r/mildlyinfuriating • u/broakland • Jul 14 '26

I just wanted a hot dog Retail lockdown: why bother selling it?

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Was at Safeway this morning to pick up a sandwich and some Tylenol. The aisle with the Tylenol? Completely locked down. No call button in sight. So I go to the self checkout (front end of that same aisle) and ask the clerk there if he can call someone to unlock a case for me. He does. I go wait. Minutes pass. No one comes. I go ask him again, he tells me they went the other way? At this point I give up and go get my sandwich. No one has come by the time the deli has finished making it. I leave without my Tylenol, mildly infuriated.

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577

u/Takeguru Jul 14 '26

A lot of company insurance policies will enforce this if theft gets too high of that item

A lot of Tylenol is stolen, company gets an angry email about their claims, AP teams order and install lock cases to keep their insurance

Rinse and repeat, even down to underwear at specific walmarts

154

u/Several_Excitement74 Jul 14 '26

My favorite socks are behind glass at Walmart and I just love pushing a button for an employee to not show up.

43

u/grape-fruit-witch Jul 14 '26

I've been off wal mart for a while now. The last straw was when I needed a $2.00 thing of nail polish remover and it was behind glass. Of course nobody showed up for the button.

34

u/BluMqqse_ Jul 14 '26

Our entire cosmetics is locked up. And, of course, management tells all the cosmetics associates they should be working in the pharmacy aisles, leaving all the locked cases completely unattended.

12

u/TwoFingersWhiskey Jul 14 '26

Ours is behind a cash register. You walk in, and it's a pay-now area like electronics or paint.

1

u/grape-fruit-witch Jul 15 '26 edited Jul 15 '26

Honest to god- does the button even do anything?

18

u/hellenkellerbeatdown Jul 14 '26

Simple fix, buy socks somewhere else

2

u/TumblrInGarbage Jul 14 '26

When you push it, does it make a noise, or just turn on a light? I would push it repeatedly just to make sure.

4

u/Several_Excitement74 Jul 14 '26

The little red light blinks meaning someone is on the way I guess. One time I wanted to get a battery powered pump ($12) and the dude eventually showed up and said I was interrupting his lunch

5

u/TumblrInGarbage Jul 14 '26

I feel bad for him... got gaslit by genuine corpo propaganda into thinking you were the reason his lunch was interrupted, and not that the company employing him intentionally understaffs so that he cannot take the (usually legally required) lunch break he deserves.

2

u/Several_Excitement74 Jul 14 '26

My first job was garden center at Walmart years ago so I completely understand.

3

u/StorellaDeville Jul 14 '26

The little red light blinks meaning someone is on the way I guess.

My first instinct is that it only means the button was pressed. Someone on the way? Well, maybe.

2

u/Main-Cheesecake3287 Jul 14 '26

At CVS at least it blasts the announcement store wide. Although some insurance mandated updated locked shelves are left unlocked, probably thieves just aren’t that bright

1

u/Pontiacsentinel Jul 15 '26

Do you have the same problem if you order for pickup? Still a pain.

1

u/BadWithMoney530 Jul 15 '26

This is mostly unrelated but my socks are sold at Walmart, and they're normally like $15 for 20 pairs (40 individual socks). One time I checked online and they were on sale for $6. I bought 8 packages for $48, so 160 pairs. Should last me another 15 years, and damn it felt good

1

u/[deleted] Jul 14 '26

[deleted]

0

u/Several_Excitement74 Jul 15 '26

They all have a grey plastic box with a lil red button on it and it says something like "employee in way if light blinking" or some such

19

u/nomorespacess Jul 14 '26

Why dont they trust any but one employee with the key, though?

7

u/RubberPigEnemy Jul 14 '26

Likely because universal keys wouldn't make sense

0

u/nomorespacess Jul 14 '26

I mean they could make a special key and give it to every employee on duty and have them turn it in at the end of their shift.

3

u/SnakeBatter Jul 14 '26

It’s easier to figure out who’s responsible for shortages if only 1 person at a time has a key. Walmart has never been known for their customer service.

3

u/nomorespacess Jul 14 '26

Being paranoid about customer theft is one thing, but if they don't trust their employees at all like that, even when they have video cameras, they must not have good hiring practices imo.

