Portland, Oregon officials and retail executives spent months debating how to reduce thefts. The city failed.
One City and Three Retailers
The Wall Street Journal comments Three Retailers Tried to Fight Shoplifting. The Stores Closed Anyway.
Target, Nike, and REI all complained about crime in Portland privately before announcing plans to close stores in the city in 2023.
The closures followed months—and in some cases years—of negotiations between company officials and the city over getting additional police patrols near their locations, improving response times and removing homeless encampments, according to emails reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. Ultimately the companies said the city didn’t provide enough support and they decided to shutter those locations, emails show.
Shoplifting rates in Portland were up 22% in the first half of 2023 when compared with the same period in 2019, according to a Journal analysis of city crime data. The increase in Portland’s shoplifting rate over the period was well above the average among 24 cities studied by the Council on Criminal Justice, a think tank.
Industry executives have lobbied for increased collaboration with law enforcement, saying that rising retail crime rates are hurting store safety and company profits. Companies are locking up more products to tamp down theft, and some are conducting their own investigations to identify suspects. This month, the governors of California and New York called for new legislation to combat retail crime, including measures that would add or expand criminal penalties on people who profit from theft or assault retail workers.
Store Closures
- Nike temporarily shut down its Portland factory store in August 2022. It announced this past September that the location wouldn’t reopen, months after privately lobbying the city to boost the police presence near the store.
- REI last April said that it would close its city store in February 2024 when the lease expires. The outdoor-gear retailer said the store in 2022 had the highest number of thefts in two decades and that it lost confidence in its ability to serve customers there.
- Target in September said it would close three Portland stores by late October, adding that levels of theft and organized retail crime harmed staff and customers’ safety.
Portland Economic Director Statement
Andrew Fitzpatrick, Portland’s director of economic development, said “It’s a little bit more complicated than just theft increases and a store closes.”
Fact check, true!
It’s also about rape, armed robbery, car jackings, and fear of the preceding. Factor in DEI and defunding the police.
Fitzpatrick said the city has set aside certain district attorneys to focus on prosecuting retail theft.
But what good will that do when the mission statement of these prosecutors appears to be Prosecuting Non-Violent Crime is Racist.
What About Education?
Good question. In November, Oregon Dopped all Graduation Standards in the Name of Equity.
Oregon’s State Board of Education voted unanimously to adopt an additional extension of this suspension through the 2027-28 school year. Board members, alongside Oregon Department of Education leadership, argued that requiring students to complete standardized tests both presented a “harmful hurdle for historically marginalized students” and represents a misuse of state tests.
The Oregon Education Association (OEA), the union representing more than 40,000 teachers throughout the state, is a like-minded opponent of standardized testing. “Standardized tests are inaccurate, inequitable, and don’t accurately measure student learning and growth,” it declares. Further, the union labels standardized tests like Oregon’s Statewide Summative Assessment as “instruments of racism and a biased system.”
Graduation Equity
In the name of equity, Oregon will graduate everyone. Why not give them all Masters Degrees? Wouldn’t that be even more equitable?
The problem is these graduates cannot read, cannot write, and cannot do simple arithmetic.
But they are great at one thing. What’s that, you ask. Shoplifting.
When you turn out kids whose only skill is crime, guess what? Then when crime rises, human flight begins.
Portland Demographics
- Portland is a city located in Clackamas County, Multnomah County, and Washington County Oregon.
- Portland has a 2024 population of 608,630. It is also the county seat of Multnomah County.
- Portland is currently declining at a rate of -1.72% annually and its population has decreased by -6.71% since the most recent census, which recorded a population of 652,388 in 2020.
Stats from WorldPopulationReview
Equity Chicago Style
Please note Citing “Equity”, Chicago Will Ruin Some of the Top Schools in the Country
Ahead of the Chicago mayoral election, I warned Brandon Johnson was 100% beholden to the teacher’s union. Unfortunately, I was correct.
It’s not just Chicago. The entire state is beholden to unions.
On January 19, CBS reported 2 suburban Chicago Catholic schools closing in June, citing loss of scholarship tax credit program
Two Catholic schools in the western suburbs announced Thursday night that will close after the end of the school year, with the Archdiocese of Chicago blaming the loss of a state tax credit scholarship program.
The closures come months after Illinois state lawmakers ended the Invest in Kids state tax credit scholarship program, which provides tax credits to people who donate private funding to scholarships for private schools. The program expired at the end of Dec. 31.
