CVS, Target and other chains have barricaded everything from toiletries to cleaning supplies. It’s backfired in almost every way.

[Jason]

link

 

Quote

In both situations, I counted myself lucky that someone came at all. Retail, with its low pay and odd hours, has an industrywide problem with understaffing, a shortage that’s been exacerbated by decades of corporate cuts in labor budgets. That’s left many large retailers with barely enough employees in some locations to keep the lights on and the doors open. You can press that little button all you want, but there just might not be anyone to answer it. Each locked cabinet requires about 500 hours of annual labor to operate, Joe Budano, the chief executive of Indyme Solutions, a company that sells retail security products such as the now-ubiquitous employee call buttons, told the Wall Street Journal in 2023. Fagan says these kinds of loss prevention tactics only make retail work less appealing to potential hires and good employees more difficult to keep.

That very well may feed into a vicious cycle for retailers if they don’t find better ways to deal with the theft issues they’re already having: When no one is minding the store, potential thieves feel emboldened. “Where staffing is better and staffing levels are better, theft goes down,” Saunders says. In 2023, Marvin Ellison, the chief executive of Lowe’s, credited the company’s investment in in-store employees for keeping its theft rates lower than its competitors’. Retail Industry Leaders of America’s Brewer disagrees that more workers is the solution. “It’s not a staffing issue,” he says, arguing that professionals engaged in large-scale theft aren’t dissuaded by a couple of extra employees. And, of course, acrylic cabinets can stand vigil in stores all day, every day without becoming legally entitled to health insurance.

What most retailers fail to account for is that while these tactics may help shore up quarterly earnings for now, they’re also doing real, long-term damage to their sales and to their brand. Browsing an aisle full of locked-up stuff is a bad user experience. Dare to linger too long, and whoever is watching the store’s security cameras might begin to find you suspicious. At least it might start to feel that way. After all, those plexiglass partitions are a constant reminder that where you are could be as much a crime scene as it is a big-box store—a feeling that won’t exactly, in the mantra of enlightened retailers, surprise and delight you.

You don’t have to try and fail to buy deodorant or toothpaste too many times before you simply stop trying to buy those things in person. When foot traffic declines, so do sales on all kinds of things, including those not behind plexiglass. “I worry that’s going to have a long-lasting effect,” says EY’s Fagan. For a lot of shoppers, those locked shelves become another reason to avoid in-person shopping and hand their business over to Amazon.

 

[CastlevaniaNut18]

Shit, most of this stuff I get online now anyway. I have subs from better companies for all my personal care items. 

[finaljedi]

I don't buy anything I have to get an employee to unlock.  I'm not getting help to get some deodorant, I can just order it online.

[outsida]

The theft issue was overblown. Who knew solving problems that don’t exist would have unexpected consequences?

[Ominous]

With subscribe and save on Amazon I get my deodorant, soap, dish washing tabs, etc all online. Covid took away 24/7 shopping so I just get that shit online. 

[S3xB0t]

I used to work for Walgreens. What a pitiful, disgusting company. 

[chakoo]

Luckily it hasn't gotten this bad in Canada where I live but to be honest, the prices at drugstores are so high that I just subscribe & save on Amazon.

[sblfilms]

It was a loooong time ago, so who knows if it has changed over time, but Walmart once had some internal documents leak that showed their own research found that something CRAZY high like 70-80% of all merchandise theft in their stores was by employees, which makes the locking up of merchandise a million times funnier.

[Best]

I shop at both cvs and riteaid because that's where I pick up my medications. Nothing as of yet has been locked up for things I need for personal care. 

[finaljedi]

19 minutes ago, Best said:

I shop at both cvs and riteaid because that's where I pick up my medications. Nothing as of yet has been locked up for things I need for personal care. 

 

It depends on the area.  My little suburban town that literally drives the people they figure are undesirable to JD Vance's former hometown doesn't lock anything up at the pharmacies.  But go to an area that has a little bit of an escalated crime rate and everything is in glass cases.

[b_m_b_m_b_m]

The cvs I go to for pharmacy pickups had an active shoplifter when I was in there and locked the doors and the manager was letting  people in and out one at a time. That was strange

[Kal-El814]

54 minutes ago, sblfilms said:

It was a loooong time ago, so who knows if it has changed over time, but Walmart once had some internal documents leak that showed their own research found that something CRAZY high like 70-80% of all merchandise theft in their stores was by employees, which makes the locking up of merchandise a million times funnier.

 

Anecdotal but anyone I know who’s been in a retail management position has said that the most theft in terms of both frequency and volume happens from employees.

