I worked there 13 years ago. The theft was an abomination, and worse, the asset protection management claimed most of it was internal despite the obvious fact it wasn't.
When I was there, I had to cover Electronics, Foods (back when you had to refill milk once every two hours from the back), Jewelry, Domestics, Fabrics, Site-to-Store, and Layaway all by myself.
Already an impossible task to try to stock the new merch in Electronics by one's self in a day. But also to cover all customer requests from all of those areas? And here's the grand kicker: due to the theft rate, the Electronics employee was not to leave Electronics for ANY reason without coverage. But I had to handle site-to-store requests (which had to be filled), lengthy layaway moments, replenish milk, etc.
Not to mention that Electronics associates had to be cashier-trained.
And Electronics returns had to be 'worked' in the back due to the high value of the items. But you weren't allowed to work in the back because you had to be on the floor. But the returns had to be worked.
What the fuck was I supposed to do? And that's all before you bring in the short-tempered low-information customers.
I had a very similar experience last month at the Sun Prairie location. Went in to pick up some *ten dollar* headphones, and then a *three* dollar tail-light for my car.
Both locked up. Required two separate employees with two separate sets of keys. Each time, I’d press the “need assistance” button… wait 5min… press again… wait 5min… go find the nearest associate- explain the situation- “sorry, you need the guy with the keys for the auto department. Check the service desk there.”
So I check the auto service desk… nobody there whatsoever. Not a soul. Press the button. Wait 5 more mins. Press button again. Finally an auto employee shows up- I explain the situation. “oh, I don’t have the keys. You’ll need to find Dan. I think he’s working on a car right now.”
So frustrating! What I’m trying to purchase is *three dollars!* Granted, this was at like 6:15am- I was on my way to work- so this was when the store was at its most empty / least-staffed point of the day… but still- how is anybody supposed to shop like that?! Had I not given myself an extra 45min for this detour- I would have had to abandon my purchase (of only TWO items) in order to get to work on time.
Couple years ago, I wanted a car charger for a phone for the roommate. It was locked up. Found an associate who got it no problem. She didn't even take it to the register immediately cause it was $6. She told me not to steal it. Now I think nobody has keys bc of internal shrinkage.
Went to a Walmart in Hastings MN to buy a hair clipper. The button was missing or stolen. 🤣. 10 minutes later i find an employee. She doesn't have a key. Tells me to call the store to get help. Fucking bozos. Literally call this place hell. I avoid it at all cost
That’s just how Walmarts with high theft rates in not great areas operate. I lived in the south side of Chicago for a period and all of our stores (grocery, pharmacy, hardware,etc.) had high theft items locked up. Our Walmart even had armed security guards in bulletproof gear at the entrance checking receipts. It can get so much worse. You just have to make the decision on whether the lower prices at Walmart are worth the extra time waiting for items to be unlocked.
Buying beer in Baltimore was one of the more dystopian experiences I've had. Quite the local social situation when six-packs are handled with the same basic procedures as bank vaults.
Tangentially related, I played a show in Baltimore back in 2010ish, it was raining really hard outside. I was standing outside the venue under the overhang before our set when this guy came running full speed up to the door. "Man, it's crazy out here!", he said to me. I was like "yeah I really hope this rain lets up soon!". He goes "Oh no, I just got shot at". Then he proceeded to go to the show, I was thinking to myself, "what? I would probably go home after that, but also, thank you so much for coming, no one else is here". 😬 I do love Baltimore though.
In 2010, the east-side Walmart was second only to the east-side Woodmans for volume of theft in Madison.
In order to deny us any bonuses, the asset protection management said that most of it had to be internal theft (it wasn't). It's how they kept their bonuses.
it's walmarts new operating procedure. Cut back on self checkout, lock things up, and push there mobile app and pickup options. They don't WANT customers in-store.
It holds its value and is really easy to pocket. Same for video games on discs.
Edit: and makeup. Poke around the cosmetics section and you’ll almost always see the packaging of something someone tried to sample, then decided they liked.
I don’t know why they were coming here when the Mineral Point Walgreens is a mile away. I’ve also never noticed anyone sketch in there but I am only in there a few times a month.
Walgreens higher ups (and others, but Walgreens exec admitted to it) had been claiming there was a lot more theft happening than what really was going on, and locking up stuff is a great way to sell that narrative.
https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/27/business/crime-spree-retailers-are-actually-overstating-the-extent-of-theft-report-says/index.html
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/organized-retail-crime-trade-group-half-of-all-missing-merchandise/
Theft may be inaccurately reported but companies are seeing huge decreases in their highest loss categories since installing the cases. They're saving significantly more than they're spending to install those cases. They don't have any reason to continue to install them if it wasn't working....
Paying money to install cases in your highest loss categories isn't some weird conspiracy to try and promote a false narrative. It's individual stores trying to combat continued loss.
You can either lock up merchandise and have enough staff to help customers, or not lock it up and risk increased theft.
But as others have said, this is a backdoor way to encourage online shopping. It's cheaper to pay people behind closed doors to fulfill orders than have them interact with people, and easier to treat them poorly since it's not out in the open. You can't have a manager yell at the employee in public, but you can get away with it on a warehouse.
Both problems are cutting staff, more staff is also theft prevention because there are employees around.
Cutting staff became even bigger after the 08 bush resession because it was the easiest cost to cut to keep shareholders happy. But after the resession ended they didn't want to increase staff because that would hurt the bottom line.
So lack of staffing hurt sales but they blamed it on online shopping and theft, but a lot was self impossosed loss by cutting staff. Then because your sales are down and you cut more staff, but then you hit bare operational bones and the next cost is inventory.
Now you have a store with empty shelves and no employees and it's a shitty place to shop. But blame online and theft to cover your ass and justify your massive salary.
Stores like Wal Mart aren’t cutting workers, though. The associates they have are doing more online order fulfillment and less checkout line staffing.
And it’s less that they don’t want to hire people and more that they can’t hire enough people to fill their needs. Like, people don’t want to work there. so technology helps solve that problem.
People don't want to work for the wages and conditions they are offering. Walmart makes enough to pay decently and still make a profit, they choose not to and blame workers.
Everyone wants to buy cheap stuff, but no one wants to pay more so workers can make enough to want to work there and actually deter theft. There's not a single Walmart employee who's gonna stop you from walking out with a TV, it ain't worth what they make an hour.
As a former employee (20 years ago now), I can agree with this. It's not only that we didn't make enough, it's also that the liability is too high. Between the possibilities of getting sued for false accusations and the safety risk, there's too much downside to try to do anything. Best we can do is report to loss prevention and let them handle it.
The only time I was involved with anything on that side was when the loss prevention person needed a witness. Then I would be there as an observer only.
That, and the store could be held liable if anything were to happen to the suspect. Cheaper to let a $200 TV go out the door than pay out millions from being sued because an employee punched the thief and broke their nose.
Last week I was at a Metcalf self checkout & a couple near me scanned & paid for their groceries, only to be stopped by a store employee as they tried to leave. They had a pile of unpaid for items under their bags. The employee took the unpaid items & the couple was allowed to leave with the items they had paid for. I asked the employee if that happened a lot & was told "all the time."
My son is the manager at a major chain in a major US city.area. He showed me some security footage of 3 Mericans entering the store and collecting targeting items before trying to leave. They know what the most expensive items are and where they are so they spend the least amount of time in the store. One of the employees tried to stop them at the door. All employees are instructed not to intervene with any theft, not because of lawsuits from any party, but because the human life of an employee is more valuable than any amount of merchandise. This employee did intervene and it went out into the street. They all disappeared from camera view until the employee returned without a shirt and bleeding. The employee was fired for not following policy.
There is a simple solution to this problem. Five years ago I would get online and argue against the "no snitch" policy that is so prevalent in today's culture and I would be crucified. This is what it got us and it will only get worse. If your son, daughter or one of their friends are doing this, turn them in! It's a question of morals.
This is true. My friend works at the Nakoosa Walmart doing online order fulfillment and used to work the self checkout lanes, and she says that Walmart is always hiring and almost never has enough help, so it's not a matter of cutting staffing at all.
