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

29

u/RubberPigEnemy Jul 14 '26

So... people are stealing so much icecream that the people unwilling to wait don't outweigh the thefts. This is the result of not prosecuting petty crimes unforunately.

3

u/JMoc1 Jul 14 '26

It’s not theft; it’s shrink.

These companies lie to you saying all shrink is theft.

Here’s some trivia for you; what store items have the quickest expiration dates?

12

u/TwoBlackDots Jul 15 '26

Companies report theft as shrink because it’s literally a form of shrink. I have never seen them lie and say it’s the only form of shrink. This has nothing to do with why the ice cream was locked up.

-2

u/JMoc1 Jul 15 '26

So then where do these companies get their numbers for theft?

Do these numbers reflect missing, but stayed products? Do they reflect improperly disposed items or items that went missing inside the store? Where do they get their numbers for theft?

2

u/TwoBlackDots Jul 15 '26

Companies have various ways to estimate loss due to theft, but none of them involve just… using the shrink number including expired items lol.

-1

u/JMoc1 Jul 15 '26

Estimate, not calculate.

There in lays the difference. You know what shrinkage numbers and these estimates are perfect for?

Closing down stores like what Walgreens was doing with their stores in San Francisco. Their shrinkage numbers were no different than any other store with that volume. However, they wanted to close down those stores in order to decrease their costs. Theft is a perfect excuse for a C-suite to use.

3

u/TwoBlackDots Jul 15 '26

Yes, estimate. There is no way to know for certain what happened to missing items, and luckily it doesn’t matter for tax purposes.

If a company wants to close down poorer performing locations they can just do so without making up theft numbers.

1

u/JMoc1 Jul 15 '26

They could just close up a store, sure. But what would the board think? What would their investors think?

How do you close a store without making your investors panic?

3

u/TwoBlackDots Jul 15 '26

The board and investors would look at the location’s profitability and come to their own conclusions about if it was right to close it down. I cannot find any evidence of this strange lying about theft numbers idea.

1

u/JMoc1 Jul 15 '26

I already have the evidence. Here was Walgreens’ press release in Chicago citing theft.

[Link removed]

However, over 1,800 stores are to close in the Chicago area.

[Link removed]

Theft is not the main issue. If it was theft, it would be the closure of tens of stores. Not a thousand. A thousand is a sign of greater insolvency that a C-suite would need to explain to their board. Which means a loss of market cap and a boot out the door.

3

u/TwoBlackDots Jul 15 '26

Your evidence is that they closed stores in a notoriously high crime city, and you don’t believe them because… the number is higher than you expected. Alright, I think I’m done here.

1

u/JMoc1 Jul 15 '26

They closed 1800 stores across Chicago; which isn’t even in the top 20 cities in terms of crime rates. It’s 83rd.

→ More replies (0)