Malicious compliance time. Bring a bunch of people to request unlocking at the same time, all different areas of the store, and then complain to management about the wait times. :)
Now that I know this is Rite Aid, they are definitely doing this to eliminate as many purchases as possible to get out of a lease as they work through bankruptcy.
I regularly meet people who shop in my neighborhood even though they live elsewhere because they save time. So far, only a few items are locked up here. Not true in their neighborhood
Amazon has benefited greatly by the shoplifting and the breakage of civility in our hollowed out downtowns with all the WFH and online shopping. And so has Trump with all this insularity.
So when we look for the guilty parties don’t forget to follow the money
It's not "the shoplifting." It's the stores' insane response to what shoplifting there is, which is not particularly more than there ever was, an much lower than it was 30 years ago.
I am, personally, a little skeptical of this data. There were some WalMart folks on Reddit a few months ago sharing screen shots of reports//dashboards that showed shrinkage and the amounts were staggering.
In some areas there are organized gangs that clean out entire stores then sell the items on the street. It happens to stores where my son lived in DC and he was a mile from the Vice President residence.
Yep! They admitted that the shoplifting narrative was “over-exaggerated” and “overblown,” likely due to sensationalized videos of right-wingers trying to hype crime-crime-crime, and used to cover for “inventory mismanagement” and “strategic mistakes.”
You are showing stale statistics that conveniently excludes post covid reality.
I was too lazy to google,so a chathpt response for you -
NYC 2021 to 22 45% reported theft growth for example
The shrink on most of these items costs them less and less anyway. The stores keep getting bigger and the hierarchy between them and the actual factory gets more and exaggerated, until each object costs them pennies. They care more about how the perception of shoplifting affects stock price.
Maybe it's worse in some places and that's offset by the majority of places where it's better? But at individual stores where shoplifting is worse they have to go all out?
Idk, I'm always wary of using aggregate data when discussing a specific situation.
I never used to see people walk into a stores with large bags just grabbing what they want. Now, it happens every time go to a store. Employees don’t stop them, police aren’t called, no report is filed. Police only come after violence. There’s definitely more unreported shoplifting.
Amazon actually encourages shoplifting - they will allow you to steal from 3p sellers on the platform (return fraud). Very little legal risk because return fraud is rarely investigated unless it gets into the $400,000 range or the IRS gets interested
I mean I have definitely done subscribe and save from Amazon because there is zero chance I’m asking anyone to unlock personal items for me. I was over 30 and married going to buy a pregnancy test and it was a big no thanks because the clerk doesn’t need to know my biz.
I think it’s just a perception because there’s videos of like those organized shoplifting mobs n whatnot. Also they want a way to have fewer employees.
That's what they want: all your info and credit card #. Any employees they have left have already had to give up all their personal info, so they're at risk of unemployment and identities stolen. I will not bend to it! Cash is best.
CVS has been doing the same shit, though not quite that bad. Half the store is locked up and there's only one staff member for the whole store most of the day
!!! The Rite Aid in Astoria on 30th Ave looks like it’s having a liquidation sale for over a year now. There’s almost nothing to buy, but at least most of the barren shelves aren’t under lock and key.
Rite Aid as a company is in bankruptcy and my understanding is that they just don't have the cash on hand to buy new merchandise and no one will give them financing until they are done reorganizing.
Mine closed this summer. It had zero locking cabinets and a great pharmacy team. It was also in the inner city. It was also the only pharmacy in that area. When I still worked for rite aid, back when they first talked about closing stores, I emailed their corporate asking to keep that one open.
Last time I was there, they told me that RA couldn't afford to keep any stores open anymore outside of PA. Don't know why I'm posting this here other than to say that I'm pretty damn mad at my former employer for getting us all into this mess. They made a lot of mistakes that led them to this point,
I'm sure putting everything in a store under lock and key as shown in the OP had to have led to loss of business and therefore contribute to the situation. They sold my division to another company and I've never felt less job secure in my career than I do now, thanks a lot, Rite Aid.
It is interesting to see how different these stores are around the US. The Walgreens and CVS where I live don’t have anything locked up but the shelves are much less organized with merchandise sort of just haphazard on the shelves unless it is grocery items or medicine, those are stacked right.
