Walgreens says locking up products to prevent shoplifting hurts sales

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: CBS News

Updated on: January 15, 2025 / 5:52 PM EST


Locking up store merchandise can deter shoplifters and paying customers alike, according to Walgreens. The pharmacy chain's CEO Tim Wentworth said in Walgreens Boots Alliance's first-quarter earnings call Tuesday that "When you lock things up … you don't sell as many of them. We've kind of proven that pretty conclusively."

Keeping retail products under lock and key is a maneuver designed to thwart rising retail theft. But it also irks — and turns away — would-be paying customers who don't have the patience to wait for a retail clerk to retrieve goods they wish to buy.

Walgreens and other retailers have had to combat so-called "retail shrink," or the loss of inventory from causes other than sales, Wentworth noted. The company took steps to secure more products after it found retail theft accounted for a rising share of shrink. However, locking products behind plastic has not proved effective, he said.

The company's asset protection division is developing "creative" solutions to fight retail theft, Wentworth said Tuesday. "I don't have anything magnificent to share with you today. It is a hand-to-hand combat battle still, unfortunately," Wentworth said.

Read more: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/walgreens-lock-product-up-sales/

[hlthe2b]

1. To try to find a salesperson to unlock what should be basic items and to find the key for multiple "locked"

shelf boxes--when they are trying to check people out and do everything else--not to mention if the items are not on view... yeah, I would not bother. Especially when those same customers can go online and buy them elsewhere.

I find the increase in shoplifting depressing as hell, but yeah... This is not the answer for basic routine items. Electronics, sure, but antiperspirant?

[Hugin]

3. What gets me is the myriad of half implemented fixes paired with the world's most sick person unfriendly website.

Sure, I would like my medications delivered after being texted four times that they were there and weren’t after I went to pick them up.

Just exactly how is that done? Don’t look to the website.

[hlthe2b]

4. I wasn't referring to ordering routine products from the pharmacy website.

You and I both know the "unholy" Bezos is the ultimate beneficiary of such attempts to contain theft in Walgreens and other stores. Fortunately, I mostly shop in stores outside the areas where such extreme measures are required. But, I have been in those who do and it is a mess.

I hate that this is further destroying brick and mortar stores.

[Hugin]

6. It is like that in every Walgreens I have been in lately.

I wouldn’t say that I am in a high loss area. It seems to be that the individual stores are being managed blindly at the corporate level.

I really used to enjoy my trips to Walgreens. Back when the store managers had some autonomy on what they stocked and the stores were staffed. I used to go in and buy cards and would usually walk away with pick up items as well. Because they were handier than even shopping online.

I suspect that is the reason for the spurious prescription notification is a desperate move to get customers in the store, but there’s nothing to buy. It’s all locked up.

[BumRushDaShow]

8. At least for the 2 Walgreens near me

one of the main reasons I ended up in them was because they did passport photos and while waiting for that to get processed, I would wander around in there and find all kinds of knick knacks that I might go ahead and buy. I can't remember the last time I have been in one though.

[Oopsie Daisy]

10. I share your frustration and lack of patients. I'll not wait... and will just purchase elsewhere.

I think that the boxes and plexi doors and other assorted hindrances are intended to deter organized groups of shoplifters who clear off an entire shelf or and entire AISLE of items (bath soap, hair & beauty products, detergent, cold & flu).

At my nearby CVS, they have removed the mini-carts and handbaskets because it makes it "too easy" for people to exit the store with multiple items.

The magnetometers provide zero deterrence. They beep and flash to say "someone just stole something" rather than "stop this person from stealing". My nearby CVS has also disabled the motion-sensor door openers. Individuals must now slow down and push against the unpowered gears of the door's motor rather than easily exiting (or easily entering as well).

I guess this might make it difficult for someone with an armful of Tide bottles to leave the store... but it also makes it difficult for individuals with limited strength and mobility to ENTER the store too.

[NGeorgian]

19. Agree, my Walgreens needs at least one more in Pharmacy at all times and........

one more on the floor. AND they don't lock up here.

[LeftInTX]

23. Yeah, there's a Walgreens on my way home where all the cosmetics are locked.

You think I'm gonna bother to buy any at that store?

Sadly it used to be a 24 hour Walgreens and now it closes at like 7 pm.

[get the red out]

30. Agree

I am usually stoping on the way home from work and have to get home before I am greeted by a present from my dogs.