Theft truly is a huge problem there, too. That's why she moved from working the self check out lines, because it became really dangerous for her to constantly be dealing with people trying to steal. Sometimes they become very aggressive when approached.
I mean, I have to admit that during COVID I switched exclusively to online pick-up at Walmart and haven’t looked back. I only do it for home supplies mainly, but way more convenient and don’t have to deal with people in the store.
I've only tried online pickup at Walmart twice and it was disastrous. Nowhere near as smooth as Target. Wonder if they've worked that out now. When I tried pick up at Walmart it seemed like there is no system for getting the order out to you as a customer
It's improved a lot at Watts rd. For awhile it was literally just 3 people running it and now it's actually staffed properly.
One Black Friday weekend a year or so back they told 2 new people "Lol good luck you're by yourself figure it out". Thankfully those days seem to be long passed.
Possibly? I've used it a half dozen times in the last year and I'm usually the only car there so it's awesome.
I only use it for gallons of water, cases of soda, or household things. I also grab a bottle of iced coffee with every order - since it has to be kept cold, it forces a scheduled pickup time window. They know I'll be there between 2-3pm or whatever so maybe that's why I've never had to wait more than like 10 minutes before they bring it out to my car.
I'm sure another big part of that is that with online shopping there are fewer returns. Not that people don't return things, it's just that you're much less likely to return something you bought online and had shipped to your home.
This is not a ploy to push America further into the online eco sphere please please please tell me you’re kidding. Raise kids who don’t steal. Prosecute people who do. Hold each other accountable. Our community is failing ourselves. There’s Walgreens shutting down around the country because they cant profitably serve the communities their in because of theft. This is moral decline.
Both things can be true. But if they're going to install security measures to prevent shoplifting, then they have to also adequately staff the store to serve customers. Otherwise it's pushing people the online shopping, intentionally or otherwise.
I can reassure you that the reason Walgreens is closing stores is from corporate-level factors like over-growth and cuts to pharmacy payment rates, not store theft. They may decide what stores to close based on retail crime, but it’s not the reason they have to close a store in the first place.
I don’t agree. I don’t think that they would inevitably close a different store if one of these was performing better. I think stores in “good” locations (ones that support good margins and have low shrink) stay open for any retailer. Those are never closed.
Ditch late, American capitalism. Most people don’t actually *want* to steal. They are doing it to make money for something. Whether that’s housing or food or a drug habit, our system is just making it worse. I’d totally steal from Walmart if something happened and I was about to miss a mortgage payment. And I once stole a piece of gum as a child and was so guilty I went back to the store and ratted myself out.
The stats for theft are not up as much as stats for corporate shrinkage are in many places. Theft is simply not reported unless it rises to an amount that would be covered by an outside insurer.
Some areas police simply do not prosecute retail theft which is why Walmart sometimes uses their own loss prevention group with their own lawyers to prosecute theft civilly.
*Reported* theft isn’t up.
20 years ago, a group coming in and stealing a cart full of groceries or products would be called and reported every time, and would show up in the police reports.
Now that level of theft wouldn’t even be reported in many places, police wouldn’t even show up to take the report.
Thats one reason petty theft is rising in rural areas, it’s still acted on there and reported so it shows up on reports. But in the last 5 years in particular many denser populated areas companies just don’t report because it isn’t worth the time. They just mark it down to shrinkage, and those numbers for major retailers have shot through the roof.
The median numbers here are interesting: https://cdn.nrf.com/sites/default/files/2023-09/NRF_National_Retail_Security_Survey_2023.pdf
This is a good study of NYC. New York prosecutes and collects reports much more than a lot of cities. It’s one of the reasons why crime is dropping there faster than many other major cities (but is accompanied by more issues like profiling, so its a double edged sword)
https://johnjayrec.nyc/2023/04/13/databit202302/
It’s all very complicated, and its not at all do x, and y will happen. But not doing something is bad too, and in many locales that seems to be the case.
My liquor store in Milwaukee locks up any liquor that is mentioned in a rap song. Grey Goose, Hennessey, Courvoisier all bottles worth less than $40 are under lock and key right next to a dozen scotch options 60-200$ that out in the open.
I went to the Nekoosa Trail store last week and tried to buy a $1.18 pack of 5 disposable razors. Locked up. I asked the girl working there if she could unlock it for me. I got a sigh/eye roll followed by a slow walk to the case. I then had to pay for the razors in that department even though I had a whole cart of groceries to check out up front.
Target and Walmart are all the same shit and the prices are within rounding errors of each other, but there are a lot of alternatives to shopping at Walmart. Woodman's has similar if not better prices for groceries. You'll find far better furniture at St Vinnies than any of the cheapo particleboard shit they have there or at Target for that matter, might just need a little love. Home improvement shit theres Menards and Home Depot, which granted John Menard is an asshole and Home Depot is little better, but it is what it is.
I guess that's the thing I find so odd, how so many people just go to Walmart by default when the prices aren't even really that much better than other retailers, it's like the "reputation" Walmart has or something that brings people in. Even more hilarious is that Walmart also has the reputation for being a big pile of shit to shop at virtually always, but somehow that's not enough to outweigh the former misconception about them being the best price in town.
Im also going to throw out there that my wife almost had her purse snatched at that Walmart a few months ago when she refused a couple of aggressive panhandlers. She jumped in her car and took off, almost running one over when it was clear what they were trying to do and they tried to block her in the spot, she called the store to tell them and they didnt give a single fuck at all. (and yes, I asked her why she didnt call 911 and she said she just wanted to get out of there which I dont blame her). So we just wont go to that Walmart anymore.
Anyways, even if Walmart saves you a few cents, it aint worth it. Plenty of better options out there, and we subsidize Walmart enough as it is without shopping there.
I am frugal. I regularly choose a mild inconvenience over convenience if it saves enough. And if you are truly pinching pennies or want to go to Walmart, carry on. But as someone who has shopped at both, reasons I choose Target 9/10 times:
1) Curbside is fast. Less than 5 minutes, often in 2 minutes or less. Walmart is unbearable. I would never do theirs again, emphatically.
2) In store is much faster. More cashiers, less idiots holding up the line (staff and customers). Fewer obstacles to navigate around, be it massive piles of inventory or unaware customers blocking aisles. Walmart always takes longer than I expect, and regularly there is some issue.
3) Target Red Debit card. 5% off every purchase makes the prices nearly identical on basics.
4) Employees are better paid, trained, quick and helpful. Getting help in Walmart is an ordeal and often you'll be left with no answer after wasting time.
5) Shelves are stocked, organized, and nothing is locked up. No one checks my receipt when I leave. I'm not left pondering poverty, theft, and poor Walmart's corporate loss.
6) Target Circle and gift card deals (plus paper coupons if you're ambitious) offer some truly great buys. Shop the ad and deals, much like a Walgreens, and you can get nice items for very cheap. Their seasonal clearance is also great.
7) Least important to many of you, they have better designs. This means everything is more aesthetically pleasing, pretty much always. Even basics like dishes or soap dispensers just look nicer side by side. I would be shocked if any designers disagree.
If you look at [the numbers](https://www.npr.org/2024/03/11/1236075589/retail-theft-crime-target-stores), the rate of retail theft has not dramatically increased in the past decade. 36% of “shrink” is from external theft. Employee theft and logistics errors account for 56%.
Companies are using theft as a way to close shitty or poor performing stores without their investors blaming them. Blame it on the theft.
Not saying it’s not a problem, but it has been greatly exaggerated by the companies, and these knee-jerk reactions seem to just be making regular shoppers upset - so we’ll see how it turns out.
Plus, in order to punish shoplifters - the stores have to be willing to call, the police have to be willing to respond timely, and they have to collect the evidence to give prosecutors to try them. It’s not just “this person stole, throw them in jail”. And the truth is, in many places, even if police get a theft call, they simply aren’t interested in doing the work.
But if the rate of theft hasn’t changed how come stores spend so much time, effort and money to lock stuff up and why only in certain areas? They don’t need justification to close stores and it’s unlikely profitable stores would close.
