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.
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.”
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
I’ve seen expensive coats locked up like that for decades.
Me too - at least since the late 70s.
Is there anything more embarrassing than asking the clerk to unlock the sex lube case?
You’ve achieved maturity when you stop giving a fuck what anyone thinks of what you’re purchasing or why.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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; 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.
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.
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.
So what are some examples of stores that cater to dishonest workers? I can’t think of one.
[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”?
I know that Lowe’s specifically caters to scamming contractors. It’s in their corporate charter or something.
Moderating:
This is a warning for a homophobic slur.