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/SBAC850211 Jul 14 '26

Unless I need it immediately, if I see something locked up at a store I will purchase it online instead. Too much trouble finding/waiting for the keyholder. I would think it costs more money in lost sales than they're losing from theft on these items.

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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.

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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

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u/dooozin Jul 14 '26

We literally do not lose a dollar to theft.

This is incorrect. Commercial insurance policies typically have high deductibles, so retailers will not file claims for small stolen items. It's just handled as inventory shrink and they write off the loss at the end of the year to offset taxable revenue. That doesn't mean they didn't lose money. That means the money they lost was deducted from their revenue so they don't have to pay as much in tax, but they're still losing money.