The latest chapter in the ongoing saga of how bad things have gotten in San Francisco lately involves one of the local Target outlets. Target is one of the chains that has thus far managed to avoid simply shutting down and moving out of the city because of the constant mass looting that’s taking place. But this report shows the lengths that they’ve had to go to in order to manage the feat. While most stores keep a few of the smaller, more expensive items locked up behind the cashier’s counter to reduce theft, this Target on Folsom Street near the Mission District has locked up everything in the entire store. And they’re doing it in response to what is now being described as a “shoplifting crisis.” (NY Post)

A San Francisco Target store has been putting all of its products on lockdown amid a shoplifting crisis that has crippled retailers in the Golden Gate City.

Footage of the store’s interior posted to TikTok Thursday showed aisle after aisle of toiletries and cosmetics under lock and key in the megachain.

While it’s common for stores to lock up small valuable items like razors, heaps of inexpensive large items like mouthwash, shampoo and lotion were also being kept out of reach from the grubby hands of would-be shoplifters, the clip showed.

Here’s a short video tour of the store published by the local CBS News affiliate.

Organized retail theft on a massive scale has been plaguing many cities, but San Francisco and Los Angles have been hit the hardest. Just last week, the San Francisco City Council voted for a significant increase to the police budget to recruit new officers. But that seems like a case of closing the barn door after the horses have already escaped.

There’s only so much the police can do when that many thieves attack a store simultaneously. And thanks to California’s “justice reform” and “bail reform” laws, the thieves don’t care if the cops take them in. They know they’ll be released immediately with little or no bail for any non-violent crime. Then they can hit the store again and sell the products at a discount on the black market or just out on a street corner.

Target’s solution may look potentially effective, but it’s still driving up everyone’s costs and worsening the shopping experience for law-abiding customers. The store will need to have enough clerks on hand to go and unlock the cabinets for each item that each customer wants to pick up. That will lead to higher labor costs and longer wait times. And all of that doesn’t even include the expenses they incur during the months of construction required to put all of the cabinets in place.

The modern concept of supermarkets where customers pick out their own purchases didn’t start until 1916. The first one was a Piggly-Wiggly in Memphis. Prior to that, customers would hand a shopping list to the clerk who would go and fetch all of the items. Are we eventually going to have to return to that model just to cut down on crime? That would be a shame. But open supermarkets relied on a belief that the vast majority of people could be trusted to pay for their purchases. That’s no longer the case in America’s large cities. Permissive laws have opened the door to rampant criminal gangs.