[TexasBushwhacker]

42. Yup. Walgreens is locking things up

and understaffing their stores. Who knows? They might even have less theft if their stores were properly staffed. So yeah, fuck them. Penny wise, pound foolish.

[yardwork]

55. When I walk into a store like this, it's just depressing.

There's a very unpleasant, authoritarian vibe to these stores.

I hate the shoplifting. They wreck it for everybody.

[Hugin]

2. Noooo, tell me it isn't so.

Locking up the Mentos and staffing a store like a ghost town is bad for business? Nah!



Well, the answer is simple and they don’t want to hear it. Hire a staff and pay them a living wage.

[Think. Again.]

5. Yeah, but it sure did help perpetuate the rightwing lie...

...that retail theft was rising (which it wasn't).

Myth vs. Reality: Trends in Retail Theft

Despite spikes in some cities, crime data doesn’t show a nationwide increase in shoplifting and other forms of retail theft.

https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/myth-vs-reality-trends-retail-theft

[Hugin]

7. +1 n/t

[tenderfoot]

35. You should have seen some the bee ess posted here about all that.

And if one expressed their skepticism, they were instantly accused of supporting criminality.

These same since FFRd/PPRd users also incessantly posted nonsense about the DAs in San Francisco and Los Angeles.

Glad they're gone.

[Polybius]

37. That article is correct for its time (March 2024)

However, retail theft was up in 2024 over the previous year.

https://counciloncj.org/between-the-aisles-a-closer-look-at-shoplifting-trends/

[lonely bird]

38. I just found the same link

I was going to post it but you beat me to it.👍

This is part of the problem with media. They sensationalize virtually anything that would get them clicks or views while not bothering to dive into the subject.

[BigMin28]

9. Nevermind

That wage theft outpaces retail theft in the US. But you will never hear about that. Yet, they want to treat everyone as a criminal based on a lie. Shoplifting has not gone up. It has actually decreased since the 90's. Not to say it doesn't happen. But it is not what it has been made out to be.

[bamagal62]

11. Well....

Locking up products is annoying. But, have you been in a Walgreens lately? They have no one working there. Just the cashier. And, if there happens to be someone, they aren’t the least bit interested in helping you. I would imagine it’s easy to steal stuff when you have no one working there. It is odd the items they decide to lock up. I’m surprised people don’t come in and clean out the whole store. And, if you’re not getting paid worth a crap, would you care if someone stole something? But, I guess it’s more beneficial for them to write off the losses instead of hiring more people at a living wage.

[Bengus81]

12. LOL...people "shop" at Walgreens? They like paying damn near double for everyday stuff?

[hlthe2b]

16. Yeah, that is my experience with Walgreens in Colorado--pricey. My sister in Atlanta swears they aren't pricing higher

than other places... She might have a point if she is comparing with Amazon (who seem to think they truly do have the monopoly and can raise their prices at will) or maybe CVS or grocery stores (sans any "specials." ) But forgive me for even mentioning them and I know it varies, but I think Walmart would be a lot cheaper on some of these items. And obviously the big box membership stores if they carried the item--Costco and Sam's.

But, unless you live in a porch pirate area (and fortunately, to date, I do not)... ordering online will be the default if you have to waste ridiculous amounts of time for help with the lock boxes AND pay higher prices.

[Bengus81]

18. The one we go for prescriptions is sky high on everyday stuff.

But.....there is a Dillions (Kroger) and a Walmart Marketplace within 300-600 feet of that Walgreens.

[LeftInTX]

25. I buy Walgreens clear version of Hibiclens. Otherwise, it's hospital pink everywhere else.

They also have a few other health supplies (bandages etc ) that I can't get at the grocery store.

[surrealAmerican]

13. It might be less of a deterrent to customers if the store was not understaffed...

... but then again, if they had more staff, they might not need to lock up so much stuff to prevent theft.

[Woodwizard]

14. Was in a Home Depot.

Getting electrical and plumbing supplies a lot of the stuff was locked up. Another HD was not, guess some areas have serious issues.

I see a lot of stuff on FB market place in brand new boxes I bet a lot of it is hot.

[chouchou]

15. Half way kidding but actually might work.

Hire a 248 pound, 6' 4 inch dude with a nice personality, and his job is ONLY unlocking the products.

[Magoo48]

17. Greed and price gouging combined with greed-driven understaffing

makes it much easier for fed up people to seek a five-finger discount. Most of us will provide for our families and ourselves in whatever ways remain to us.