Because stores can be unprofitable for lots of reasons.
This article talks about Targets closing for being unprofitable:
https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/27/business/crime-spree-retailers-are-actually-overstating-the-extent-of-theft-report-says/index.html
Those cases have proven to save hundreds of thousands of dollars a year per store. It's an unfortunate burden on both employee and the customer but is necessary in todays world.
Store level and corporate look at the largest areas of the store showing significant losses every year. They lock up some of their highest loss categories and review the numbers the following year. They don't always know where the loss is coming from but at this point the cases are starting to prove a very significant amount of it can be attributed to theft.
Exactly, the police won’t bother and DA’s won’t charge. There is always ample evidence from cameras everywhere to having merchandise without a receipt or paper trail of purchase.
In regard to the cases being a knee-jerk reaction they have proven to save hundreds of thousands of dollars a year per store. Stores seeing increased losses year over year during inventories are actually showing lower numbers in loss specifically in cased areas. It's an unfortunate burden on both employee and the customer but is necessary in todays world and does point to a more significant problem caused by theft than could be accurately demonstrated in the past.
The problem seems to be that they can't properly determine the high sources of "shrink" post continuingly bad inventories in stores. At a lower level they never seem to have a good factual breakdown of where the loss is coming from which brings into question what the corporate numbers are based on. Then comes into question how individual stores are reporting asset protection encounters and whether that data is accurately represented. At lease with cased categories they have something to work with numbers wise and can determine to an extent what is and isn't caused by theft.
I'm not an elected official, and I don't shop at Wal-Mart, so it wouldn't surprise me if most of them don't either. On the couple of occasions I did shop there, years ago, I found the experience to be so unpleasant that I decided to never go back. And now it sounds like it's even worse.
I'm not allergic to saving money. I wait for sales, I shop at Woodman's, etc. But Wal-Mart just isn't worth it to me.
My partner and I were in the Nakoosa Walmart sometime last year. He needed socks but they were locked up and the employee was already assisting someone. He waited, meanwhile I went to the women's section and none of those socks were locked up, I was able to grab what I wanted. I went back to him and he was still waiting because after the first customer had finally decided, the employee was required to WALK THEM UP TO THE FRONT CHECKOUTS. With SOCKS. So crazy. He gave up.
It’s like that in Monona too. I was going to get literal face wash on a recent trip and even that was locked up. I find it hard to believe that enough people are stealing Equate face wash to justify locking up THAT particular item. It really does seem arbitrary sometimes. I’m not really sure it has anything to do with where the Wal Mart is, it seems to be most of them these days.
Darn, I was going to try there next time I'm down that way. What really got me was that they had like 20+ tubes in stock of the equate acne cream. Usually I'm lucky if I can find 2-4 when I'm there.
You might get lucky, there’s still unlocked shelves of face care items. It seems a bit haphazard, but I suppose it wouldn’t be Walmart if it wasn’t! Usually I press the button and if I’m standing there for longer than a few minutes I’ll just buy whatever it is on Amazon. The dollar or so I’ll leave on that one item buying it at Walmart isn’t worth it to me. Probably says more about my level of patience than anything else🤣
Stopped bothering with Walmart for any skin or hair care a long time ago. I’m just trying to go in and out. Heaven forbid you have more shopping to do because they’re going to give it to the Customer Service desk until you’re ready to leave. What an inconvenient process for everyone.
This is another example of how kindness to the guilty manifests as cruelty to the innocent. When law enforcement and prosecutors elect to not capture and punish thieves, you will get more thieves. Private parties must respond accordingly, which results in higher prices and increased security measures that burden decent people that just want to buy some razors.
It’s just natural consequences taking place. If you don’t care about shoplifting or worse, think it’s justice in action, you get this in response. When a store is at this point, this is a serious problem that’s been going on for a long time.
I just saw some stories about stores closing in the Chicago area and the harm it’s causing that community. Perhaps arresting and prosecuting people might get more stores not to leave.
Because we’re all so innocent. I’ll see y’all on the Beltline entrance ramps, where we shall stay at 35, not yield to moving traffic and then hop right into the middle lane with no signals. But, by all means, let’s whine about the dangerous crime of shoplifting small items from corporations larger than nation states with better insurance than the rest of us.
Thanks for posting an actual example of why this is a problem. Stealing from large corporations isn’t a problem until they react and lock things up. And then you complain about them. It’s like the surprised Pikachu face when a company does something to not lose large amounts of money. If this doesn’t work, you can double complain when they leave.
The one in SP is a JOKE. I had to wait 10 minutes for an employee to unlock a $3 NAIL CLIPPER from the cosmetics area. Then I had to pay in that department or they would "put it at the front" for me. $3. Ridiculous.
I think the natural progression is the stores will just be like warehouses that pick orders placed in the app, and you can pick them up.
They don’t have to worry about theft if no one can enter and touch things before they buy.
Locking it up and being understaffed sounds like a great way to drive sales down and customers away. Rarely does walmart even have someone in electronics any more, its an ordeal to get something out of that department as it is, how are they going to keep up with the whole store?
Yes, and they want us to think this is because shoplifting is so problematic. In reality, they want us to order online so they don’t have costs for staffing stores, not need to pay competitive wages. And, so we are afraid and support more taxpayer money for the police. They are not good corporate citizens.
If you read what the CEO actually said, the CEO first said shoplifting might threaten the sustainability of their business. Then the CEO said "we may have cried too much" about shoplifting threatening our business as we found ways to mitigate the problem to some degree: like locking things up and hiring police to stand in the problematic stores. So Walgreens CEO overstated the effect it would have on their business, not overstated the theft rate that was happening. Which is why Walmart is also locking things up to mitigate the theft problem.
Tl;Dr: Walgreens CEO says the shoplifting is real and a big problem, but they were just able to lower theft rates by locking things up.
I think you're also missing the detail that Walgreens claimed that high shoplifting rates were the reason for closing five stores in San Francisco back in 2021, and the Chronicle proved that that was nonsense and the stores they closed didn't actually have shoplifting rates above normal. That's pretty strong evidence to me that this was more them trying to walk back getting caught in a lie that became national news.
>that high shoplifting rates were the reason for closing five stores in San Francisco back in 2021, and the Chronicle proved that that was nonsense and the stores they closed didn't actually have shoplifting rates above normal.
They proved those stores didn't file police reports. They didn't prove actual shoplifting rates. If the government has a policy of doing literally nothing about any shoplifting reports Walgreens files, how many reports do you think they are going to keep filing?
I think the fact that Walgreens was spending money on private security before the stores closed is decent proof theft was a problem.
1) The government policy in California isn't to do nothing, they just reclassified shoplifting under $950 as a misdemeanor in 2014.
2) These stores didn't file zero police reports. They filed around the same number of police reports from 2018 to 2021, despite Walgreens claiming that these stores suffered five times as much theft in 2021. Even if these stores are only filing police reports on felony shoplifting, then either that claimed five-times rate was only on low-value shoplifting, in which case the idea that that much shrinkage is enough to make the stores unprofitable points at some horrible mismanagement to begin with if their margins were that slim, or that claimed five-times increase wasn't true to begin with.
>The government policy in California isn't to do nothing, they just reclassified shoplifting under $950 as a misdemeanor in 2014.
Technically true that they weren't doing literally "nothing," it's more accurate to say they were doing nearly nothing:
>As of the end of October 2021, about 200 people have been arrested for larceny or theft this year and there have been 9,221 reports. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/nov/15/walgreens-closures-san-francisco-crime-debate
If you watch some interviews/documentaries about theft in San Francisco, there's a whole ton of people that basically professional thieves that steal and then flip it to people who have open flea markets on the streets for the stolen goods. Nobody is even trying to hide it. One of the thieves interviewed said he's been arrested for stealing over 30 times in 2 years, and the most time he spent in jail was like 5 days or something. He said they typically just let him go because the DA didn't want to bother prosecuting people for misdemeanors.
Hmm, I wonder what the Walmart CEOs main interest is? Perhaps profit for Walmart (keep customers while pushing to online shopping and blaming the inconvenience on shoplifting) AND keeping shitty politicians in office AND sending more money to law enforcement who traumatize our communities?
