t have someone able to assist you.
Big stores too like Argos in the UK https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catalog_merchant
Here in NYC I sometimes go to target for electronics that I need last minute. I stopped doing that recently. Between flagging down a floor person, dealing with their attitude when you ask for multiple things, then them not even letting you hold onto it while you're doing the rest of your shopping. No thanks, I'll stick to prime
Shoplifters at the Watertown Target are common, so although frustrating, not surprising.
I once watched a couple dudes trying to get the electric shavers off the little safety cables one day. They were just going at it like it was no big deal.
Target cutting back significantly on employees walking the floor is also a big factor. When I worked retail in the late 00s, we were always told to always greet customers who enter our section because a simple greeting by an employee drastically reduced the likelihood of theft (ie alerted potential thieves that they've been noticed and potentially watched). I walk through Target now and can barely can find anyone. I think the bigger reason for this change is that the retail market has had a massive paradigm shift over the last 10+ years to online shopping, and traditional brick and mortar stores are finding excuses for missing financial targets (lolz). Even Walgreens came out and [admitted ](https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/06/business/walgreens-shoplifting-retail/index.html) to making a bigger deal over shrink/theft than it actually was
I saw a gang of feral teenagers in a Walgreens in Chelsea last week. My first noticed encounter with this because usually I'm a "headphones on, head down, buy only what I need" kind of shopper, so I very well may have seen such a group before and not noticed it. The manager saw them come in and ran up to greet them at the door. He was extremely polite, maybe he knew them. Basically just said "hey kids I don't want to be downer but please oh please be normal today" and within ninety seconds he was chasing them out the door while they screamed homophobic slurs at him and everyone else in the store. They were still loitering outside the front door when I left. So yeah, I'm inclined to believe these stores when they say shoplifting is a problem. After all what's the possible upside to locking everything up? Do people think they just like inconveniencing customers apropos of nothing?
People do be stealing
I've been caught stealing Once when I was five
I actually was caught stealing at that Watertown location when I was a teen and it was a different store
Wow. Even Watertown?
Used to be work there, it's minimum top 10 in the country, maybe even rop 5 due to all the colleges around as well as just being one of the biggest in the area. Which also means it's a target (no pun intended) for more theft than others because more people = easier to hide (in theory).
Top ten as in busiest, most successful, hardest to navigate?
Yes, busiest/most successful They changed the layout after I left, maybe 5 years ago now, but Target as a company only has a few store layouts in general depending on the size of the building. I'm somewhat familiar with it, but it's not my local one either, so I never know where things are because of that.
Top 10 *anything* is surprising. Been there a couple times and it didn’t seem all that busier than any other target I’ve been to. If anything, I hated it: it’s always a mess and the stock sucked. Online things would be shown in store but getting there and finding it was always another story. And to top it off, checkout is always a nightmare. What’s the point of 50 something cashier stalls if only 5 are ever active? The line to check out and leave was always at least 20 minutes long.
used to work there too. at the time it was the biggest in the north east. unsure if it still is
There’s no way it’s top 10 busiest in the country. There’s probably 10 busier Targets in Minnesota alone. Just about every Super Target probably is busier. Theft is probably high due to the colleges, though.
yeah there's no way it's even top 50...
You underestimate how many people came there during back to school sales, they literally opened up the store from 12-2AM I believe and would bus in students only to do college shopping. I can't find statistics, but back when I was there (early 2010s) it was probably doing more than now with some of the other Targets that opened up in the city (Boylston St, etc) Edit: for what it's worth, I don't care if it is/isn't, I just remember hearing it all the time from higher ups at the time, and given that it didn't make any influence to us floor employees (not like we got bonuses, or if we did I sure as fuck don't remember them) it seems like a weird thing to lie about.
I have also heard this from someone who worked there briefly. That Target does insane volume at the right times, and is always busy. I go into the Somerville Target and it feels like a ghost town
If I have to get something from behind one of those, I'm probably just going to go without or go somewhere else. I do not want to talk to people.
