I was surprised the little 3-ft aftermarket charge cable for iPhones was locked up at Walgreens; it was like $8. The clerk referenced the old Seinfeld episode about the elderly stealing batteries, saying people feel it’s something they shouldn’t have to pay for.
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. 
Here in Hawaii, a very unique item, but not too surprising if you understand the culture:
SPAM!
Others: Abalone, macadamia nuts, and slippahs (aka flip-flops)
Spam is locked up? I can maybe see the rest, but…Spam? A $3 can of compressed salty meat? Not sure what it costs there, but I can’t see it being that expensive since entire ships sail there full of it (I totally made that up, but it seems like it could be true).
Spam is extraordinarily popular in Hawaii. For instance, you can get a Spam and Eggs breakfast meal at McDonalds. Spam Musubi (wrapped with rice in seaweed) is our peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
It’s not particularly expensive (about $4), but still very heavily shoplifted here and has been in glass cases for several years. Sometimes, you’ll even see it individual cans in plastic boxes to be unlocked by cashiers.
I knew it was extremely popular which is why I made the comment about entire ships sailing there full of it. However, I would’ve never guessed it being a hot shoplifting commodity since it is readily inexpensive and not an embarrassing thing to buy. I learned something new here today.
I was wondering why flip-flops would be kept locked up in Hawaii.
As for the “why”, reselling for drugs makes people take whole cartloads of Spam. And this article is from 2017, so it’s been a problem for a while.
I have in some grocery and drug stores, usually in the more questionable areas of town.
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.
Years ago I saw a spice rack in a grocery store, with one place empty. It was the one for saffron. You could get it, but the note said to ask for it at customer service.
I do most of my non-grocery shopping online, so I don’t see a lot of stuff locked up, and I’m in a fairly middle class area, so shrug.
But during the recent shortages and price spikes of vanilla extract, that was all market with “ask for this product at checkout”. Otherwise, a lot of pricier back to school stuff (low grade scientific calculators) and thumb drives. And the last time I was at Target, the usual high price, small sized electronics, handheld game systems and streaming devices were all locked up.
In my local Canadian Tire, it is fishing lures that is locked up.
In the UK, cigarettes are restricted items and even displaying them is illegal. If you need some, you queue up with the lottery ticket buyers and ask. Bearing in mind the (some might say Draconian) laws on knives, kitchen knives are displayed and sold like any other kitchen utensil.
The trend here is that, rather than lock things up, they display pictures and hang plastic tabs on hooks underneath. I recently bought a thumb drive and after looking at all the various makes and capacities, I took my tag to the checkout and the clerk retrieved on from a drawer.
In supermarkets, some items are security tagged. Spirits and the more expensive wines for example. An oddity is that fresh meat bought from the butchery counter has an RFID that needs deactivating, while a similar prepackaged item does not.
Of course, I live in leafy Worcestershire. The situation in deprived city districts may well be totally different.
I think the same thing is true in the US; the cigarettes are behind the counter and customers have to ask for them. One difference is that the racks are visible to the customer, presumably so they can point at the exact product.
Some shopkeepers in Finland had to move expensive cheeses behind the counter because they were being constantly stolen. It was probably not for personal use since the quantities were large, and it was systematic. Some speculate the cheese may have been smuggled abroad to be sold. Finnish cheeses have been pretty popular in Russia for example.
I have noticed in the past month that shoelaces (Target) and toothpaste (Walgreen’s) were both locked up in San Francisco. I have seen other surprising stuff locked up, too but those are a couple I recently saw.
Shoelaces and toothpaste. Sad.
I was at Office Depot earlier today and noticed the boxes of inkjet cartridges were behind the service desk, well out of reach of any customers.
Several years ago, Mr VOW and I were traveling. We spent the night at a very nice, name brand hotel in St Louis, MO. Down the street from the hotel, we stopped at a gas station to get munchies at the convenience store.
The whole damned store was behind Plexiglas! You tell the clerk, through a teller-type window, what you wanted, then he dashed around like the Tazmanian Devil to get all your items. You pay the total, and he hands you the bag through the window.
~VOW
Seems to have worked well for a business called Amazon.
And a whole lot of stores, from grocery stores to building supply stores now allow you to email them a list, the pick it for you, and you drive to the store and they bring the order out to your car. Some added this during Covid, others have offered this for years.