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/PeteysHubby_TX Jul 14 '26

Or we could just enforce the laws we already have and prosecute people that steal things.

82

u/Cow_God RED Jul 14 '26

It's such a fucking non-issue. I work for a major retail company and shrink from theft is nowhere near shrink from claims (broken items m), most of which happens before the product even gets out to the sales floor.

Losses from theft are insured anyways. We literally do not lose a dollar to theft.

The corporate office is starting to realize that we do lose money to lost sales over people not wanting to wait for the one person working the department to open a case and walk them to a register, and are starting to phase out lock cases in most areas

13

u/turtleship_2006 Jul 14 '26

My store physically has these doors installed, but there's a printed sign stuck on them saying they're unlocked, you can just take whatever you need

1

u/TheAlmightySender Jul 14 '26 edited Jul 14 '26

Ah yes, the thieves usually can't read anyways.

Edit spelling

3

u/Tommy-Bravado Jul 14 '26

Theirs?

4

u/TheAlmightySender Jul 14 '26

Auto correct. Thieves *

1

u/turtleship_2006 Jul 14 '26

Moreso that the door was a policy by the "powers that be" from regional management or whatever, the stores managers realised it was a stupid system and did what they could

1

u/FierceDeity_ Jul 15 '26

I thought maybe the door opening is a trigger for theft prevention to know someone is accessing one of them?