And I thought the sight at the Safeway in my area locking up all the items in the deodorant, bandaids, shampoo, etc. aisle was wild! I would hate to be an employee working at that Rite Aid, let alone a customer.
Shoplifting losses are accounted for in a a companies budget. Fuck companies that lock up things like baby diapers and formula. Just imagine how much worse Shoplifting is going to be once trump puts tarrifs on everything making customers pay even more for necessities. We are cooked
Just to understand, are you upset with companies that lock up things like baby diapers and formula because you think these things should be allowed to be stolen, or is it some other reason?
Yes I am fine with poor people who have been fucked over by capitalism stealing things to take care of their babies. I don't give a fuck about corporations. People are far more important to me. Obviously you rather see babies starve.
Yes. I'll say it again. I don't give a shit if people steal from billionaire corporations. However if you are stealing from a small business I have a problem with that.
If I found out someone shoplifted baby formula or diapers, my opinion of them would not move in the slightest. If I was gonna do anything, I'd probably ask em if they could use a couple bucks.
And to the extent that we have seen an uptick in shoplifting, I find it interesting that no one is blaming corporations for it? Maybe staffing your store with basically no one is a contributing factor? Could be anyone's guess tho!
Put everything in a big tank with a robotic claw and shoppers can feed quarters in and just *maybe* get the item they want while they have a little fun.
On top of this, they keep the store permanently understaffed so God forbid you need something in a locked case because you have to wait on the 1-2 employees on staff to finish everything else they need to do so you can buy a USB cable or whatever. And it benefits nobody but the shareholders.
Part of me wants to learn lockpicking so I can be a Lawful Chaotic customer who opens the cases for me and other people who just want to get our shit and check out instead of waiting 15 minutes for someone to get us shoelaces out of a cabinet.
IDK about you but in all these stores around my side of denver there's a guy with a glock and a taser and ten thousand pounds of faux military gear standing at the entrance, hitting on the cashiers, and just _waiting_ for somebody to try something like this.
They got rid of all but one cashier only to pay for 2 or 3 security guards to monitor the self-checkouts… The math doesn’t math! I’m sure the guards costs more than a cashier!
one of these days i'd LOVE to see the ROI report on those fuckin solar powered camera trailers in every retail parking lot now that PA-speaker "THIS PROPERTY IS MONITORED BY TROJAN BARRIER SECURITY, FOR YOUR PROTECTION".
Thats the thing. the grift is in leasing camera trailers and glass cabinets
That kind of whole store lockup is usually only done in locations that have been hit by 'flash mob' types of shoplifting raids. It is VERY expensive to set that up, and definitely not conducive to sustainable sales. It's done to avoid actually just closing a store. Otherwise it's pretty rare.
So the novelty of Piggly Wiggly, the first grocery store as we know it as a concept in the US, was allowing shoppers to pick up their items rather than handing the clerk a list.
The shopping cart was a VERY hard sale until the inventor just hired attractive people to pretend shop using them.
Oh yeah, shopping carts came to be a natural evolution of this. The main pushback was it looking like the customer was pushing around a baby carriage. Which, first half of the 1900s.
And if you want to compare the ingredients in several of the dozens of, for instance, cold remedies before deciding I guess you get to do that on your phone now.
I am sure this is Cali! The Dems in that state will not prosecute the shoplifters... So therefore this will never stop. Just close these stores and go to on line shopping only. The only theft at that point will be the porch pirates. At least my guns and dogs will keep that from happening!
That is among the most hostile retail environments I ever have seen. Not surprised the damn store is empty, because it radiates hatred for its customers.
Used to work at cvs and they blamed all shop lifting on cashiers not being helpful to customers enough. We were told we just needed to keep asking if the customer needs help with something.
It's been over 5 years and I still have nightmares I'm back working there, I have many horror stories.
I read it a few years ago and a lot of the advice is killed by modern surveillance and ID requirements. There's a chapter on airports and I just skipped the whole thing since it was written before 9/11.
Plus most if not all of the welfare stuff he describes is probably gone.
Depriving people of jobs is a Luddite argument. Self check out allows you to serve a customer regardless of what language they speak. It also helps for people who are autistic and don’t like talking to people.
