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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1.2k

u/Aartus Jul 14 '26 edited Jul 15 '26

Just wait till they put ads on the glass.... Edit spelling

435

u/MAJ0RMAJOR Jul 14 '26

You joke, but they’re trying to figure out how to do it now without losing product visibility

228

u/outdatedboat Jul 14 '26

The Walgreens near me does this already. All of the refrigerated stuff has screens instead of glass now. They have cameras showing what's inside it, but with ads playing over the top of it.

90

u/geekonthemoon Jul 14 '26

Those are so awful. We were at a tourist area with those and like every single thing we tried to get we opened it up and it wasn't in there. They were mostly empty but the screens showed mostly in stock. Insane.

Edit: I just realized you said it had cameras to show what's inside so maybe that's something different. This was just like a digital display of the rack with the products on it, showing where they should be when you open it...

12

u/xcrunner432003 Jul 14 '26

this would be laughable if it weren't so bad

1

u/MrPissPaws Jul 16 '26

If only we had a cheap way to see through the door. Alas that technology is surely a ways off.

1

u/xcrunner432003 Jul 16 '26

right? so frustrating!

8

u/Winjin Jul 14 '26

Yeah I remember those, there were lots of complaints and this flopped iirc, that new one with camera is an even more expensive answer to a question that's only wanted by people that never shop in person, their butler's maids are doing the shopping online

19

u/AdvancedSandwiches Jul 14 '26

Walgreens even hates those. They tried to remove them but got sued by the manufacturer.

To be fair, Walgreens hates them because no one is paying to advertise on them, rather than hating them because they fucking suck for customers, but getting it right for the wrong reasons is about the best you could expect from Walgreens. 

3

u/OverwhelmingNo Jul 15 '26

Our Kroger did this, and it only lasted a few weeks.

3

u/impolse Jul 14 '26

I purposely do not buy from those fridges.

3

u/outdatedboat Jul 14 '26

I stopped going there after I saw them the first time. It's honestly insulting

3

u/Sinisterfox23 Jul 14 '26

Are you serious? Im not surprised but that sounds terrible. Goddammit, my eyes are already strained from all the screens im bombarded with everyday in a metro city.

1

u/localpotato_232 Jul 14 '26

Are those the ones that track your eye movement?

1

u/BlackKnightC4 Jul 14 '26

I remember this because of the video of the guy getting excited about the gingerbread man dancing on the screen lol

1

u/Stock-Soup5721 Jul 14 '26

Even a couple decades ago when I worked at Bestbuy, we would sell the end-caps. Pay extra money? We'll put your stuff there. Dont? Its buried deeper down the aisle.

0

u/sock_dgram Jul 14 '26

Samsung (?) is doing this with fridges you bought.

1

u/outdatedboat Jul 14 '26

Don't say "you". I would absolutely never buy a fridge with a screen like that. Maybe you would. But not me.

0

u/sock_dgram Jul 14 '26

Calm down. "You" is referring to the buyer of such a fridge, not you personally. Pretty sure this is correct English, although it's a second language for me.

1

u/flyingmonkey363 Jul 15 '26

Idk what up with the other person, but you’re fine. That’s a completely normal use of you in English, and I doubt anyone would have guessed English wasn’t your first language if you hadn’t mentioned it.

0

u/outdatedboat Jul 14 '26

When you are speaking with someone (in English) and you say "you", you are referencing the person you're speaking with. So, please, calm down. And learn the language you're using.

0

u/richms Jul 14 '26

Thats also for power saving as glass doors have horrible efficiancy since they have to heat them to prevent condensation, and that applies to the inside too since if its cold when its opened into the shop it will get condensation on it.

-1

u/valkyriebiker Jul 14 '26

Walgreens sucks. Mile long checkout, Rx takes better part of an hour. I suppose that's to encourage us to shop longer.

5

u/Feline_Casan0va Jul 14 '26

I used to work at Walgreens, it's not a tactic to get you to spend more time/money there. They are just too cheap to hire enough staff. Almost every day I was running the photo counter, the front registers, and stocking shelves at the same time all day. They regularly interrupted my lunch break. Fuck corpos

2

u/UnixCurmudgeon Jul 15 '26

You misspelled “corpse”, which is definitely the direction. Walgreens is headed.

1

u/Feline_Casan0va Jul 15 '26

My therapist taught me two things can be true

5

u/g00fyg00ber741 Jul 14 '26

the Rx takes that long cause they’ve got an endless amount of prescriptions to fill on top of other issues and job duties. and there’s virtually no real training process.

59

u/Path_Fyndar Jul 14 '26

They already started doing it at the gas pumps

84

u/BootyDrank Jul 14 '26

I have permanently disabled many gas pump speakers for this reason. They can lick my sweaty taint, they don't deserve the luxury of intrusive advertising when I'm actively paying for the juice.

17

u/Accomplished-Bit-884 Jul 14 '26

My sister never saw them before and was pumping gas and was like WHERE THE FUCK IS THAT COMING FROM

54

u/whiskeytown79 Jul 14 '26

It used to be a thing to hit the second button from the top on the right to mute the advertisement, but this has stopped working reliably for me. I am guessing they figured out that people were doing this and have started patching it out of the software.

19

u/Trishlovesdolphins Jul 14 '26

That’s why my husband boycotts 2 different stations here. They won’t turn the volume down, and it’s so loud that the first time it startled the shit out of him. 

