Target: Crime

"What did I think after hearing the news about Target? Good on you Target! And the people in the neighborhoods who will be left wanting? Bad for you people. But just remember this. You are governed by morons and idiots. You voted them in. Learn from this, or it will keep on happening. Remember - you can't fix stupid."        

OM Goodness! This was earth shaking news for sure! Target announced yesterday that it was going to shutter nine retail stores in some VERY problem locations. This will happen in October. Target, one of the champions of proliferation, must have a tough time closing locations. BUT - crime is king in the areas it is closing stores. I guess the gang thefts, which are brazen enough to happen in broad daylight, are not a rite of passage. Least wise, not for Target Corporation. Target said, "enough is enough - we are leaving". 

Where are these Target stores located? Harlem, Seattle, Portland, and three in San Fransisco. Gosh, does anyone else remember when San Fransisco was a fun place to visit? Where you could feel relatively safe? Now it is a pigsty. A cesspool. Many nice stores have already pulled out of San Fransisco. I suppose it was only a matter of time before Target Stores also had enough.

On a closer to home note, it was also reported that another large retailer in Brooklyn Park was closing. A Superstore Walmart. That one hurts, as it services quite a large swath of people. But - even though it was not directly mentioned - it is crime once again. It was reported that the Walmart store is located in a "large center of crime". That is where the reader only had to fill in the blanks. Walmart, like Target is a proliferator of stores. They much prefer to open up stores which will be high performing, then to close down stores which are not.

Back to San Fransisco. What is the future for this "City by the Bay"? Will all the stores eventually leave, making San Fransisco a large retail desert? Or will the population finally wake up, kick London Breed out of office, and elect some folks who believe in law-and-order governance.

Some say this is still the "George Floyd" effect. We are entitled to rob stores and take what we want. We are "owed". Ladies and gentlemen, we need to wake up to a very important fact of life. Stores don't have to stay in a poor location. People don't have to live in a dangerous neighborhood (that is, it they have the means to leave). Money does not have to stay in an area where the ROI is low, zero, or negative. There simply are no laws which mandate where you can live, and where your business can operate.

What did I think after hearing the news about Target? Good on you Target! And the people in the neighborhoods who will be left wanting? Bad for you people. But just remember this. You are governed by morons and idiots. You voted them in. Learn from this, or it will keep on happening. Remember - you can't fix stupid.