I can think of many, many situations where the only words spoken between me and the cashier at a manned checkout were the total, and that also shows up on a screen. This one doesn't hold water.
Really because I’ve met plenty of people with severe social anxiety and the concept of potentially interacting with somebody is incredibly terrifying for them. Now do this for every item in the store and then you have to interact with somebody to check out. This is what we call ableism.
When I worked at CVS I was completely alone from 8 to noon with tasks that took me all over the store inuding but not limited to receiving truck in the back room, having to count out 500 envelopes for an order of graduation cards, and of course the cashiering and general customer service.
Customers intimidated and gaslit me when i was alone, if i had to also consistant open cabinets for every customer I would have snapped. I ended up quiting by walking out after I had a major breakdown.
Almost posted that I'd never shop in a store like this, but just shows how privileged I am. I may be broke as shit, but I still live in an area where I could chose not to shop at a store like this. Some don't have a local option other than this F-ed up mess.
Shrinkage is not that big a deal. Look at stores who are removing employees and replacing them with self ring and check outs. The shrinkage is so low it's worth it to them to not have employees. They write it off and roll it into price mark up.
Honestly close the store if that location is that bad.
An engagement gone bad means someone gets hurt or killed, which is (other than already being bad) bad business because you're out hundreds of thousands in legal fees if you win and tens of millions if you lose. Cheaper to lock up the toothpaste.
The corner they’ve backed themselves into is that a potential injury lawsuit is more expensive than stuff going stolen, so they don’t try to stop it. Once the thieves realized this, things went downhill.
If Books Could Kill podcast did a whole episode debunking this #moralpanic. Put it in the bin w/ pinball, comic books, video games, D&D, Satanic Panic, furries, and trans kids.
maybe if companies paid their fair share of taxes and built an economy for all then would not have US cities with so many homeless and desperate ? just a thought
Meanwhile there will be no one watching the self checkout as i totally make sure I scanned everything and just think hey that seemed cheaper than I was expecting, good deal hunting!
Cuz,as a post menopausal woman, if I have to be embarrassed to call an attendant for lube, we ALL get to be embarrassed. Megaphone this stupid shit. There's at least 4 conceal & carry shoppers in the store.
Seriously, I wouldn't set foot in that store. And what if you change your mind about a product and need to put it back? Also, I'm pretty indecisive so the "staff shopper" would really hate me! 😂
in the city every drugstore is like this. and the shelves are mostly empty anyway. no matter the chain. i go to the Rite Aid near me solely to pick up
items from the Amazon locker that i used to get at…Rite Aid. because they either don’t have them or they are locked up
philly but i assume it’s the same in most “urban”-coded areas. used to be just Similac and Tide, but now we must protect Dove +men+care bodywash from the rioting hordes of shoplifters 🙄
I can vouch for your experience, Philly Pham. I started shopping at the Target near channel 6 because they didn't have locked cases. Now they have a few & I'm hoping they don't install more.
If they want to force into online shopping only, this is the way to do it.
I kinda think that too, but this grocery curbside pickup model has me wondering. Is it the way forward for pharmacies? Sure helps with the shrinkage problem.
It's where we're headed. Order online and have a small vestibule area with a few kiosks for folks to check-in/pay cash/place orders (if they don't have the ability to order online). The entire store is now a mini warehouse. Instead of unloading the truck and stocking merchandise to the floor to
sell, you just put entire cases onto the shelves. Saves manpower, cuts non-employee theft... literally no downsides (except for the over reliance on technology... imagine a world where every single store is like this and an issue like CrowdStrike happens again...)
It’s fascinating for me how our countries go in opposite directions - in here I see increase of self checkout, not only in grocery but also in clothing & sport shops, to whole convenient stores with no staff, you clock in with the app at entry, take stuff and clock them out at exit
At least then you could keep a tab with the shop owner if you couldn’t pay, I’m sure if you can’t pay here you ain’t getting anything, so we’re like 75% back to where we started
They will lose customers at this store because it's not worth the aggravation. They may cut some shop lifting, but fewer customers will bother to go to that store IMO.
An example of a break clause in a commercial retail store lease is the “Bailout Clause,” which allows the tenant to break the lease if sales are low...