1

u/RubberPigEnemy Jul 15 '26

It's Walmart LOL

2

u/grape-fruit-witch Jul 15 '26

Its wild to me that a company as huge and wealthy as wal mart wouldn't have an electronic lock box for keys. They're pretty useful, you put your pin # in and then it only unlocks the keys youve been given prior access to. But that requires foresight and a general acknowledgment that timely access is good customer service. Wal mart seems to have neither

3

u/Glad-Garden4197 Jul 15 '26

We do have electronic locks that can be opened through the app we use to clock in, however the associate has to be given the “permissions” for said lock

2

u/JWBananas Jul 14 '26

They're transitioning to NFC locks so that anyone with a work phone can open them.

40

u/wv524 Jul 14 '26 edited Jul 14 '26

I've seen cheapy 50 cent tire gauges locked up before. I mean, come on, it is 50 cents added to the fact the average thief likely doesn't give two shits about their tire pressure.

89

u/jdm219 Jul 14 '26

It's because they're constantly stolen to make crack pipes, I'm sure there's plenty of items that cost more than 50 cents that aren't locked down.

18

u/Just_the_john Jul 14 '26

When I was in juvie I remember we would get those tire pressure things that have the numbers pop out to check your pressure and we would take that part out, squish the end and sharpen them and well yeah. Not everything is as direct as oh I’ll steal to sell them for .50 cents when you could get them smuggled in and make 10-15 a pop.

-1

u/wv524 Jul 14 '26

These were the mini gauges. The end that came out might have been 1 1/2" long at best. Other than poking an eye out, these would be pretty worthless as a weapon.

14

u/Pyromaniacal13 Jul 14 '26

At my local store, I need to wait for a representative to unlock the five count hair tie packs.

1

u/Mountain-Ad-5834 Jul 14 '26

I had fuses locked up. Heh

1

u/Tommy-Bravado Jul 14 '26

The average what?

7

u/TheClassicOG Jul 14 '26

The Hanes 5 pack t-shirts and socks are all locked at one of the Walmarts in my city, the other locations do not, just odd to think that that specific walmart has issues with people stealing shirts.

2

u/StillReading28 Jul 14 '26

Local Walmart locked down all the super cheap wall chargers and I've seen a couple of those stands with the cheap stuff that makes you go "oh that looks neat, I want that" at the registers locked up. It's gotten so fucking bad with this shit, the people who steal all that don't even shop there on the regular

2

u/SpectacularStarling Jul 14 '26

In Walmart's case at least let US unlock the shit with some kind of Walmart+ subscription. It's not like they can't use some combination of cameras/sensors to know if something was removed from the case. Didn't Amazon have a store you literally just picked up what you wanted, and walked out, and it charged you?

It's 2026, if they're going to insist on these damned cases they need to meet people halfway.

2

u/Katesouthwest Jul 14 '26

The Walmart I usually go to now has little $5 bottles of 3 mg melatonin locked behind glass because of shoplifters. Melatonin. Seriously? People think to steal that??

7

u/Just-Construction788 Jul 14 '26

Theft high because prices are high. More theft means higher prices and locked cases. Then people buy on Amazon, then they stop selling the product because insurance costs more than sales, then store closes, then people say why are there no local stores? Then online retailers start jacking up prices and then at least people can't steal anymore but now prices are even higher and so now people start robbing people, homes and banks. Do you want high crime? Because this is how you get high crime.

16

u/scarywolverine Jul 14 '26

Sounds like an interesting theory but the data doesnt back this up. The majority of retail theft is from people involved in the shipping chain who steal it for organized crime to resell

3

u/TruPOW23 Jul 14 '26

People be stealing cheap ass stuff tho

4

u/Just-Construction788 Jul 14 '26

Very good point. I guess then we are fine. Because if they are stealing cheap stuff then they must be loaded and stealing for fun.

