• Target recently updated its website to call out “suspected fraud or abuse” of its return policy.
• While the rules haven’t changed, the clarification sets the company up to enforce them more strictly.
• The move could curb the trend of shoppers returning piles of worn out Cat & Jack kids’ clothes.

Sometimes it’s not enough to read between the lines. More and more, you have to spell it out.

In the case of Target, the days of testing the legal and ethical limits of the company’s return policy may be numbered.

In a recent update to its website, Target now says it “reserves the right to deny returns, refunds and exchanges including but not limited to prevent fraud, suspected fraud or abuse.”

Not only is the phrasing new (Business Insider has closely covered Target’s return policy over the years), but neither the word “fraud” nor “abuse” appears in an archived version of the company’s return policy from one month ago.

A Target spokesperson told BI that while the communication of this point is new, the policy itself hasn’t changed, including the one-year backing of all private-label products.

Still, while the rules may not be new, the clarification sets the company up to potentially enforce them more strictly and consistently.

Return fraud is indeed a concerning problem for retailers across the industry, with the National Retail Federation estimating $101 billion in related losses last year.

But the abuse side of the coin has a more uniquely Bullseye dimension: the trend of shoppers returning piles of worn out Cat & Jack kids’ clothes for cash. As one of Target’s most popular store brands (selling more than $3 billion per year), Cat & Jack products are backed by a one-year satisfaction guarantee, which some customers push to its conceptual limits.

Users on the r/Target subreddit welcomed the new language, saying it will help service desk employees in dealing with difficult customers.

Indeed, a popular euphemism for dirty and destroyed apparel is “well-loved,” and grass-stained T-shirts and pants with blown-out knees from a year on the playground don’t exactly suggest defective merch.

“These are people admitting on social media that they were actually quite satisfied, but they are just finding a loophole in this return policy,” H Squared Research chief retail analyst Hitha Herzog previously told BI. “If the return policy allows you to do that, I guess you can. But ethically, should you? I wouldn’t.”

Now, with this latest update, Target seems to be saying, “Please don’t.”

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