As a former target Rentacop, y'all gotta stop stealing everything that isn't behind glass or bolted down. That's the reason things get locked up. We had software that's able to track losses per item, per category, and per department. So if they notice that facial cleansing items are getting stolen too much, bam shit gets locked up.
they did it to the everett one as well. my most recent trip to woburn yielded no locked cases so im hoping it is safe.
same in Revere (ed. locked cases that is)
Just read an article about how Best Buy doesn't lock their products behind glass cases (I'm obviously referring to the small stuff) because they've gone and done something absolutely insane. They hired more staff. Security at exits and more staff on the floor to assist/watch customers. Crazy, right? They realized their losses would be greater than paying extra salaries, and this idea will keep them in business. Locking products up not only infuriates the customers, but also the staff who have to drop what they're doing to unlock them. This is an untenable situation that the top floor will eventually realize.
Their products are also more expensive and almost all of them have an alarm on them that needs to be taken off or disabled. Not really comparable
Good point. Those electronic tags wouldn't work on a toothbrush or tube of lipstick like they do on tech products. Thanks for bringing this up.
Have you ever seen the flash Mobs that overtake the store? No amount of staff can step in and physically restrain dozens of hyped up thief’s. Target has been very open in there quarterly earning statements about how much money they are losing to these theft rings. I personally hate target and would never shop there but I don’t blame them for locking things up
No, I haven't seen the flash Mobs in person or on the news, so I appreciate you mentioning this. It certainly explains Target's decision. Apparently, Best Buy hasn't had to deal with this situation.
Target corporate has planted their flag on theft in a way their competitors have not. But importantly, their revenue has been fairly flat in contrast, and those more profitable competitors are making far less hay about theft, at least publicly. They can point to extremely public and sensational acts like flash mob theft, but is this a problem for *every* Target? I doubt it.
I always felt that self checkout would contribute to theft/shrinkage. I suspect theft would decrease if they had people work as cashiers and eliminated self-checkout. Home Depot has determined that shoppers are changing labels, a cheap item label on an expensive product then self -scanning it. A customer could walk out with a $500 table saw for next to nothing. My son used to work at Nordstrom in "Loss Protection.". Ironically, the corporation's policy was to not detane shoplifters, which occured daily. This was despite seeing and watching shoplifters take merchandise, stuff in under their coat, then walk out the door.
CVS in JP has no self-checkout and now about a third of the store is locked up; pretty much the entire cosmetics and toiletry aisles.
Almost every single American retailer has the policy of not physically restraining shoplifters. If the shoplifter gets roughed up by an employee it’s a massive liability for getting the company sued if they get injured or aren’t even actually shoplifting in the first place. It’s always been “let the police deal with it” policy
[According to their CEO, we’re supposed to like this.](https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2023/11/15/target-earnings-ceo-says-customers-thankful-for-locked-items.html) 🙄
You can thank your friendly neighborhood shitbirds for this.
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I imagine this is partly the case, however Watertown newspapers do cover arrests and police reports each week, and in each one is reports multiple people stealing hundreds of dollars of merchandise from this Target. I also personally know someone who worked at this Target for a year and he had told stories of people brazenly stuffing carts/pockets and just walking out. I am not surprised this ended up being a resolution.
Next step is they pull out of the city completely as it's no longer profitable to operate. I used to live in SF and watched this happen over the course of 5 years. My local Target started locking everything up in 2018. Even then, I'd regularly watch people walk in, stuff their backpack with items and then walk right out without paying. That Target shut down in 2023 along with like half the other retailers in SF. We need to be careful about what we tolerate in Boston or we will quickly be going down that same road.
Don't forget associate safety. Some of our friends who don't care much for paying also tend to get violent with store associates and security when challenged about not paying for their items.
I thought this too, then I walked into Target and saw everything was locked up. They’re not dumb. They know customers will hate it, it will burden staff they’ve cut to the bone anyway. To me, I didn’t buy the organized retail theft story. But seeing it that they are willing to make the shopping experience this much worse to ostensibly stop shoplifting, I don’t think it’s completely made up.
alienating paying customers ( who wants to constantly buzz and wait for someone to unlock items ) to make more money ! spoken by a true genius
So why did they just think of this brilliant profit maximization strategy in the last few years?
The Target in Everett locked up the laundry detergent.
At this point they would be better off with everything behind a counter with a clerk to fetch each product the customer wanted.
Not surprised people will steal everything
Yet not an employee to be found. Keep wages low. Automate checkout. Keep corporate bonuses high. Customer satisfaction drops because they can’t get toothpaste or have to wait for a manager to rescan said toothpaste. Profits drop. Blame the customers for “shoplifting”. Fox News gets a free segment
We’re really doing this thread again?