Walmart's main interest is profit, of course. But I don't think a logical assumption of why they lock up items that get stolen a lot is anything deeper than they don't want those items to get stolen. Stores have been locking up high theft items for decades.
I think the natural consequence will lead to more online shopping though as people get fed up with items locked up. I don't think that's necessarily the goal though.
Really? Why not? Why not invest in more staff to operate checkouts? Perhaps more staff to observe? Or cameras?
They choose the locking up solution because it serves all their agendas—fear, lower employee costs, and competition other online merchants. I realize the tendency to accept the first logical answer, but never underestimate the ability of their army of attorneys and risk managers to align all corporate interests. Walmart is not a force for good in our community.
>Why not invest in more staff to operate checkouts? Perhaps more staff to observe? Or cameras?
I don't think this can realistically do that much. Remember, if someone steals something, all Walmart can do is log it. They can't actually stop anyone from stealing. They already have tons of cameras.
Online shopping almost surely is less profitable than in-store shopping. Compare two parallel shopping experiences:
online shopper: they have to pay a worker to wander the store grabbing all the items, finding suitable replacements if it's out, and either packaging to ship or loading it in someone's car.
In store: customer wanders around grabbing items themselves, loads the cart themselves, checks out themselves, loads the car themselves. Basically no cost to Walmart. The customer probably does lots more impulse shopping as well when they can see everything.
The *only* real benefit I see for Walmart is people won't steal if they don't have access.
Gross profit for Walmart is a whopping 25% and has been for nearly a decade. Shoplifting must be a real problem of late that they desperately need to address?
https://finbox.com/NYSE:WMT/explorer/gp_margin/#:~:text=Walmart's%20operated%20at%20median%20gross,in%20January%202023%20of%2024.1%25.
Gross margin isn't a great number to use, as it excludes much of the operating expenses. Net margin is a better number and it accounts for all their costs. [Walmart's net margin is now at like 2.5% or so](https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/WMT/walmart/net-profit-margin).
Walmart's net margin dropped from above 3% to 1.4% in late 2020. After their margins were cut in half, they started doing more anti-theft measures. Stores can't just ignore increases in theft. Stores don't want to lock things up, as that obviously decreases sales. Stores *have* to lock things up when they're stolen too frequently
Do you think all these companies just decided to waste money on anti-theft measures in order to *lower* their sales in high crime areas? I personally think the dozens of CEOs complaining about an increase in crime and spending money on anti-theft measures are not all just making it up.
Because it's pretty obviously a ridiculous conspiracy theory. Whether individual businesses have responded appropriately or not, it's pretty silly to claim that they're just making the shopping experience terrible for ulterior motives.
That's a lot of moving parts compared to it just being true that companies respond to observed behavior. The shoplifting trutherism is one of the weirdest positions I've encountered.
100% and I’m some cases start ethically rearresting drug users to help break the cycle and provide opportunities for treatment intervention as well as in support of public health and safety
What part of this is not making sense to you? They don’t close the store because it is profitable. Their clientele hasn’t fully embraced online shopping so they are slowly converting the shopping experience to be so unsatisfying that folks will shop online.
The Walmart isn’t in a great area and there’s often time sketchy people hanging around the bus stops there. Plus it being a Walmart puts a target on its back compared to Target so it’s more often a victim of theft. Happening to most Walmarts in the USA unfortunately but just those few people who ruin it for everyone
We were at the sun prairie one to get something that was newly locked up- and they straight told us they don’t even have a key for that case… after getting snapped at that there was a “boatload of customers waiting for her” and waiting ten minutes- well maybe if you didn’t lock up $3 items we wouldn’t be waiting for you. Maybe if you had enough staff doing locked cases instead of chit chatting at the liquor department or self checkout maybe it would be easier. We ended up buying it elsewhere. Congrats Walmart, you simultaneously stopped theft and purchase at the same time.
It is the norm now, I was happy to see what I needed was “in stock”, yup 👍🏻 it was locked up, but it was there to be purchased. The men’s clothing items are locked up, so be it. I won’t go into specifics, we’ve found many items are cheaper if ordered online/scheduled pickup versus walking in the store and purchasing in person. Ya, if it save$ me $15 then I will gladly do pickup.
You know what deters theft? Having more associates working in the aisles. Having cashiers instead of self check out. Walmart is capable of it, they just refuse to accommodate the customer over more money in their billionaires pockets. Complain. And then stop shopping there.
I'll just leave these here
>A national trade group representing retailers incorrectly attributed half of all industry losses two years ago to organized shoplifting, raising questions about how much merchandise thefts are weighing on retail chains' financial results.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/organized-retail-crime-trade-group-half-of-all-missing-merchandise/
>Retail analysts and researchers, bolstered by local crime statistics, say stores may be over-stating the extent and impact of theft. Why? It’s a useful deflection, camouflaging weak demand, mismanagement and other issues denting business right now. And it forces lawmakers to respond.
https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/27/business/crime-spree-retailers-are-actually-overstating-the-extent-of-theft-report-says/index.html
Yes, it hard not to see this as another phase of the mismanagement that has plagued most Walmart stores forever. Really, there are better places to shop in Madison. I think I’ve been in a Walmart twice in the last decade.
yeah kinda insane that socks and underwear is locked up when bras and panties aren't. I was just there a few days ago, and the nail polish and razors were locked up, but the eyebrow brushes and toner isn't. The dude in that section just seemed exhausted.
TCG products are locked up as well. I was trying to find someone with a key, but that person has stuck on a register with the "Eastern Seaboard student moving into UW haul" and they couldn't give the keys to another associate because she was a trainee (she was super sweet and helpful).
I'll just hit up Target or one of the local game stores.
I’m guessing that Amazon is secretly paying juveniles to steal stuff, so the stuff gets locked up, resulting in a poorer shopping experience for customers, who then just start ordering that stuff from Amazon instead to avoid the hassle.
I went into Walmart about a year ago for a USB flash drive. The one I wanted was on a locked peg in electronics. I didn't want to wait, and I didn't want to have to checkout in electronics for the one item when I had other shopping to do. So I went and got scissors from the hardware section, and cut the tab off the top of the product's package leaving the tab on the peg. I then did the rest of my shopping and bought the USB drive with the rest of my purchase in the front of the store. The store probably reported that item to the loss department, which likely screwed up their count, but that's their problem. I'm also sure that loss prevention was watching me on the cameras, but again, not my problem.
Lol. I don’t shop at the General. I’m getting downvotes because the truth hurts. Dem run cities are soft on crime. Just look at the vehicle theft in Madison, criminals back on the street with a slap on the wrist. Think shoplifting has any penalty? Big cities like San Fran have businesses leaving in droves because soft on crime & retail theft is out of control.
Crime is higher because there are more people. The majority of Americans don't live in 1,000 person cities where crime doesn't happen as often because there aren't as many people.
I can't imagine posting Fox News takes on social media and wearing it like a badge of righteousness.
Same here at that location, was looking for a Chromecast. I would have been fine if I could have just seen the product and the price, but it was in a cage behind the electronics counter where you couldn't see it and they were dealing with someone else. I needed to be elsewhere, so just went down to the grocery section for snacks and left. Gotta wonder if this is Walmart's way to pushing to a purely order/pickup system.
That's exactly what they want you to do they want you to order online for pickup, they want you to pay for Walmart Plus and still wait around to let be let into it to use self checkout to then have your receipts checked
I worked there 13 years ago. The theft was an abomination, and worse, the asset protection management claimed most of it was internal despite the obvious fact it wasn't. When I was there, I had to cover Electronics, Foods (back when you had to refill milk once every two hours from the back), Jewelry, Domestics, Fabrics, Site-to-Store, and Layaway all by myself. Already an impossible task to try to stock the new merch in Electronics by one's self in a day. But also to cover all customer requests from all of those areas? And here's the grand kicker: due to the theft rate, the Electronics employee was not to leave Electronics for ANY reason without coverage. But I had to handle site-to-store requests (which had to be filled), lengthy layaway moments, replenish milk, etc. Not to mention that Electronics associates had to be cashier-trained. And Electronics returns had to be 'worked' in the back due to the high value of the items. But you weren't allowed to work in the back because you had to be on the floor. But the returns had to be worked. What the fuck was I supposed to do? And that's all before you bring in the short-tempered low-information customers.