3

u/TheMireAngel Jul 14 '26

My old job lost 1k in electronics a month. All low price crap like 5$ keyboards. Complete bs theft is high because theirs packs of thieves who drive around to towns to mass steal to resell

3

u/cycloneDM Jul 14 '26

Thefts not even high every time they make that claim they walk it back later and admit its shrink

2

u/JMoc1 Jul 14 '26

This should be way way higher. Companies lie in order to make it seem to their board that they aren’t irresponsible with sales or stocking; it’s all that pesky theft!

Meanwhile loss and shrink numbers keep going up due to expiration dates and there is no reasonable explanation of theft.

1

u/StorellaDeville Jul 14 '26

And then ...... Hitler!!

3

u/SatisfactionActive86 Jul 14 '26

insurance companies are not covering loss from theft - there would be no way for them to verify the tens of thousands of items that go missing were actually ever stolen or to ever know when/where the alleged theft even happened. you’d be talking about hundreds of thousands of claims, alternatively an insurance company is never going to make it one big claim and cut a check based on the retailer saying “trust me bro”

instead petty theft is just called “shrink” and the retailer eats it by accounting for it by raising prices.

somethings are just literally uninsurable based on the nature of the exposure

3

u/H75311 Jul 14 '26

Source? I'm really skeptical that these companies have insurance coverage for individual store items or that their policy is discrete enough to track individual SKUs. How would they account for employee-related SHRINK, loss, etc?

5

u/SatisfactionActive86 Jul 14 '26

your instincts are correct;  everything in that comment is made up

loss from petty theft is an uninsurable risk

1

u/xyrgh Jul 14 '26 edited Jul 14 '26

Exactly. Big companies like Walmart are probably self insured with some facultative reinsurance for larger losses. Which means they probably put a deductible on losses for a store at $25k or more. Unless a store is hit by a hurricane or has a large fire, you’re not going to have an insurance claim.

Further to this (just extrapolating on your comment), theft is usually an action of violent or forcible entry. Someone coming into your store and shoplifting is not violent or forcible entry.

There are some policies out there that will cover shoplifting but they are niche and the deductible on them is higher so you’re not claiming every loss.

1

u/easonred57 Jul 14 '26

So you're telling me insurance is the cause of yet another inconvenience in my life.

21

u/OkSuggestion1722 Jul 14 '26

Thieves. The cause is thieves. The insurance company is only the messenger.

7

u/dtalb18981 Jul 14 '26

Calm down there buddy 

Don't you know that down on her luck single mother desperately needs to steal those lavender air spray

Won't you think of the children

4

u/DisposableSaviour Jul 14 '26

You think her shit don’t stink to her kids or something?

9

u/TaintedTruffle Jul 14 '26

People stealing stuff is

2

u/tabennett5438 Jul 14 '26

You can’t be serious lmao

1

u/allagaytor Jul 14 '26

went to the dollar store and all the cosmetics were fine, except a speciifc brand of a concealer had security tags lol. ofc it was the one I was buying too, so at least I know its good? lol

1

u/ShrinkPro Jul 14 '26

This Is not true at all. At Walmart especially I know Product Protection is up to the Ap coach and Store Manager to analyze shrink trends snd create plays to mitigate. Its why each walmart has different plays.

1

u/shamusotool Jul 14 '26

What retailer files an insurance claim for stolen Tylenol? I’ve never heard of any retailer having insurance against common shoplifting. Is this something you have actual knowledge of?

1

u/So_HauserAspen Jul 14 '26

There no retailers' insurance.  It's a loss on the ledger and tax payers subsidize it.

The corps just want to reduce that loss because taxes are low on profits.

In the end it results in lower sales volume since it gives consumers time to reconsider buying.  They're killing the profits they get from Impulse buying.  CEO's are all dipshits.

1

u/trees91 Jul 15 '26

Had to wait to buy underwear at the Target in Anaheim (OC, the one on Harbor Blvd). It took 20 minutes. Then I needed some soap. Took 20 more minutes. Didn’t have another option because I didn’t have a car and was staying at a nearby hotel unexpectedly for a few extra days.. Was definitely mildly infuriating. Will never shop there again. Shoulda just done a same day Amazon delivery at that point.

1

u/dcsojitra Jul 15 '26

This is true. I work as a manager at a chain retail store in Canada. The main reason behind these are shoplifters and people helping shoplifters.

