# What kind of merchandise is kept locked up around the stores where you live? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 7, 2023, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-merchandise-is-kept-locked-up-around-the-stores-where-you-live/989732 "2023-09-07T13:10:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2023, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-merchandise-is-kept-locked-up-around-the-stores-where-you-live/989732/61 "2023-09-09T00:01:00Z")
> [@wguy123](#): > > [Yeah, I’m quoting myself, but no one here speculated on why these were locked up (SDMB usually jumps all over stuff like this). So, in the lack of responses from my peeps, I turned to Google which led me to Reddit and Reddit saved the day. Apparently, batteries get stolen out of the boxes unless they lock them up. > > Score: Reddit 1, SDMB 0 > > First time ever. 🙂 At local stores, they had the problem of people stealing the battery packs. They also used to have a problem with people ‘exchanging’ them – they would bring in their old rechargeable battery pack (used, and no longer holding a charge well) and surreptitiously exchange it for a new one from the display. Not sure if this is still a problem – rechargeable battery technology is better now. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2023, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-merchandise-is-kept-locked-up-around-the-stores-where-you-live/989732/62 "2023-09-09T00:16:10Z")
> [@Seanette](#): > > > [@Beckdawrek](#): > > > > Gold and silver spray paint are locked up at hobby lobby. > > Last time we went to Hobby Lobby, all the spray paint was locked up and an employee had to convey our selections to the register. She wasn’t permitted to hand it to us to carry it up there ourselves. This is in California, so life in the real world may vary. That was true at Walgreens here in Minneapolis. (Because if you handed it to them to carry around the store, it never showed up at the register – disappeared into a pocket or something before that.) The clerks brought it up to the registers. If you said you had other shopping to do, they were instructed to say “it’ll be here at the register when you check out”. Then they had to take 15-30 minutes at closing time each night returning all the ‘unclaimed’ merchandise to the locked containers around the store. The things they had locked up were those that were both expensive and small enough to fit into a pocket or purse. Perfume, cologne, deodorant were common ones. But not women’s lipstick and makeup, which were even smaller and quite expensive. I asked why once and was told “because the locked display cases are back-ordered.” ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2023, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-merchandise-is-kept-locked-up-around-the-stores-where-you-live/989732/63 "2023-09-09T01:01:15Z")
I often wonder why people shoplift from Dollar tree. It’s so bad here the local judge makes the shoplifter walk with a sign saying what they stole from stores. Seriously I would consider a higher end store if I were to be inclined to steal. ---
**Author:** ![pullin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c57346/32.png) [@pullin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pullin)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2023, 10:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-merchandise-is-kept-locked-up-around-the-stores-where-you-live/989732/64 "2023-09-10T10:30:47Z")
Very little is locked up where we shop. IIRC, just razors and some small items. I’ve never seen paint or batteries locked up anywhere. I do see a lot of locked displays in the hardware store I frequent, but it’s further into town (lower income area), and I guess there’s a correlation there. Our local Dollar General has only one employee (as far as I can tell). Everything’s self-select, self-checkout. She seems to be a combination manager and stock person. I haven’t seen anything locked up, but I haven’t explored the whole store. ---
**Author:** ![TXRebel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/6de8d8/32.png) [@TXRebel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TXRebel)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2023, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-merchandise-is-kept-locked-up-around-the-stores-where-you-live/989732/65 "2023-09-10T12:58:05Z")
The last time I went to try on a leather coat, not really a very expensive one even, it was attached to the rack with a locked cable run through the sleeve. I could try it on but it was awkward. I would imagine with the flash robberies that are happening you are going to see more controls on stuff. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2023, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-merchandise-is-kept-locked-up-around-the-stores-where-you-live/989732/66 "2023-09-10T16:01:43Z")
> [@thorny\_locust](#): > > I’ll have to look when doing errands after market; at least, if I’m not too tired to remember to do so, or to want to take the extra time. I can now report that neither baby formula (whether powdered or liquid) nor razor blades (nor razors) are locked up at my local Tops grocery store. Condoms were also out on the open shelves; some chunk of my head which is stuck in the 1960’s still always seems mildly surprised to notice this, though I’m pretty sure they haven’t been kept behind the counter for maybe 30 years or so. I didn’t offhand remember what else to check for. – there was certainly cough syrup out on the open shelf; whether there was other cough syrup locked up somewhere I don’t know, but if so there was no sign on the open shelves about it. – looking back a bit through the thread: laundry detergent certainly isn’t locked up anywhere that I shop; nor diapers, adult or infant. Neither are flashlights. I don’t think spray paint is; it certainly wasn’t the last time I bought any, but that was a while ago. Pocket knives sometimes are, I think that might depend on the store. USB drives generally aren’t but some computer stuff is, or is chained. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2023, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-merchandise-is-kept-locked-up-around-the-stores-where-you-live/989732/67 "2023-09-10T16:28:11Z")
