Noticed this at big chain stores the last couple times I was in NYC. Both times, in different parts of the city, I just walked a few blocks to a non-chain drugstore where nothing was locked down. Either the indie stores are taking massive losses, or this isn’t really about theft.
My local CVS has locked all products behind glass as, I guess, an anti-theft measure.
They’ve also severely understaffed the store.
So if you want to buy anything, you have to stand in the aisle for 15 minutes, repeatedly pressing an “assistance needed” button.
Masterful gambit, CVS. No notes.
let's not rain all over the parade of the glass locking cabinet industry, they were at best puttering along and now thanks to weird retail chains it's their roaring '20s
My memory is foggy on this one, but I'm pretty sure the guy behind the "data" telling us that there was a retail theft boom (there wasn't) was also closely connected to the people that sell anti-theft equipment. Gotta re-listen to the If Books Could Kill on this one...
Pretty convinced this is all a tax dodge. Degrade the consumer experience as much as possible, watch in-store purchases drop dramatically, write off losses and/or get out of an expensive commercial lease.
I think cvs ran hell for leather to establish brick and mortar dominance to where they could pitch themselves as the first-last-only preferred provider for insurance companies and having secured that status are gutting retail to push 90 day online rxs. They don't want the stores, just the contracts.
Having stores everyplace so you can claim universal convenience and win the partnerships is the shot. Making them so awful that everyone orders online so you can close what are low-margin grocery stores with an overgrown hba section and a pharmacy appendage is the chaser.
Which... Is funny? Something, cause I know Walgreens got into the NYC market by taking advantage of the 2008 crash. And now they really seem to want out now that they merged with CVS
It’s worth considering that these two things are related. The best theft deterrent is staff that is attentive and provides good customer service.
If you’re going to cut your staff, you’re basically insuring more theft.
They’re trying to have both, which will backfire, eventually.
Based on their media campaigns and testimony to Congress, retail chains want cops to serve as their security and will destroy their own businesses in the short term if that means the state starts acting as their retail security force more than they already do
I think there’s some truth to that. I also think the media campaign is basically a psychological prep of the customers. if ppl go in and everything is locked down, they’re less likely to be upset or feel inconvenienced if they’ve seen news pieces saying theft is the reason, not understaffing.
I have three CVS stores within 4 blocks of my apartment. Other than the Tide detergent (and expensive electronics), they all lock up different things. Somehow, I don't think the supposed patterns of theft differ two blocks apart...
The Walgreens by me here in the far Chicago suburbs had this going. But for some reason they only have the brand name products locked up. The house brand generics are not. Almost like it’s not at all about theft.
Bingo! The MTA spent a ton of money on Omny readers on buses, put them on the back door so people could get in at all 3 entries on bendy buses, put the driver behind glass. Not only that, there is no Omny 'receipt' to even show you paid! Unsurprisingly, people stopped paying.
Target, CVS etc. cut staff and started self-checkout and then they had a theft problem. Also they have pressure from Amazon and even drugs by delivery. And they pay high rents and charge high prices, their business model is not great in NY. And the pandemic changed habits and people are struggling.
Anyway it's complicated but there's corporate greed, dumbass management, changing markets, high costs, and also NYPD quiet quit on policing and is just going through the motions unless it's fun like hassling people or beating up protesters.
What "theft problem"?
Target seems to have responded to recent times by not stocking anything popular so that the shelves look like an early 90s store in Russia. Their business model appears to be: drive customers away by not having anything they came to the store to buy. What is there to steal?
It's like facebook... they making money off your data... they got 50 cameras in there scanning and cataloging your browsing habits. Pushing consumers to the extremes to see how much they will tolerate. Thats also why there are such wild swings in prices.
Ours only has certain brands locked up. Not even the most expensive brands. Soaps but not hair products. Higher end makeup and face creams aren’t even under glass. I’d have to ask for $6 body wash but not $25 shampoo.
My theory: They just care about making pharmacy sales, not so much retail sales. Kids love to shoplift in the suburbs, but things dont get locked up there even with low staff–they need the sales. Also, notice that brand-name drugs get locked up but never store brand which has higher profit margins.
Blaming the stores for treating us all like thieves is for some reason a conclusion that in my experience is only reached by the very online. To be clear I share it but when you complain about this people have completely bought the "the shoplifters have forced this upon us 😔" narrative.
I went to Target last weekend in suburban Seattle and strolled past the men's clothes area -- all of the t-shirts, underwear, socks, etc. were in locked cabinets. It felt like shopping in prison, why would I ever want to go back there?
Certainly the need to steal tylenol and vitamins and hair styling cosmetics has increased. But perhaps there is something about the chain stores' massive growth of shop floor area relative to number of eyes available compared to a more static indie presence. Want bigger? Hire people!
I think the key piece here is the lack of employees: the switch to self-checkout 'allowed' chains to get rid of a bunch of their staff. But the trade-off, of course, is an increase both actual intentional theft and the accidental theft of customers failing to scan items at the checkout.
Here's a thing I find particularly interesting about CVS in particular: My local CVS has half the store behind locks now, but half a mile down the road the Target with a CVS in it has almost nothing behind locks other than electronics.