[sboatcar]

20. This is exactly why I don't shop at walgreens, and for like personal care items, not even the target near me

They keep it all locked up, if that's how its going to be, I'll just order online from somewhere else.

[LiberalArkie]

21. I wonder if these places ever thought about having people on the floor walking around to assist people?

I know this is foreign thought to them, but to have the cashier stop and lock their register to go an open a cabinet for a package or razor blades pisses off the person wanting to purchase said item along with the line of people wanting to pay for their items.

I shopped at Walgreens once and that was it. 35 minutes to get some razor blades is really bad.

[HarryM]

22. They probably hired a consultant

To figure this out. I believe it would have to be the well known Captain Obvious.
All these companies are concerned with is profit. When they raise prices, and cut staff, to satisfy shareholders, they lose business. Not enough cashiers/clerks to service customers. Then rising prices. It just makes absolutely no sense that when they gouge prices, people are gonna resort to shoplifting. It's just what happens when people are fed up.

[Mosby]

45. Yeah, thats why Amazon is the way to go.

Happy?

[SpankMe]

24. The whole situation sucks

You leave product out in the open, and bad people steal it. You lock it up, and good people won't buy it due to inconvenience.

Technology can solve this. It's Orwellian and a privacy nightmare, but it's where we are: 1. You have to scan your face and a credit card or pay processor token when you enter the store. 2. Every item in the store has an RFID chip on it. 3. When you leave the store, your face is scanned on exit and the RFID chip on everything on your person is scanned and funds deducted from your account. AI would be used to refine this and minimize fraud and erroneous accounting.

I know this sounds very 1984-ish. But I think something like this is in our future and is inevitable. We should be thinking about it now.

[Frank D. Lincoln]

43. That sounds interesting but I can see some problems.

It might turn out to be effective.

However, I have a feeling that what it might do is hasten the end of brick and mortar stores. It might drive more and more people to shop online.

Another issue might be thieves figuring out how to remove or neutralize the RFID chips.

Then again, once people got used to the idea, they might be surprised that they love it. No more checkout lines (although cashiers would become almost obsolete).

[Mosby]

47. Amazon Just Walk Out.

https://aws.amazon.com/just-walk-out/#:~:text=Just%20Walk%20Out%20eliminates%20traditional,when%20shoppers%20exit%20the%20store.

[SpankMe]

54. Yes, I've seen this at airports

It's a start, but it's dicey. It uses cameras and AI that watch a customer take an item from the shelf, and then it charges them just for taking it off the shelf. Customers have reported taking two, like- items off the shelf, and then putting one item back, but the system charged them for both anyway. I think scanning as you exit is better than watching you pull form the shelf.

But, yeah, I've seen this.

[bucolic_frolic]

26. True in Walmart too

Spray paint, baby products, some electronics ... all locked up.

[LeftInTX]

27. Spray paint has been locked up since the 80's. (huff-huff) Just about everywhere.

[bucolic_frolic]

28. It's new to my local Walmart about 2023 or 4. The last store renovation

was the tipping point. Plus they carry far fewer colors, spray or otherwise. Interior, exterior, same.

[BumRushDaShow]

29. Took the words right out of my mouth!

But it wasn't just for the "huff huff" (at least around here). It was literally an attempt to stem the scourge of graffiti everywhere (nowadays being called "tagging" ).

[Polybius]

39. Over here in NY they even ask for my id when I'm buying spray paint

I guess it's a local thing, but at my Home Depot or Lowes it's been locked up since before I was old enough to drive.

[milestogo]

31. Walgreens prices have gone up substantially in the last 10 years.

I used to shop there at least once a week. If I go in there now, its because of something I need right away, and then I have to decide if its worth it. Target ain't cheap but its better than Walgreens.

[Basso8vb]

32. I needed eyedrops and could not find an associate to help me.

So I left without buying anything.

[Gymbo]

33. No worries

This problem will be solved when they install robot police to unlock cabinets, and robot police dogs with teeth like chainsaws to run you down. What a great world to look forward to.

[El Mimbreno]

34. Walgreens already on our no-fly list

for their policy of allowing employees to deny filling Rxs for abortion meds.

[Mosby]

48. Community Note

Your claim that Walgreens employees can deny a script for abortion pills is a lie.


https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/cvs-walgreens-dispense-abortion-pill-mifepristone-rcna141396

[FakeNoose]

36. They need a "creative" solution for shoplifting - how about just hiring more employees?

"Oh yeah ... well .. we didn't mean a solution that would cost us more money."