Nearly all electronics and clothing have hidden tags to set off alarms at the exits. My Walgreens has several locked cases. Razor blades is the main item that I buy. I did need Milk of Mag for my mom and it was locked up. Don’t understand why. The small bottle is only about 4.50. Pocket knives are usually in a display case. The clerk has stock behind the counter. It was like that when I was a kid. I remember pointing at what I wanted and my uncle bought it. I remember a few years ago I went into a grocery store in a sketchy area. The exits were narrow and didn’t allow the carts to leave the building. I only wrnt there one time. It probably had a lot of stuff locked up. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2023, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-merchandise-is-kept-locked-up-around-the-stores-where-you-live/989732/68 "2023-09-10T16:30:13Z")
> [@TXRebel](#): > > The last time I went to try on a leather coat, not really a very expensive one even, it was attached to the rack with a locked cable run through the sleeve. I could try it on but it was awkward. I would imagine with the flash robberies that are happening you are going to see more controls on stuff. I’ve seen expensive coats locked up like that for _decades_. ---
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2023, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-merchandise-is-kept-locked-up-around-the-stores-where-you-live/989732/69 "2023-09-10T16:39:29Z")
Me too - at least since the late 70s. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2023, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-merchandise-is-kept-locked-up-around-the-stores-where-you-live/989732/70 "2023-09-10T16:43:47Z")
Is there anything more embarrassing than asking the clerk to unlock the sex lube case? ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2023, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-merchandise-is-kept-locked-up-around-the-stores-where-you-live/989732/71 "2023-09-10T16:47:47Z")
You’ve achieved maturity when you stop giving a fuck what anyone thinks of what you’re purchasing or why. ---
**Author:** ![Seanette](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/seanette/32/9139_2.png) [@Seanette](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Seanette)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2023, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-merchandise-is-kept-locked-up-around-the-stores-where-you-live/989732/72 "2023-09-10T17:46:40Z")
DH and I went to Home Depot yesterday and I was a bit startled to see laundry detergent locked up. Not something I expected to see at that type of store. I understand smaller tools/parts (DH pointed out to me a type of drill bit that can run $60-$70 and would be incredibly easy to pocket) being locked up, or higher-dollar power tools of a size to allow for a snatch&dash, and I’m pretty sure it’s state law here in CA for spray paint to be locked up and only sold to those over 18. ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2023, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-merchandise-is-kept-locked-up-around-the-stores-where-you-live/989732/73 "2023-09-11T21:55:54Z")
> [@TXRebel](#): > > I would imagine with the flash robberies that are happening you are going to see more controls on stuff. Forty years ago I was financially involved with a boutique selling women’s fashion in North London. The manager always hung garments on the display rails with the hangers set in alternate directions. She told me that in a previous job, thieves would enter the store, grab an armful of garments off the rail and run out, all in thirty seconds or less, Reversing every second one made this impossible. ---
**Author:** ![Seanette](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/seanette/32/9139_2.png) [@Seanette](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Seanette)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2023, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-merchandise-is-kept-locked-up-around-the-stores-where-you-live/989732/74 "2023-09-13T03:29:48Z")
> [@Seanette](#): > > I’m pretty sure it’s state law here in CA for spray paint to be locked up and only sold to those over 18. And I was apparently incorrect here. When I stopped at our preferred Ace Hardware this evening, the spray paint was not locked up. There were signs about how they could not sell spray paint to anyone under 18. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2023, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-merchandise-is-kept-locked-up-around-the-stores-where-you-live/989732/75 "2023-09-13T19:16:15Z")
In the more rural area I live in there isn’t much locked up. The usual pseudoephedrine and the like. Some have razor blades out. In the town I worked in it was a little different. It is a suburban town next to a couple of more urban areas. One big difference is in the urban areas many of the convenience stores are bodegas run by the owner not large chains. Many of those owners don’t much care where their merchandise comes from. In 25 years as a cop I never dealt with someone who stole formula for their baby. Logic dictates that it must happen sometime but I’ve only seen it stolen to feed their habit. The cutting drugs thing is something I’ve only seen on the internet. I haven’t seen it in real life. Anything that is relatively small for the price and easily resold can be the target. Razors, Tylenol, baby formula, anything that can be sold in a convenience store. The store owner pays a buck or two per item and puts it on the shelf at regular bodega prices. The thieves aren’t looking to get rich only to get enough for their fix. ---
