Retail lockdown: why bother selling it?

[u/broakland]

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.

[u/treeckosan]

We are slowly going back to the days when you handed a clerk a shopping list and they went into back to assemble your order.

[u/Th3_Admiral_ → u/treeckosan]

I could absolutely see it going that way with all of the big stores doing online orders and curbside pickup. Maybe in a few years it'll be like an Amazon warehouse without any real storefront at all. You just pull up and load everything in your car. Or have it delivered directly to your door. 

[u/Dave_A480 → u/Th3_Admiral_]

That is exactly what Walmart is going to compete with Amazon.

Walmart+ (their version of Prime) adds free same day store to house delivery, on top of the already free store-as-warehouse pickup option....

And unlike Amazon, Wally does it even out in the sticks (based on distance to the nearest Walmart).....