Expect more, stay less? Mega-retailer Target announced the imminent shuttering of nine city locations, including the East Harlem store, last Tuesday, Sept. 26, over “team member and guest safety.” The company specifically cites theft and organized retail crime as the source of those safety concerns and “unsustainable business performance.”
Doors officially close in East Harlem on Oct. 21. Back in 2010, the location opened with the fanfare of being Manhattan’s first Target. Now it’s the company’s only store on the East Coast shutting down due to shoplifting; 96 other Targets remain in the New York City market.
The East Harlem store currently has another 17.5 years on its lease, according to the Blumenfeld Development Group. The co-developer of East River Plaza—the shopping center housing the Target location—called the store closure a “business decision” and argued against painting East Harlem as “unsafe to justify a different business model or vindicate an overly aggressive expansion plan.”
“Target’s suggestion that crime is the reason for its decision to leave the East River Plaza is a sweeping and unfair characterization of our center and the entire East Harlem community, and to suggest that the safety of their employees and customers is threatened in East Harlem is an insult to everyone who is committed to this community,” the Blumenfeld Development Group added. East Harlem’s Community Board 11 chair Xavier Santiago felt the announcement disingenuously presented the community as unsafe, especially given the neighborhood’s large Spanish-speaking population.
“Although I doubt race was within their worldview, the optics are poor, because you’re doing this to [a] predominantly Hispanic community during Hispanic Heritage Month at the marquee store right before the holidays,” he said.
Both Santiago and the Blumenfeld Development Group point to police data on petit larceny, which tallies most misdemeanor shoplifting crimes, as a counter-narrative to Target’s claim, although the actual store’s theft numbers are not publicly available.
The NYPD’s stats, as of this week’s start, report 948 petit larceny complaints in East Harlem’s 25th Precinct, a small decrease from last year. The numbers are nearly identical to Central Harlem’s 28th Precinct, which reports 967 petit larceny complaints this year and will cover the upcoming location. Another 620 complaints were reported by the 10th Precinct, where an upcoming Chelsea store is planned, a 10% increase from 2022, and 1,660 complaints were tallied in the 13th Precinct, which covers Union Square, where another Target is planned to open. That area is a central retail hub and saw a near 8% decrease in reported petit larcenies.
To be clear, citywide retail thefts are by far the highest in upper-income Manhattan neighborhoods, according to the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice data. The most complaints last year were reported by the 1st Precinct, which covers SoHo, Tribeca and Wall Street, followed by Upper East Side’s 19th and the pair of Midtown Manhattan precincts. East Harlem’s 25th Precinct ranks just outside the top 20.
Then there’s the matter of store size. The East Harlem location, which spans a reported 174,000 square feet, boasts a larger footage area than the three upcoming Manhattan locations combined.
Local resident and advocate Dr. Sharon Gonzalez said she doesn’t see the big-box model succeeding in Manhattan, citing paid parking and lighter foot traffic as issues. She prefers shopping at the Mt. Vernon Target and said she doesn’t think the store’s absence will significantly affect her and other Black New Yorkers in East Harlem.
A Manhattan District Attorney’s Office spokesperson said shoplifting complaints borough-wide are down 14% this year and called the East Harlem Target “a boon for the community, providing local jobs for employees in the area.” City Council deputy speaker Diana Ayala, who represents East Harlem, also saw the closing store as a local resource.
“I’m disappointed to hear the news about the closure of the East Harlem Target,” said Ayala. “This store has been a lifeline for many East Harlem residents, providing jobs and stability for their families. The thought of the hardship this closure will bring to those who relied on these jobs is disheartening.”
A petition by local residents to keep Target in East Harlem currently sits at around 1,500 signatures. The author not only pointed to the store’s affordable offering of essential goods like toiletries and stationary but also expressed anxieties for a potential domino effect for nearby retailers.
Target did not respond to multiple attempts to reach the company. The retailer is also putting the “depart” in department stores for a trio of locations in both San Francisco and Portland, along with two other shops in Seattle. Unlike in New York City, there are no announced upcoming stores in those three cities.
Such a decision comes at a time when shoplifting is a key policy concern. In May, Target participated in a citywide retail theft summit hosted by Mayor Eric Adams that delineated plans to create diversion programs and reduce the internet pipelines for resold stolen goods. District attorneys may opt to qualify verifiable first-time offenders during pre-arraignment in the Second Chance Initiative, which enrolls shoplifters in non-carceral supportive services.
John Jay College of Criminal Justice assistant professor Keith Taylor said programs addressing underlying causes of petit larceny and offering alternatives to prosecution are crucial. But he also said they cannot take on organized retail crime, which often spring up on prominent online fences listed on less regulated social media resale marketplaces. Such efforts could be crucial in keeping businesses in Target within the fold.
“You have those who are actually working as a coordinating crew or ring to steal specific retail,” said Taylor. “And then you have those who take advantage of [the] opportunity that are individually looking to take what they can…it can really cause more unintended consequences as a result because as stores shut down and main streets—in districts all over the country—start to go dark, you then have other things like employment problems.”
In 2022, just 327 people were responsible for a significant minority of retail theft, according to Adams. The National Retail Federation (NRF) reports average shrink—lost retail inventory—is trending upward and last year’s losses ballooned up to $112.1 billion from 2021’s $93.9 billion. This number does include other costs but is “driven by theft,” both external and internal.
Overall, the NRF reports a 60% rise in organized retail theft since 2015. Federally, the Integrity, Notification, and Fairness in Online Retail Marketplaces for Consumers (INFORM) Act went into effect this June, mandating online marketplace platforms to regulate and verify the legitimacy of prolific third-party resellers.
Tandy Lau is a Report for America corps member and writes about public safety for the Amsterdam News. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep him writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today by visiting https://bit.ly/amnews1.
Theft has been going on since Turtle Island. So come up with a better excuse for withdrawal from East Harlem. With all that technology you worried about theft?
Y’all better wake up of bamboozled stuff happening.
Please theft been going on everywhere since the beginning. Give us a better excuse.
You all buying that…….stop being so freaking naive. What else you believing? Like Maya Angelou said…….. Believe them. And run.
i think target, where I would never shop, and other retailers have the absolute
right to protect their employees and security people. In reality as new yorkers
we know all about the uptick in store theft, turn on your TV.
I hope more and more stores that bear the brunt of theft continue to close
every store until the community rallies around the stores and PEOPLE and
not give into thugs and thieves who have undermined all of those people
who need and count on those shops.
i seem to be the only person who posted that knows the english language.