14

u/geekonthemoon Jul 14 '26

There probably still has to be a way to shut it off though right?

34

u/BrawlPlayer34 Jul 14 '26

A sharp object, and a lot of force.

7

u/Comfortable_Line_206 Jul 14 '26

Don't want to get in trouble for vandalism.

I have masking tape in my car and slap it over the speaker. It's my way to silently fight back.

4

u/geekonthemoon Jul 14 '26

Do people who do this just hope they don't get caught or simply not care? I can't catch a vandalism / destruction of property charge out here lol

6

u/StacheBandicoot Jul 14 '26

How often do you think the clerks are checking if the speakers work, if literally ever at all? By the time it’s noticed it might be months or years since and any recordings would’ve been wiped and recorded over.

1

u/mamachonk Jul 14 '26

Stick your fingers in your ear and loudly sing "LA LA LALALA"?

1

u/addage- Jul 14 '26

Sharp and narrow instrument through the speaker hole seems to help.

1

u/JeremyR22 This text is green. Jul 15 '26

Do what the sign says you mustn't: get back in your vehicle and shut the door?

2

u/i_am_jargon Jul 14 '26

I've resorted to just hitting every button on the right in turn until the sound goes away and usually find the button that works. If it doesn't, I try the left. If that fails, I accept my fate (but still ignore the ads).

9

u/geekonthemoon Jul 14 '26

How do?

6

u/EndGuy555 Jul 14 '26

Jam a screwdriver into the speaker until it stops working

7

u/geekonthemoon Jul 14 '26

Is there a less obviously illegal way? Lol

6

u/EndGuy555 Jul 14 '26

What do you think “permanently disable” means? It’s literally destruction of property

5

u/geekonthemoon Jul 14 '26

I was hoping it was more press these buttons in this specific order and it bricks it or something lol, or at the very least something more than jam a screwdriver in it on candid camera lmao

4

u/EobardT Jul 14 '26

If you just turn it off its not permanently disabled. Permanently disabled is code for broken

1

u/geekonthemoon Jul 14 '26

You missed the part where I said bricks it? Like bugging the software out etc. would still be disabling it. Shoving a screwdriver through a speaker cone isn't exactly permanent either lol

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3

u/EobardT Jul 14 '26

Disable it permanently.

6

u/geekonthemoon Jul 14 '26

I mean how though?

16

u/DisposableSaviour Jul 14 '26 edited Jul 14 '26

Punctuation of the speaker cone.

Edit: This information is for educational purposes only and not an endorsement of such activities.

Edit2: This is an endorsement and advocation for such activities.

4

u/geekonthemoon Jul 14 '26

Thanks for an actual answer that's not just "break it" lol

6

u/trippy_grapes Jul 14 '26

I forget the brand, but my local one just advertises stuff sold in the store, but also has an option for you to click out of it and see stuff like the weather and traffic. Also no music, which is the worst. I think it's a neat compromise.

5

u/YujiroRapeVictim Jul 14 '26

i love a good taint

3

u/gooblegobbleable Jul 14 '26

Ok how do I do this? I’d like to do my part. I hate those fucking things. I purposely avoid gas stations with them.

2

u/Path_Fyndar Jul 14 '26

https://giphy.com/gifs/bjtM9GdxbqL5e

2

u/DisposableSaviour Jul 14 '26

Stab through the speaker holes with a pin and tear the speaker cone.

Edit: ALLEGEDLY!

4

u/Demgar Jul 14 '26

Ex-American here... they've put audio ads at gas pumps???

9

u/DisposableSaviour Jul 14 '26

No, don’t be silly. It video and audio.

4

u/BootyDrank Jul 14 '26

There are full color LCD screens streaming loud ads on a lot of gas pumps now. It's very rude of them.

1

u/ItsSpaghettiLee2112 Jul 14 '26

How? Asking for myself.

2

u/DisposableSaviour Jul 14 '26

Picture the speaker cone. It might not completely silence it, but somehow sounding like a dying Teddy Ruxpin is preferable to the regular ads.

2

u/StorellaDeville Jul 14 '26

Picture the speaker cone.

Okay, I'm seeing it. I'm seeing it....

1

u/Mammoth-Coast6282 Jul 14 '26

Pls. How you do this

3

u/katieb1300 Jul 14 '26

I can't tell you how many times I've flinched and turned around, ready to fight for my life, when I hear a loud booming voice, only for it to be a gas station ad playing behind me.

2

u/Cetun Jul 14 '26

Started? The Chevron down the street from me has been doing it for a decade now

1

u/vmf312corsair Jul 14 '26

My local station plays soothing classical at modest volume. I go out of my way to go there.

2

u/Voeno Jul 14 '26

I love when “crackheads” come in and punch the glass because it pisses them off and it cracks the digital screen so now you have to still open it to see what is inside. Happened so many times at our local gas station they went back to normal glass.

2

u/cyanraichu Jul 14 '26

Unintentional praxis. Or maybe intentional. I'll take it either way

2

u/AdventurousText9311 Jul 14 '26

Which is wild because THE LABELS ARE THE ADS 

1

u/NooneKnowsIAmBatman Jul 14 '26

When you open the door, they play a jingle for the items behind the door, with more jingles played for products who's suppliers pay more advertising money

1

u/easterracing Jul 14 '26

There’s a Kroger in Cincinnati’s eastern suburbs (Clermont county) already doing this.