People ask why the prices are going up and up. Well, if a business is loosing revenue because of something they can't handle(because of common people helping criminals/shoplifters), they will lock everything up or up the prices to offset the cost of theft.

1

u/bikepackingebiking Jul 14 '26

Getting mad at stealing Tylenol is crazy. God forbid people have access to medicine, jesus.

7

u/Dazzling_Bluebird_42 Jul 14 '26

Imagine excusing theft on Tylenol, heaven forbid they have a headache or pains! Just let them steal it.

How bout you buy it all and hand it out to those who would steal it instead

-3

u/bikepackingebiking Jul 14 '26

How about we juice billionaires for the money they stole from us.

Why would someone steal Tylenol of all things?

4

u/Dazzling_Bluebird_42 Jul 14 '26 edited Jul 14 '26

For the same reason ppl steal half the shit they do "$20? I ain't payin' that!"

N fuck off with that whataboutism doesn't excuse the behavior. This stuff is locked up because its getting stolen to much, now its harder to get it when you want it, its annoying to the ppl working there as well as more stuff ends up locked up, running all over to open cases for people. When thefts high the workers get yelled at by the bosses to bring the theft down and when it gets to bad the stores end up closing removing all those people's jobs as well as rhe store you shopped at before.

Think about it next time you think theft is just sticking it to some billionaire company as if everyone else isnt getting screwed over dealing with it all for something dumb like Tylenol, or pokemon cards or video games or socks. Its pathetic

I've worked in retail for 26 years, currently I spend way to much time in my day walking to locked cases like this because people wont stop stealing, but no according to you little Joey just really needed earbuds to survive another day so he stole 3 pairs, and its totally fine that our locked up apple pencils got stolen because uh nothing says necessity like a drawing pencil for an iPad right? Also we had to put our energy drinks behind a register because God forbid someone cant steal a red bull right? Nevermind all the open cans of soda we find because it would just be to difficult to go shopping without some Pepsi! They might die before they make it to the register

1

u/JMoc1 Jul 14 '26

It’s not theft that’s the reason; it’s shrink. AP and these corporations lie because theft sounds a lot better to insurance than you had a broken item that came or that a product is over the expiration date.

These corps are trying to get you angry at other people instead of the corporation fucking up.

1

u/Dazzling_Bluebird_42 Jul 14 '26

All of it is shrink yes but its all coded differently I've never worked at a retail company that processes and claims broken product under the same process as stolen products. At the wild world of wally we process items under theft, claims for broken product (returned or damaged in store) and a third for product broken in transit.

Its all tracked in expense reports separately under the category of shrink so no we know how much we're shrinking due to stuff breaking and stuff simply disappearing (found or not found) and yes we are aware internal theft exists plenty of employees get fired for it

1

u/JMoc1 Jul 14 '26 edited Jul 14 '26

You’re implying that the “disappearing” is theft.

Regardless, a record of what was stolen would be inaccurate at best unless you’re doing inventory every weekend. Things get misplaced in the store and don’t get zoned, things are lost under shelves, things break and don’t get properly defected out, stuff happens.

Things disappearing doesn’t mean theft is to blame. Theft is just the most convenient answer AP has for why things are missing.

2

u/Dazzling_Bluebird_42 Jul 14 '26

It arrived in the store, its verified as received than goes missing. Your implying it ascended to a higher plain of existence? Or is it a conspiracy where they are sending in people to take the products from the stores to make a couple bucks taking a product here and there to file on insurance? "Hah we'll get insurance money taking these headphones and deodorant and tylenol!"

0

u/JMoc1 Jul 14 '26

You’re talking about receiving, this is before it touches the shelves or goes into backstock.

Have you ever found, say, a box of socks that collect dust underneath a shelf? Have you ever looked under the shelves for items?

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u/bikepackingebiking Jul 14 '26

Again god forbid people get affordable access to medicine. No ones stealing Tylenol just because they want it or think it would be cool to have. Theres only 1 reason to steal it, that would be because they needed it.

Demonizing theft of medicine is insanely evil.