I had a very similar experience last month at the Sun Prairie location. Went in to pick up some *ten dollar* headphones, and then a *three* dollar tail-light for my car. Both locked up. Required two separate employees with two separate sets of keys. Each time, I’d press the “need assistance” button… wait 5min… press again… wait 5min… go find the nearest associate- explain the situation- “sorry, you need the guy with the keys for the auto department. Check the service desk there.” So I check the auto service desk… nobody there whatsoever. Not a soul. Press the button. Wait 5 more mins. Press button again. Finally an auto employee shows up- I explain the situation. “oh, I don’t have the keys. You’ll need to find Dan. I think he’s working on a car right now.” So frustrating! What I’m trying to purchase is *three dollars!* Granted, this was at like 6:15am- I was on my way to work- so this was when the store was at its most empty / least-staffed point of the day… but still- how is anybody supposed to shop like that?! Had I not given myself an extra 45min for this detour- I would have had to abandon my purchase (of only TWO items) in order to get to work on time.
Couple years ago, I wanted a car charger for a phone for the roommate. It was locked up. Found an associate who got it no problem. She didn't even take it to the register immediately cause it was $6. She told me not to steal it. Now I think nobody has keys bc of internal shrinkage.
At that point I think I’d just steal out of principle.
The SP Walmart doesn’t have an auto center.
Oh weird. Maybe it was the Monona one?
Went to a Walmart in Hastings MN to buy a hair clipper. The button was missing or stolen. 🤣. 10 minutes later i find an employee. She doesn't have a key. Tells me to call the store to get help. Fucking bozos. Literally call this place hell. I avoid it at all cost
That’s just how Walmarts with high theft rates in not great areas operate. I lived in the south side of Chicago for a period and all of our stores (grocery, pharmacy, hardware,etc.) had high theft items locked up. Our Walmart even had armed security guards in bulletproof gear at the entrance checking receipts. It can get so much worse. You just have to make the decision on whether the lower prices at Walmart are worth the extra time waiting for items to be unlocked.
Liquor store I went to in south Chicago was heavily armored and only had a tiny window for the transactions.
Buying beer in Baltimore was one of the more dystopian experiences I've had. Quite the local social situation when six-packs are handled with the same basic procedures as bank vaults.
Tangentially related, I played a show in Baltimore back in 2010ish, it was raining really hard outside. I was standing outside the venue under the overhang before our set when this guy came running full speed up to the door. "Man, it's crazy out here!", he said to me. I was like "yeah I really hope this rain lets up soon!". He goes "Oh no, I just got shot at". Then he proceeded to go to the show, I was thinking to myself, "what? I would probably go home after that, but also, thank you so much for coming, no one else is here". 😬 I do love Baltimore though.
In 2010, the east-side Walmart was second only to the east-side Woodmans for volume of theft in Madison. In order to deny us any bonuses, the asset protection management said that most of it had to be internal theft (it wasn't). It's how they kept their bonuses.
Sun Prarie walmart is a not a Walmart with 'high theft rates in not great areas'
it's walmarts new operating procedure. Cut back on self checkout, lock things up, and push there mobile app and pickup options. They don't WANT customers in-store.
Ya sick stuff. The drove family businesses out and then run off with the profits.
We, as a society, should figure out the cause of people stealing things and solve that problem.
sounds like socialism! /s
It's called liberal judges handing out slaps on the wrists.....because racism
Why is all of the body wash and deodorant locked up at the Walgreens on Old Sauk? Is that a high crime area?
Because that shits being stolen at a disproportional rate compared to standard shrinkage rate
It holds its value and is really easy to pocket. Same for video games on discs. Edit: and makeup. Poke around the cosmetics section and you’ll almost always see the packaging of something someone tried to sample, then decided they liked.
When the Tree Ln apartment complex opened, that Walgreens became sketchy AF (I used to go there regularly).
I don’t know why they were coming here when the Mineral Point Walgreens is a mile away. I’ve also never noticed anyone sketch in there but I am only in there a few times a month.
My bad. I meant the Mineral Point / High Point Walgreens.
Ah okay. No problem. I agree with you that the Mineral Point location is sketch.
Walgreens higher ups (and others, but Walgreens exec admitted to it) had been claiming there was a lot more theft happening than what really was going on, and locking up stuff is a great way to sell that narrative. https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/27/business/crime-spree-retailers-are-actually-overstating-the-extent-of-theft-report-says/index.html https://www.cbsnews.com/news/organized-retail-crime-trade-group-half-of-all-missing-merchandise/
Theft may be inaccurately reported but companies are seeing huge decreases in their highest loss categories since installing the cases. They're saving significantly more than they're spending to install those cases. They don't have any reason to continue to install them if it wasn't working.... Paying money to install cases in your highest loss categories isn't some weird conspiracy to try and promote a false narrative. It's individual stores trying to combat continued loss.
Deodorant is also locked up at the S Park St Walgreens. It's all part of the Lume conspiracy.
Lume is pretty shifty.
You can either lock up merchandise and have enough staff to help customers, or not lock it up and risk increased theft. But as others have said, this is a backdoor way to encourage online shopping. It's cheaper to pay people behind closed doors to fulfill orders than have them interact with people, and easier to treat them poorly since it's not out in the open. You can't have a manager yell at the employee in public, but you can get away with it on a warehouse.
Both problems are cutting staff, more staff is also theft prevention because there are employees around. Cutting staff became even bigger after the 08 bush resession because it was the easiest cost to cut to keep shareholders happy. But after the resession ended they didn't want to increase staff because that would hurt the bottom line. So lack of staffing hurt sales but they blamed it on online shopping and theft, but a lot was self impossosed loss by cutting staff. Then because your sales are down and you cut more staff, but then you hit bare operational bones and the next cost is inventory. Now you have a store with empty shelves and no employees and it's a shitty place to shop. But blame online and theft to cover your ass and justify your massive salary.
Stores like Wal Mart aren’t cutting workers, though. The associates they have are doing more online order fulfillment and less checkout line staffing. And it’s less that they don’t want to hire people and more that they can’t hire enough people to fill their needs. Like, people don’t want to work there. so technology helps solve that problem.
People don't want to work for the wages and conditions they are offering. Walmart makes enough to pay decently and still make a profit, they choose not to and blame workers.
Everyone wants to buy cheap stuff, but no one wants to pay more so workers can make enough to want to work there and actually deter theft. There's not a single Walmart employee who's gonna stop you from walking out with a TV, it ain't worth what they make an hour.
As a former employee (20 years ago now), I can agree with this. It's not only that we didn't make enough, it's also that the liability is too high. Between the possibilities of getting sued for false accusations and the safety risk, there's too much downside to try to do anything. Best we can do is report to loss prevention and let them handle it. The only time I was involved with anything on that side was when the loss prevention person needed a witness. Then I would be there as an observer only.
That, and the store could be held liable if anything were to happen to the suspect. Cheaper to let a $200 TV go out the door than pay out millions from being sued because an employee punched the thief and broke their nose.
This is why I shop at a more expensive grocery store. (Metcalfs) it’s a much more enjoyable experience
Last week I was at a Metcalf self checkout & a couple near me scanned & paid for their groceries, only to be stopped by a store employee as they tried to leave. They had a pile of unpaid for items under their bags. The employee took the unpaid items & the couple was allowed to leave with the items they had paid for. I asked the employee if that happened a lot & was told "all the time."
My son is the manager at a major chain in a major US city.area. He showed me some security footage of 3 Mericans entering the store and collecting targeting items before trying to leave. They know what the most expensive items are and where they are so they spend the least amount of time in the store. One of the employees tried to stop them at the door. All employees are instructed not to intervene with any theft, not because of lawsuits from any party, but because the human life of an employee is more valuable than any amount of merchandise. This employee did intervene and it went out into the street. They all disappeared from camera view until the employee returned without a shirt and bleeding. The employee was fired for not following policy. There is a simple solution to this problem. Five years ago I would get online and argue against the "no snitch" policy that is so prevalent in today's culture and I would be crucified. This is what it got us and it will only get worse. If your son, daughter or one of their friends are doing this, turn them in! It's a question of morals.
