Even if you don't live in one of these liberal hell hole cities, who do you think is going to make up the losses by paying for higher prices? For the answer, look in the mirror.
America’s great cities once symbolized prosperity and culture. Now, many are paying a steep financial price as crime surges and businesses flee. As one line in a new op-ed piece put it, “Crime has a balance sheet. In poorly led cities, that balance sheet is bleeding red ink by the day.”
From ZeroHedge:
Retail is bearing the brunt, according to an op-ed by Ted Jenkin at Fox News. The National Retail Federation (NRF) reported U.S. retailers lost $112 billion in 2022 due to theft, up from $94 billion in 2021. Between 2019 and 2023, shoplifting incidents rose 93% and dollar losses climbed 90%. Major chains are pulling back: Target projected $500 million in additional losses this year, Walgreens has shut stores across San Francisco, and Nordstrom left downtown entirely.
“Does it seem insane to you that so many of these retail stores have to lock up much of the merchandise…knowing that they will never be arrested?” the piece asked. The fallout is visible in empty storefronts and shrinking city budgets. San Francisco’s downtown vacancy rate has hit 34.8%, erasing jobs, tax revenue, and foot traffic.
They want to hull out the feral cities and turn them into barracks for the fifth columns and civil war. If you remain in the cities on the dream of past glories, you could wind up in the crossfires. Some think if it goes far enough, we will see the cities turned into war shambles to root out the cancers. I hopium not, but it's not looking good. Even Trump has hesitated in his campaign on Chicago, unless he is just throwing them off guard.
Small retail can't survive this assult which means they close up so the only ones left will be the giant corporations that will be around when the bailout cash gets handed out I really try to shop local. Impossible to save a county with 2.5 million population ratrace.
Personal story: I knew a retired couple that lived in a very safe suburb that bordered one of these progressive cities. After retirement, the wife decided to apply for a part time job at the newly built super Walmart located in their small town. During this time frame, the husband would periodical call me to fill me in on his wife’s experiences.
From the very start, large numbers of Black shoppers began ‘shopping’ there. My friend’s wife was assigned the job to check the receipts for big ticket items prior to exiting the store, which more times than not, they refused and just walked out the door with their big ticket items. Management gave strict orders to the staff not to confront them, but to just let them go. There were other methods of theft that were constantly in play. The store, located in a very white area, was pressured to hire Black employees, which they did, many serving as cashiers. Store security found that, over and over again, cashiers would have very large orders come through their register lines but would only ring up a small fraction of their order. Security found that these happy customers had a ‘arrangement’ with the cashiers. Clever, huh?
The first year of operation, the store lost $1 million, the next year, it rose to $3 million. It doesn’t stop there. Numerous crimes also take place in the vast parking lot such as assaults, robberies, car jackings, car break ins and car thefts, etc. As you can imagine, the small town’s police department, whose politicians lobbied Walmart hard to build a store in their town and even gave them tax abatements, spend an awful lot of time there trying to stem the endless onslaught of crime.
America’s great cities once symbolized prosperity and culture. Now, many are paying a steep financial price as crime surges and businesses flee. As one line in a new op-ed piece put it, “Crime has a balance sheet. In poorly led cities, that balance sheet is bleeding red ink by the day.”
From ZeroHedge:
Retail is bearing the brunt, according to an op-ed by Ted Jenkin at Fox News. The National Retail Federation (NRF) reported U.S. retailers lost $112 billion in 2022 due to theft, up from $94 billion in 2021. Between 2019 and 2023, shoplifting incidents rose 93% and dollar losses climbed 90%. Major chains are pulling back: Target projected $500 million in additional losses this year, Walgreens has shut stores across San Francisco, and Nordstrom left downtown entirely.
“Does it seem insane to you that so many of these retail stores have to lock up much of the merchandise…knowing that they will never be arrested?” the piece asked. The fallout is visible in empty storefronts and shrinking city budgets. San Francisco’s downtown vacancy rate has hit 34.8%, erasing jobs, tax revenue, and foot traffic.
More here: https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/billions-losses-retail-crime-has-surged-93-progressive-cities