A TikTok video from inside a San Francisco Target store went viral this week when it showed that the entirety of the store’s cosmetics and toiletries are now locked up. The anti-policing efforts of California and Bay Area politicians have left store owners and business managers with little choice but to lock merchandise up behind shatterproof barriers. Police don’t even bother showing up if a store owner calls them because of a shoplifter. As the crime epidemic worsens, many stores are simply closing up shop and getting as far away from San Francisco as they can.
The video shows multiple aisles of common toiletries like deodorants, shampoo, mouthwash and lotion are all under lock and key. While a lot of retailers now lock up more expensive items, it’s unusual to see all the cheaper stuff protected like it’s gold in Fort Knox. But that is what store owners are now forced to do.
The problem stems from Prop 47, known as the Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Act. That act decriminalized things like shoplifting. It was once a felony in California to steal goods worth less than $950, but now that’s a misdemeanor. It’s not even worth it to the cops to show up for routine shoplifting cases anymore, since they know that San Francisco’s George Soros-backed prosecutors will just drop the charges anyway. Stores just have to eat the loss.
Organized shoplifting groups also started once the BLM terrorist attacks started during the Summer of George Floyd in 2020. Those groups have never stopped looting and vandalizing stores while stealing everything off the shelves. Five Walgreens stores shut down completely in San Francisco last year and move away from the area. The routine thefts made it impossible to break even.
Aside from the organized groups of looters, which the media always refers to with the helpful moniker of “youths,” the Bay Area’s homeless are making life insufferable as well. They’re allowed to walk into a store and so long as they steal less than $950 worth of stuff, they know the cops won’t even bother them. This also exacerbates the homelessness problem in California. It’s impossible for a hobo to starve because they’re now allowed to steal whatever they want. Lax policing takes away one more incentive for people to get off the streets.
The homeless also use the goods that they steal from Target or other retailers to fuel their drug habits. They walk out of the store with stolen goods and sell them cheaply in the parking lot. Joe Biden’s runaway inflation has hit California especially hard, so everyday people are much more likely to buy stolen goods. Why pay $10 bucks for an unopened stick of deodorant inside Target, when you can buy it from the hobo outside for $1?
Many are now predicting that the Folsom Street Target store featured in the TikTok video won’t be open much longer. Who would want to shop at a store where everything is locked in a cage, and you have to find a clerk with a key to get every little item that they’re looking for?
Check out the video of what the inside of that Target store looks like now. Would you want to shop in a place like that?