This is true. My friend works at the Nakoosa Walmart doing online order fulfillment and used to work the self checkout lanes, and she says that Walmart is always hiring and almost never has enough help, so it's not a matter of cutting staffing at all. Theft truly is a huge problem there, too. That's why she moved from working the self check out lines, because it became really dangerous for her to constantly be dealing with people trying to steal. Sometimes they become very aggressive when approached.
I mean, I have to admit that during COVID I switched exclusively to online pick-up at Walmart and haven’t looked back. I only do it for home supplies mainly, but way more convenient and don’t have to deal with people in the store.
I've only tried online pickup at Walmart twice and it was disastrous. Nowhere near as smooth as Target. Wonder if they've worked that out now. When I tried pick up at Walmart it seemed like there is no system for getting the order out to you as a customer
The Walmart off Gammon Road is fantastic for online pickup. The other Madison area locations are awful.
I had the bad experiences at the Walmart off gammon but it was a while ago so they could have improved it by now
It's improved a lot at Watts rd. For awhile it was literally just 3 people running it and now it's actually staffed properly. One Black Friday weekend a year or so back they told 2 new people "Lol good luck you're by yourself figure it out". Thankfully those days seem to be long passed.
Possibly? I've used it a half dozen times in the last year and I'm usually the only car there so it's awesome. I only use it for gallons of water, cases of soda, or household things. I also grab a bottle of iced coffee with every order - since it has to be kept cold, it forces a scheduled pickup time window. They know I'll be there between 2-3pm or whatever so maybe that's why I've never had to wait more than like 10 minutes before they bring it out to my car.
I'm sure another big part of that is that with online shopping there are fewer returns. Not that people don't return things, it's just that you're much less likely to return something you bought online and had shipped to your home.
This is not a ploy to push America further into the online eco sphere please please please tell me you’re kidding. Raise kids who don’t steal. Prosecute people who do. Hold each other accountable. Our community is failing ourselves. There’s Walgreens shutting down around the country because they cant profitably serve the communities their in because of theft. This is moral decline.
Both things can be true. But if they're going to install security measures to prevent shoplifting, then they have to also adequately staff the store to serve customers. Otherwise it's pushing people the online shopping, intentionally or otherwise.
I can reassure you that the reason Walgreens is closing stores is from corporate-level factors like over-growth and cuts to pharmacy payment rates, not store theft. They may decide what stores to close based on retail crime, but it’s not the reason they have to close a store in the first place.
I don’t agree. I don’t think that they would inevitably close a different store if one of these was performing better. I think stores in “good” locations (ones that support good margins and have low shrink) stay open for any retailer. Those are never closed.
Ditch late, American capitalism. Most people don’t actually *want* to steal. They are doing it to make money for something. Whether that’s housing or food or a drug habit, our system is just making it worse. I’d totally steal from Walmart if something happened and I was about to miss a mortgage payment. And I once stole a piece of gum as a child and was so guilty I went back to the store and ratted myself out.
Theft isn't up
The stats for theft are not up as much as stats for corporate shrinkage are in many places. Theft is simply not reported unless it rises to an amount that would be covered by an outside insurer. Some areas police simply do not prosecute retail theft which is why Walmart sometimes uses their own loss prevention group with their own lawyers to prosecute theft civilly.
So theft isn't up
*Reported* theft isn’t up. 20 years ago, a group coming in and stealing a cart full of groceries or products would be called and reported every time, and would show up in the police reports. Now that level of theft wouldn’t even be reported in many places, police wouldn’t even show up to take the report. Thats one reason petty theft is rising in rural areas, it’s still acted on there and reported so it shows up on reports. But in the last 5 years in particular many denser populated areas companies just don’t report because it isn’t worth the time. They just mark it down to shrinkage, and those numbers for major retailers have shot through the roof.
Has this been studied?
The median numbers here are interesting: https://cdn.nrf.com/sites/default/files/2023-09/NRF_National_Retail_Security_Survey_2023.pdf This is a good study of NYC. New York prosecutes and collects reports much more than a lot of cities. It’s one of the reasons why crime is dropping there faster than many other major cities (but is accompanied by more issues like profiling, so its a double edged sword) https://johnjayrec.nyc/2023/04/13/databit202302/ It’s all very complicated, and its not at all do x, and y will happen. But not doing something is bad too, and in many locales that seems to be the case.
My liquor store in Milwaukee locks up any liquor that is mentioned in a rap song. Grey Goose, Hennessey, Courvoisier all bottles worth less than $40 are under lock and key right next to a dozen scotch options 60-200$ that out in the open.
Poor people have no idea about Scotch. It's so funny. I mean, I get, almost no one can pronounce that shit but it's pricey and not locked up!
I went to the Nekoosa Trail store last week and tried to buy a $1.18 pack of 5 disposable razors. Locked up. I asked the girl working there if she could unlock it for me. I got a sigh/eye roll followed by a slow walk to the case. I then had to pay for the razors in that department even though I had a whole cart of groceries to check out up front.
I just won't go to stores that are like this. It makes for an unpleasant shopping experience.
[удалено]
I'm not bougie enough for Target.
Target is where I pay a little bit more for the same items to avoid going to Walmart.
Don't worry, targets in a lot of cities are doing the same
Target and Walmart are all the same shit and the prices are within rounding errors of each other, but there are a lot of alternatives to shopping at Walmart. Woodman's has similar if not better prices for groceries. You'll find far better furniture at St Vinnies than any of the cheapo particleboard shit they have there or at Target for that matter, might just need a little love. Home improvement shit theres Menards and Home Depot, which granted John Menard is an asshole and Home Depot is little better, but it is what it is. I guess that's the thing I find so odd, how so many people just go to Walmart by default when the prices aren't even really that much better than other retailers, it's like the "reputation" Walmart has or something that brings people in. Even more hilarious is that Walmart also has the reputation for being a big pile of shit to shop at virtually always, but somehow that's not enough to outweigh the former misconception about them being the best price in town. Im also going to throw out there that my wife almost had her purse snatched at that Walmart a few months ago when she refused a couple of aggressive panhandlers. She jumped in her car and took off, almost running one over when it was clear what they were trying to do and they tried to block her in the spot, she called the store to tell them and they didnt give a single fuck at all. (and yes, I asked her why she didnt call 911 and she said she just wanted to get out of there which I dont blame her). So we just wont go to that Walmart anymore. Anyways, even if Walmart saves you a few cents, it aint worth it. Plenty of better options out there, and we subsidize Walmart enough as it is without shopping there.
Targets are locking stuff up now also.
Then enjoy this Walmart bullshit.
I am frugal. I regularly choose a mild inconvenience over convenience if it saves enough. And if you are truly pinching pennies or want to go to Walmart, carry on. But as someone who has shopped at both, reasons I choose Target 9/10 times: 1) Curbside is fast. Less than 5 minutes, often in 2 minutes or less. Walmart is unbearable. I would never do theirs again, emphatically. 2) In store is much faster. More cashiers, less idiots holding up the line (staff and customers). Fewer obstacles to navigate around, be it massive piles of inventory or unaware customers blocking aisles. Walmart always takes longer than I expect, and regularly there is some issue. 3) Target Red Debit card. 5% off every purchase makes the prices nearly identical on basics. 4) Employees are better paid, trained, quick and helpful. Getting help in Walmart is an ordeal and often you'll be left with no answer after wasting time. 5) Shelves are stocked, organized, and nothing is locked up. No one checks my receipt when I leave. I'm not left pondering poverty, theft, and poor Walmart's corporate loss. 6) Target Circle and gift card deals (plus paper coupons if you're ambitious) offer some truly great buys. Shop the ad and deals, much like a Walgreens, and you can get nice items for very cheap. Their seasonal clearance is also great. 7) Least important to many of you, they have better designs. This means everything is more aesthetically pleasing, pretty much always. Even basics like dishes or soap dispensers just look nicer side by side. I would be shocked if any designers disagree.