The archdiocese said more than half of the students at St. Frances and St. Odilo rely on the Invest in Kids program to attend their schools.
New York City Mayor Chimes In
Please note New York City Mayor Issues Emergency Executive Order to Stem Migrant Arrivals
Shopping Trends Don’t Help
There are other trends in place that impact store closures.
One key item is a surge in online buying instead of shopping in physical stores.
How Did Covid Change Your Propensity to Buy Things Online?
There are some things you don’t do online such as buy gasoline or eat out at restaurants. What about the rest?
Yesterday, I addressed the question How Did Covid Change Your Propensity to Buy Things Online?
In the last four years online sales jumped over eight percentage points from about 26 percent over 34 percent, ignoring the initial covid spike.
Covid did not change the trend towards online shopping but it certainly accelerated the trend.
As a result of increasing trend towards online shopping, there will be more store closures.
However, in big blue cities, crime and immigration are the key issues.
On December 30, I asked Sanctuary Cities Seek More Money for Migrants, But is Money the Problem?
Areas with high crime will get hit the most and the hardest.
The people who can leave, do leave. It’s impacting cities in Illinois, Oregon, California, New York, and New Jersey.
How about an online database for convicted shoplifters similar to that under Megans law? And make them register their whereabout and keep their image up-to-date for facial recognition purposes?
I remember people getting their panties in knots when Target closed some stores in San Fran for same stated reasons. A little investigative journalism by Popular Information showed that there were Target stores with higher theft rates in the area that weren’t shut, it was mostly due to poor performance. Big chains are always pruning poor performers.
Time to blow the fav dog whistle!
BIG CITIES=MINORITIES=CRIME=DEMS=BIDEN=BAD
Guess what? Store performance is directly related to loss from theft. But nice try at gaslighting the rest of us who actually apply common sense.
The leftists there hate big business. National businesses or big regional businesses. Looks like they are succeeding in driving big retailers out.
To be seen how successful they are in repopulating their economy with workers’ coops. What sort of ‘ownership’ will the thieves respect? Or does the law out there need to be re-organized by the Bloods, the Crips, MS-13, the Jets and the Sharks?
(I have heard that what gets stolen in NYC can be found a short distance away for sale on the street.)
First step in building a 15 minute city: close all the stores. It’ll happen everywhere.
I tried not to succumb to online shopping during and after the pandemic, but stores have made shopping so miserable by not keeping enough items in stock and not having enough staff to check out customers. I can’t tell how many times I went to the store to buy something and have been told they don’t have it in store, but I could order online and have it shipped to the store for free, then take a second trip out to pick it up. I’m like – if I have to order online, I’ll just have them send it to me directly free and not waste time coming back here!
On the occasions they have what I want, or I simply lower my standards to the level of the crap in store, I have to wait in a disrespectful sized line to get out the door. If I only have one or two things, I just leave and go but them online too, or do without. I only wait in the line when I have a number of items worth the wait.
“I tried not to succumb to online shopping during and after the pandemic”
Why?
Shopping has always sucked.
“Store Closures”
Just read that Macy’s is closing 5 stores and dropping 2K+ employees across the U.S. Locally, 4 people were arrested in a Macy’s burglary in Pasadena. Seven people were arrested for a string of 7-11 robberies, elsewhere.
But we have been told increases in shoplifting are a right wing myth.
Nike, REI and Target need to call a social worker
literally NOBODY has said the shoplifting problem was a right wing myth. Get your head OUT of yer dirtbox.
False. Multiple elected officials from the democratic party and left wing media have labeled it a right wing myth and a racist dog whistle. Check the record and get your head out of your dirtbox.
Nike and Target are all in on Social Justice.
Well, how’s that working out for you?
I would sit back, get some popcorn, and watch this play out … if this was a sane world. But somehow, sitting on the other coast … I’m quite sure that if Biden stays in power … my tax dollars will be allowing the unsustainable policies to continue. They are sustainable if more and more money is infused from elsewhere.
Im WAY more interested in how your apparently VERY small brain equates who is president to how individual states govern their individual laws and policies. The US Government does NOT get to tell the States how to police their population. Its called “States’ Rights.” Maybe you should .. oh i dunno.. stop talking and getting told what to think from right wing hypocritical social media postings and try cracking open a book instead?
Maybe allowing 12 million undocumented illegal aliens cross the border and endorsing soft on crime DAs in the Democrat run cities is a way to equate Biden to the crime? I’m sure one of those books you’re referring to could explain it to you better than what you are told to think by your left wing social media sites.
