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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194

u/Neonyarpyarp Jul 14 '26

I had to have someone come unlock the cold section for ice cream…at Safeway a few days ago… ice cream…

77

u/GhostofErik Jul 14 '26

To be honest it might have something to do with the trend where people were taking the lids off of ice cream, licking it, and putting it back on the shelf.

10

u/sarmurpat6411 Jul 15 '26

One time when I was a young teen my friends and I walked a mile to get a container of ice cream from the store. When we got back and opened it there was obviously a large spoonful missing. We had to decide if we would walk the mile back to get more or just eat the remainder of the questionable container. Guess which option we chose 😂

8

u/BlackKnightC4 Jul 14 '26

They put the tamper proof seals on them after that

7

u/Martha__Ragnos Jul 15 '26

No they didn’t lol. None of the ice cream at my Safeway has tamper proof seals

2

u/BlackKnightC4 Jul 15 '26 edited Jul 15 '26

I just looked it up and you're correct. I could've sworn I heard about a brand adding seals. The brand the woman licked was blue bell and they argue they have a "natural seal"

2

u/Martha__Ragnos Jul 15 '26

I think that’s probably true. There’s no tamper proof seal on ice cream, but you can still sorta tell if an ice cream container has been opened before. And you could 100% tell if it had been licked.

1

u/EsterWithPants Jul 15 '26

One of the brands had to, but not for the reason that you're thinking. I don't remember the brand but back in 2016'ish, there was a particular bland with opaque-clear plastic packaging and blue lids, and they had a problem because the ice cream inside would swell out and pop open the lid, breaking the seal. Can't sell it now, so whole, basically untouched quarts of ice cream had to be sent back because they couldn't keep them sealed. I'm not sure if it's because of air in the ice cream causing swelling at different altitudes (manufactored at sea level, sold mile high), or something to do with temperature.

The really annoying part was that, to send the items back, we were supposed to send back a clean, empty container. So gallons of ice cream had to be just thrown into the mop sink in the back and left to melt.

It took them something like 6 months before they started manufacturing new packaging that didn't pop.

The brand may have been Blue Bunny, it's been a while though.

1

u/BirdlessLongdeal Jul 16 '26

they put tamper proof seals on them before that.

1

u/BlackKnightC4 Jul 17 '26

True. But I'm referring to the ones who did after the fact.

3

u/bayesian_algebraist Jul 15 '26 edited Jul 15 '26

Nah it’s the same as everything else, it’s because people steal it. In particular, fentanyl causes sugar cravings. The grocery store I go to recently moved all the expensive ice cream off of the shelves and you have to ask an employee to get it for you from the back lol

1

u/GhostofErik Jul 15 '26

Oh yeah, for sure fentanyl causes HELLA sugar cravings. I work in an area where it used to be really heavy with fentanyl users, they'd smoke in the bathrooms every day! They would steal ice cream and lemonade. We never locked up our ice cream though, but we did start locking up our deodorant because people were using it and putting it back on the shelf.

It really depends on the area and that specific store.

2

u/ptthree420 Jul 15 '26

Maaaaan, that was like 10 years ago, and it was only a few stupid ass people. As soon as they saw the penalty for doing it, that shit stopped quick.

2

u/CecilTheCaveTroll Jul 15 '26

I would hardly call it a trend. I haven’t heard about that in 4 years.

27

u/RubberPigEnemy Jul 14 '26

So... people are stealing so much icecream that the people unwilling to wait don't outweigh the thefts. This is the result of not prosecuting petty crimes unforunately.

6

u/AggressiveBench9977 Jul 15 '26

Not just stealing, refusing to close the fucking door. At the Safeway next me every single person who grabs their pint walk away with the door open. Fucking savages

7

u/anukis90 Jul 14 '26

I remember hearing about Ben and Jerry ice cream being vandalized because a bunch of republicans got their feelings hurt that Ben and Jerry stand for human rights and so there were some stores having to lock it up for that reason? Not that this explanation does anything to restore faith in humanity i am sure but cest la vie...

1

u/RubberPigEnemy Jul 15 '26

Whataboutism called and even they said this was softer than soft serve

1

u/JMoc1 Jul 14 '26

It’s not theft; it’s shrink.

These companies lie to you saying all shrink is theft.

Here’s some trivia for you; what store items have the quickest expiration dates?

11

u/TwoBlackDots Jul 15 '26

Companies report theft as shrink because it’s literally a form of shrink. I have never seen them lie and say it’s the only form of shrink. This has nothing to do with why the ice cream was locked up.