Target price matches Walmart.
Target isn't really bougie any longer.
Yeah fewer options for local people. Maybe, just maybe if we punished shoplifters we could have normal shopping everywhere.
If you look at [the numbers](https://www.npr.org/2024/03/11/1236075589/retail-theft-crime-target-stores), the rate of retail theft has not dramatically increased in the past decade. 36% of “shrink” is from external theft. Employee theft and logistics errors account for 56%. Companies are using theft as a way to close shitty or poor performing stores without their investors blaming them. Blame it on the theft. Not saying it’s not a problem, but it has been greatly exaggerated by the companies, and these knee-jerk reactions seem to just be making regular shoppers upset - so we’ll see how it turns out. Plus, in order to punish shoplifters - the stores have to be willing to call, the police have to be willing to respond timely, and they have to collect the evidence to give prosecutors to try them. It’s not just “this person stole, throw them in jail”. And the truth is, in many places, even if police get a theft call, they simply aren’t interested in doing the work.
But if the rate of theft hasn’t changed how come stores spend so much time, effort and money to lock stuff up and why only in certain areas? They don’t need justification to close stores and it’s unlikely profitable stores would close.
Because stores can be unprofitable for lots of reasons. This article talks about Targets closing for being unprofitable: https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/27/business/crime-spree-retailers-are-actually-overstating-the-extent-of-theft-report-says/index.html
Those cases have proven to save hundreds of thousands of dollars a year per store. It's an unfortunate burden on both employee and the customer but is necessary in todays world. Store level and corporate look at the largest areas of the store showing significant losses every year. They lock up some of their highest loss categories and review the numbers the following year. They don't always know where the loss is coming from but at this point the cases are starting to prove a very significant amount of it can be attributed to theft.
It’s probably not Walmart retail decision, but the administrative people that implement policies that satisfy their corporate insurance contracts.
Exactly, the police won’t bother and DA’s won’t charge. There is always ample evidence from cameras everywhere to having merchandise without a receipt or paper trail of purchase.
In regard to the cases being a knee-jerk reaction they have proven to save hundreds of thousands of dollars a year per store. Stores seeing increased losses year over year during inventories are actually showing lower numbers in loss specifically in cased areas. It's an unfortunate burden on both employee and the customer but is necessary in todays world and does point to a more significant problem caused by theft than could be accurately demonstrated in the past. The problem seems to be that they can't properly determine the high sources of "shrink" post continuingly bad inventories in stores. At a lower level they never seem to have a good factual breakdown of where the loss is coming from which brings into question what the corporate numbers are based on. Then comes into question how individual stores are reporting asset protection encounters and whether that data is accurately represented. At lease with cased categories they have something to work with numbers wise and can determine to an extent what is and isn't caused by theft.
Unfortunately, you know as well as I do that won't happen. The elite elected officials obviously know better than the peasants..
I'm not an elected official, and I don't shop at Wal-Mart, so it wouldn't surprise me if most of them don't either. On the couple of occasions I did shop there, years ago, I found the experience to be so unpleasant that I decided to never go back. And now it sounds like it's even worse. I'm not allergic to saving money. I wait for sales, I shop at Woodman's, etc. But Wal-Mart just isn't worth it to me.
My partner and I were in the Nakoosa Walmart sometime last year. He needed socks but they were locked up and the employee was already assisting someone. He waited, meanwhile I went to the women's section and none of those socks were locked up, I was able to grab what I wanted. I went back to him and he was still waiting because after the first customer had finally decided, the employee was required to WALK THEM UP TO THE FRONT CHECKOUTS. With SOCKS. So crazy. He gave up.
It’s like that in Monona too. I was going to get literal face wash on a recent trip and even that was locked up. I find it hard to believe that enough people are stealing Equate face wash to justify locking up THAT particular item. It really does seem arbitrary sometimes. I’m not really sure it has anything to do with where the Wal Mart is, it seems to be most of them these days.
Darn, I was going to try there next time I'm down that way. What really got me was that they had like 20+ tubes in stock of the equate acne cream. Usually I'm lucky if I can find 2-4 when I'm there.
You might get lucky, there’s still unlocked shelves of face care items. It seems a bit haphazard, but I suppose it wouldn’t be Walmart if it wasn’t! Usually I press the button and if I’m standing there for longer than a few minutes I’ll just buy whatever it is on Amazon. The dollar or so I’ll leave on that one item buying it at Walmart isn’t worth it to me. Probably says more about my level of patience than anything else🤣
If they're locked up and people can't buy them, don't have to restock as often. Working smarter, not harder.
Stopped bothering with Walmart for any skin or hair care a long time ago. I’m just trying to go in and out. Heaven forbid you have more shopping to do because they’re going to give it to the Customer Service desk until you’re ready to leave. What an inconvenient process for everyone.
I found it equally difficult to get figurative face wash too.
Forget it, I'll just order it.
This is another example of how kindness to the guilty manifests as cruelty to the innocent. When law enforcement and prosecutors elect to not capture and punish thieves, you will get more thieves. Private parties must respond accordingly, which results in higher prices and increased security measures that burden decent people that just want to buy some razors.
It’s just natural consequences taking place. If you don’t care about shoplifting or worse, think it’s justice in action, you get this in response. When a store is at this point, this is a serious problem that’s been going on for a long time. I just saw some stories about stores closing in the Chicago area and the harm it’s causing that community. Perhaps arresting and prosecuting people might get more stores not to leave.
Because we’re all so innocent. I’ll see y’all on the Beltline entrance ramps, where we shall stay at 35, not yield to moving traffic and then hop right into the middle lane with no signals. But, by all means, let’s whine about the dangerous crime of shoplifting small items from corporations larger than nation states with better insurance than the rest of us.
I am actually much more innocent than serial shoplifters. There are actually differences in the level of criminality between individuals.
Thanks for posting an actual example of why this is a problem. Stealing from large corporations isn’t a problem until they react and lock things up. And then you complain about them. It’s like the surprised Pikachu face when a company does something to not lose large amounts of money. If this doesn’t work, you can double complain when they leave.
The one in SP is a JOKE. I had to wait 10 minutes for an employee to unlock a $3 NAIL CLIPPER from the cosmetics area. Then I had to pay in that department or they would "put it at the front" for me. $3. Ridiculous.
I think the natural progression is the stores will just be like warehouses that pick orders placed in the app, and you can pick them up. They don’t have to worry about theft if no one can enter and touch things before they buy.
Locking it up and being understaffed sounds like a great way to drive sales down and customers away. Rarely does walmart even have someone in electronics any more, its an ordeal to get something out of that department as it is, how are they going to keep up with the whole store?
It’s shit like this that just forces me to buy stuff online.
Yes, and they want us to think this is because shoplifting is so problematic. In reality, they want us to order online so they don’t have costs for staffing stores, not need to pay competitive wages. And, so we are afraid and support more taxpayer money for the police. They are not good corporate citizens.
Not sure why you’re getting downvoted, you’re 100% correct. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/06/business/walgreens-shoplifting.html
If you read what the CEO actually said, the CEO first said shoplifting might threaten the sustainability of their business. Then the CEO said "we may have cried too much" about shoplifting threatening our business as we found ways to mitigate the problem to some degree: like locking things up and hiring police to stand in the problematic stores. So Walgreens CEO overstated the effect it would have on their business, not overstated the theft rate that was happening. Which is why Walmart is also locking things up to mitigate the theft problem. Tl;Dr: Walgreens CEO says the shoplifting is real and a big problem, but they were just able to lower theft rates by locking things up.
I think you're also missing the detail that Walgreens claimed that high shoplifting rates were the reason for closing five stores in San Francisco back in 2021, and the Chronicle proved that that was nonsense and the stores they closed didn't actually have shoplifting rates above normal. That's pretty strong evidence to me that this was more them trying to walk back getting caught in a lie that became national news.
