Walgreens CEO Distressed to Learn That Locking Everything Up Keeps People From Buying It

Yeah turns out people don’t like:

Being treated like criminals
Having their time wasted

Walgreens’ inventory shrinkage is not my problem. Locking everything up rather than paying loss prevention staff is just going to piss everyone off.

Being treated like criminals

I've been followed around a store. Guess what store I've never bought from and won't be back to.
- Well you didn't tell us which store so we don't know
- At self-checkout in a lot of stores employees stand behind me because I move fast. Apparently that means I’m stealing rather than I move faster than a snail when there’s a huge line of people waiting.
- i’m starting to worry we’ll never find out which store it is. the suspense is killing me
- Hot Topic?
- Circuit City
- Red Door?
- Toys R Us?
- Jimboys Tacos
- Buttplugs R Us?
Maybe if there were like 2 employees in the store, people would feel less comfortable stealing shit.

The Joann fabric near us has these speakers that will say something like "ask an associate if you need anything" when you walk near them. They put them near the expensive shit.

Clearly, it's an attempt to alert staff when someone is walking near the expensive stuff, but like...the store has 2 employees and when they're not checking people out, they're trying desperately to keep up with the boxes of unloaded freight clogging up the aisles.

Nobody is watching you steal stuff.
Personally I LOVE having my time wasted!

Only if it's in fun and/or interesting ways, though, not waiting for some underpaid and overworked employee getting a key for the toilet paper safe or whatever.
- See, that right there is capitalist talk.
  
  Time enjoyed is not time wasted unless you're Ebenezer Scrooge.
- I expect you like wasting time, not having your time wasted.
  
  That's the difference between sitting around doing nothing and being forced to do nothing while you wait for something.
Yeah, they've been steadily reducing the number of staff in the stores to save money. I'd say look, you have that savings, just accept some shrinkage. Or you can hire more staff, your choice.

"But it does impact how sales work through the store because when you lock things up," he added, "for example, you don’t sell as many of them. We’ve kind of proven that pretty conclusively."

wow, check out the brains on this guy

Remember: You get a business degree because you're not talented enough for the arts and not smart enough for engineering or medicine.
- I’ve always heard “what do you call a failed med student? The hospital administrator.”
Bonus points for first bringing all your points of sale down to skeleton crews first.
- Just replace them with self checkout, problem solved! Wait… back to square 1.
Lol. I'm guessing they earned this discovery after an agile data driven pivot away from keeping the front doors of the store locked all day...

If it's locked up, I won't buy it. I don't have time for that nonsense and large companies only understand money (or a lack of) before they will make a change.

I don't buy locked up stuff because I don't want to talk to people.

we-are-not-the-same.jpg

It's really simple: either you accept shrink, or you hire enough people with keys to handle your anti-theft shit.

I don't go to target anymore, CVS, or Walgreens if it's at all avoidable because it's going to take an hour to get in, buy a few things, and leave.

They want to lock shit up, but then only have one employee covering the whole damn store that can unlock shit, meaning if you want some laundry detergent, it's going to take you half an hour.

Of course, the local grocery stores, Walmart, Amazon, and various other retailers don't lock shit up, so yeah, I just go there and don't have to deal with stupid bullshit pushed by morons who haven't gone shopping in one of the stores they run.

Walmarts definitely also lock stuff up.
- Its regional. The Walgreen's by me doesnt lock stuff up, nor the walmarts, but if I go about 10 miles south then they do.
Just wait, I'm sure soon a wild techbro will appear with a great solution to this problem that will require you to install an app and surrender all your data and biometrics in order to open those cases yourself to get a damn toothbrush or some shaving cream...
- If this happens I'm now personally blaming you.
  
  Just send your ID in and they'll authorize Unlokr to let you buy your dish soap in peace.
- AI surveillance cameras in 3...2,...1...
- Dun dun dun dun Dana da Suddenly a wild techbro appears! Your attack was super effective!
- That's just a vending machine with extra steps.
Yeah I really have been turned completely off to Target. I have one really close and the prices alone, but also the experience, are absolutely horrible. Going into an ikea once kinda opens your eyes. You could have a better thing for 1/3 the cost. Also, the fucking internet exists. So why buy anything at a "big box" store.
- These companies don't realize what century they're living in. The advantage of a physical store is that you can get what you want NOW. Not tomorrow. Not two days from now. Not whenever Amazon finally gets around to delivering it to you. You can go to a store and get what you need NOW.
  