They want to have a skeleton crew of employees, like 2 or 3, but they know that puts them at risk of shoplifting. So instead of paying for more hours retailers want to push people to buy online/pickup and lock everything away.
This too. I don't know if this is true in all their other locations, but in California, their employees are union employees, which I just discovered this year.
I know it’s not an option for a lot of people, but I love my local mom&pop pharmacies. As soon as one of them started serving ice cream, Rite Aid was cooked.
It is already obsolete, but if they just close it they get a lot of flak. So they pretend to "try everything". Then they can close the shop when it doesn't work.
honestly if we shoppers kept making them open the cases and then were all, “I changed my mind” at the last second we could collectively start some shit i bet.
I'm real sure the minimum wage retail wage slaves would be real glad you came in to "start shit" with them about something they have zero control or influence regarding.
Because they want to reduce staffing to 1, continue staff benefit cut as they use this as an argument to pay review ‘performance’. They refocus to pharmacy- encase their competitors product and rechannel in lower drug prices, all the while taking local govt subsidies by “fighting retail crime”
Itd be easiesr to operate it as a catalogue store at that stage. Just a counter and a warehouse behind. Order what you want and they bring it out to you.
You know, back at the bad place, your post would probably be answered with a deceptively edited video of a mob of young black kids ransacking a store, with some MAGA saying,"'tHiS iS WhY iT's gOtTa bE lOcKeD uP."
That place is basically "WhItE pEoPlE cAnT dO bAd ThInGs" the social media at this point
(Btw yes the fuck they can, take it from me. A white person who wasn't the best kid at times. Not only do I see when other people do bad, I can see when I do too)
This happens when you aren't tough on crime. All these bleeding heart liberals think thieves can be ReHaBiLiTaTeD. Yeah ok.
This is how you turn folks who would otherwise support you to be your opponent. Average folks are sick of feeling like THEY live in prison while the criminals get off easy.
So this is what stores will look like after 6 months of 47s new tariffs; nearly empty shelves and locked down because no one can afford what is there and was forced to steal to live...
Sales are down because everything is too expensive! the market is probably going to crash because of all this underpay/price gouge bullshit. The rich people are forgetting to respect the people who really do all the work that makes them their money.We work 9-5 jobs while big wigs sit on their asses
A balance between making as much money as possible and paying as little of that money as feasible to the people who are actually running your business.
🖕😑
At this point, just have dispensers where ppl have to pay ahead of time to receive their products as they walk through your aisles. Faster and more efficient for all involved.
This has NOTHING to do with shoplifting. Just because corporations lie is no reason to parrot their talking points! This is step one to eliminate LABOR COSTS. Soon each container will have a credit card reader to charge you for how many items you removed like a hotel minibar.
At that point just make a store that is pickup only. If you go there without a pickup order, you just use a terminal and tell it what you want with your voice. Confirm and watch robots go fetch your stuff.
Touchscreen is fine. I think the US is just lagging behind so badly on technology. We aren’t trying as many things as other countries. Everyone is too busy arguing and failing to advance.
It’s not that we’re lagging behind in technology — in fact most of that technology mentioned was probably created and patented in America. It’s more of corporate greed and bottom line.
No, at that point you order all your crap from a much cheaper place online and have it delivered while physical stores complain that they are losing money.
They're so close to reinventing the 18th century dry goods store where you hand the shopkeep your list and then wait around while he goes in back and collects everything.
True story, in the late 70s we were in Soviet Poland for a family visit (like you do) and the stores there were like this. you asked for stuff at a counter and they brought it you, it was like walking backwards in time to a general store from a cowboy era movie, but with cheap plastic stuff.
The big store owners prefer to cut back on the business of operating brick & mortar stores. They want us to order online and ship direct from cheap warehouse areas where workers get paid less and the facilities rent and operating costs are lower. They are training us to shop online for their profit.
This has nothing to do with shoplifting. It is an industry wide reform designed to minimize the cost of merchandising. Fewer employees are needed if shelves are left untouched by customers. I believe Target spearheaded this; first claiming that only small stores would be running on a skeleton crew…
So if customers aren’t buying things off the shelves, where is the income? I presume the pharmacy, but why even bother opening the rest of the store? At that point it’s a waste of electricity, space, and staff. I guess keep one guy at the counter to sell candy and cigarettes?
