Downtown Retail & Restaurant News

[John21]

When I was in La Quinta CA in the spring I had to call someone at Walmart to unlock the golf gloves. Deodorant and toothpaste weren’t locked.

[daveybabymsp]

My favorite is buying condoms at the uptown CVS. “Assistance needed in family planning” then an employee has to unlock them for you

[SurlyLHT]

Also stop whining about things being locked up. It comes from a standpoint of privilege. If you've lived in areas that are underprivileged or even working class it's normal and you get used to it. I am thankful for the W. Broadway Walgreens, that it's there and open. I don't care if a ton of the products are locked up. I also like that they have MPD there since someone was shot inside the store last Spring.

Locking up products is ridiculous.

I live near a Walgreens that locks up products and I won't go there anymore. I press the "call associate" button, stand there for 5 minutes, look for someone to help me, and ultimately leave empty handed. That Walgreens has easily missed out on $100 of my money because they won't sell me deodorant. It's insane.

The reaction of people with any other option when they encounter locked everyday essentials is "eff this." Only a store with a totally captive market can lock products and actually sell them. Some of that is the privilege to be able to go somewhere else, but most is just a symptom of Target's chauvinistic attitude toward the community.

Maybe if Target was trying in good faith at all to make this location community-oriented, I could look the other way. However, Target has made it abundantly clear at this point that they don't want me to shop there. To them, the store is a symbol of their empty commitment to Minneapolis and nothing else.

I wish they'd just close the place and let some real grocer move in. At least then we might get a place that's open when I'm home from work.

Wish and think whatever you want.

A) They offer way more than a grocer and are the closest Target for miles around and therefore are doing the area a tremendous service.

B) Target has VERY loudly shown they support the community, especially BIPOC businesses and communities.

a. Look at the Lake St Store and the dedication ranging from the design to the products they now carry.
https://www.startribune.com/damaged-lak ... 572439942/
b. Also go ask Northsider Houston White who has a collaboration with them. They took a risk on a local businessman and designer who has vision.
https://www.essence.com/fashion/houston ... ollection/
c. Thor Companies. They were the largest minority owned business in Minnesota before their demise. How did they get that way? Target Stores that's how. Target wanted a BIPOC construction company for their remodels.
c.2 Target also leased space in their development on Penn Ave N/Plymouth Ave. N.
c.3 After Thor's Demise..what did Target do with the space? They gave it to Summit Academy to do IT training and education
https://bringmethenews.com/minnesota-ne ... inneapolis
d. I looked at an article about the above mentioned Lake St Store...who is remodeling that? BIPOC-female owned Noor Companies.

So a company can invest millions in supporting a community, but they become terrible and have no commitment to said community if they lock up toothpaste in a store with a history of theft and which has been looted?? REALY?

[Mdcastle]

Even if you feel strongly about not buying them, Walgreens would rather the rather lose the $10 profit they'd make selling you the items than lose the $90 value of the items to criminals.

[mnmike]

Calm down folks! And by boycotting the store, you would only be endangering the jobs (or cutting their hours even more) of all of the line level associates that work there before you do harm or prove a point to anyone else. It isn't a downtown Minneapolis thing, its an everywhere thing...the limiting hours and locking up stuff. I live in the bay area, East Bay...and recently nearly every big store in the area has started locking things up. Personally I feel like it is kind of ridiculous and that they lose more money by people not buying the locked up things than with theft, but whatever... I am sure that loss prevention says differently. Home Depot, Safeway, Target, Walgreens...they have all started locking merch up, and some have started closing early due to "safety concerns". And it is true, things are a little out of control with the theft and people up to no good in the stores. Like I said, I am in the East Bay...if you go over to the Peninsula...I don't think there is one major grocery store that is open 24 hours in all of San Francisco! For the longest time it was hard to find one open past 9 or 10. In the East Bay along I-80 from Oakland to Vallejo, I know of exactly one grocery store that is open 24 hours! In the city many many stores have limited their hours just like Target DT Mpls....And while I don't love it, it isn't like they are doing it for nothing...there are valid concerns. If any of you have been out to San Francisco/Oakland the past few years, you may know the issues facing the area. Stores are just fed up with all of the theft, vandalism and crime. There have been huge issues taking place in retail out here...I don't think it is as bad in Mpls, but I am sure there are issues just the same. Do you really think that Target DT would lose lots of potential income with cut hours and no liquor store, and spend money on the reconfiguration in the lobby and for locking things up all for nothing, or just to give a middle finger to Mpls? Doubtful. From what I have been hearing, it sounds like downtown Minneapolis is starting to show signs of improvement? I sure hope so...and I totally agree that it would be much better if Target would more actively try to be a part of that improvement...but this isn't them singling out Mpls, and it isn't for a fake problem. I mean, someone was murdered in front of the store in daylight not long ago! I regularly hear that this stretch of Nicollet is a disaster from people back home who, like myself, it pains to say negative things about Minneapolis. If these fellow urbanists are saying it, I don't think it is "perceived", I would say there is a real issue. I certainly hope it is getting better though...and who knows...maybe if Target is satisfied with the locked up merch, they will start staying open later again...maybe this is a step in that direction even? But no, they are not saying "screw you" to cities...stores are doing this at locations that they have the biggest problems in. You know these companies have entire loss prevention departments, right? They don't just all willy nilly say...lets spend thousands of dollars at this one to beef up loss prevention, just cause I have a hunch its a problem there, and not here. At some locations in some cities, maybe there is a bigger budget for security, or a deal with the building owner if the store is in a larger complex?

