This is the article: Walmart, CVS, and Walgreens Are Turning Shoppers Away With 'Incredibly Frustrating' Policies (msn.com) So, if you still go into Walmart, CVS or Walgreens, do you see items under "lock and key", where an employee has to be found to unlock the item to look at and/or buy? Or, an item/items are now kept inside the pharmacy of CVS and Walgreens due to the making of meth from them? I see this when I go to Walgreens to get my Sudafed Sinus Relief. I have to show my D.L. and info is taken from it. Shoplifting cost any store lots of money. When a computer inventory shows ten of an item and there's only two. My career was in warehousing, purchasing and inventory management. As for myself, I don't mind producing my I.D. to buy Sudafed Sinus Relief, but there are those that it does bother. Just like looking at an item inside a locked plastic case and having to find a store clerk to help me. Or, locks have been placed on display hooks and they have to be unlocked to buy. What's your feelings?
In principle, I don't have anything against certain items being under lock and key, however, what would annoy me is not being able to find an assistant to 'unlock' the darn thing. I don't know what it's like in the US (or anywhere else) but here in England - I've lost count of the number of times I've trailed all around a store (sometimes more than once) trying to find an assistant for one reason or another. This is one of the big drawbacks of the 'self service' type stores. When I was young, assistants were assigned a 'counter' or 'department' and the only time they left it was for lunch/coffee breaks and to fetch items from the stockroom to fill their shelves. In addition, supervisors, assistant manager or even the manager would also be on the floor, walking around and keeping an eye on things. Now it's a case of 'hunt the staff'.
Walgreens started locking up items back when I still worked there, about 10 years ago. Its either that or a large price increase to compensate for theft. Most people assume teenagers do the theft, but trust me , the largest portion of theft from our store was 45-75 age group. However, back then we were available customers, to customers , not like in todays world.
I don't actually have a problem with that. People who might otherwise pay for the product, such as meth-makers, are forced to shoplift it because they need more of it than they are able to purchase by law, so putting it under lock and key makes sense. I've noticed that a lot of stores have cigarettes either in a locked place or behind the counter, where someone would have to ask for what they want, as well. Otherwise, cigarettes would be shoplifted as well, for a couple of reasons: the cost of cigarettes these days and the fact that minors cannot legally purchase them. Locking things up or putting them in a place where a potential buyer would have to ask for them might reduce sales, but the savings of reducing shoplifting probably outweigh this disadvantage. On the other hand, the last time I bought a gun, I drove sixty miles to Bangor rather than buying one in Lincoln, only fifteen miles away, because the place that sold what I wanted in Lincoln kept their guns behind a counter where I would have to ask to see one gun at a time, while the store in Bangor allowed me to look at the guns and handle them before deciding what I wanted.
In Ohio merchants can detain suspected shoplifters using reasonable means, but are not permitted to search them. Police can not make a warrantless arrest for a Misdemeanor unless they witness it or only within a reasonable time after it occurred, otherwise a warrant is needed.
I do not have a problem with some items being locked up, and mostly, it is things that i seldom purchase anyway. I agree with @Reen Davis that when there are no store clerks to be found, it is irritating, but that seems to prevail whether an item is locked up or not. Most stores seem to just be short of help. Walgreens is so terrible at the one nearest to us, that I have made the decision to not even shop there anymore. Just picking up a prescription takes forever, and the people who work there have an unfriendly attitude. I get my meds sent from Humana by mail; but if I get a prescription that would need to be filled immediately, then I picked it up at Walgreens. From now on, I will use the little Walmart Neighborhood Market drive through instead if I have to do this.
I thought that the Sudafed issue was mandated by law because they are a component of making meth or some other street drug. (I guess dying in an alley will cure your head cold.) Regarding everything else, Walmart announced the closing of at least one store because there was too much theft and they could not afford to keep it open. I doubt that those places are are "turning shoppers away" as the article stated, and the ire is intentionally misplaced. Maybe someone should steal the reporter's car and see if it doesn't get locked next time as he "turns people away." [spits on ground] I forgot that when my dad managed G.C. Murphy stores, he had people assigned to oversee specific departments as @Reen Davis recalled. I think many "department stores" are still that way, but the Walmarts and Targets of the world are not.
Maybe the stores should start putting everything in vending machines. Insert card, push button, product dispenses and is paid for. Just bag and walk out of store. No way to steal if you have to prepay to get product. This is a Japanese convenience "store".