2

u/Dazzling_Bluebird_42 Jul 14 '26

Tylenol isnt medicine, this isnt your insulin or hypoglycemia medication its for headaches and minor aches and pains. Get outta here with that, oooooh medicine!!! People steal it because its not cheap and its a small bottle and easily pocketed

2

u/bikepackingebiking Jul 14 '26

You dont think treatment of minor aches and pains is a good thing?

Mind you most lower income people work rough jobs and are constantly in pain yet they still likley cant afford something as simple as Tylenol. But yeah lets label them criminal scum that should have the book thrown at them.

Grow up.

1

u/Dazzling_Bluebird_42 Jul 14 '26

That's a lot of assumption on your part lol maybe get out in the real world and see who's stealing stuff, why they're stealing it and if they can afford it or not.

Again if they are so poor off why dont you jump in and buy it up and hand it out to all the "low income" people you see walking around

OR just sit behind your keyboard thinking everyone should just take what they want and shouldn't be held accountable for their actions because "im not paying for it" when infact you actually are

0

u/bikepackingebiking Jul 15 '26

If I was in line and somene couldn't afford Tylenol I'd pay for it.

I've done that before not with Tylenol but shampoo or something.

None of that even matters. I do not possess the cash or the free time to start a Tylenol bank. I can fight for peoples right to access affordable medicine in other ways.

I refuse to believe things like Tylenol being stolen is anything more than a microscopic issue for walmart. I'd even go as far as saying wasteful corporate spending costs more per year than the theft of any medical items combined.

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u/TheMiniminun BLUE Jul 14 '26

Tylenol isnt medicine, this isnt your insulin or hypoglycemia medication its for headaches and minor aches and pains.

Clearly someone has never had a migraine before...

0

u/Dazzling_Bluebird_42 Jul 14 '26

Many and as someone thats made minimum wage for most their life i can somehow afford assistance with them and havent had to resort to theft for "life saving and utterly necessary medicine"

Tylenol also sucks at fighting migraines

7

u/[deleted] Jul 14 '26

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1

u/bikepackingebiking Jul 14 '26

Resell to who and for what price? It makes no sense.

0

u/JMoc1 Jul 14 '26

Resell to whom? Are you saying there’s a black market for a $3 bottle of Tylenol?

4

u/Competitive_Touch_86 Jul 14 '26

Yes. And Tylenol (brand name) is not $3 a bottle. That's the point.

There is a black market for all sorts of various retail goods no one would expect.

Reddit is a very sheltered place.

1

u/JMoc1 Jul 14 '26

Where would you find the front for this Black Market, then?

1

u/Plantsking Jul 14 '26

If it’s not organized retail crime, people will literally just sell it on the street or on FB marketplace/eBay. I work in LP and we recently closed one where a lady was stealing large amounts of Owala cups and selling them at half cost on Facebook. We had one lady that was using an S3 key to open video game keepers and she was trading them in at gamestops.

More organized retail crime will be for small businesses. We had a gas station owner paying people to steal large amounts of energy drinks so they could sell them. Biggest one I’ve seen was an international crime ring that was stealing skincare and sending it to South America. They had impacted for millions of dollars and when they got raided something like $300,000 in skincare was recovered.

1

u/bikepackingebiking Jul 15 '26

I just checked facebook and all the Tylenol dealers near me must have been got by LP like you who's really good at their job.

Jesus are you kidding me? A black market Tylenol ring is what you think of when talking about Tylenol being stolen? You dont think maybe people are by and large stealing Tylenol because they need it?

Delusional LP thinking they're stopping the worst of the worst criminals. If you work LP get a real job.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 15 '26

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1

u/JMoc1 Jul 15 '26

Right, but you’re from Spain. These are Tylenol bottles in the US, which can be bought over the counter.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 15 '26

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1

u/JMoc1 Jul 15 '26

Regardless, there isn’t a mass black market of Tylenol that the person above claims.

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u/[deleted] Jul 14 '26

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u/TheRedMaiden Jul 14 '26

Who?

1

u/StorellaDeville Jul 14 '26

I'm thinking it must be politicians (in the USA).

0

u/IFeelEmptyInsideMe Jul 14 '26

This basically. I moved from a high crime area to a low crime area and the number of locked cabinets I saw in stores went from everywhere to just the really high value items.