I’ve seen bottles of liquid laundry detergent with large security tags on cables around the handles, in Dollar General, Family Dollar, etc.
The Targets near me in Manhattan (and now some on Long Island) have men’s underwear locked up behind glass. (Not women’s, just the men’s.)
Other items locked up in Target include all OTC medications, baby formula, all electronics and accessories, body wash, deodorant, hair products, laundry detergent.
The one in Times Square is especially bad. Basically everything there except food and clothing in behind glass.
It’s usually only the powdered version that I’ve seen locked up - apparently the ready to feed isn’t shoplifted as much. Either because it can’t be used as a cutting agent or because it’s more difficult to steal - I know that in my formula buying days the 32 oz ready to feed cans were still in cases of six on the shelf. Because not many people would buy one can at a time.
Rural western Oregon here. Offhand I can think of:
- certain personal products: condoms, lube, razors (but this isn’t universal)
- baby food and formula
- tobacco, kinda. Tobacco is usually sold at one single register, and that register is the one that’s always manned. It isn’t necessarily locked, but an employee has to fetch your smokes for you.
- jewelry, even cheap jewelry is usually in a locked cabinet. Same with watches. Wal-Mart seems to be the watch exception.
- video games, gaming consoles, computers, earbuds
- flashlights
- pocket knives/multitools
Flashlights and cheap watches I don’t understand.
A Super Walmart near me has a number of homeless in the area. My last visit about there about 3 months ago found the following locked in cages due to theft: Lego sets, all sizes, men’s and women’s underwear and socks, infant car seats, expensive cuts of meat, women’s personal products, automotive chemicals and many small appliances. The store also has 2 areas fenced off that require buyer’s to purchase the items there instead of the regular check stands. These contain all alcoholic beverages (beer, wine and liquor) and paper products like TP and paper towels. This is in addition to most of the items mentioned above. This store also does not allow carts to go outside without an employee which can be tough on some shoppers as the store does not supply any kind of bags for purchases. To help with this there are piles of boxes at each exit.
I’ve seen a local drugstore doing the same thing. I asked about that and the gal said it’s because they are very sellable on the the street.
Besides other reasons listed baby formula shop-lifting spikes in correspondence to poor economic conditions. It creates the condition of parents stealing to feed their children. A problem that could be addressed by other means I think.
My local store keeps USB drives and MicroSD cards locked to their shelf pins that are on the front of the checkout counter. Logical, since with their charging 5x to 10x the amount per gig you can get online you’d have to be an idiot to pay for one.
Yeah, but people tend to look down on eugenics these days.
In Toronto drug stores, the only thing I’ve seen locked up are razor blades. I assume that cigarettes are behind the counter, if they still sell them.
In Canadian Tire, they have small electric tools locked up.
The Ace Hardware we used to go to not only had spray paint locked up, but when you bought it your information was written in a sales log along with the batch number on the can. The hardware store here locks up padlocks for some reason, along with a lot of other pilferable items.
Weed is an obvious one.
Dropped into a cannabis store in the Czech Republic and found they’d lined the shelves with empty boxes and gummy packets so you could read the packaging information, while the actual merch was behind the counter under strict control. Smart.
I believe both baby formula and laundry detergent (Tide brand especially) are stolen because they’re easily resold. This ten-year-old article from New York Magazine said that a 150 ounce bottle of Tide that sold at retail for about twenty dollars could be traded “for either $5 cash or $10 worth of weed or crack cocaine.”
The article talks about how the Tide detergent is sold to local convenience stores or pawn shops so they can put it on their shelves.
The local drug store has all the prescription drugs, and a few other items (like real sudofed, and blood sugar reading supplies) behind the pharmacist. Places that sell computers and cell phones mostly have them chained to something, but where you can reach them and play with them. I’m not thinking of a lot of other stuff that’s locked up.
Many stores used to carry watches some of which weren’t cheap. I did often see those in a locked case. Now I usually don’t see them at all.
Would certainly be better addressed by other means. Not that a lot of people in the USA seem to want to do so.
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.
It’s in a glass showcase at the customer service desk at a not-particularly-highend grocery I visit. There’s at least 6 varieties (one labeled Iran) and also some fancy oils and vinegars. I can’t remember what else is in there except one big shaker of cardamom for $30.
The same store has a refrigerated caviar case on public display with a padlock.
I just remembered that I went to a CVS or Rite Aid about a year ago to buy a water flosser. Those were locked up, along with the electric toothbrushes.
Gold and silver spray paint are locked up at hobby lobby. Those people who breathe it in to get high prefer those ones. I learned why from a cop show.
(Bad boys, bad boys…you know the one)
WallyWorld locks up a lot of personal care stuff, razorblades and electrical gizmos for grooming (razors, toothbrushes, etc). But the items for female personal care that are protected like gold nuggets would boggle the mind:
-pregnancy tests
-ovulation tests
-medication for yeast infections
-itch cream for female parts
It’s the last item that makes me want to scream. The name brand itch cream (Vagisil) runs 7-8 bucks a tube. The generic WallyWorld itch cream (“Vagicaine”) goes for $1.97.
$1.97?? Really???
The only associate in that part of the store who has the key is a man. Thank God I’m an old lady, and not easily embarrassed. However, my need for that product is because I’m an old lady, and old ladies itch.
The associate asked me which item I wanted. I told him, and after handing me one, was all set to lock everything up again.
I said, “No. I want them all!”
SMH
~VOW
I was at Walmart with my mother a month ago or so, and we needed Harry’s blades for my father. So we had to wait for the person with the key to get there, which was annoying.