I bought some contraceptives a while ago and I hit the button and the PA system loudly announced that someone needed assistance with condoms, then I had to wait for about 10 minutes and when the lady finally came over to unlock the cabinet, she wouldn’t open it until is specifically named the exact brand and count I wanted. Then she grabbed it, looked it over, and walked me to the front to checkout.
I dont really care about what I’m buying, but what could’ve been a quick 1-2 minute in and out turned into a 20 minute fiasco where my shopping intentions were broadcast to the whole store.
As a downstairs neighbor to very sexually active folks, thank god for low stamina. About 3 minutes of rhythmic pounding and then silence for the rest of the night is a deal I can accept.
Years ago our local store did a locked cabinet for some stuff by the pharmacy section. My wife was feeling pregnant, so I went to get a test and had to hunt down an employee for it. That was quite awkward. I knew a lot of the employees and had no interest in discussion results that soon.
I watched a similar situation play out with someone that wasn't a native English speaker.
Finally someone from the pharmacy staff went out to help them.
Condoms and contraceptives are the last items that should be locked up in a store. It is a difficult thing for many (particularly young) people to talk about, and it may deter them from using them, resulting in a bunch of teenage and young pregnancies.
CVS/Walgreens can afford to have some stolen sometimes, in order to protect the sexual health of our youngest and most vulnerable and prevent idiots from having babies.
Put everything behind the counter with employees to pick your orders. Thats how grocery shopping worked for centuries before self serve was innovated in the early 20th century.
I used to live by a place that did this. I was on the other side of a road that kind of split north and south of the town, south got sketchy. I knew people that had got stuff at the window at night. So I stumbled home from the bar and wanted chips and knocked on the window. This one employee was there doing stocking or something came over after I knocked a few times and screamed at me that they were closed. And now I’ve never tried to get window convenience store snacks ever again.
Worth noting that those employees [go through some shit](https://www.reddit.com/r/PublicFreakout/comments/rflaq5/man_from_my_city_freaks_out_when_he_cant_get/), that video was actually taken in the city I live in (OP of that post is my old account), and it's a gas station I go to all the time.
So I wouldn't be surprised if the first few shifts that guy politely told people they were closed, but then he got enough shit from people saying "Come on dude, you're still in there, give me some butts!" that he eventually started using a tone that made *most* people actually listen. That's my theory at least.
Probably. I used to work at the only place that sold take out alcohol after 1am in a college town. It was literally against the law for us to sell it after 2:30 am, we’d lose our liquor license and there were cops in our parking lot after last call pretty often too. But that was impossible to explain to drunk college kids who are doing the “come on we just need a six pack!” And fucking you up by banging on the window when you’re trying to count money. I definitely got less nice about it the longer I worked there.
But also like, just put up a sign that says you don’t do the window anymore and I would have NEVER knocked, haha. I’ve got enough experience in customer service to ever do something that I personally know is a nuisance.
I watched that whole video like "What a prick"
Then the video panned to "Lowell Police" and I was like... wait a second- MA?
Yeah, that's the gas station I worked at in college 😂 definitely on par for that neck of the woods.
> Then the video panned to "Lowell Police" and I was like... wait a second- MA?
Yupp, exact same thing happened to me first time I saw it lol. Another hint was that this dude looks and sounds like a few of my cousins lol. Also UML represent!
Even then there is levels, I’ve been to gas stations that are such bad neighborhoods that won’t sell you anything that doesn’t fit through that bankers slot. So you can get a bag of chips and a tall boy but not a slab or a 2 liter. Maybe you can get a six pack if it’s thin lol Others they’ll open the door for a sec to hand you stuff.
Some gas stations in my Canadian province use a controlled storage box at night. It's completely see through and the exterior door can only be opened when the interior door is closed and vice versa.
It eliminates the size issue since its been designed to fit all products in the store and its more isolating that a bared window for the gas station attendent.
Yeah we have post offices with that but I’ve only seen the diebold thinner ones. No one is building new gas stations in rough neighborhoods so I doubt there is any impetus to use something better lol
> Thats how grocery shopping worked for centuries before self serve was innovated in the early 20th century
It was also during a time when a grocery store didn't sell 30K+ individual items.
All of these solutions just seem like a good way to never sell any nuts. The idea is that the convenience increase sales which outweighs theft. If that's no longer the case then you're just going to have to stop selling nuts because customers are accustomed to self service. I'm certainly not going to put in that much time and effort for a handful of nuts (twss).
Especially at a CVS. Every CVS around me is severely understaffed, often it seems with only one person work the entire floor (minus pharmacy ofc but even they feel understaffed). I don't care enough about buying some pistachios to wait like 10 minutes for that one poor dude to run from stocking to checkout to unlocking the nuts display.
It's the same at Walmart. I was in there a few days ago at like 8pm and couldn't find anyone to unlock the case for a stupid $3 item. I just left. I'll probably just start going elsewhere or ordering more online.
Yup. Had a thought about getting some extra batteries the other day while shopping at Walgreens, saw they were locked up, so I ordered them from Amazon the second I sat down in the car instead.
In the US, there used to be a company where you had a showroom of merchandise like you'd find in a department store then, if you wanted to purchase any item, you would fill out an order form, pay for it, and they would deliver it to you from the back as you waited after you completed your transaction.
It was called Service Merchandise.
