Random Thoughts...or...What's on Your Mind?

[Aragorn]

My local Target decided to lock a considerable amount of inventory in cabinets and you have to ring for an employee to come and get what you want. Laundry detergent, printer ink, supplements, medicine, all behind lock and key now. Sure that will limit theft, but inconveniencing your customers will also limit sales.

 

[bdub76]

My local Target decided to lock a considerable amount of inventory in cabinets and you have to ring for an employee to come and get what you want. Laundry detergent, printer ink, supplements, medicine, all behind lock and key now. Sure that will limit theft, but inconveniencing your customers will also limit sales.

Blame the criminals. The next option is for the store to close.

 

[fireproof78]

My local Target decided to lock a considerable amount of inventory in cabinets and you have to ring for an employee to come and get what you want. Laundry detergent, printer ink, supplements, medicine, all behind lock and key now. Sure that will limit theft, but inconveniencing your customers will also limit sales.

When criminals will walk in, grab an armful of stuff and walk out without any fear of repercussions this is what they have to do.

Yes, they'll loose money from limited sales, but it's better than 1000s of dollars of product and inventory that they will never be able to recoup their investment in.

I know capitalism is the greatest evil but these companies can't afford to keep having losses and operate, no matter what people might think.

 

[JD]

My local Target decided to lock a considerable amount of inventory in cabinets and you have to ring for an employee to come and get what you want. Laundry detergent, printer ink, supplements, medicine, all behind lock and key now. Sure that will limit theft, but inconveniencing your customers will also limit sales.

My mom went to a Wal-Mart a while back, and they locked up all of the socks and underwear. Personally, I find it a little sad that people were having steal socks and underwear, those are the kind of things most people are only going to steal when they're truly desperate.

 

[Aragorn]

Target Circle gave me a free month of MLS soccer on Apple TV so I activated it today since there were a bunch of games. After all this flopping, one day may have been more than enough.

 

[fireproof78]

My mom went to a Wal-Mart a while back, and they locked up all of the socks and underwear. Personally, I find it a little sad that people were having steal socks and underwear, those are the kind of things most people are only going to steal when they're truly desperate.

At the risk of sounding cynical, but sadly it isn't always the case. People stealing such items can also be looking for an easy fence, or doing return fraud, as many stores have a pretty open return policy now and give credit or cash easier and easier now.

The company I use to work for had a guy who was a professional thief, stole from that company for 15 years, walk in, fill up a duffle bag and walk out. Didn't matter what it was. He would then fence it or return it to another store nearby.

 

[Worf factor9]

I can remember from over 20 years ago when some local stores were locking up shit or putting 'it' behind the counter, it had nothing to do w/ lax law enforcement, just inventory control.'Trusted' employees steal shit too.

 

[Avro Arrow]

I can understand locking things up and requiring an employee to get it for you if they're experiencing theft. But I had a new experience at Walmart this week: they just physically barricaded the entire section so that no one could get into it. I needed something from there so I asked one of the employees if someone would possibly be able to get it for me, and was told no, the section was closed. (But it would reopen tomorrow morning, she said, when of course it's impossible for me to get there.)

I remember them blocking off part of the store at the beginning of Covid, when the government mandated that only essential items could be sold, so they restricted access to the parts of the store that sold non-essential items. But this is the first time I've seen them just shut down a whole department when their store was otherwise open. Even when they went through that phase when the pharmacy closed before the store did, they only locked up specific medications within the section; you could still access the section to get other things.

 

[fireproof78]

I can remember from over 20 years ago when some local stores were locking up shit or putting 'it' behind the counter, it had nothing to do w/ lax law enforcement, just inventory control.'Trusted' employees steal shit too.

The company I worked for had annual Loss Prevention trainings. One time the regional LP supervisor shared how he just busted a 9 employee theft ring at another store. I still couldn't quite believe it. Yeah, people steal,.

 

[bdub76]

The company I worked for had annual Loss Prevention trainings. One time the regional LP supervisor shared how he just busted a 9 employee theft ring at another store. I still couldn't quite believe it. Yeah, people steal,.

And then folks complain about stuff costing more.

 

[wayoung]

And then folks complain about stuff costing more.

Or so the corporations want you to think, while they set record profits each quarter and raise food prices 8% while inflation outside of food is at 3% (regional rates may vary).

 

[tomalak301]

Remember that police activity I was talking about last week? Well, it turned out there was a dead body in that car and they were investigating it. You hear about things like that on the news all the time, but when it happens on your street, it just rings different.

