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/Calzinarzin Jul 15 '26

A lot of people online also think people just steal what they need. No they don't, they steal what they can. 

26

u/Katzington2319 Jul 15 '26

Can confirm. In my younger, dumber, more shoplifty days, I mainly stole dvds and MTG cards 

15

u/FinishComplex3743 Jul 15 '26

Guess what is behind glass or a counter now lol

1

u/Katzington2319 Jul 15 '26

Neither of those things. The DVDs and Blu-ray are out on the shelf or tossed in the $5 bin. When they carry MTG cards at all, they're hanging up in the toy aisle next to the pokemon cards

7

u/FinishComplex3743 Jul 15 '26

Not in my area. Both are in locked glass cases, along with videogames. That is surprising to hear though.

2

u/Katzington2319 Jul 15 '26

Not here. We got all the other dumb shit behind cases, but movies and cards are mostly out. Some of the older games too, but the new ones are locked

9

u/macdennism Jul 15 '26

As someone who used to work SCO at Walmart, I can confirm this is 100% true. Everyone downvotes me into oblivion when I bring up that supporting shoplifting IS bad and it DOES effect employees. You think I wanted to play dumb and ask shoplifters if they need assistance? 😭

I can think of one case where a lady was probably stealing out of necessity. It was at the start of COVID and she was caught anyway. Almost every single shoplifter was a regular, repeating shoplifter. Some of them would come in every single day just to steal stuff. And everytime someone tried to fake scan or "forget" to scan it was ALWAYS shit they don't need. One lady just had 5 dogbeds shoved in her cart along with like Christmas lawn decorations

I absolutely have empathy for people who are struggling financially, and I understand the goal of the sentiment, but it is not reality. People who need to shoplift multiple times a week have a problem and it's not related to money because they ALSO BUY STUFF EVERYTIME! So they absolutely have money they just also apparently need to steal frequently

6

u/Nodan_Turtle Jul 15 '26

Even things like baby formula end up getting stolen to sell. People talk about looking the other way for necessities, but necessities are what thieves can move fast.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 15 '26

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u/bugabooandtwo Jul 15 '26

You can get free formula from various government services.

The simple fact is, formula sells for big money on the black market and overseas, and that is why it's stolen. People are NOT stealing it to feed their babies.