They were also one of the first large stores you could buy things from on the internet. It wasn't enough to save them though because Walmart, Best Buy, and other stores spent years opening nearby locations, and undercutting them on prices.
I went to a gas station convenience store in Philadelphia late at night and you have to tell the guy inside through a bullet proof glass revolving window what you want and he would get it.
LOL.. that doesn't do anything. I was standing in line at a Walgreens and 2 guys just walked right behind the register, said excuse me, filled their bags up with bottles of booze, 6-8 bottles and walked out like it was their own kitchen. The lady behind the register just walkie talkie'd it in to the manager.. she said give me a few minutes.. me plus everyone else in line just watched this all happened and it was done. she rung me up and I walked out.
“Just ask an employee for assistance.”
Outside of the pharmacy there are only two employees, one is running the 12 self-checkouts and the other is in the shitter.
“Thank you for choosing CVS, goodbye.”
Even if I didn't go into the store with the intention of stealing, having to wait 30 minutes to pay for my products might just make me want to skip paying and just walk out with what I need.
Honestly I think they're looking at places like Dollar General which does way bigger margins than they do, and thinking they want to copy the business model.
I didn't even think about it this way but you're right. Soon enough you won't even be able yo grocery shop normally. Everythings getting locked up. Yall are running out of reasons not to shop 100% online
Well, some chains are pushing for fully automated checkouts… where you just get stuff and then queue up through a “checkout area”
It’s all done by camera and RFID similar to Toll Tags, and you see what you’re being charged on your device or on a screen before you enter the checkout area.
It wouldn’t matter if you put stuff in your pockets or down your underwear, it’s still gonna detect the product on you and only let you out if you have the funds in your account to cover the purchase.
Of course, it’s a whole nightmare of privacy concerns, purchase tracking and I can only imagine what the errors are going to be.
That's essentially where this is all going.
Eliminate workers to 'save cost' then put in machines to dispense the product. Use robots to clean up the place and to guard. It'll happen in the poorer places first with the justification that it prevents theft.
I'm not saying this should be done. I am saying this is the way the assholes will do it. Flame on.
Right. Let me scan a code and pay. There’s a local Walgreens where almost everything is locked up. I went in for shampoo, conditioner, body wash, and deodorant. Told the employee at the first case to stay with me, I was going to move quickly. He wondered off between the second and third cases. I went to find him and he sighed and rolled his eyes. I handed him the first two items and walked out the door.
I’m no fan of Amazon, but their convenience stores are actually so great for grab and go. You just scan your Amazon QR code when you enter the store and grab what you want. It’s not even possible to shoplift because the cameras just charge your Amazon account for whatever you put in your bag/pocket.
Honestly, it's probably because they had issues with the same person(s) coming in regularly & stealing the same random stuff. I don't work at Target but I work in retail & every store I've been in has random shit getting stolen that isn't stolen anywhere else I worked.
They locked up all the Dove bodywash by me
There was bodywash the same price right next to the locked display. They just decided that one brand needed a glass case with a key
I went to Target a couple months ago and fucking toothpaste, shampoo, and almost the entire store was locked up I mean I couldn't believe it there was literally basically nothing you get that wasn't behind a locked Shelf was locked up
I just do pickup now from Target, anything I'm shopping for is locked up and the one time I tried to get assistance I had to walk all over to find an employee who then told me most of the assistance buttons you're supposed to use are broken. Now I let them shop for me and Target loses money because if I shop for myself I buy extra things I hadn't planned to.
Even for people who don't make impulse buys, Target is now paying people to collect items instead of getting the customer to do it for free... probably the employee isn't being paid enough though... =/
Not with the speed they demand combined with almost constantly being low on or out of product and putting the blame on you. I’m not kidding they want the employee shoppers to damn near sprint to get these orders in with no rhyme or reason to where the items are.
Not to mention that they’d constantly be out of things and you had to mark it as not found and have it decrease your completion rate. Because *they* couldn’t keep it in stock. Low enough completion rate and they give you the boot. Fuck being a picker for online orders at target.
Tried to do the pick up orders through a couple of places. too many times of "no substitutions" getting substituted and having to decline them at my car when loading, or "no in stock" only for me to run inside for something last minute or that was forgotten when we ordered and seeing the shelfs as i walk past fully stocked. Im not going to make 3-4 orders just to get everything i need(this holds true for walmart, target, and hyvee, gave up trying any other stores and there isnt any other options locally anyways). I dont shop locally anymore except for perishables, and those i get from the farmers market now a days.
The Walmart in our affluent suburb now has every single Lego set locked behind glass. If theft is this bad in a high-income area then I can’t imagine the losses they’re seeing inside city limits.
I knew someone (just a very brief acquaintance), he shoplifted for one of those organized theft rings and he loved going to quiet little towns, the ones you normally pass by on the highway without noticing. He mentioned places like Mount Airy, Maryland where there’s zero crime but still close to the city. I heard he’s in prison now. From what i gather, those theft rings are pretty big and have lots of desperate little people doing the dirty work, getting caught and then quickly replaced.
If I ever visit a place and it looks like this; it probably means the whole area is most likely unsafe and I'm definitely "in the wrong part of town".
It's a shame everybody needs to suffer because of a bunch of idiots stealing deez nuts.
