“It is super inconvenient, and it also kind of destroys the shopping experience,” said Kate D. Gallagher, 30, of St. Paul, adding shopping at her nearby Midway Target can be a hassle with so many items under lock and key. “It feels like Target is treating its clients like criminals, and we’re not. We’re just customers.”

According to the National Retail Federation’s 2023 retail security survey, the average shrink rate for fiscal year 2022 was 1.6%, representing $112.1 billion in losses, an increase from the year prior but in line with 2020 and 2019. Shrink is made up of three main elements, per the survey: external theft, including organized retail crime; employee theft; and process, control failures, errors and other known and unknown problems.

To cut those losses, Target recently lowered its product value threshold for shoplifting intervention from $100 to $50. Many store employees avoid confronting thieves when there could be potential safety risks or large disturbances, but asset protection workers have specific training and protocol to help them make stops.

Fiddelke said smaller shrink was “one of the tailwinds” to Target’s recent profits, which shot up more than 40% in the past few months as compared to the same time last year.

Mueller lamented in an online review of his local Target how it “converted half the store into a museum of deodorant, toothpaste, laundry detergent, shampoos and vitamins.”

He — like Gallagher, who enjoys being able to freely compare products, look at ingredients and smell or feel items — will also venture to the suburbs for necessities. But not all shoppers will go out of their way after they are inconvenienced, said Brand Elverston, a risk mitigation consultant who used to work as an asset protection director at Walmart.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz has been campaigning almost nonstop since Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris selected him to be her running mate, leaving little time for him to spend at home governing.

The daily schedule published by the governor’s office has become repetitive since Walz was elevated to the presidential ticket on Aug. 6: “Governor Tim Walz has no public events scheduled,” the schedule has stated every day but two. On Aug. 12 and Aug. 26, Walz interviewed candidates for judicial vacancies.

Walz was back in Minnesota on Sunday for a brief visit to the State Fair. He told reporters he’s leaned on his team to help manage his schedule and balance his governor duties while on the campaign trail.

“We appointed three great judges last week in Ramsey County,” Walz said at the fair. He added that his team updates him throughout the day, and he goes over memos and speaks with commissioners every night.

The governor’s chief of staff, Chris Schmitter, and communications director, Teddy Tschann, have also joined the Harris-Walz campaign. Schmitter continues to work limited hours with the state, “ensuring the Governor always has the latest information from our office and cabinet,” said Claire Lancaster, the governor’s spokeswoman.

Lancaster said in a statement that “our office is still running as it always has — core functions haven’t changed.”

“The Governor is still meeting with staff, interviewing judges, and making decisions,” Lancaster said. “Our Deputy Chief of Staff Richard Carlbom has taken over day-to-day management of the office and Anne O’Connor continues to lead the cabinet.”

Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, Walz’s second-in-command, would become governor if he is elected to the White House in November. She said in an interview last week that she’s in frequent contact with Walz while he’s on the campaign trail. Even when he isn’t in Minnesota, Flanagan said Walz is making major decisions and steering the state.

With all that going on, it wasn’t surprising the group seemed a little distracted and not fully strapped in upon takeoff on opening night. The crowd stood rather stone-faced in the opening song “II. Anonymous.” Frontman Rivers Cuomo — a notoriously unanimated bandleader — seemed especially wooden and distracted even as fans sang along with delight to “Dope Nose” and “Pork and Beans” early in the set.

What little talking Cuomo did between songs was also filled with less-than-stellar interstellar comments.

“We are 30 light-years out from ‘The Blue Album,’ ” he said near the start. “We are happy to be going back. Thank you for coming on this dangerous and important mission.”

Weezer saved its full “Blue Album” performance until the end, which worked out way better than the spacey banter. In the interim, it loosely worked its way backwards chronologically from 2000s-era hits such as ”Island in the Sun” and “Beverly Hills” to “Getchoo,” “Pink Triangle” and two more songs off what is actually the band’s best and weirdest album, 1996′s “Pinkerton.”

By the time Cuomo and Co. got to “My Name Is Jonas” to kick off the “Blue Album” segment, they were locked into orbit.

Of course, the band has been playing “Blue” tunes like “Buddy Holly” and “Say It Ain’t So” at all of its concerts since 1994, so no surprise those songs soared. But the guys also showed bursting energy in lesser-played album cuts like “The World Has Turned Against Me” and the lengthy, space-jammy closing song “Only in Dreams.” There was no encore after that — and nothing odd about that, either. Mission accomplished.