 

As to the topic, I live in the suburbs so I don’t encounter these lockups when I shop locally. I see it most often when I go to Philly. Not saying it doesn’t happen in Boston, just not where I normally end up doing retail nonsense. So as someone who doesn’t see it often, it’s amazing how customer hostile it is.

[TheLeon]

The one time I’ve been to a CVS in the last couple years, the checkout line was like 12 people long and wasn’t moving at all, because the only employee on the floor was busy unlocking shit for people. Half of the people in line could’ve just walked out without paying and I bet nobody would notice or care. 

[DarkStar189]

I go to my local CVS 2-3 times a month to get family members prescriptions. Quality of help is way down.  The pharmacy people look miserable every time I’m there. This short old lady that is always there will give you the worst attitude no matter what. The store hasn’t locked too much up yet.  But now that they added 2 self checkout machines up front, there is almost never anyone at the counter. One random employee just floats around the store. They always look miserable too.

[Best]

1 hour ago, finaljedi said:

 

It depends on the area.  My little suburban town that literally drives the people they figure are undesirable to JD Vance's former hometown doesn't lock anything up at the pharmacies.  But go to an area that has a little bit of an escalated crime rate and everything is in glass cases.

 

Makes sense. I live in Lancaster county in Pennsylvania. Home of the Amish and it's an extremely safe and beautiful area to live. 

 

Also, cvs is complete trash these days. Before switching to Riteaid I'd constantly have to wait in huge lines to pick up my medications. So I said to myself, let me try Riteaid right up the street. Well it was a great move because every time I go in there is NEVER a line at the pharmacy and the people that work there are incredibly kind and helpful. 

[Jason]

47 minutes ago, DarkStar189 said:

The pharmacy people look miserable every time I’m there.

 

All of the corporate chain pharmacies are majorly understaffed. It's especially shitty for any schedule II meds since the pharmacist has to be present for them to hand over the prescription and they only ever have one pharmacist on shift at a time so if it's their lunch break (which can be at weird times) you're SOL and have to either sit around waiting for them to come back from break or come back later. But then schedule II via mail delivery is even worse because they won't leave it without someone to sign for it, which was fine when I lived in doorman buildings in DC but not so much in my current building and my job throws a fit if you have anything personal delivered there.

 

I've since moved as much over as possible to the mail order pharmacy but I keep using CVS for anything that's a hassle to get mail delivered, plus before I switched to the mail delivery it can save your ass if you forget your meds on a trip that it's a lot easier to move a prescription around between CVS locations than between different pharmacies.

[S3xB0t]

I’ve never had an adult job that wasn’t as a pharmacist, but as far as white collar jobs go I’m not sure there’s too many more ways to make $100k and be completely miserable. I left chain retail for hospital outpatient, and despite the change from full to part time I am much happier. No nights, no weekends, and a higher hourly rate than anything the chains offer. 

[Spawn_of_Apathy]

On 8/2/2024 at 9:32 AM, sblfilms said:

It was a loooong time ago, so who knows if it has changed over time, but Walmart once had some internal documents leak that showed their own research found that something CRAZY high like 70-80% of all merchandise theft in their stores was by employees, which makes the locking up of merchandise a million times funnier.

 

23 hours ago, Kal-El814 said:

Anecdotal but anyone I know who’s been in a retail management position has said that the most theft in terms of both frequency and volume happens from employees

It may not be true on an individual store basis, but across an entire company, yeah probably. 
 

I worked at Blockbuster back in day. Caught a store manager stealing the quarters from the gumball machine. It didn’t become obvious until it was hundreds of dollars worth of quarters missing. At a different store there was a shift lead that stole some electronic, maybe a portable dvd player from a locked cage in the back that we inventoried daily. At the last store I worked at that I actually managed I discovered internal theft going on with a shift lead and cashier and through the investigation it was revealed the cashier had been stealing for years, getting other shift leads involved throughout the time. Loss Prevention got involved and not only did the person bring back in like 5 large duffle-bags of movies, box sets, and games, but he had to cut a check to Blockbuster to avoid prosecution. The biggest case of internal theft I’d seen personally. 
 

Blockbuster always had customers come in and steal. Usually just a movie here, a movie there. When games were live on the shelves, even locked in their cases they would get stolen all the time. Had people come in with a garbage bag and shovel a bunch of new movies and tv box sets into and run off. Had somebody get into the lock of a new tv show box set and then bring it to the counter to act like they bought, lost the receipt, and try to get a “refund”. 

[finaljedi]

12 hours ago, S3xB0t said:

I’ve never had an adult job that wasn’t as a pharmacist, but as far as white collar jobs go I’m not sure there’s too many more ways to make $100k and be completely miserable. I left chain retail for hospital outpatient, and despite the change from full to part time I am much happier. No nights, no weekends, and a higher hourly rate than anything the chains offer. 