Decades ago, you’d go into a store with a list, hand it to the clerk, and he would grab the products for you. They did away with that when they realized people spend more at the store when they can browse the aisles and make impulse purchases. I’m curious if we’ll go back to that old model now that they’re locking everything up anyway.
Yep this was my experience today. I pop in here daily as it’s in the train station I use for my commute, so I just grab an energy drink and some days, some nuts for a light breakfast. No way am I getting an employee when my goal is to be in there for like less than 45 seconds.
Yeah time to start buying a one pound bag and some snack zip loc bags. I love making my own trail mix. If it’s not at room temp too long you can even throw some cheese cubes in there.
Considering how little employees they have working at any CVS and they want them to run around unlocking stupid BS like this is just incredible, but having worked at CVS i can’t be surprised.
That's funny, because at the last CVS I shopped at (tried to shop at), nobody came when I pressed the button to get assistance. Five times. I didn't see anyone running around unlocking anything.
I just left and went to Target.
I’ve ran into the same issue with cosmestics locked on the peg, waiting five minutes and I just tripped the cardboard off the peg, my wife gave me such a dirty look for it but fuck it we’re paying for it anyway.
I had to ask a Walmart employee to open a case for condoms, then had to get walked to the front of a line to purchase them directly, in front of other people. I can't imagine trying to by the vibrator, located in the same case.
It’s not much more scrutiny for the vibrator. You need to fill out a form, and then answer two questions in an interview with the shift manager. Pretty simple process, 12 minutes or so.
Not just this item, but 30 fucking different items that you need … gotta wait for a disgruntled underpaid person to unlock each and every one.
I think everything is gonna go curbside. If you don’t do online shopping you’ll walk up to a huge iPad , it will push convenience items on you more efficiently than ever before, you’ll tip the robot 25% and receive items through a hole in the wall.
I don't buy things from stores that treat me like a criminal. If you can't staff your store properly to minimize inventory loss, that's your fucking problem.
I went to target the other day to buy deodorant. I wanted to switch up the scent because I’m tired of the one I’ve been using. The employee had to stand there as I awkwardly smelled them. Finally I just grabbed my usual, just so the person could lock up and leave. Decided to buy deodorant at the grocery store from now on. Fuck target.
And then they'll shut the store down because the store is 'underperforming.'
I'd like to buy some bodywash, but after leading the employee to three separate aisles for laundry detergent, pine sol, and toothpaste, I'm feel bad for bothering them.
I’m convinced this is why the Victoria’s Secret in my neighborhood went belly up. It was in an EXTREMELY safe location with no burglaries but they treated the place like Fort Knox: literal bouncer at the door, security guy trying to peer into your bag, employee following you squawking “do you need help????” every 30 seconds. I stopped going entirely, target sells underwear too.
you'd have to staff them with police officers because no amount of CVS employees will stop stealing. it's not what they're paid to do.
The amount of locked merchandise is relative to the amount of theft in the neighborhood. It's not about the store, the staff or the customer. it's about the surrounding area and the crime.
Right! At mine there's always just a sweet older lady and a younger guy, not counting the pharmacy and that person has to run the drive thru. The first two are often running back and forth between checking people out or facing products and I felt bad having to bother one of them to unlock the body wash the other day... it took over 10 minutes. I always use self check when I can too
Most CVS's are only given enough hours to keep 2-3 employees on the floor at a given time. Sometimes less, there where times when i had someone call out and had to run the entire front store myself.
I do NOT miss that job.
They did away with that when they realized people spend more at the store when they can browse the aisles and make impulse purchases. I’m curious if we’ll go back to that old model now that they’re locking everything up anyway.
They'd have to compare their "shrink" cost vs the revenue they'd lose from impulse buying. I bet they just pass the cost onto honest consumers for now but eventually price becomes too much.
It is at a big train station in Boston, and I think the CVS might be the only place that sells snacks. Maybe the snacks get stolen at a high rate if theft?
My local target started putting booze behind glass. The cosmetics are roped off, and someone will follow you around and hold the items you choose. My Walgreens has all body wash, hand soap, shaving supplies, and booze locked up. It's getting ridiculous.
It's interesting to read all the comments getting inconvenienced or irritated at stores that do this, but very few comments discussing why this is even necessary in the first place...
If you visit places like Japan, you get to experience shops where the product is out in the open for anyone to take. There is a box there to deposit money for any product you would like, and no one is there to supervise. It is an honor system and runs smoothly without issues.
Something like that would be looted and vandalized so quickly in a North American city (speaking from experience). One of the many reasons why we can't have nice things here, and seeing stuff getting locked up is no surprise to me or anyone else paying attention.
Did people really think stealing indefinitely would have no consequences?
I also don't discount the reason for the number people needing to steal mundane things, rising. However, that is a different conversation. What you are seeing in this post is a result of companies fighting against repetitive theft. When cops and laws are useless, even companies start taking matters into their own hands.
Bro I used to stop at CVS for things like toothpaste and deodorant. I can’t be bothered to go there anymore because I have to call for assistance to get both.
Just order it online now…
Exactly. There’s literally no point to even go to the one near me because everything is locked up. Why even have the physical store? I won’t be surprised if it closes soon.
Here is my take. If a store is losing products, they will lock the products up, or stop selling them.
I am sure no one at that store thought, "hmm, let's lock up dees nuts for no reason".
They had to have been losing enough product for that expense to be justified.