  That is the entire reason for these stores to exist. Theirs is a market of convenience. But they can't seem to realize that.
Same here, but that means I buy everything from Amazon . There’s not an ethical choice

The only thing worse than shaming your customer is inconveniencing them.

Lock everything up then understaff your stores so there's no one to ask to unlock an item even if you were so inclined to go to the trouble. Great success.

Well in Walgreens: if you see someone shoplifting...

ask how they can help you open up the thing locked up because I pushed that god damn button and it's been 15 minutes and I haven't seen a god damn employee yet Jesus Christ I came here for a quick trip like wtf I could have ordered this online you fucking morons

My favorite is home depot locking up stuff but not locking up the bolt cutters

I think with the advent of cordless angle grinders, we've moved on from bolt cutters, haven't we?

Certainly makes my visits to National Trust properties a lot more interesting
- But the power tools are locked up and make noise. Bolt cutters are silent and not locked up in store.
- Bolt cutters are much quieter, and still get the point across. Hell, when I see shit like that it makes me want to pop some locks just to prove a point. Like don’t even steal anything, just crack some shackles and leave Loss Prevention scratching their heads.
- When I worked on the ambulance, we once needed after hours access to a small electric company park to land a helicopter (mountainous area, not many flat spaces). That was the night I learned that the fire department keeps a "universal key" (bolt cutters) on hand for just such an occasion.

No shit its so annoying having to ask a worker to unlock the damn glass door just for $5-$10 item.

At my Walgreens there are usually some people in the pharmacy, one person on the registers and maybe one person in cosmetics. I'm not bugging the only cashier to unlock toothpaste that costs double what it does anywhere else.
We went to Walmart to print something we needed since the staples near us was having issues with their machine. Pet cleaning spray $6-$15 dollars? Behind one of those locked cabinets of course.

There was a worker near by stacking some other items, but we didn’t bother since from what we could remember of Walmart, they never have the keys on them and have to chase someone down.

There is nothing makes me leave a store quicker than having to wait on a worker for a basic item that shouldn't be locked away.

I honestly do not get how thick these people can be, yet get so well paid in these high up positions.

The corporate world doesn't promote people based on ability, it promotes based on how much ass you kiss and what college your parents could afford to send you.
- If the CEO of Bob's Store hired Senator John's son then suddenly zoning issues disappear for his new space. The CEO of Bob's even donates to several fundraisers for Senator John and makes donations to charities he knows John is a part of. John uses this information to inform his decision on who gets a cushy position position at the charity and if Bob's competitor will be allowed to expand.

Even if their claim of "organized theft" is true, that itself would be a self-correcting market force. Your price point should exist somewhere between the extreme of "lock it up so tight nobody can buy it" and "it's cheaper for people to shoplift it en masse". If you can't manage that, maybe you deserve to go out of business (also I think you'll find that it would also help to increase the number of staff to actually unlock the damn shelves). Perhaps in the long run the market will self correct, but this is absolutely idiotic right now. And the real consequences for people that have lost their local pharmacy are catastrophic.

Some report said the claim of organized theft was not true or greatly exaggerated
- It wasn't true. It was used to disguise crumbling profits as American shopping habits changed out of necessity.
- that's my understanding as well
- Even worse, it was all orchestrated by a middle aged white couple
I view this as a self correction in itself as well. Walgreens is losing money because they skewed so far that they're annoying customers into leaving en masse for other options. Now their options are they can either go back to the old model that worked better, or they can keep playing hardball until more stores go out of business, and someone else can take over that corner and sell better.
Don't forget that there is always online shopping out there as well.
- Delivery really is just much more convenient. I've been getting my groceries delivered like this from a certain big box retailer and it's been very nice. No more bullshit traffic, bullshit parking, bullshit walk in and out, bullshit aisle walking around slow people, bullshit searching, bullshit looking for an employee for 20 minutes to help get a $3 stick of deodorant, bullshit line at checkout, etc etc. Now it's just click add to cart and it shows up at my door the next day.
  