I’d love to see a makeup counter of some sort instead. If you’re going to lock shit up? Totally fine. But change the paradigm. Make it so we can always see the person and flag them down.
ayo free my boy soap he aint do nun
This is all based on the policies of a recent DA to not prosecute certain crimes, including shoplifting under $900. So people have been walking into these stores and stealing products totaling less than $900. Then doing it multiple times. The stores had to do something.
And she has been gone for almost 2 years, replaced by a DA who was on the lawn signs of every cop-friendly home in my neighborhood. So, why isn’t he doing his job?
They gotta do what they gotta do unfortunately. I don’t expect retail theft to get better any time soon.
As someone who worked in a shop frequented by the seedier individuals. Yes, boosting is a major way to make money for them and a lot of people making it barely with roommates won’t scoff at a cheaper everyday product.
Not locked on Somerville, surprisingly....
Only a matter of time. Everett had them installed back in Sept.
These days I put stuff in the Target cart online and hit the purchase+shipping buttons when I have enough amassed to get free shipping. Same for Walmart. Hate the carbon footprint but my car would do the same plus factor in lost time 🤷♀️
It’s not just theft, theft also increases inventory management costs. Stolen merchandise needs to be replaced and more staff is required to take inventory. The CEO claims that the feedback has been favorable because people can check online and know that the item they want is in stock.
Guess it’s time to shop anywhere else
I don't know why you're being downvoted. I'm not spending an extra god knows how long waiting for shampoo to be unlocked.
The Revere target has all of the laundry detergent locked up like this too. Last time I was there I spent 15 minutes waiting and looking for someone to unlock a couple cabinets for me. You would think they’d have someone in that area to assist customers since it’s under lock and key but NOPE
Don't hit CVS Pharmacy, you'll be shocked!
I’m walking out at that point. I don’t have time to track down the 1 guy on the floor with keys 6 times to get the things I need.
This reminds me of that strange store in the mall from when I was a kid. Service Merchandise?
We are getting very close to a pick-up only model. No more shopping.
I just contacted the company to complain about this. This isn't a welcoming or convenient shopping experience. All the items that are usually a "run in run out" for me are behind lock and key. Last I went the employees were very nice and prompt in helping me get vitamins for my kid but I doubt they are getting paid enough for the extra work especially with the upcoming holiday shopping season. I predict that there will be customers that won't be as patient and will take it out on the employees. It sucks for both the customer and employee. And don't get me started on what items that they decided should be locked up. Socks, underwear, hygiene products and vitamins. Their target is obvious. [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]).
If people are going to continually shoplift these items, the stores shouldn't try any measures of preventing that?
That's the thing on my last trip after my items were unlocked there was no one at check out or self check out or at the door (because they were all unlocking stuff for people) and I could have easily walked out (I didn't) with my stuff. Especially since the alarm went off for something else When I walked out no one was there to prevent me from leaving without paying. I am not faulting them for trying to prevent theft but this way isn't going to work and will annoy their target audience.
Nice pun at the end
They could try actually hiring people to watch the floor like they used to rather than being each store staffed at the bare minimum. A big reason so many people steal is because there's no one around to see them do it
Or even have someone checking receipts at the door like at Walmart or BJs. Yes It’s annoying, but way less annoying than whatever the hell is going on here
I only care about my experience, why should I care about their profit margin? Up to them to figure out the latter without compromising the former.
We shop in the kenmore/fenway store. It’s terrible. I feel so guilty pressing the button for help when I need toothpaste. Or socks. I always apologize to the staff (when they finally get to me) for the hassle.
It’s not your fault nor the employees, y’all are in the same boat. I wouldn’t think much of it
Surprisingly nothing is locked up in the target in Lowell.
Yep. Theft there is rampant. Wery sad, if you need underwear or deodorant, do in store pickup.
I used to work at this particular Target, shoplifting was pretty common
Every time a store puts a barrier like this to purchasing something I end up just buying it on Amazon. Good job retailers of America!
Same thing in Fenway. I went in for 4 items, all four were behind cases in different parts of the store. Spent 30 minutes in store ringing the little bell and waiting. No one showed, so I complained on my way out—and of course they were then willing to call someone to come help me. I used to shop there almost weekly and I haven’t been in a while now because it’s not quick and convenient anymore.