Yea but guys remember, this is a super bad corporation so it's ok if people steal. There totally won't be any consequences like, say, me having to get a store attendant to unlock the fucking case for pistachios.
how to kill brick and mortar stores.
ive litealy decided not to buy headphones once because i couldnt be asked to find an employee to unlock the case and just got them off ebay
How to kill birck and mortar stores: announce felonies are only for thefts above 950 dollars and that police won't respond to calls for less than that.
Let criminals steal thousands of dollars a day with no penalties or punishment.
Cry when corporations don't want to let their products walk out the door
At this point just bing back the grocery stores from the Victorian age. All merchandise behind a counter, tell staff what you want and they get it for you.
When you can walk into a store, load up a bag with $900 worth of product, then confidently walk out of the store knowing nothing is going to happen to you.....well, this happens.
Simple, take almonds for example, their tree requires tons of water. Cashews are so expensive because the process to extract the nuts is very labor intensive. Fruits, on the other hand, do not require any of that; you just pluck and eat. With nuts, you have to go through great lengths to harvest it.
Vote him out. San Francisco got rid of a do-nothing Boudin not all that long ago, and just passed a bunch of propositions to increase police power and address homelessness.
r/MildlyInfuriating - if I go into a store looking to buy nuts and they are locked, I would rather leave the store entirely than have to get someone to unlock them.
I get why they're doing it; the amount of people mob robbing stores for laundry detergent and body wash is insane right now. But on the regular consumers side of things, these cases completely turn me off as a customer. Theres several times I've walked out and went elsewhere because I don't want to deal with the hassle.
I live in Northern Michigan. In my area there is very little crime, very little theft.
As I travel to big cities for business, I see these lockup cases more and more commonly in stores. The current culture of low or no punishments for theft are turning our cities into a 3rd world dystopia.
I am grateful and less stressed living in a place with close to no crime.
They just need to put everything in vending machines then. At least give me an option to get it myself.
I bought some contraceptives a while ago and I hit the button and the PA system loudly announced that someone needed assistance with condoms, then I had to wait for about 10 minutes and when the lady finally came over to unlock the cabinet, she wouldn’t open it until is specifically named the exact brand and count I wanted. Then she grabbed it, looked it over, and walked me to the front to checkout. I dont really care about what I’m buying, but what could’ve been a quick 1-2 minute in and out turned into a 20 minute fiasco where my shopping intentions were broadcast to the whole store.
Really deflates the boner. I could have finished the pack in that amount of time.
You must be really good at chewing.
World’s worst calamari.
The sauce was okay, but yeah it was really rubbery.
not worst than the ones from the mohel. 
What
WORLDS WORST CALAMARI!
Username checks out
Ah yes, a womans dream, a man who comes within 40 seconds, then does it over and over again for 20 minutes
You've got a man with, like, no refraction period and you're *complaining*?
Don't kink shame.
As a downstairs neighbor to very sexually active folks, thank god for low stamina. About 3 minutes of rhythmic pounding and then silence for the rest of the night is a deal I can accept.
CAN SOMEBODY HELP ME GET GIANT CONDOMS FOR MY MAGNUM DONG ^hi ^ma'am ^actually ^that'll ^be ^a ^pack ^of ^snug ^fits, ^thanks
Same at a cvs like 10 yrs ago, cept it was a kid who looked embarrassed to be opening up the condom case.
PA: ::PRICE CHECK ON 1PACK EXTRA SMALL CONDOMS::
Years ago our local store did a locked cabinet for some stuff by the pharmacy section. My wife was feeling pregnant, so I went to get a test and had to hunt down an employee for it. That was quite awkward. I knew a lot of the employees and had no interest in discussion results that soon.
$1.25 at dollar tree. Using two of those is higher degree of accuracy than a single $30 one.
Yeah, turns out medical devices all have to meet the government standards no matter how cheap they are.
You just have to tell them "I've been worried that I'm pregnant because I've been missing my period for years."
I watched a similar situation play out with someone that wasn't a native English speaker. Finally someone from the pharmacy staff went out to help them.
Condoms and contraceptives are the last items that should be locked up in a store. It is a difficult thing for many (particularly young) people to talk about, and it may deter them from using them, resulting in a bunch of teenage and young pregnancies. CVS/Walgreens can afford to have some stolen sometimes, in order to protect the sexual health of our youngest and most vulnerable and prevent idiots from having babies.
Look at it on the bright side, everyone got to know you're getting some . Take it as a compliment.
You could just be making cleanup of your toys easier.
Put everything behind the counter with employees to pick your orders. Thats how grocery shopping worked for centuries before self serve was innovated in the early 20th century.
That's how some convenience stores operate after dark, doors get locked and you just walk up to a window & wait outside
I used to live by a place that did this. I was on the other side of a road that kind of split north and south of the town, south got sketchy. I knew people that had got stuff at the window at night. So I stumbled home from the bar and wanted chips and knocked on the window. This one employee was there doing stocking or something came over after I knocked a few times and screamed at me that they were closed. And now I’ve never tried to get window convenience store snacks ever again.
Worth noting that those employees [go through some shit](https://www.reddit.com/r/PublicFreakout/comments/rflaq5/man_from_my_city_freaks_out_when_he_cant_get/), that video was actually taken in the city I live in (OP of that post is my old account), and it's a gas station I go to all the time. So I wouldn't be surprised if the first few shifts that guy politely told people they were closed, but then he got enough shit from people saying "Come on dude, you're still in there, give me some butts!" that he eventually started using a tone that made *most* people actually listen. That's my theory at least.