  I'm sure it's partly by design because they charge a subscription for the service, but the convenience and money/time saved not having to drive makes it so worth it.
I learned this from the "Black Market" episode of Battlestar Galactica
Those are not two extremes of a "price point", you describe two scenarios on the high end with no sweet spot in between. Good job confusing me trying to read your sentence correctly :p
- I was hoping nobody would notice, I saw that myself as I was thinking through my argument. You'd forgive a friend for putting rhetorical flourishes before pure logic - just this once, wouldn't you? 😅
- Keep stealing then

Walgreens is why I joined Dollar shave club years ago. Nothing like needing to flag down an employee to fetch another employee who can unlock the razorblades.

Razor blades in Costco are not locked up, and one package easily lasts a year
- Neat.

I was at a store the other day, eeddd usb-c pd cables.

The 5ft 10 dollar cables were locked up, the 10 ft 14 dollar cables weren’t.

Personally it's the pricetage that always stopped me from shopping there. Walgreens is consistently the most expensive option for pretty much their entire inventory compared to the 6 chains within half a mile that sell the exact same shit.

Exactly. Their ONLY virtue is convenience. Either you're there for a prescription and buy something because you're already there, or you're just looking to do a quick stop. They're basically a glorified convenience store that happens to have a pharmacy attached. Their prices are high, but they do have convenience on their side. You don't have to walk across half a mile of parking before getting to the front door. You don't have to walk into a giant warehouse store that corrals you into shopping in a giant counterclockwise loop. Walgreens does have the convenience option over shopping at a big grocery store.

And this is what is so bone-headed about these locking cases. Again, their ONLY advantage is convenience. If they're going to slow things down by putting a bunch of barriers between me and the things I want, I might as well just spend the same amount of time, go to the full-sized grocery store, and save some money.
This. Walgreens is bad, CVS is even worse. I refuse to pay for convenience. Even if it's just one thing I need; if it's $5 at the cvs down the street and $2 at the Walmart 3 miles away through city traffic, I'm waiting til I need a few things and going to the Walmart every time. If for nothing else than the principle of it all. Eat shit CVS.
- If you want a chuckle, look at their OTC meds and calculate price per milligram.
  
  CostOfBottle / (#PillsPerBottle * #MgPerPill)
  
  Do this for all the basic meds you keep in your home.
  
  Now go to Costco or Sams or something and do it again. No shit, the difference is 100-fold sometimes, especially if you compare things like name brand (aka Tylenol) at Walgreens to generic (aka Kirkland's "Acetaminophen"). Turning it even more extreme, look at the little single-dose pouches they sell at the checkstand - folks are literally paying the same at Walgreens for like 2 pills as they are at Costco for a bottle of 500 of the same dose.
  
  It's fucking wild.

In the Bay Area, I saw stores with gates and turnstiles which are presumably intended to make running out of the store harder, especially for someone holding a lot of stuff. I wonder if they work any better.

One store I went to there even had a guy letting people in one by one after looking them over, like a bouncer.

This logic frustrates me:

these claims were unfounded, with a mere 23 shoplifting incidents occurring between 2018 and 2021, according to police records

That's less than one shoplifter a month, which is obviously not an accurate count.

The police barely even respond to shootings. Are they going to do anything if you call them and report someone stealing a box of shaving supplies? Why bother even trying to report that?

If bet thats 23 incidents reported to police. There are absolutely people out there that make a living stealing from box stores. Kroger specifically won't do much besides glare at you and ask if you'd kindly not steal that.

I stopped going to Walmart for that reason.

I remember as a kid in Mexico, you had to go make a line at the store. When you finally got to the desk, you would ask for what you wanted to buy. Lol, needles to say that's exactly how it still works in small local stores. Its a little like buying cigarettes at the gas station, but for everything minus the ID.

That's not good for business, but hey, it's been decades of my life and they're still working like that. Maybe there's something to it? I hate it though. I would never shop there unless it was the last place on earth.

My local Walmart has locked up the Lego sets... I mean I get it they aren't cheap especially recently... But come on...

Walgreens is God awful, 25 min In line for a prescription yesterday and everything is locked up.

Walgreens decided that underpaying and understaffing the pharmacy is their new secret to profitability.

It's one of the faster enshitifications I've seen. Last time I had a prescription filled at Walgreens, I had plenty of time in line to realize that my stupid shopping choice could also actually get me killed this time.

Putting the actual issue aside for a moment, the lock pictured is pretty stupid. It would be so easy to simply unscrew the screws.

I think they're more distressed by people stealing it

Uh, where y'all live that this is a thing? I'll stay out the major cities, thanks.