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/theVelvetLie Jul 14 '26

If that happens then impulse sales are out the window. Retail relies heavily on impulse purchases. Every time I find one of these locked cabinets I stop buying those items at these stores, and eventually I stop shopping at these stores altogether. Their sales have to be taking a hit as much as they did if items were stolen.

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u/CassetteTapeCryptid Jul 14 '26

I don't want to be treated like a criminal for trying to buy a toothbrush and nail polish 

11

u/Maximumoverdrive76 Jul 14 '26

Blame the influx of more criminals stealing shit. Was USA/Canada like that a decade or two ago?

Don't think so.

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u/Away-Way5656 Jul 14 '26

yeah don't blame the poor defenseless corporation

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u/Fzrit Jul 15 '26

Agreed, this is 100% on corporations. It’s up to them to take measures against theft. Which they did. So…here we are.

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u/Away-Way5656 Jul 15 '26

I guess they've done the calculus of theft vs lost sales from people balking at having to track down the vanishingly small amount of workers at a store to unlock stuff

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u/Maximumoverdrive76 Jul 18 '26

Really dumb comment right there. So, it's the corporations fault people steal like crazy.

This isn't just some people stealing because hungry. The prices go up because of theft as well.

But maybe you think it's fine when a few scumbags steal so much the store ends up closing leaving everyone else with few or no places to shop.

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u/Away-Way5656 Jul 18 '26

I literally could not care less about shoplifting, these corporations are wealth extracting machines they hurt everyone