Not saying it's great or I am a fan of these practices...but boycotting your hometown company isn't really going to help. Like I mentioned earlier, before having any other effect, if it has any at all, line level employees will be the first to feel it. Which I think is often the case with boycotts. Aaaanyway, if I were there, I would keep shopping at that store and supporting it. That is most likely the best way to get a good/desired result! And keep encouraging others to do the same, while also inquiring about longer hours. When business is better and more people demand it, they will stay open later. But as far as locking things up...unless general trends change, I would expect to see that at more and more places sadly. My partner works in retail management...and pretty much all the big stores are starting to lock up merch

Also, all that stuff that Surly said! Good reply Surly.

I mean come on! Sure, go ahead and Boycott. What is your desired result here (to the one complaining the loudest)? So, since you are not a captive audience and are able to boycott and go elsewhere...that is what you will do until the store closes, and then takes away the option all together for those that you call a "captive audience"? You will still be fine though, because you can go elsewhere to a store that has better ideals? Having helped to close the store you believe is immoral, and making things harder for the folks that aren't as privileged as you, who can just go elsewhere? I thought it was them that you were trying to help? That is quite a paradox....I seem to see that a lot in recent years. But yeah, back to what Surly said...the whole reasoning that Target is the worst and is saying screw you to Mpls, and does nothing for the community...yeah that just isn't correct. Sometimes people need to be more reasonable.

[mnmike]

And sorry for the rant...but sheesh. I couldn't just not say anything with a couple of the completely unreasonable and misguided responses to what Target is doing at that (and many others) store. Please keep supporting that downtown Target store! All else aside...any business that has remained in the office core of Minneapolis or any similar city the past few years has faced huge issues, and a potential customer base basically cut by 100k. I am impressed that Target, and I think still Nordstrom Rack and Marshalls have hung in there? I was pretty pissed that Off Fifth didn't even seem to try. They kind of had the worst of the looting I think, but their lease/store was pretty new, and after following through with finding a new location and all...THAT is a company I could say I was maybe somewhat disappointed with for not trying to stick around or temporarily close or something.

[grant1simons2]

Lol Target closes at 6pm, I literally couldn't support them when I LIVED downtown. Get out of here with all this pro-corporate shit. Target Lake St. was looted and they rebuilt the entire store to make it better. This whole store has been a middle finger to our downtown.

[tedlanda2571]

Lol Target closes at 6pm, I literally couldn't support them when I LIVED downtown. Get out of here with all this pro-corporate shit. Target Lake St. was looted and they rebuilt the entire store to make it better. This whole store has been a middle finger to our downtown.

Defund Target!

[Nick]

Alternatively, we could try recriminalizing crime.

[Blaisdell Greenway]

Good luck with that, the voters rewarded the police department for not doing their jobs.

[grant1simons2]

We could try having cops do their actual jobs too, but they don't like us anymore because we told them to maybe cool it with aggression.

[dimabima]

A few things can be simultaneously true:
(1) We need effective crime prevention efforts, which would include punishing people who commit crimes like theft
(2) We need to effectively mitigate / improve on quality of life nuisances, which might include panhandling, excessive crowding, blatant drug use, lack of public seating or restrooms, random closures of entrances, locked skyways during normal hours
(3) Target downtown's management has been hostile and doesn't effectively serve its downtown population anymore

I personally rarely shopped at Target after the hours were reduced. It was an effective move to lose my business since I rarely left my office before 7pm.