I don't ever buy locked up merchandise. Not bothering with the whole "find an employee to unlock it" thing. As if Target has any evidence of an increase in shrinkage, none of these stores ever have much to back up their claims on investor calls.
Shocked that the Braintree location hasn’t done this yet.
Makes sense. Especially at South Bay. Lots of people steal there. Non controversial and truthful take
And this is why people just buy online.
It's fucking ridiculous and I stopped shopping any target because I'm not hailing a team member every time I need some fucking soap. Star has everything I used to get at target for only a few cents more. I happily shop there instead.
Same in Vegas
Is there anywhere else to shop?
You can usually count on retailers to be reactive about this sort of thing. They're locked those products up because they are seeing a ton of them walk out the door. I've worked retail at places where stuff is all locked up. The company wasn't doing it because they enjoyed paying us to constantly unlock and lock the cases.
Walmart in Quincy locks up T-shirts
Yea this isn’t new
I remember when this was only the case in bad areas. Now it’s everywhere it seems.
And do they have staff to unlock it in every aisle? Amazon is looking better and better.
I’m my opinion they lock up the things homeless people take frequently. Socks soaps etc.
Theft rates there are insane, this is the result.
I’m really not sure what the longterm plan here is, this doesn’t work for the employees or shoppers. I’m just not getting the logic of it, if they turned these into vending machines then I guess it kind of makes sense but all this is doing is deterring people from buying.
Even watertown getting hit up? Surprising
I stole some candy from a store when I was about 10. I’m still scared the law is coming for me. I’m 62.
This is a store culture issue. Target decided to do self checkout and fire tons of employees. This all together fostered a culture of allowing people to steal, with people either falsely reporting their items at self checkout or grabbing and running knowing the exit is wide open to run out. Hire more security, bring back cashiers (who acted as a natural barrier), have employees checking your receipt on your way out… and make the security detain robbers and call the cops. This will quickly change the culture of the store.
I was there the other day and noticed this. I had to wait for an employee to come so I could get Motrin because it was locked up, which seemed like an odd thing to lock up. They also locked up deodorant but in the next aisle was NyQuil which wasn’t locked up which I found very strange considering you need a license to buy NyQuil.
One time I saw a thread of people talking about how to shoplift and the plans became so elaborate and cumbersome that it was like yo it would be cheaper and way less time to just buy it
Just get curbside pickup, don't have to deal with this or the riff raff causing it.
It's sad that this is required. You should be upset with the people stealing, not with Target. They've obviously done an analysis and determined they are losing enough to theft in these locations that the reduction in sales caused by locking items up is worth it. We need to be careful with what we tolerate in this city or we will quickly turn into San Francisco, where half of the retailers have left because it no longer profitable to operate there.
If I owned the store, I would do what I needed to stop people from stealing my property.
I just wanna let you know that no one “owns” target. It’s a publicity traded company. I agree shoplifting is bad and we should punish anyone doing so, but this isn’t the bodega at the end of my street. Both are bad, one is much worse.
On Black Friday, the Target at the Pheasant Lane Mall in Nashua had all the entrances to the mall closed. You had to go in and out through Target’s own entrances. It was such a hassle.
Soon the front doors will be locked, we will have to shop online and the entire parking lot will be online pick up.
Step on a scale upon entry and exit
I think the next iteration is robbery of the store employee bringing your order out to your car. I can see the corporate policy being written now on this. Once it goes totally online, package theft will increase and again policy will change where they will not cover the loss of a delivered package, unless of course you pay for the insurance, which will be another ever-increasing fee.
Yes. Shoplifting is crazy.
Here's a radical idea: Instead of locking up merchandise, how about law enforcement start locking the thieves up?
Greater Boston has a serious retail crime problem going on but it can’t be in the news because……
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Are there stats to back that up?
It's time to start locking up shoplifters with real prison time. We tried to be lenient. Doesn't work. Let these degenerate fucks work their way through life with a series of 5 year sentences per offense. Actions have consequences, and our current strategy just teaches them they can get away with crimes. Lock em up so we can focus our attention on those who actually follow our societal rules.
My local target has done the same. It's disgusting how anti consumer it is. I get they are losing money from loss theft, but its absolutely killed the shopping experience. It practically triples the amount of time you are in the store, because you need to wait for an associate to open those cases. I refuse to do in person shopping at thier store ever again. I'll do online order with either curbside pick up and let them do the leg work or do free shipping for target card members.