 

There are plenty of ways in the white collar world to crack 6 figures and be miserable.

[S3xB0t]

2 hours ago, finaljedi said:

 

There are plenty of ways in the white collar world to crack 6 figures and be miserable.

Oh good, so it wasn’t just me. White collar despair aside, the public-facing pharmacy is not a great place these days. I like my setting now but it’s kind of a unicorn, and even we aren’t immune to continually mounting pressure from the insurance industry.

[TUFKAK]

It’s almost like tolerating anti social behavior has negative consequence’s

 

Shocking I know 

[LazyPiranha]

On 8/2/2024 at 11:32 AM, Kal-El814 said:

 

Anecdotal but anyone I know who’s been in a retail management position has said that the most theft in terms of both frequency and volume happens from employees.

 

As to the topic, I live in the suburbs so I don’t encounter these lockups when I shop locally. I see it most often when I go to Philly. Not saying it doesn’t happen in Boston, just not where I normally end up doing retail nonsense. So as someone who doesn’t see it often, it’s amazing how customer hostile it is.

It goes beyond customer hostile, it’s usually painfully racist too.  More often than not whenever I see theft deterrent devices in stores, especially liquor stores, stereotypically black items are tagged and other things aren’t.  I can’t tell you how many liquor stores I’ve been in where every bottle of Hennessy and Crown Royal has a no-go top on the bottle, but the Jack Daniels is free and clear.  

[TUFKAK]

I mean; if that’s what’s being taken more often than others of course it’ll be locked up

 

same way batteries are at my Safeway etc

 

lets blame the dipshits stealing shall we.

[Jason]

22 minutes ago, LazyPiranha said:

It goes beyond customer hostile, it’s usually painfully racist too.  More often than not whenever I see theft deterrent devices in stores, especially liquor stores, stereotypically black items are tagged and other things aren’t.  I can’t tell you how many liquor stores I’ve been in where every bottle of Hennessy and Crown Royal has a no-go top on the bottle, but the Jack Daniels is free and clear.  

 

Meanwhile in socal the actual massive theft was organized by a suburban white mom who got her family in on it. 

 

Suburban mom ran 'complex' crime ring that stole nearly $8M in makeup...

NYPOST.COM

---

Mom-of-three Michelle Mack is accused of paying a dozen women to steal from stores across the country, stockpiling the goods and then selling them on Amazon.

 

[TUFKAK]

Throw her into the system too which looks like they did.

[S3xB0t]

We have a social responsibility problem. I wish it was okay to call people out. Problem is that if you do you might get shot. 

[Kal-El814]

1 hour ago, TUFKAK said:

I mean; if that’s what’s being taken more often than others of course it’ll be locked up

 

same way batteries are at my Safeway etc

 

lets blame the dipshits stealing shall we.

 

Anecdotes abound, but the liquor stores I worked at were much more concerned about stuff that had the vibes of what might be stolen (Hennessy, Courvoisier) than the stuff that actually was stolen (whatever was closest to the door, stuff in the walk-in). We’d put more expensive things that had larger profit margins for the store in places that were easier to nick in the interest of keeping “stuff that black people like” out of arm’s reach. In Back Bay in Boston, where 90% of our customer base was white. I can confirm that not an ounce of cognac was stolen on my watch, I cannot say the same for the Johnnie Walker Black and the red wine we sold at a tremendous markup near the exit. 

 

Besides I’ve got the energy to blame thieves for being thieves and to call out racist stupidity when I see it. Locking up the cognac and not the bourbon is dumb and racist, locking up the Murray’s and not the American Crew is dumb and racist.

[TUFKAK]

Be like bmore

 

lock all the shit up in the liquor stores by Lexington market except the trash box wine.

[b_m_b_m_b_m]

27 minutes ago, Kal-El814 said:

 

Anecdotes abound, but the liquor stores I worked at were much more concerned about stuff that had the vibes of what might be stolen (Hennessy, Courvoisier) than the stuff that actually was stolen (whatever was closest to the door, stuff in the walk-in). We’d put more expensive things that had larger profit margins for the store in places that were easier to nick in the interest of keeping “stuff that black people like” out of arm’s reach. In Back Bay in Boston, where 90% of our customer base was white. I can confirm that not an ounce of cognac was stolen on my watch, I cannot say the same for the Johnnie Walker Black and the red wine we sold at a tremendous markup near the exit. 

