A WALKTHROUGH of a downtown Target location showed some of the toughest anti-theft measures, including armed forces at the front door. 

A Target in downtown San Francisco, California, was referred to as “one of the most dangerous” stores in the US with almost every item having some sort of lock.

Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson), a streamer and the host of The Benny Show posted a video on X, formerly known as Twitter, of a glimpse of the San Francisco Target and its locked-up products.

“Target is one of the most popular retail locations in all of America. You probably have one in your hometown,” Johnson said in the video.

“But I assure you that your Target does not like Target in downtown San Francisco.”

In the first few seconds of the video, Johnson recorded a man getting caught trying to steal.  

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“That guy just got caught attempting to shoplift by armed security. Looks like special forces,” Johnson said, referring to the armed guard.

Johnson did a stroll through the Target and came across locked-up supplements, underwear, shoes, face masks, and more. 

“Does your Target have to lock up in plastic boxes literally every item?” Johnson said, showing that every single item on the shelves was in its own locked-up casing.

“A supplement was locked up. The face masks are locked up. 

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“This is what a zero-trust society looks like. 

“Every piece of clothing has an alarm on it. All of it is tagged.”

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“Every dress shirt is tagged and alarmed,” he said as he lifted folded shirts that had security tags on them.

“Every single pair of shoes is locked. 

“Men’s underwear is behind plastic.”

Johnson sarcastically ended his video suggesting that more Targets will soon have locked up products and said, “Get ready America, coming to a Target near you.”

Multiple people replied to the post and were in shock at the extreme anti-theft measures. 

Shoplifting numbers 2024 so far

Stores lost $121.6 billion to retail theft in 2023; projections indicate shoplifting could cost retailers over $150 billion in 2026.

  • Retailers lost $112.1 billion in gross revenue and $84.9 billion in fraudulent sales returns in 2022.
  • In 2022, shoplifting losses grew 19.4% year-over-year; as a share of retail sales dollars, losses to theft increased 10.5%.
  • 58% of organized retail crime is cargo theft.
  • The average shoplifting incident cost retailers $461.86 in 2020.
  • Stores catch shoplifters roughly 2.0% of the time; the average shoplifter is arrested once out of every 100 incidents.

Credit: Capital One

“Omg that’s crazy!!!  No wonder brick-n-mortar are closing and opting for online shopping,” one person said. 

“That’s the most ridiculous pathetic thing I’ve ever seen in my life,” another person said.

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“That’s insane,” this person said.

“Just pull out of these areas. If the people in these communities are not civilized enough not to steal than they can only blame themselves and their neighbors when the businesses leave,” another person suggested.