It’s a doom loop. Why do they even have a director of economic development. What they need is an investigative team to find and break the crime ring, and a prosecutor who will put them in jail for the long haul.
Good overview, thanks for publishing. In Baltimore, with one of the highest crime rates in the country, they babble about “food deserts” and “retail deserts” as if this were hard to understand.
We hear the same thing about Chicago. They can’t understand why there are food deserts in Chicago. Walmart, Walgreens, etc. have closed stores in Chicago because the stores aren’t profitable.
They pretend they can’t understand, and they blame it on racism. If you ask the people in those cities they will start with the notion that theft happens everywhere. When fact with the evidence of how out of proportion it is in their neighborhoods, they will pivot to how much they need the service – without a single word about the store’s ability to make a profit. Those locals know who is committing the crime. They need to have a community pressure to the make it stop. They don’t want police, so they need to police their own house. Stores do not exist to provide economic equity for uneducated people.
Marxism’s damage is truly catastrophic. “Organized retail crime” is another tortured leftist euphemism trying desperately to avoid mentioning the specific problem here….
I believe that some leftist see it as a form of reparations…assuming the perps are the right color.
FYI for people not familiar with the Pacific Northwest: REI and Nike bailing out of Portland is quite a lot like Walmart leaving Bentonville, Arkansas. Or Boeing and Weyerhaeuser leaving the Seattle area. Or Ford, GM, and Chrysler leaving Detroit.
Boeing administration did leave Seattle, about 20 years ago – first landing their headquarters in Chicago, then moving headquarters again – now grounded in Arlington, Va. To improve competitive advantages of ‘globalization’ and in recognition of their product ‘diversification’ were the rationales cited. Seattle area personnel openly speculate these moves have not improved quality control. (Please excuse the departure from topic, shoplifting is serious crime – planes falling out of the sky are unavoidable accidents, of course.)
None of your examples had anything to do with why REI is bailing out of Portland. The article plainly states shoplifting and crime are the problem. Boeing didn’t leave Seattle because of shoplifting.
Nike jumped during Colin Kaepernick kneeling. It’s been down since Nov 2021. Black National Anthem Super Bowl 2024 halftime show might send it to a permanent decline.
NFL has been losing viewership since Colin Kaepernick kneeling. Kaepernick is entitled to free speech. Employers are entitled to not hire him.
Incorrect, NFL viewership was at an 8 year high in 2023. The Kaepernick controversy is dead.
That’s when they lost me. I think their shoes are cute, but I won’t buy them.
The nihilists everywhere are getting exactly what they voted for.
Darn, if only there were solutions to such problems.
//
Just a forward looking view of Chicago and NYC…
“The problem is these graduates cannot read, cannot write, and cannot do simple arithmetic.”
Javier Melei said, something to the effect, that ‘printing dollars to fight inflation is like printing diplomas to fight illiteracy.’
Walmart also closed all of its Portland stores for the same reason, the last two in 2023.
Payback to the City for defunding the police. You get what you vote for and get what you deserve when you don’t vote.
Surprised it didn’t happen sooner
There were leases that could not be broken, while negotiating and election processes needed to run their course.
The stores could close; the lease rents must be paid. So the question becomes “what option of the two, or something in-between, is the least costly?”
But yet, people still vote Democrat. Nope. Republicans do not have all the answers but I assure you there is no Republican policy that has led to this incident or other like it. It’s the policies of the Left and their America last, anti-capitalist, no God, and DIE fascist followers that doom the world.
Free money is an irresistible force. People vote for the party promising more free items. Biden and the 2022 Democrat Congress have spread free money almost without limit: huge expansion of Obamacare subsidies, student loan forgiveness, green (so called) energy subsidies, and many, many others. Now Democrats want federal support for open southern borders with free housing, healthcare, food, transportation, education, and every other desired item.
MichaelM wrote “Free money is an irresistible force.” But it runs into lessons from Margaret Thatcher and Herb Stein, “… until you run out of other people’s money.”, and “what cannot continue, will stop.”
BTW, regarding the southern border, we should worry that even when the Democrats can’t spend any more on aid for immigrants, the border will not be closed and people will keep coming. And then worry that the immigrants will switch from working any job to taking anything that they can.
“No Republican Policy that has led to this incident or other like.”
Tim Watkins blog “Consciousness of Sheep” has some perspective on this.