--- title: People love stealing stuff from Target - The Hustle description: Organized retail crime is crushing US retailers. image: https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/hubfs/The%20Hustle%20News/Assets/Images/921948562-19-News-Brief_2023-05-22T002028.532Z.webp --- # People love stealing stuff from Target ![Ben Berkley](https://53.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/53/assets/hubspot.com/web-team/WBZ/HubSpot%20Media/Blog%202021/Images/Nav/Optimized/TheHustle_Icon_Dark.svg) [Ben Berkley](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/author/ben-berkley) Published: June 03, 2023 Updated: October 11, 2023 If Target’s mascot, Bullseye, were a real dog, he’d have A5 Wagyu beef for every meal and roll around in [this $3.2m](https://www.marcpetite.com/blogs/luxury-dog-accessories/top-7-most-expensive-dog-collars) “Bugatti of dog collars.” ![Chart of Target growth](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/hs-fs/hubfs/The%20Hustle%20News/Assets/Images/921948562-19-News-Brief_2023-05-22T002028.532Z.webp?width=595&height=400&name=921948562-19-News-Brief_2023-05-22T002028.532Z.webp) Target ain’t exactly hurting is our point here — its [average customer](https://www.businessinsider.com/typical-target-shopper-demographic-white-millennial-woman-earning-middle-income-2021-7) makes ~23 trips per year, spending ~$50 each time; sales topped $107B last year. Yet we grimaced when we learned about Target’s growing inventory loss problem. #### **How much are we talking here?** Last fiscal year, the retailer [saw](https://www.cnbc.com/2023/05/17/target-says-organized-retail-crime-fueled-losses-have-shot-up.html) $763m in “shrink”: loss of inventory, whether by accident or a deliberate act like shoplifting, fraud, or cargo theft. CEO Brian Cornell expects Target’s inventory losses to balloon beyond $1B this year. - It’s not just Target — Walmart, Walgreens, and Home Depot also recently [lamented](https://www.cnbc.com/2023/05/18/its-not-people-shoplifting-why-retails-focus-is-organized-crime.html) theft increases. #### **What’s changed?** Organized retail crime is up. (Or, in Target parlance, up & up.) “It’s not people shoplifting an individual item for personal use,” National Retail Federation president Matt Shay [told](https://www.cnbc.com/2023/05/18/its-not-people-shoplifting-why-retails-focus-is-organized-crime.html) *CNBC*. Stores, he said, are fighting “sophisticated” networks stealing throughout the supply chain — on docks, trucks, and railways, as well as in stores. Efforts to limit secondary markets for stolen goods are underway; a law [goes into effect](https://www.adamsandreese.com/news-knowledge/whats-next-following-the-inform-consumers-act) next month requiring US online marketplaces to verify high-volume sellers. #### **It’s easy to blame criminals, but…** … retailers must also look inward; investing in loss prevention can, y’know, prevent losses — yet 68.5% of retailers [do not](https://cdn.nrf.com/sites/default/files/2022-09/National%20Retail%20Security%20Survey%20Organized%20Retail%20Crime%202022.pdf) have teams fighting against organized retail crime. Perhaps that’s because external theft only accounted for 37% of lost inventory last year — employee theft (28.5%) and process failures (25.7%) were other major culprits. **Back to Bullseye:** Listen, we’re not saying he’s running a crime syndicate, but does anyone else have a presence in all ~2k Target stores? Just saying, it’s a little suspicious. Topics: [Ecommerce And Retail](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/tag/ecommerce-and-retail) ## Follow us on social media prev next - ![Excited about Bed Bath & Beyond’s return? You may feel pretty lonely](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/hubfs/The%20Hustle%20News/Assets/Images/1248390843-19-News-Brief_2023-08-20T225804.606Z.webp) ### Excited about Bed Bath & Beyond’s return? 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