[phop]

Doing this is not a great business move, so it seems obvious that they were dealing with pretty severe theft for them to make this decision. Not crimes of necessity but more theft ring type behavior.

[Mdcastle]

I'm certainly not against the idea of throwing every last criminal in jail where they belong. And my experience with Minneapolis police even before the George Floyd fallout was they didn't want to do their jobs- in particular more than one person told me the Minneapolis police implied to them that auto burglaries were some sort a parking fee for parking in city rather than a crime to investigate and prosecute the scumbag criminals that did it to the fullest extent of the law.

But even assuming all of the Minneapolis police "did their jobs" to our satisfaction, do you think maybe we'd need more of them to make a meaningful dent in crime? To the point that stores can leave their stuff unlocked without fears of becoming repeated crime victims?

[Silophant]

Maybe. But it seems more cost-effective to have the cops we have do their jobs first, and then hire more if necessary. We've already proven pretty comprehensively that having 800 that don't bother doing their jobs doesn't work, I don't know that we need to run that experiment again.

[mister.shoes]

Orrrr…we could treat the disease and build a society where people can afford to buy effing toothpaste. People don’t steal because it’s fun and there’s nothing they’d rather do. They steal because they have no money and no hope for a better future.

But creating a more equitable world is really hard and might require fewer yachts and jets and rockets for billionaires. Or, heaven forbid, fewer billionaires. Alas. MOAR COPPERS PLZ!

[thespeedmccool]

People don’t steal because it’s fun and there’s nothing they’d rather do.

I think there really are people who do that, but I agree the solution can't be more do-nothing cops. Minneapolis' budget is 1/3 cops, and that's before the crazy lawsuits MPD gets into.

The solution to stopping these "just for fun" crimes (as well as gang activity, IMO) is to keep kids in school and set them on the right track early in life. That means funding schools, boosting social welfare, supporting abortion rights, getting police embedded in the community, and locking up criminal ringleaders.

We have to get out of this mindset of "crime, therefore cops." It's a failed, reductive, and oversimplified non-solution to a complex equity problem.

[Mdcastle]

Or if you can't afford to buy effing toothpaste, you can make the choice to go get a job so you can afford to buy toothpaste, instead of making the choice to become a criminal and steal the toothpaste. Right now we don't have enough police and our criminal justice system isn't harsh enough that stealing the toothpaste is a bad option, so the only alternative is for Walgreens and Target to lock it up

[Beachclub]

I'm certainly not against the idea of throwing every last criminal in jail where they belong.

Right now we don't have enough police and our criminal justice system isn't harsh enough that stealing the toothpaste is a bad option, so the only alternative is for Walgreens and Target to lock it up

I know this thread is way off topic already, but claiming that "our criminal justice system isn't harsh enough" is completely divorced from reality. The United States has more people in jail than any other country in the world. Doesn't matter if you're talking absolute numbers, rates, whatever... we lock up more of our people than anywhere else. More than China, more than Iran, more than Russia. More than ANYONE. (Check the data if you don't believe me: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_c ... ation_rate) If the highest incarceration rate in the world isn't enough to keep people from stealing toothpaste, why do you think locking up even more people will make a difference?

The argument for more incarceration as a solution to shoplifting ignores the fact that the largest mass incarceration program in the world hasn't worked so far and it requires a baseless faith that with just a few more cops, just a few more people in jail, it will magically somehow work this time. It is a lazy argument that un-serious people use because they don't want to do the difficult work of finding real solutions to the problems that drive crime or because they simply can't think creatively enough to imagine what these solutions might look like. And on top of all that it ignores the harm done by mass incarceration, the harm done to communities with incarcerated members, the harm done to people trying to get back on their feet while having to navigate a legal system designed to benefit the well-off, the harm done by a police force that shoots dead more than a thousand people a year and kills hundreds more by other means, the harm done by a jail system that kills thousands of people in their custody every year (https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politi ... -rcna47954).

Mdcastle, our current justice system is expensive, ineffective, and harmful. To argue for more of the same is foolish and cruel.

[Tyler]

...our criminal justice system isn't harsh enough...

Jesus. Fucking. Christ.