 

[bdub76]

Or so the corporations want you to think, while they set record profits each quarter and raise food prices 8% while inflation outside of food is at 3% (regional rates may vary).

Inflation itemize differently.

https://www.bls.gov/cpi/

Basically, poor people steal, cost of goods go up or stores close, and then poor people have even a tougher time finding affordable items as there is less competition. Makes no sense to me.

 

[fireproof78]

Or so the corporations want you to think, while they set record profits each quarter and raise food prices 8% while inflation outside of food is at 3% (regional rates may vary).

Well, disruption to supply chains, increasing wages, and many other factors also had to it. There are some disruptions to the food supplies as well, which is frustrating. At least regionally for my area, as we still struggle with some things, and people utilize farmer's markets to make up for some things too expensive in local stores/

And I've watched the theft go up. Hazards of being an old retailer, I see what people are stealing.

 

[wayoung]

Yeah, the grocery companies in my country were recently busted for price fixing schemes on bread and recieved a slap on the wrist, and are now posting record profits each quarter while food rises at 3x the rest of inflation rate and are being called in to testify before the government about their profits but I'm sure it's just people stealing socks and soup

Y'all can believe what you want, and I'm gonna believe what I see.

 

[bdub76]

Yeah, the grocery companies in my country were recently busted for price fixing schemes on bread and recieved a slap on the wrist, and are now posting record profits each quarter while food rises at 3x the rest of inflation rate and are being called in to testify before the government about their profits but I'm sure it's just people stealing socks and soup

Y'all can believe what you want, and I'm gonna believe what I see.

They’re a business. Their job is to make money. The only way for this to be fixed is to nationalize the food industry and do it all for not profit. But this will never happen. The politicians need their campaign funds.

 

[fireproof78]

Yeah, the grocery companies in my country were recently busted for price fixing schemes on bread and recieved a slap on the wrist, and are now posting record profits each quarter while food rises at 3x the rest of inflation rate and are being called in to testify before the government about their profits but I'm sure it's just people stealing socks and soup

Y'all can believe what you want, and I'm gonna believe what I see.

There are multiple factors in to costs going up, including inflation, wages increasing, and theft increasing.

It isn't one factor. That's all.

 

[JD]

At the risk of sounding cynical, but sadly it isn't always the case. People stealing such items can also be looking for an easy fence, or doing return fraud, as many stores have a pretty open return policy now and give credit or cash easier and easier now.

I didn't think about that, but I guess it could be the case. I was thinking people would only steal big money items just for the money or just to get it, and only steal stuff like that out of desperation. But I guess stuff like socks and underwear would probably be easier to steal, and make a quick buck.

The company I use to work for had a guy who was a professional thief, stole from that company for 15 years, walk in, fill up a duffle bag and walk out. Didn't matter what it was. He would then fence it or return it to another store nearby.

My mom is a big fan of the show First 48, which follows real police detectives as their investigating cases, and one involved a guy who's job was to go into stores and steal stuff for drug dealers and people like that.

I can understand locking things up and requiring an employee to get it for you if they're experiencing theft. But I had a new experience at Walmart this week: they just physically barricaded the entire section so that no one could get into it. I needed something from there so I asked one of the employees if someone would possibly be able to get it for me, and was told no, the section was closed. (But it would reopen tomorrow morning, she said, when of course it's impossible for me to get there.)

I remember them blocking off part of the store at the beginning of Covid, when the government mandated that only essential items could be sold, so they restricted access to the parts of the store that sold non-essential items. But this is the first time I've seen them just shut down a whole department when their store was otherwise open. Even when they went through that phase when the pharmacy closed before the store did, they only locked up specific medications within the section; you could still access the section to get other things.

I've never heard of a store doing that before, was it stuff that couldn't be sold after a certain time? Or was it because they didn't have enough people to stop stuff from getting stolen?

 

[Avro Arrow]

I've never heard of a store doing that before, was it stuff that couldn't be sold after a certain time? Or was it because they didn't have enough people to stop stuff from getting stolen?

It was the cosmetics/personal care section. I get that things like lipstick and eye liner are small, and therefore probably easily stealable. But maybe put those things in a locked case so that you have to get a staff person to unlock it for you? I just needed a bottle of facial cleanser, but it was impossible to buy any because they just closed off the entire section. I ended up having to stop at the drug store on the way home to get some.

And I don't know about their staffing situation, but I did count seven staff members standing around monitoring people in the self checkout area. Maybe one of those people could have been stationed in personal care instead?

 

[JD]

Oh OK. Most of stores I go to just have them in locked cabinets, I've never seen them block off the whole section that stuff is in.