Retail Stores Locked Up Items

[Cody Fousnaugh]

First, when I see this, like I do at our local Walmart, the first thing I think about is the neighborhood. There are few different areas at this Walmart that has many things locked up: laundry detergent, part of the pharmacy and the cosmetics/men's shaving items. I found out they have very high theft with those items.

Our local Walgreens is nothing like this. IOW, nothing locked up.

Reason I done this thread, there was an online article about it. A man who needed person items, but the ones he had were too big for the airlines. So, when he got to NYC, he went to a CVS and was stunned by so many items being locked up. He said "first of all, I had to find a store clerk and wait for one to unlock the item/items I wanted, but before I knew it, the clerk locked the area and took off. Didn't even ask me if I needed anything else. Such a inconvenience, but I know why it's done today. Retail stores simply can't handle the cost of theft."

Now, the way I see it is: Ok, items are locked up for a reason, however, who is to say that the person requesting the "unlocking" won't try to walk out the door anyway without paying. Since living here, we've been in two different grocery stores where someone walked out of the store without paying. The Self-Serve clerk told us that people will scan all of the items and then walk out without paying. That way, no alarm/alarms will go off. Unfortunately, or fortunately for safety, the clerks at these stores can't stop someone who has a full grocery cart from walking out the door. Actually, we were told that once the person is on the sidewalk outside the door, no store employees can stop them. There have been store employees shot, shot at and fired for trying to stop a theft.

Comments, please.

 

[Jacob Petersheim]

I wish I could think of any practical fix for this.

 

[Don Alaska]

I don't mind expensive items being locked up. but one store locks up strange stuff like condoms, lotions, and other simple stuff. I can't imagine too many people paging a store clerk to unlick condoms. Perhaps some things should be behind a counter and the store clerk could address them at check out like they do cigarettes here in most stores. Store clerks should be readily available to unlock, which isn't the case many times and even they have to find someone with a key. As a rule, I don't buy any thing that is under lock and key.

I also don't like it when some stores, mostly Kroger, want to scan your driver's license or ID when you purchase "controlled" items such as cough syrups and antihistamines (not to mention alcohol). I don't mind just showing my ID, although I am obviously over 21 years of age, but one can never tell what they are taking from the scan of the license since many are now Real ID and contain all kinds of data on you in coded form. I have stopped buying anything that requires a scan of my license, so I don't buy cough medicine, alcohol, or anything else for a Kroger store. Our local store requires "carding" anyone who appears under 40 years, and I am fine with that, and when they card, they only look at the ID and do not scan it.

 

[Sheryl]

I suspect that condoms are one of the most pilfered items.

 

[Cody Fousnaugh]

It does cost more for groceries, but we'd rather go to Von's shopping. Nothing is locked up! However, there are times that we will do a pick-up order from Walmart and don't have to worry, and even get mad, because it takes so long for someone to unlock an item inside the store.

 

[Susannah]

I wish I could think of any practical fix for this.

I can think of several practical fixes but they would likely be considered political. Nearly every topic involves politics in the US. I'm not sure if the political definition is the same in the UK as in the US.

I don't shop the giant stores in person anymore. If it's groceries at WalMart I place a pickup order or if it can be shipped, like paper goods, I do that. There are some smaller full service groceries that I visit in person. The Safeway near me has everything but is so much smaller than a WalMart because it's mostly just groceries and I haven't noticed anything being locked up.

Several of the drug stores like Walgreens have drive thru windows. I can shop online and pick up at the window. Even the pet food stores here will let you order online and then bring it out and load it in your car if you choose that method.

Picking stores carefully and using a variety of shopping methods spares me the experience of having to ask to have products unlocked. That must be really frustrating.