https://fortune.com/2025/01/14/walgreens-ceo-anti-shoplifting-backfired-locks-reduce-sales/
I mean it really should be obvious. There is a rite aid near me that is going out of business, so they rarely restock shelves. The only shelves that are ever not looking completely barren are the shelves of things that are locked up. Not only are the locked up shelves not barren, they are completely full. That should tell you all you need to know right there. Unlock the fucking shelves, you’re literally going bankrupt.
the rite aid here doesn't turn on the interior lights in the store during daylight hours
The one here had their drink cooler actively broken, making weird noises and smells, for two full months before someone finally put up a sign that said "sorry, the cooler isn't working; the drinks are fine but warm".
Yeah no shit I'm not waiting 10 minutes for someone to unlock a cage because there are two people working and one of them is on break.
I went once to pick up condoms and they were behind those glass doors. I pressed the button and it announced loudly that assistance was needed in "Family Planning" and everyone nearby started looking over and despite not being a teenager the embarrassment is never any less. I was just waiting around until someone finally came and they had the wrong key or something and started yelling at someone to bring the key to family planning, only further drawing attention to my anti-volcel ass. It was pretty uncomfortable. Never went back there for that again.
Way more effective than volcel police.
- Show
The people's VOLCEL VANGUARD are on the scene! PLEASE RESERVE YOUR PRECIOUS BODILY FLUIDS FOR STRATEGIC ACTS OF MASS REVOLUTIONARY CUMMING!!!
sounds like a Walgreens that is over budget on staff. just cut down to one employee, then they can't go on break ever. win win.
E F F I C I E N C Y
Waiting 10 minutes for a rite aid employee to grab a deodorant for me and I open it to smell it and don’t like the smell but she already walked away. Ok thanks for the free deodorant I guess
Yeah the deodorant getting locked up is so ridiculous, these are $3-4 items and you need to keep them behind plexiglass? Fuck you, I'm shop lifting out of principle now.
Hey but what if we made everybody’s lives worse so we could mildly inconvenience one person who might steal something that won’t impact our margins at all?
The anti-shoplifting campaign was always a ruse by the c-suite to hide their mismanagement and poor performance.
I always thought the “aaah, shoplifting!” panic was just ceos faking it to try to garner sympathy lol. Good to feel vindicated.
Traditionally it's been a way for big businesses to bully local municipalities into giving them free security via local cops, tax incentives, etc by claiming that they're losing so much money to shoplifters that they have no choice but to close shop unless something changes (which is always bullshit, they're printing money). Walmart is infamous for doing this to small towns after they annihilate any local competition through lower prices from their economy of scale.
Funny you should bring up Walmart, because Walmart is the second biggest reason why I hate the “just start your own business” cliche.
Walmart was weaponized to make that impossible.
Honestly I don't think a one-stop-shop can be unassailable. Having a depth/variety of products is important, not just for consumer's sensibilities but also for being able to cover all the use cases. A Walmart might be most of a grocery and pharmacy and toy store, and half of a garden and hardware and auto parts and home furnishings store, but it will never be all of all these things (and perhaps not even 100% of any of these things). The logistics just becomes prohibitive.
The businesses that are best to start with are the ones where online shopping is unsatisfactory.
I think it's simply that they want to close stores, and just saying it's because store has lower profits than their target will mean they have to field a bunch of calls and letter campaigns from grumpy people trying to tell them their neighborhood is important, while saying it's crime will get those same people to blame anyone else.
I always figured the playbook was something like:
- Cut staffing (and save $$$)
- Shrinkage increases due to fewer staff
- Construct a narrative around rising crime, of which locking up products is a part
- Get more cops
Congratulations, you've successfully shifted costs of protecting your property on the public!
one time I was buying condoms and the cashier couldn't do the little magnetic thing on the box so she had to call someone else over.
I sometimes just cut it off the peg if I don't have a magnet thingy
My local supermarket put their most expensive meat into a locked cage. Apparently that hurt sales more than the occasional lost roastbeef did because the cage is gone now.
And yet the deli model is still fully workable. You go up to the counter, you ask for something, they slice or scoop it for you inti a container.
I have a friend who works in the deli section of a supermarket and she's hardly ever idle.
I refuse to buy anything that's locked behind a cage I have to ask someone to open, I will just go somewhere else.
They lock like 50% of the shit up, like why would I visit you if I can just go to a grocery store instead?
in other news, scientists test theory of water being wet, stay tuned for more.
And the best advertisement for my local mom and pop oharmacy was the fact that every trip to walgreens for drugs took 45 minutes to an hour. At the mom and pop, it's 5, and they're friendly because they aren't understaffed
I think the big chain pharmacies hope that this helps their bottom line because you will be walking around shopping, but the olds at mine just sit in the chairs and wait.
The small pharma where I go has a gift shop attached. I shop there for fun
Good. Shoplifting like this makes the only way to be a profitable shop is to be invested in uplifting the local community out of poverty and have them actually respect you as a positive actor. Not sure any big business would ever actually do that, but it has to push things in a slightly positive direction.