Don’t forget, Rite Aid looks like this because they went bankrupt and can’t afford to fill their shelves, NOT because of shoplifting. And if you’re charging $6.50 for Doritos then you deserve whatever happens to you.
Excuse me my good proprietor, I’d like to review the ingredients listed on 17 types of Doritos. Please also walk me through your diverse selection of prophylactics.
Tbh safeguarding shoplifting food isn’t a need. People who steal food can’t afford food. They deserve food.
When I worked at a grocery store I’d look the other way if someone stole. I don’t know their situation and the grocery store was in a poor part of town.
Absolutely!! One time my general manager was breathing down our necks when a woman was trying to steal baby formula so me, my coworker, and our night manager (who was our age) all split the cost for it so she wouldn’t get fucking interrogated by our GM
A main problem is that most places that revert to this also have cut staffing hours as well. One of the best deterents to shoplifting is aggressive customer service and if you don't have anyone there to do it, your store is gonna get lifted.
Treating customers like shit is an interesting business model. I shop locally at Duane Reade and CVS (all the good independent pharmacies closed years ago), but I only buy stuff that is not locked up. The rest I get online - and not from CVS or DR.
Comments
But the realistic outcome is that they will close that location due to low sales.
This ain’t sustainable tho
So when we look for the guilty parties don’t forget to follow the money
I was too lazy to google,so a chathpt response for you -
NYC 2021 to 22 45% reported theft growth for example
Idk, I'm always wary of using aggregate data when discussing a specific situation.
(Not an endorsement.)
Rhonda at the Register said they haven’t gotten freight for weeks.
Fucking buck wild what these corporations will do.
Capitalism will literally kill your children if you aren't seen as "valuable" by the people in charge. You can't blame people for circumventing it.
Sadly people in America value corporations and shit bags like elon musk over poor people
Thats the thing. the grift is in leasing camera trailers and glass cabinets
The shopping cart was a VERY hard sale until the inventor just hired attractive people to pretend shop using them.
https://youtu.be/9mlMEYssVfA
Be Careful - HR is Not Your Friend
Book a Coaching Session Today
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https://attorneylizana.cliogrow.com/book/4c2bd1d...
I've known this my entire working life.
It's been over 5 years and I still have nightmares I'm back working there, I have many horror stories.
Plus most if not all of the welfare stuff he describes is probably gone.
Having seen that hit enough customers at self-checkout, I now avoid self-checkout as much as possible.
Self-checkout is the stores outsourcing the employees’ work to unpaid customers.
Honestly close the store if that location is that bad.
What are Best Buys like down there?
https://www.vox.com/politics/24025691/shoplifting-scare-criminal-justice-reform
items from the Amazon locker that i used to get at…Rite Aid. because they either don’t have them or they are locked up
If they want to force into online shopping only, this is the way to do it.
Also stores: Staff are so cheap that we'll have them personally wait on you for every product you pick out!
(i only bought them because they were 3 dollars)
I've seen dumb store shelves that are a door with a screen on it. This is a whole other level of wtf is the point?
Like why is a store so protective over FUCKING DORITOS
lEt'S gO bRaNdOn!!1!11!!!!
That place is basically "WhItE pEoPlE cAnT dO bAd ThInGs" the social media at this point
(Btw yes the fuck they can, take it from me. A white person who wasn't the best kid at times. Not only do I see when other people do bad, I can see when I do too)
This is how you turn folks who would otherwise support you to be your opponent. Average folks are sick of feeling like THEY live in prison while the criminals get off easy.
Sure it would just be easier to have a store with a reasonable staff to customer ratio.
A balance between making as much money as possible and paying as little of that money as feasible to the people who are actually running your business.
🖕😑
It's genuinely wonderful.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argos_(retailer)
When I worked at a grocery store I’d look the other way if someone stole. I don’t know their situation and the grocery store was in a poor part of town.
I walked out.
Not going through that for each item I need
It’s obscene.
Headline is gonna read:
Millennials killed CVS
You make sure everyone has everything they need to live.
Crazy how they want to hoard money & resources then act surprised when people steal.