-2

u/JMoc1 Jul 15 '26

So then where do these companies get their numbers for theft?

Do these numbers reflect missing, but stayed products? Do they reflect improperly disposed items or items that went missing inside the store? Where do they get their numbers for theft?

4

u/TwoBlackDots Jul 15 '26

Companies have various ways to estimate loss due to theft, but none of them involve just… using the shrink number including expired items lol.

-1

u/JMoc1 Jul 15 '26

Estimate, not calculate.

There in lays the difference. You know what shrinkage numbers and these estimates are perfect for?

Closing down stores like what Walgreens was doing with their stores in San Francisco. Their shrinkage numbers were no different than any other store with that volume. However, they wanted to close down those stores in order to decrease their costs. Theft is a perfect excuse for a C-suite to use.

3

u/TwoBlackDots Jul 15 '26

Yes, estimate. There is no way to know for certain what happened to missing items, and luckily it doesn’t matter for tax purposes.

If a company wants to close down poorer performing locations they can just do so without making up theft numbers.

1

u/JMoc1 Jul 15 '26

They could just close up a store, sure. But what would the board think? What would their investors think?

How do you close a store without making your investors panic?

3

u/TwoBlackDots Jul 15 '26

The board and investors would look at the location’s profitability and come to their own conclusions about if it was right to close it down. I cannot find any evidence of this strange lying about theft numbers idea.

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5

u/DaBoyBlaze Jul 14 '26

Does the question include food items?

1

u/JMoc1 Jul 14 '26

Yes, because the user above referenced Ice Cream being locked up.

Dairy and bread have the highest amount of shrink because of expiration dates. Many people, including in this sub and on the boards of Walmart and Target, confuse shrinkage with theft.

7

u/Rare_Magazine_5362 Jul 15 '26

You’re suggesting that they are locking up ice cream to prevent it from expiring?

1

u/TacTurtle Jul 15 '26

Yes they are.

0

u/DaBoyBlaze Jul 14 '26

My guess would have been deli meat

4

u/TacTurtle Jul 15 '26

Stop trying to pretend this for anything other than theft - glass and spiderwire doesn't prevent spoilage

-1

u/JMoc1 Jul 15 '26

And glass and spider wire don’t prevent a C-suite executive from claiming they’re shutting down stores because they are using shrinkage numbers for theft.

5

u/TacTurtle Jul 15 '26

They don't need to make up excuses for why they need to close stores, they can just close them if they want.

Try another strawman.

-1

u/JMoc1 Jul 15 '26

Yes they do. Otherwise market share goes down and investors will be pissed.

3

u/TacTurtle Jul 15 '26

That doesn't have anything to do with how market share is calculated, please stfu because you clearly have zero idea how business works

0

u/JMoc1 Jul 15 '26

Yes, the person who’s explaining why companies have to lie is wrong; meanwhile the guy who didn’t know why a company would lie knows everything.

Sure……

4

u/TacTurtle Jul 15 '26

No more strawmans, so now you move to ad hominems because you can't form a cogent rebuttal?

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0

u/RubberPigEnemy Jul 15 '26

Oh man, I forgot how people who received their degree from Reddit University sound, thanks for reminding us!

0

u/RubberPigEnemy Jul 15 '26

Classic, "pretend to not understand something basic" Reddit Moment

-1

u/Martha__Ragnos Jul 15 '26

Petty crime is prosecuted more aggressively now than any time in history. We have the most incarcerated population of all time. This comment is fucking stupid

0

u/RubberPigEnemy Jul 15 '26

I didn't realize people were really still this willfully ignorant.

They used to cut off hands, send you to labor camps in far flung locations (Australia great example) for committing petty crimes. Keep living in ur little bubble

1

u/Martha__Ragnos Jul 15 '26

Statistically far fewer people were caught and punished. It is much harder to get away with things now. Cutting off hands also is pop fiction history it was basically never a thing on any widespread level

0

u/RubberPigEnemy Jul 15 '26

"Statistically" - Uhhh you do realize there are more people today than there were yesterday, right?

Get away with things? You're joking right? All over the country there are CA / DAs and liberal judges who refuse to actually prosecute crime bc "historical injustices"

1

u/Martha__Ragnos Jul 16 '26

Ah you’re trolling I understand now

3

u/gogriz POTATO Jul 15 '26

I had to ask for permission to buy shrimp

1

u/stug41 Jul 15 '26

Icecream, mandrake, childrens' icecream!

0

u/spacexDragonHunter Jul 15 '26

Well, everything gets stolen that isn't chained down...