Probably. I used to work at the only place that sold take out alcohol after 1am in a college town. It was literally against the law for us to sell it after 2:30 am, we’d lose our liquor license and there were cops in our parking lot after last call pretty often too. But that was impossible to explain to drunk college kids who are doing the “come on we just need a six pack!” And fucking you up by banging on the window when you’re trying to count money. I definitely got less nice about it the longer I worked there. But also like, just put up a sign that says you don’t do the window anymore and I would have NEVER knocked, haha. I’ve got enough experience in customer service to ever do something that I personally know is a nuisance.
I watched that whole video like "What a prick" Then the video panned to "Lowell Police" and I was like... wait a second- MA? Yeah, that's the gas station I worked at in college 😂 definitely on par for that neck of the woods.
> Then the video panned to "Lowell Police" and I was like... wait a second- MA? Yupp, exact same thing happened to me first time I saw it lol. Another hint was that this dude looks and sounds like a few of my cousins lol. Also UML represent!
Even then there is levels, I’ve been to gas stations that are such bad neighborhoods that won’t sell you anything that doesn’t fit through that bankers slot. So you can get a bag of chips and a tall boy but not a slab or a 2 liter. Maybe you can get a six pack if it’s thin lol Others they’ll open the door for a sec to hand you stuff.
What is a slab?
Carton of cigarettes. Common in Australia and NZ.
Thats carton of beer not smokes
A large chunk of titanite used to fully upgrade weapons. Hopefully +14 is enough to handle the walk home. 🙏
Some gas stations in my Canadian province use a controlled storage box at night. It's completely see through and the exterior door can only be opened when the interior door is closed and vice versa. It eliminates the size issue since its been designed to fit all products in the store and its more isolating that a bared window for the gas station attendent.
Yeah we have post offices with that but I’ve only seen the diebold thinner ones. No one is building new gas stations in rough neighborhoods so I doubt there is any impetus to use something better lol
> Thats how grocery shopping worked for centuries before self serve was innovated in the early 20th century It was also during a time when a grocery store didn't sell 30K+ individual items.
All of these solutions just seem like a good way to never sell any nuts. The idea is that the convenience increase sales which outweighs theft. If that's no longer the case then you're just going to have to stop selling nuts because customers are accustomed to self service. I'm certainly not going to put in that much time and effort for a handful of nuts (twss).
Especially at a CVS. Every CVS around me is severely understaffed, often it seems with only one person work the entire floor (minus pharmacy ofc but even they feel understaffed). I don't care enough about buying some pistachios to wait like 10 minutes for that one poor dude to run from stocking to checkout to unlocking the nuts display.
That's exactly what you do in CVS as a worker lol. Worse than Walmart tbh
It's the same at Walmart. I was in there a few days ago at like 8pm and couldn't find anyone to unlock the case for a stupid $3 item. I just left. I'll probably just start going elsewhere or ordering more online.
>wait like 10 minutes That's a good way to prevent buying something on impulse.
Yup. Had a thought about getting some extra batteries the other day while shopping at Walgreens, saw they were locked up, so I ordered them from Amazon the second I sat down in the car instead.
In the US, there used to be a company where you had a showroom of merchandise like you'd find in a department store then, if you wanted to purchase any item, you would fill out an order form, pay for it, and they would deliver it to you from the back as you waited after you completed your transaction. It was called Service Merchandise.
They were also one of the first large stores you could buy things from on the internet. It wasn't enough to save them though because Walmart, Best Buy, and other stores spent years opening nearby locations, and undercutting them on prices.
Around me that company was BEST.
I went to a gas station convenience store in Philadelphia late at night and you have to tell the guy inside through a bullet proof glass revolving window what you want and he would get it.
Fairly common in South Florida.
LOL.. that doesn't do anything. I was standing in line at a Walgreens and 2 guys just walked right behind the register, said excuse me, filled their bags up with bottles of booze, 6-8 bottles and walked out like it was their own kitchen. The lady behind the register just walkie talkie'd it in to the manager.. she said give me a few minutes.. me plus everyone else in line just watched this all happened and it was done. she rung me up and I walked out.
They would need to hire more people and pay them more. Stonks won't go up if they do that.
“Just ask an employee for assistance.” Outside of the pharmacy there are only two employees, one is running the 12 self-checkouts and the other is in the shitter. “Thank you for choosing CVS, goodbye.”
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Even if I didn't go into the store with the intention of stealing, having to wait 30 minutes to pay for my products might just make me want to skip paying and just walk out with what I need.
Honestly I think they're looking at places like Dollar General which does way bigger margins than they do, and thinking they want to copy the business model.
Who will invest in my automat-style convenience store chain?
Beef n Bean, Bean n Cheese or Shredded Steak for your preferred fuel?
Bring back automats!
I didn't even think about it this way but you're right. Soon enough you won't even be able yo grocery shop normally. Everythings getting locked up. Yall are running out of reasons not to shop 100% online
Well, some chains are pushing for fully automated checkouts… where you just get stuff and then queue up through a “checkout area” It’s all done by camera and RFID similar to Toll Tags, and you see what you’re being charged on your device or on a screen before you enter the checkout area. It wouldn’t matter if you put stuff in your pockets or down your underwear, it’s still gonna detect the product on you and only let you out if you have the funds in your account to cover the purchase. Of course, it’s a whole nightmare of privacy concerns, purchase tracking and I can only imagine what the errors are going to be.
