The real problem is when there's no employees available to open the cabinet. I'm sorry, Home Depot, but I'm not going to run around the store trying to find someone only to have them call someone else just so I can get a $50 roll of copper wire.
Not to mention that in some locations there's so few employees, you'll end up walking a mile before someone says, "I'll have someone meet you there." Then no one shows up.
I went to Seattle for a tech conference. The supermarkets are crazy depressing. There was like 5 staff members, a Spanish lady with a cast on her leg, two kids under 20, a really big guy at the bakery isle, and a 25 yo woman who was stocking and managing a cash register.
There was also a bunch of weirdos outside and not a security guard in sight.
Then a mile or two away are million dollar housesn and billion dollar tech companies.
Except when they accost you to do that stupid fucking survey and just dive right in without your consent. Boy, they find you then... When deciding between Lowe's and Home Depot, I lean toward going to Lowe's simply because of that bullshit.
It's ridiculous. I had the same issue for a 50ft roll of 14 gauge romex. Not even the good 10/3 stuff. This was bottom-of-the-barrel 14/2. I was then able to walk over and grab a $100 cable tester and a box of CAT6 right off the shelf.
I guess crackheads aren't stealing cable testers or ethernet cable.
If I have to wait for an employee to unlock an item, I'm just buying it somewhere else, whether it's online or another brick and mortar that doesn't make me beg to spend money there. Same with stores that have passcode locks on their bathroom doors. I'm not asking a retail worker for permission to pee.
My only real issue is with health and beauty being locked up. I'm currently transitioning (MtF) and have found myself buying a lot online for this very reason. If it's behind a glass wall, it can stay there.
I never really thought about how that sort of thing would make things harder for trans people and I'm very sorry that's yet another hurdle you and others have to jump through just to be yourselves.
That sucks. Some locations everything is locked up, other ones are better. I usually stick to the "nice" mall or go to a standalone store instead. Just in case you didn't know, places like Sephora and Ulta allow you to return whatever. If you hate it or it bothers your skin, just return it. They will also give you samples, for some things at least, to take home if you ask. Such as foundation or something. They have these little tiny generic containers they can fill. Target used to be pretty good for skincare, but I haven't been in one for a long time.
I don't think it's that necessarily. To me it's things like that: i needed a toaster, and didn't want to go on Amazon or whatever. I went to a real store and looked at toasters. I found one that fits my needs. The guy who worked there said they fon't have that one here, but can order it. Neat, that's just like me ordering it, bun inconvenient and more expensive.
Same thing happened when i needed a new food processor. They didn't have the one i wanted, so i took the expedition model they had (yeah i'm an idiot). At home i realised that some parts were missing. So back to the store. They had to order a new one after talking to 3 people, and then pick it up again. So instead of ordering it for cheaper and picking it up from my porch, i wasted like 2 hours to take 3 trips to pay extra. And brick and mortar stores are dying? That's crazy
Here in the UK there are a number of bigger chain shops that are effectively running their websites as a kind of Amazon, and it’s really frustrating.
Needed a specific chainring for my bike, so went to Halfords website. They had what I wanted, but not in stock. Meaning, when I bought it, they then ordered it from their supplier to collect a few days later.
I needed a cheap tool for a single job from B&Q. Looked on their website, saw they had one for £3, drove up there to get it. But that one is online only, and the cheapest they keep in store is £6.
It’s like the shittiest bits of in store and online all mashed together, and it sucks.
Every time i go to a store and something like that happens i wanna yell: AREN'T YOU WORRIED? YOU ARE THE FIRST ONES WHO GET REPLACED BY A COMPUTER. I hate amazon with a passion, but once i got a empty carton (because someone stole it) it took me one phonecall and 0 proof or anything and they just send it again. I haven't used their customer support often, but if i did it was super good, compared to when i have to go to the store. Where is the original recipe? Oh it's opened? This is not how it was packaged originally and so on.
I just bought my own key for those cabinets because even if I order something from my local Walmart for delivery or pickup that is in one of these, they will say it's sold out even if they have a full shelf of shit.
You're claiming they all use the exact same key and also no one sees you on a security camera and kicks you out..? Also they just refuse to sell you things they have but lie about..?
You ever work at Walmart? Nobody actively monitors the cameras and the cabinets all use a T-shaped barrel key. Usually only a single employee carries the keys and with the time constraints set by OGP (the team that fills pickup and delivery orders), nobody wants to waste time looking for that person.
I'm wondering if big corporations like Target etc underestimated the impact of tech illiterate warming up to online shopping due to COVID. People poring over old data and thinking that most people would simply deal with the inconvenience, but it turns out most people are more comfortable just using Amazon now than 5 years ago
Projections won’t swing more than a few quarters ahead. Long term thinking yields short term losses, and the US stock market is a heroin addict begging at the methadone clinic for the briefest reprieve from its anguish. Long term is irrelevant and the neighbor’s window is open just enough to get the hit that the clinic denied.
Walmart locks up light bulbs and fuses for cars. I was standing around mashing the obviously broken button for 20 minutes before I left, drove 10 minutes further away from home to orielleys, where I had my light bulb within 5 minutes. From then on, I order online or I pay the premium at an auto parts store if I need it ASAP.
The stores that lock up their products are also the stores that don't enough employees to unlock the cases. The problem isn't shoplifting the problem is under-staffing.
It's hard to shoplift in a store that is fully staffed.
If something is locked behind plexiglass at a store, I simply won't buy it. The few times I have because I was desperate for it and didn't want/couldn't wait for the online shipping, I always had to stand there in the aisle awkwardly waiting for an overworked employee who probably wasn't getting paid enough to come unlock it for me. Feels bad and just makes me want to buy online every time rather than waste a trip to CVS or Home Depot or wherever they're locking shit up now.