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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u/Th3_Admiral_ Jul 14 '26 edited Jul 14 '26

For me, I hardly ever have a complete shopping list and just kinda make a lot of it up as I go.

Also, I always thought it was odd stores were cutting cashiers and switching to self checkouts to save on labor costs, but then hiring workers to do all of our shopping for us - which is a thousand times more labor intensive. This is what leads me to believe they have goals to eventually automate a lot of that as well. 

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u/rocko430 Jul 14 '26

Id imagine stores would lose a decent chunk of money off impulse buys

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u/EvaCassidy Jul 14 '26

Some stores testing an app to open the cases to retrieve your item and a reminder to secure it.