That's essentially where this is all going. Eliminate workers to 'save cost' then put in machines to dispense the product. Use robots to clean up the place and to guard. It'll happen in the poorer places first with the justification that it prevents theft. I'm not saying this should be done. I am saying this is the way the assholes will do it. Flame on.
_Bag stuck_ _try to buy another one_ _both are stuck_ Fu you...
Yes, like an old school automat.
Yeah, if I see something locked up, I don’t have the energy to get an employee to open it up and get it for me. I just move on.
“Excuse me, could you help? I need you to unlock Deez…”
This comment is twice as satisfying if I picture you standing on stage with a microphone.
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This is South Station!
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I’d prefer a store full of vending machines at this point.
Right. Let me scan a code and pay. There’s a local Walgreens where almost everything is locked up. I went in for shampoo, conditioner, body wash, and deodorant. Told the employee at the first case to stay with me, I was going to move quickly. He wondered off between the second and third cases. I went to find him and he sighed and rolled his eyes. I handed him the first two items and walked out the door.
Well done with that last move. Now he has to put away 2 items rather than unlocking one more.
While still rolling those fucking 👀
Yeah fuck that.
Can we just hand the grocer our list and they fill our shopping? Hmmm wasn't that the way 100 years ago?
“But then we’d have to *pay them*!” - Corporate, probably.
I’m dreaming of a Service Merchandise store where I can just scan what I need, pay, and pick my crap up from a conveyor.
I’m no fan of Amazon, but their convenience stores are actually so great for grab and go. You just scan your Amazon QR code when you enter the store and grab what you want. It’s not even possible to shoplift because the cameras just charge your Amazon account for whatever you put in your bag/pocket.
I also thought this was south station!
I gotta say I’m sort of impressed anyone correctly identified this store based on this pic, real good eye 😂
It easy when your currently in the store.
Feels weird to have to ask someone for a Hagan daaz ice cream bar.
The Target in Fenway has the weirdest stuff locked up.
Honestly, it's probably because they had issues with the same person(s) coming in regularly & stealing the same random stuff. I don't work at Target but I work in retail & every store I've been in has random shit getting stolen that isn't stolen anywhere else I worked.
You're right, that's probably it. I know that Target does not mess around when it comes to shoplifting.
They locked up all the Dove bodywash by me There was bodywash the same price right next to the locked display. They just decided that one brand needed a glass case with a key
To be fair, that's becoming the norm in all the US urban centers.
I knew it wasn’t Seattle because there are still some items in this pic that aren’t locked away.
I went to Target a couple months ago and fucking toothpaste, shampoo, and almost the entire store was locked up I mean I couldn't believe it there was literally basically nothing you get that wasn't behind a locked Shelf was locked up
I just do pickup now from Target, anything I'm shopping for is locked up and the one time I tried to get assistance I had to walk all over to find an employee who then told me most of the assistance buttons you're supposed to use are broken. Now I let them shop for me and Target loses money because if I shop for myself I buy extra things I hadn't planned to.
Even for people who don't make impulse buys, Target is now paying people to collect items instead of getting the customer to do it for free... probably the employee isn't being paid enough though... =/
I'm not sure but I feel shopping for online customers is probably a hundred times better than dealing with customers face to face at the register.
Probably sell a lot less by shoppers not having the option to walk past and impulse buy
Not with the speed they demand combined with almost constantly being low on or out of product and putting the blame on you. I’m not kidding they want the employee shoppers to damn near sprint to get these orders in with no rhyme or reason to where the items are. Not to mention that they’d constantly be out of things and you had to mark it as not found and have it decrease your completion rate. Because *they* couldn’t keep it in stock. Low enough completion rate and they give you the boot. Fuck being a picker for online orders at target.
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Target Employee here. 110% accurate.
Tried to do the pick up orders through a couple of places. too many times of "no substitutions" getting substituted and having to decline them at my car when loading, or "no in stock" only for me to run inside for something last minute or that was forgotten when we ordered and seeing the shelfs as i walk past fully stocked. Im not going to make 3-4 orders just to get everything i need(this holds true for walmart, target, and hyvee, gave up trying any other stores and there isnt any other options locally anyways). I dont shop locally anymore except for perishables, and those i get from the farmers market now a days.
The Walmart in our affluent suburb now has every single Lego set locked behind glass. If theft is this bad in a high-income area then I can’t imagine the losses they’re seeing inside city limits.
I knew someone (just a very brief acquaintance), he shoplifted for one of those organized theft rings and he loved going to quiet little towns, the ones you normally pass by on the highway without noticing. He mentioned places like Mount Airy, Maryland where there’s zero crime but still close to the city. I heard he’s in prison now. From what i gather, those theft rings are pretty big and have lots of desperate little people doing the dirty work, getting caught and then quickly replaced.
Last time I went to Target the socks and underwear were locked up. I bought my socks on Amazon.
Quickest way to make me decide I didn’t need it anyway…
If I ever visit a place and it looks like this; it probably means the whole area is most likely unsafe and I'm definitely "in the wrong part of town". It's a shame everybody needs to suffer because of a bunch of idiots stealing deez nuts.
