>>But these factors are not sufficient to explain the trend. The chains’ owners have done little to maintain order in the stores, which tend to be thinly staffed and exist in a state of physical disarray.
This is virtually every retail store out there. Go into a non-supercenter Walmart in the average town. Retail never has enough staff and never has enough time or payroll to clean.
This too: Several years ago, noticing the rise in calls to the dollar stores, the department provided training sessions for Family >>Dollar managers in how to practice what police call “crime prevention through environmental design.” Officers showed them how less trash outside and less clutter inside and fewer big ads in the windows, which block the view of responding police officers, would make their stores safer.
This has zero to do with the kind of crime that is happening to them; it's all about being often the only retailers even close to a high crime area.
Or this:
>>Residents often sent her photos of dangerously cluttered aisles, and she asked fire marshals to issue warnings. “The more and more ubiquitous they’ve gotten, they’ve gotten less and less caring,” she said. “I came to see them as glorified check-cashing and payday lenders for the way they prey off the poor but don’t really care about the poor.”
...this is moronic. They do nothing of the sort, they sell goods at decent prices to underserved areas. That they are getting hit with crime is more about how shitty the average underserved area is than their policies or procedures; they do nothing that other retail doesn't do.
It's a really bad piece, and i agree its trying to blame the victim.