Ongoing theft has caused a Nike store in Portland to be closed for months.
That’s according to The Oregonian, which says there has been little indication that the closure of the store at 2650 N.E. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. is temporary or permanent, though it remains stocked and staffed.
“People were just going in there with bags already opened and picking up stuff and walking out the door past unarmed security,” Ron Herndon, a Portland civil rights and education activist, told Business Insider.
Nike’s proposed solution – according to a letter that the sneaker giant sent to city mayor Ted Wheeler, which was obtained by The Oregonian – is to allow the company to hire off-duty police officers and give them the authority to arrest shoplifters. An upgraded loss-prevention strategy has also been proposed for Nike’s store in downtown Portland as well.
The Nike store on MLK Boulevard has reported 437 shoplifting cases to police since 2019, per a November analysis from KGW, Portland’s NBC affiliate. In Portland, that figure is second only to the 650 reported shoplifting incidents at a local Target store.