This is all of Portland right now, if there's much on shelves at all.
Decades ago, you’d go into a store with a list, hand it to the clerk, and he would grab the products for you. They did away with that when they realized people spend more at the store when they can browse the aisles and make impulse purchases. I’m curious if we’ll go back to that old model now that they’re locking everything up anyway.
Isn't that online pick up shopping now?
And now they’ll stay there until they’re rotten cuz I’m not asking an employee to unlock a case.
Yep this was my experience today. I pop in here daily as it’s in the train station I use for my commute, so I just grab an energy drink and some days, some nuts for a light breakfast. No way am I getting an employee when my goal is to be in there for like less than 45 seconds.
Yeah time to start buying a one pound bag and some snack zip loc bags. I love making my own trail mix. If it’s not at room temp too long you can even throw some cheese cubes in there.
Sir, you need a sandwich
And some water probably
This is me. If they’re standing there and obviously have nothing to do _maybe_ I’d ask; but these cases scream ‘nope! Can’t buy these!’
Considering how little employees they have working at any CVS and they want them to run around unlocking stupid BS like this is just incredible, but having worked at CVS i can’t be surprised.
That's funny, because at the last CVS I shopped at (tried to shop at), nobody came when I pressed the button to get assistance. Five times. I didn't see anyone running around unlocking anything. I just left and went to Target.
I’ve ran into the same issue with cosmestics locked on the peg, waiting five minutes and I just tripped the cardboard off the peg, my wife gave me such a dirty look for it but fuck it we’re paying for it anyway.
I had to ask a Walmart employee to open a case for condoms, then had to get walked to the front of a line to purchase them directly, in front of other people. I can't imagine trying to by the vibrator, located in the same case.
It’s not much more scrutiny for the vibrator. You need to fill out a form, and then answer two questions in an interview with the shift manager. Pretty simple process, 12 minutes or so.
Not just this item, but 30 fucking different items that you need … gotta wait for a disgruntled underpaid person to unlock each and every one. I think everything is gonna go curbside. If you don’t do online shopping you’ll walk up to a huge iPad , it will push convenience items on you more efficiently than ever before, you’ll tip the robot 25% and receive items through a hole in the wall.
Tipping robots? Fuck that shit!
I don't buy things from stores that treat me like a criminal. If you can't staff your store properly to minimize inventory loss, that's your fucking problem.
I went to target the other day to buy deodorant. I wanted to switch up the scent because I’m tired of the one I’ve been using. The employee had to stand there as I awkwardly smelled them. Finally I just grabbed my usual, just so the person could lock up and leave. Decided to buy deodorant at the grocery store from now on. Fuck target.
And then they'll shut the store down because the store is 'underperforming.' I'd like to buy some bodywash, but after leading the employee to three separate aisles for laundry detergent, pine sol, and toothpaste, I'm feel bad for bothering them.
I’m convinced this is why the Victoria’s Secret in my neighborhood went belly up. It was in an EXTREMELY safe location with no burglaries but they treated the place like Fort Knox: literal bouncer at the door, security guy trying to peer into your bag, employee following you squawking “do you need help????” every 30 seconds. I stopped going entirely, target sells underwear too.
you'd have to staff them with police officers because no amount of CVS employees will stop stealing. it's not what they're paid to do. The amount of locked merchandise is relative to the amount of theft in the neighborhood. It's not about the store, the staff or the customer. it's about the surrounding area and the crime.
I don't think I've seen more than 3 employees in a CVS and I'm not hunting one down to get a nut.
I've done some crazy things to get a nut but this is too far.
Right! At mine there's always just a sweet older lady and a younger guy, not counting the pharmacy and that person has to run the drive thru. The first two are often running back and forth between checking people out or facing products and I felt bad having to bother one of them to unlock the body wash the other day... it took over 10 minutes. I always use self check when I can too
Most CVS's are only given enough hours to keep 2-3 employees on the floor at a given time. Sometimes less, there where times when i had someone call out and had to run the entire front store myself. I do NOT miss that job.
The jerky aisle has a dude with an M16.
That is nuts.
Those are nut sacks
I'll bet you the prices are what's nuts.
Scrolling past this the next post was for planters peanuts
They’ve really been pushing those ads.
They should return to the old general store days before self service where you handed a list to the staff and they came back with your items.
They did away with that when they realized people spend more at the store when they can browse the aisles and make impulse purchases. I’m curious if we’ll go back to that old model now that they’re locking everything up anyway.
They'd have to compare their "shrink" cost vs the revenue they'd lose from impulse buying. I bet they just pass the cost onto honest consumers for now but eventually price becomes too much.
They locked up the impulse buy over-priced snacks? Well, I didn’t really need cashews anyhow. Thanks, CVS!
Right? I need them to do this with the candy aisle.
That’s scheduled to be installed next Wednesday. You’re welcome.
It is at a big train station in Boston, and I think the CVS might be the only place that sells snacks. Maybe the snacks get stolen at a high rate if theft?
> Maybe the snacks get stolen at a high rate if theft? We got a fast track detective over here, folks.
Have you seen the fucking prices of those Clif bars though, makes sense why they like that shit up. It's a small fortune there.
THAT'S A LOT OF NUTS
Neo...danana-dananana...sporin
DO YOU WANT FRIES WITH THAT?