 

Besides I’ve got the energy to blame thieves for being thieves and to call out racist stupidity when I see it. Locking up the cognac and not the bourbon is dumb and racist, locking up the Murray’s and not the American Crew is dumb and racist.

Reminds me of this bit I got in a daily axios email for Richmond:

Quote

• In Richmond, theft from ABC stores went from contributing to rising crime in the cityin 2023 to accounting for 51% of all shoplifting cases for the first half of this year.

Zoom in: Much of the shoplifting was concentrated at specific stores or regions, per data Virginia ABC shared with Axios. 

• In Richmond, 165 of the 477 ABC shoplifting incidents in the first half of the year were at just two local stores: 1217 W. Broad St. by VCU and 2525 E. Main St. in Shockoe Bottom. 
• One Norfolk store was robbed 115 times, while a Manassas shop lost 228 bottles in one go.
• And last month, police busted a NoVa booze theft ring linked to 26 ABC store thefts and over $145,000 in stolen hooch.

What they're stealing: An Axios review of the 14,326 bottles of booze pilfered this year shows: 

• With 1,377 bottles, the $39.99 bottle of Hennessy VS was the single most-shoplifted item. 
• 3,971 bottles of tequila (across 132 different brands) made it the most popular liquor among thieves.

So extrapolating from the first half of the year, (bottle total x $40/bottle) we’re looking at about $1million in shoplifting for this year. That’s a lot!

 

in 2023 VAABC brought in $1.47 billion in revenue and $220million in retail sales profits (not counting another ~$380million in sales and alcohol taxes) from their monopoly

[TUFKAK]

Just now, b_m_b_m_b_m said:

Reminds me of this bit I got in a daily axios email for Richmond:

So extrapolating from the first half of the year, we’re looking at about $1million in shoplifting for this year. That’s a lot!

 

in 2023 VAABC brought in $1.47 billion in revenue and $220million in retail sales profits (not counting another ~$380million in sales and alcohol taxes) from their monopoly

I make well into the six figures; I’m still

gonna care about a 100 bucks.

[LazyPiranha]

2 hours ago, TUFKAK said:

I mean; if that’s what’s being taken more often than others of course it’ll be locked up

 

same way batteries are at my Safeway etc

 

lets blame the dipshits stealing shall we.

My friend, look at the current political climate and ask yourself when facts have gotten in the way of someone being a piece of shit.  

[Gavin King]

On 8/2/2024 at 11:50 PM, S3xB0t said:

I’ve never had an adult job that wasn’t as a pharmacist, but as far as white collar jobs go I’m not sure there’s too many more ways to make $100k and be completely miserable. I left chain retail for hospital outpatient, and despite the change from full to part time I am much happier. No nights, no weekends, and a higher hourly rate than anything the chains offer. 

 

I recommend looking into a PBM or PBM Consulting. Senior analysts are making $100k+... managers $120k-$160k, directors - $150k-$200k. A pharmacist will easily be making $140k or higher depending on what level role. I'm on the finance/pricing side of it, but been on consulting side, PBM side, and now on health plan side. It's a niche industry, so hard to find people with industry experience.... it's a billion dollar industry, so when they do find talent, they generally pay well to attract and retain that talent. Depending on the company, a lot of it is remote as well, I've been remote since Covid.

[S3xB0t]

22 minutes ago, Gavin King said:

 

I recommend looking into a PBM or PBM Consulting. Senior analysts are making $100k+... managers $120k-$160k, directors - $150k-$200k. A pharmacist will easily be making $140k or higher depending on what level role. I'm on the finance/pricing side of it, but been on consulting side, PBM side, and now on health plan side. It's a niche industry, so hard to find people with industry experience.... it's a billion dollar industry, so when they do find talent, they generally pay well to attract and retain that talent. Depending on the company, a lot of it is remote as well, I've been remote since Covid.

PBMs are the reason pharmacy is in such a terrible state. I don’t think I could sell my soul like that.

[Gavin King]

There's enough blame to share for all parties, and PBMs are no angels, for sure. Pharma, pharmacies, wholesalers, health plans, hospitals, GPOs, even plan sponsors are all leveraging their size to get a big piece of the pie... The big participant in the pharmacy ecosystem that generally gets screwed, the patient. 

 

Stay away from the big 3 PBMs (CVS Caremark, Optum, and ESI)... or go on consulting side and negotiate better contracts for clients, or audit the PBMs and get them to payout penalties if that's more your flavor. 

 

More or less just wanted to say, lots of well paid opportunities with your experience that are further away from patient/retail settings.

[AlwaysDyingX]

This is the wawa in center city now. Why? Because lawlessness is allowed in this shitty city.  EVERYTHING is behind glass. This is our future.