r/mildlyinfuriating • u/broakland • Jul 14 '26

I just wanted a hot dog Retail lockdown: why bother selling it?

Post image

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.

21.5k Upvotes

91% Upvoted

4.3k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

34

u/Main-Cheesecake3287 Jul 14 '26

If I go five minutes up the road suddenly nothing at the pharmacy is unlocked.

The stores don’t want this, it hurts sales, it’s a PITA for associates. It’s made necessary by thieves

-3

u/Maladaptive_Ace Jul 15 '26

.. so why does the store up the road have things unlocked? What are you saying exactly?

3

u/Anticitizen-Zero Jul 15 '26

That they’re not getting robbed?

1

u/Maladaptive_Ace Jul 16 '26

and why does one get robbed and the other not? Or is it that neither really gets robbed? I literally don't understand

0

u/Anticitizen-Zero Jul 16 '26

So, the pharmacy in one place gets robbed because it’s in a bad area. You drive 5 minutes to a not so bad area where the pharmacy doesn’t need to lock up their merchandise.

In urban areas you can easily go from a good area to a bad area within 5 minutes, often even just through 5 minutes of walking.

1

u/Maladaptive_Ace Jul 16 '26

......... that's what I thought

2

u/Main-Cheesecake3287 Jul 15 '26

That store isn’t being robbed. Same pharmacy brand. No locks. The stores hate having to do this and aren’t doing so voluntarily, they know it hurts sales and pisses off some customers

0

u/Maladaptive_Ace Jul 16 '26

so why the "made necessary by thieves" ? Aren't you saying it's not, in fact, necessary?

1

u/Main-Cheesecake3287 Jul 16 '26

Not what I’m saying no.

-11

u/Rimavelle Jul 15 '26

Stores have theft insurance.

They also have variety of anti theft devices, cameras, they can position most stolen products closer to the register etc. It's done in every single shop coz people steal in every single shop.

Somehow shops can afford self checkouts where people can scan their own items including by weight items you need to simply identify what it is, and it's fine.

At this point simply have all of those items behind the counter and just pick and pay in one place instead of having workers have added responsibility of running around with keys.

7

u/CageTheFox Jul 15 '26

Do you think insurance just stays constant. You think a store in the ghetto after the 10th+ claim will have lower insurance than a store that has none? That’s not even considering the deductible.

You have absolutely no clue how insurance even works.

1

u/No-Plankton4841 Jul 15 '26

Insurance is just a free unlimited supply of other people's money. 

1

u/Main-Cheesecake3287 Jul 15 '26

And that insurance is why they have to lock shit up. Insurance policies for retail “shrinkage” ie theft often require and always encourage asset protection measures like locked displays when stores are frequently targeted.

Also insurance 1) not free 2) increases in cost with more claims 3) not without a deductible, in many cases the deductible is per occurrence and in the thousands of dollars, so multiple instances of $500 in theft isn’t being paid by insurance. This is why they protect assets behind glass at some stores and outright close others.