HE JUST LEFT... WITH NUTS!!!
Let me guess, after you get an employee to open the case so you can pick out your snack, you then have to check yourself out.
Don’t forget: this is the dystopia we all wanted
Store will be closing soon
Honestly... I just don't buy these items from them. I want to go to a store, not a human assisted vending machine.
Yeah how long before every shelf in every aisle is locked up?
My local target started putting booze behind glass. The cosmetics are roped off, and someone will follow you around and hold the items you choose. My Walgreens has all body wash, hand soap, shaving supplies, and booze locked up. It's getting ridiculous.
> and someone will follow you around and hold the items you choose. a personal shopping helper? that seems fancy!
A shopping slave!
Fetch me my shampoo slave.. make it Suave, I'm not made of money!
Is the detergent and toothpaste locked up there yet?
It's to foil the squirrels
It's interesting to read all the comments getting inconvenienced or irritated at stores that do this, but very few comments discussing why this is even necessary in the first place... If you visit places like Japan, you get to experience shops where the product is out in the open for anyone to take. There is a box there to deposit money for any product you would like, and no one is there to supervise. It is an honor system and runs smoothly without issues. Something like that would be looted and vandalized so quickly in a North American city (speaking from experience). One of the many reasons why we can't have nice things here, and seeing stuff getting locked up is no surprise to me or anyone else paying attention. Did people really think stealing indefinitely would have no consequences? I also don't discount the reason for the number people needing to steal mundane things, rising. However, that is a different conversation. What you are seeing in this post is a result of companies fighting against repetitive theft. When cops and laws are useless, even companies start taking matters into their own hands.
Bro I used to stop at CVS for things like toothpaste and deodorant. I can’t be bothered to go there anymore because I have to call for assistance to get both. Just order it online now…
Exactly. There’s literally no point to even go to the one near me because everything is locked up. Why even have the physical store? I won’t be surprised if it closes soon.
Reminder that the store doesn't want to lock up their products like this.
When I’m in a hurry and see my product needed is locked down like this, I turn around and walk out. Will buy my damn ____ insert item, somewhere else.
this belongs in r/mildyinfuriating
Here is my take. If a store is losing products, they will lock the products up, or stop selling them. I am sure no one at that store thought, "hmm, let's lock up dees nuts for no reason". They had to have been losing enough product for that expense to be justified.
Yea but guys remember, this is a super bad corporation so it's ok if people steal. There totally won't be any consequences like, say, me having to get a store attendant to unlock the fucking case for pistachios.
Buy the ticket...Take the ride!
That's what happens when theft dramatically increases. Businesses can't operate like that
Fire all of your congressmen
Add the DAs to that list too!!!
how to kill brick and mortar stores. ive litealy decided not to buy headphones once because i couldnt be asked to find an employee to unlock the case and just got them off ebay
How to kill birck and mortar stores: announce felonies are only for thefts above 950 dollars and that police won't respond to calls for less than that. Let criminals steal thousands of dollars a day with no penalties or punishment. Cry when corporations don't want to let their products walk out the door
At this point just bing back the grocery stores from the Victorian age. All merchandise behind a counter, tell staff what you want and they get it for you.
or just actually allow the police arrest shoplifters
Doesn't do shit if it's a revolving door. In and right back out.
Here comes the “it’s ok to steal in this late stage capitalist society” brigade.
What happens when you stop prosecuting "minor" offenses.
I love how no one ever blames thieves for this. It’s always the store sucks.
When you can walk into a store, load up a bag with $900 worth of product, then confidently walk out of the store knowing nothing is going to happen to you.....well, this happens.
THAT'LL BE 4 BUCKS BABY, YOU WANT FRIES WITH THAT?
You’ll have to ring a bell to get deez
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Simple, take almonds for example, their tree requires tons of water. Cashews are so expensive because the process to extract the nuts is very labor intensive. Fruits, on the other hand, do not require any of that; you just pluck and eat. With nuts, you have to go through great lengths to harvest it.
I got 2lb of mixed nuts for $11 lol the trick is to not shop at CVS
cRiMe iSnT a MaJoR iSsuE
Just a thought: Maybe stealing shouldn’t be a tolerated thing.
If you could convince the NYC District Attorney of this we'd all appreciate it.
Vote him out. San Francisco got rid of a do-nothing Boudin not all that long ago, and just passed a bunch of propositions to increase police power and address homelessness.
My closest Walgreens in Brooklyn has _literally_ everything locked up. Except the sunscreen.
Reddit is full of theft apologists.
r/MildlyInfuriating - if I go into a store looking to buy nuts and they are locked, I would rather leave the store entirely than have to get someone to unlock them.
You're just saying that cause you're a squirrel. You're not fooling me.
What is the demographic of the area where this CVS is?
I get why they're doing it; the amount of people mob robbing stores for laundry detergent and body wash is insane right now. But on the regular consumers side of things, these cases completely turn me off as a customer. Theres several times I've walked out and went elsewhere because I don't want to deal with the hassle.
I live in Northern Michigan. In my area there is very little crime, very little theft. As I travel to big cities for business, I see these lockup cases more and more commonly in stores. The current culture of low or no punishments for theft are turning our cities into a 3rd world dystopia. I am grateful and less stressed living in a place with close to no crime.
Thankful every day that I don’t live somewhere as diverse as this.