[maxsolomon]

56. Are those employees going to physically restrain shoplifters?

No, they're not - corporate legal doesn't want that liability.

[FakeNoose]

57. In a lot of cases, just having extra people on duty is enough to discourage shoplifting

The boldly aggressive thieves - the ones who dare the store to do anything - aren't going to be stopped.

[lonely bird]

40. We only buy a couple of things at Walgreens

We get Cholestoff and Krill Oil from them as Mrs. Bird takes them for lowering cholesterol and triglycerides. The annoying thing is that many times there is a buy one, get one 50% off but there is only one on the shelf.

Beyond that we don’t shop at Walgreens.

On a side note, I have seen Dollar General Market stores which appear to be Dollar General’s with more selection.

The radical shifting of retailing over the last 20+ years isn’t done by a long shot.

Expect fewer people to be employed.

[mathematic]

41. Lose more in theft vs inconvenience. It's a tradeoff and the ultimate alternative is to close the store.

Locked goods resulting in less sales is obvious. What wasn't obvious, and required testing out, was how much sales were lost when so many products were locked up. Turns out the results weren't great.

Also of note, Walgreens is currently closing 10% of its stores. For whatever reason, they have a lot of stores that aren't profitable.

[Linda ladeewolf]

44. As much

Crap as these companies throw in their dumpsters, it’s not theft that is costing them money, it’s their own wastefulness. I’m on one of the dumpster diving reddits, they show huge hauls of perfectly good merchandise and food tossed in the trash. After Christmas many of the stores throw mountains of unsold merchandise in the dumpsters, food, candy, clothes, cosmetics. It’s not just Walgreens, but almost every retail store tosses things. They take it off corporate taxes because it’s easier than selling at a lower price. Some of them damage items so they are unusable, some of these divers keep their local food pantries full, and many of them take damaged goods and up cycle them or repair them. Americans are wasteful, corporations are extremely wasteful.

[Mosby]

46. Amazon.

I buy almost everything at Amazon, hygiene products, clothes, electronics, hardware.

The only reason I go into a store is if I need it right away.

Like it or not, believe the CEOs about shoplifting or not, at the end of the fucking day people are going for the lowest price, without the hassle of opening cases. Amazon all day long baby.

That's the reality.

[maxsolomon]

49. I don't know where you all live, but organized retail theft is a real thing in Seattle.

It's not just at Walgreens. Target, Rite Aid, Bartells, Safeway, Fred Meyer, QFC all lock up different products because of open, defiant shoplifting of whole categories of goods: hard liquor, disposable diapers, baby formula, batteries. Store employees are directed not to risk injury by confronting the shoplifters, many of whom are transients with mental health or drug issues who'll turn up the crazy to 11 at any provocation.

People will steal and sell anything they can resell quickly. The police have had to shut down open-air black markets on downtown streets.

Some shoplifters made a living out of stealing specific goods for resale: Lego sets, for instance. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/oct/25/lego-seattle-police-trafficking-scheme

I've seen this happen firsthand multiple times since 2020.

[LeftInTX]

51. I wonder if that is one of the reasons we lost the election?

This whole gangs of shoplifters is a new thing and it's very unsettling to many people. (Even if it's only happening on TV) Just a random thought.

I have numerous Indian owned convenience stores near me. One has tons of "wanted" signs plastered all over the place. Pictures of guys who stole gas or merch. The other gas station distributes, "mugshot" magazines etc. One closed his store and now only takes gas and cigarette sales through a window.

I don't think it is why, but it could have been one of the reasons or a contributing factor.

People don't want their stores closing...

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

50. Well stop doing it then

[unblock]

52. Retail theft *and* locking stuff up hurts sales? What do both things have in common?

Understaffed stores.

Locked up stuff doesn't really bother me if there's a clerk right there. But if I have to hunt for one, this does tick me off and i might just say ok, if you don't want my sale, I'll order it online.

And store theft is easier if there's less staff to spot you sneak something out.

Plus, overstressed and underpaid staff are more likely to steal themselves, or to help other their friends steal.

Hire more people and treat them well. But yeah, that would probably cost more than they'd save from lower theft, so hey, why consider that. Just whine about the negative effects of a cheap labor decision.

[multigraincracker]

53. Right across the street from Walgreens is an Independent Drug store.

It is by far the best. Just won the People Choice Award in town.
Not the cheapest on non drug items and carry very few.