**Author:** ![Bob\_Blaylock](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_blaylock/32/3235_2.png) [@Bob\_Blaylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bob_Blaylock)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2023, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-merchandise-is-kept-locked-up-around-the-stores-where-you-live/989732/76 "2023-09-14T02:58:58Z")
> [@bob\_2](#): > > Forty years ago I was financially involved with a boutique selling women’s fashion in North London. The manager always hung garments on the display rails with the hangers set in alternate directions. She told me that in a previous job, thieves would enter the store, grab an armful of garments off the rail and run out, all in thirty seconds or less, Reversing every second one made this impossible.   I have a faint memory of that trick being escribed in a very old TV show that I watched as a child.  I want to think it was [Dragnet](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragnet_(1967_TV_series)); I a fairly confident that it was some cop show.  In one episode, a police officer, a main character of whatever show it was, was giving that advice to someone who ran a clothing store, to alternate the directions of the hangers, to make it harder for thieves to grab a whole bunch at once.  I want think that it was _Joe Friday_, as played by Jack Webb, giving that advice. ---
**Author:** ![Bob\_Blaylock](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_blaylock/32/3235_2.png) [@Bob\_Blaylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bob_Blaylock)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2023, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-merchandise-is-kept-locked-up-around-the-stores-where-you-live/989732/77 "2023-09-14T03:31:50Z")
> [@Seanette](#): > > DH and I went to Home Depot yesterday and I was a bit startled to see laundry detergent locked up. Not something I expected to see at that type of store.   I think I saw an article, some time within the past month or so, about some store in Than Fwanthithco putting **all** of its merchandise in locked cases.  So bad is the shoplifting problem there, that I guess some stores are deciding that no merchandise is safe, and that it is better to make extra work for the employees retrieving merchandise from locked cases, than to keep taking the loss from repeated thefts. > [@Seanette](#): > > I understand smaller tools/parts (DH pointed out to me a type of drill bit that can run $60-$70 and would be incredibly easy to pocket)   This was, as you said, somewhere in the $60-$70 price range, and small enough that it’d be easy to slip in a pocket.  I don’t remember if the employee that retrieved it from the case handed it to me, or put it up at a register for me to pick up on the way out when I was paying for it.   Stores like _Home Depot_, that cater specifically to a clientele of honest workers, probably have a lot less of a problem with shoplifting than other stores, but even so, there is some merchandise there that is valuable enough, that a thief might find it worthwhile to set foot even in such a store, if that merchandise was easy enough to steal.   I think I remember telling you, last time we went to _Bare Bones_, that I though they probably would have much less of a shoplifting problem than more normal clothing store, since they sell almost exclusively clothing of a sort that is meant to be worn while doing honest work. [![](https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53186116486_39250b7d9c_o.jpg) ](https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53186116486_39250b7d9c_o.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2023, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-merchandise-is-kept-locked-up-around-the-stores-where-you-live/989732/78 "2023-09-14T12:52:14Z")
> [@Bob\_Blaylock](#): > > Stores like _Home Depot_, that cater specifically to a clientele of honest workers So what are some examples of stores that cater to _dishonest_ workers? I can’t think of one. ---
**Author:** ![I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/i_love_me_vol.i/32/521_2.png) [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Love_Me_Vol.I)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2023, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-merchandise-is-kept-locked-up-around-the-stores-where-you-live/989732/79 "2023-09-14T13:46:22Z")
> [@Bob\_Blaylock](#): > > I think I saw an article, some time within the past month or so, about some store in **Than Fwanthithco** putting **all** of its merchandise in locked cases. [Bolding mine] Are you referring to San Francisco? Is that just a catastrophic series of typos or are you making some sort of lisping “joke”? > [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > > [@Bob\_Blaylock](#): > > > > Stores like _Home Depot_, that cater specifically to a clientele of honest workers > > So what are some examples of stores that cater to _dishonest_ workers? I can’t think of one I know that Lowe’s specifically caters to scamming contractors. It’s in their corporate charter or something. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2023, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-merchandise-is-kept-locked-up-around-the-stores-where-you-live/989732/80 "2023-09-14T19:04:05Z")
Moderating: > [@Bob\_Blaylock](#): > > about some store in Than Fwanthithco This is a warning for a homophobic slur. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-merchandise-is-kept-locked-up-around-the-stores-where-you-live/989732.md?page=3)