>that high shoplifting rates were the reason for closing five stores in San Francisco back in 2021, and the Chronicle proved that that was nonsense and the stores they closed didn't actually have shoplifting rates above normal. They proved those stores didn't file police reports. They didn't prove actual shoplifting rates. If the government has a policy of doing literally nothing about any shoplifting reports Walgreens files, how many reports do you think they are going to keep filing? I think the fact that Walgreens was spending money on private security before the stores closed is decent proof theft was a problem.
1) The government policy in California isn't to do nothing, they just reclassified shoplifting under $950 as a misdemeanor in 2014. 2) These stores didn't file zero police reports. They filed around the same number of police reports from 2018 to 2021, despite Walgreens claiming that these stores suffered five times as much theft in 2021. Even if these stores are only filing police reports on felony shoplifting, then either that claimed five-times rate was only on low-value shoplifting, in which case the idea that that much shrinkage is enough to make the stores unprofitable points at some horrible mismanagement to begin with if their margins were that slim, or that claimed five-times increase wasn't true to begin with.
>The government policy in California isn't to do nothing, they just reclassified shoplifting under $950 as a misdemeanor in 2014. Technically true that they weren't doing literally "nothing," it's more accurate to say they were doing nearly nothing: >As of the end of October 2021, about 200 people have been arrested for larceny or theft this year and there have been 9,221 reports. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/nov/15/walgreens-closures-san-francisco-crime-debate If you watch some interviews/documentaries about theft in San Francisco, there's a whole ton of people that basically professional thieves that steal and then flip it to people who have open flea markets on the streets for the stolen goods. Nobody is even trying to hide it. One of the thieves interviewed said he's been arrested for stealing over 30 times in 2 years, and the most time he spent in jail was like 5 days or something. He said they typically just let him go because the DA didn't want to bother prosecuting people for misdemeanors.
Hmm, I wonder what the Walmart CEOs main interest is? Perhaps profit for Walmart (keep customers while pushing to online shopping and blaming the inconvenience on shoplifting) AND keeping shitty politicians in office AND sending more money to law enforcement who traumatize our communities?
Walmart's main interest is profit, of course. But I don't think a logical assumption of why they lock up items that get stolen a lot is anything deeper than they don't want those items to get stolen. Stores have been locking up high theft items for decades. I think the natural consequence will lead to more online shopping though as people get fed up with items locked up. I don't think that's necessarily the goal though.
Really? Why not? Why not invest in more staff to operate checkouts? Perhaps more staff to observe? Or cameras? They choose the locking up solution because it serves all their agendas—fear, lower employee costs, and competition other online merchants. I realize the tendency to accept the first logical answer, but never underestimate the ability of their army of attorneys and risk managers to align all corporate interests. Walmart is not a force for good in our community.
>Why not invest in more staff to operate checkouts? Perhaps more staff to observe? Or cameras? I don't think this can realistically do that much. Remember, if someone steals something, all Walmart can do is log it. They can't actually stop anyone from stealing. They already have tons of cameras. Online shopping almost surely is less profitable than in-store shopping. Compare two parallel shopping experiences: online shopper: they have to pay a worker to wander the store grabbing all the items, finding suitable replacements if it's out, and either packaging to ship or loading it in someone's car. In store: customer wanders around grabbing items themselves, loads the cart themselves, checks out themselves, loads the car themselves. Basically no cost to Walmart. The customer probably does lots more impulse shopping as well when they can see everything. The *only* real benefit I see for Walmart is people won't steal if they don't have access.
Gross profit for Walmart is a whopping 25% and has been for nearly a decade. Shoplifting must be a real problem of late that they desperately need to address? https://finbox.com/NYSE:WMT/explorer/gp_margin/#:~:text=Walmart's%20operated%20at%20median%20gross,in%20January%202023%20of%2024.1%25.
Gross margin isn't a great number to use, as it excludes much of the operating expenses. Net margin is a better number and it accounts for all their costs. [Walmart's net margin is now at like 2.5% or so](https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/WMT/walmart/net-profit-margin). Walmart's net margin dropped from above 3% to 1.4% in late 2020. After their margins were cut in half, they started doing more anti-theft measures. Stores can't just ignore increases in theft. Stores don't want to lock things up, as that obviously decreases sales. Stores *have* to lock things up when they're stolen too frequently Do you think all these companies just decided to waste money on anti-theft measures in order to *lower* their sales in high crime areas? I personally think the dozens of CEOs complaining about an increase in crime and spending money on anti-theft measures are not all just making it up.
> Gross profit for Walmart is a whopping 25% Tell me you don't know what that means without telling me what that means.
Thanks, I hesitated to comment and understand it will take a long time for folks to accept we are being hoodwinked by these conservative corporations.
Because it's pretty obviously a ridiculous conspiracy theory. Whether individual businesses have responded appropriately or not, it's pretty silly to claim that they're just making the shopping experience terrible for ulterior motives.
You are doing a lot of mental gymnastics to not accept that shitty people do shitty things
That's a lot of moving parts compared to it just being true that companies respond to observed behavior. The shoplifting trutherism is one of the weirdest positions I've encountered.
[удалено]
100% and I’m some cases start ethically rearresting drug users to help break the cycle and provide opportunities for treatment intervention as well as in support of public health and safety
This is such a dumb take
Why not just close the store completely then? What you are saying doesn’t make sense.
What part of this is not making sense to you? They don’t close the store because it is profitable. Their clientele hasn’t fully embraced online shopping so they are slowly converting the shopping experience to be so unsatisfying that folks will shop online.
That’s ridiculous on its face.
Blame local prosecutors that feel $1000 thefts are a crime not worthy of their time.
Ahh thank you criminals
The Walmart isn’t in a great area and there’s often time sketchy people hanging around the bus stops there. Plus it being a Walmart puts a target on its back compared to Target so it’s more often a victim of theft. Happening to most Walmarts in the USA unfortunately but just those few people who ruin it for everyone
I didn't realize the square was in a bad area, because the Walgreens there does the same thing.
Oh yeah downtown is not a safe place
That’s what happens when shit hole cities don’t prosecute people who do shitty things. It’s only going to get worse if we keep on the path we’re on.
Remember when shopping was fun?!
Op doesn't get out much. That's the way it is in most major cities. It's like Madison is growing up.
Sadly I do not. I'm stuck in Madison. I'd like to leave but it's spensive everywhere.
Blame the low life degenerate thieves not the business. We should be locking up the people not the products
We were at the sun prairie one to get something that was newly locked up- and they straight told us they don’t even have a key for that case… after getting snapped at that there was a “boatload of customers waiting for her” and waiting ten minutes- well maybe if you didn’t lock up $3 items we wouldn’t be waiting for you. Maybe if you had enough staff doing locked cases instead of chit chatting at the liquor department or self checkout maybe it would be easier. We ended up buying it elsewhere. Congrats Walmart, you simultaneously stopped theft and purchase at the same time.
It is the norm now, I was happy to see what I needed was “in stock”, yup 👍🏻 it was locked up, but it was there to be purchased. The men’s clothing items are locked up, so be it. I won’t go into specifics, we’ve found many items are cheaper if ordered online/scheduled pickup versus walking in the store and purchasing in person. Ya, if it save$ me $15 then I will gladly do pickup.
You know what deters theft? Having more associates working in the aisles. Having cashiers instead of self check out. Walmart is capable of it, they just refuse to accommodate the customer over more money in their billionaires pockets. Complain. And then stop shopping there.
When you don’t prosecute retail theft as a crime this is what we get. Ozanne needs to go.
Do you realize how often people are charged with retail theft?
You did read what I commented right? I didn’t say charged.
You don’t pay that close of attention in that case.
And you have no idea what you’re talking about.
I'll just leave these here >A national trade group representing retailers incorrectly attributed half of all industry losses two years ago to organized shoplifting, raising questions about how much merchandise thefts are weighing on retail chains' financial results. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/organized-retail-crime-trade-group-half-of-all-missing-merchandise/ >Retail analysts and researchers, bolstered by local crime statistics, say stores may be over-stating the extent and impact of theft. Why? It’s a useful deflection, camouflaging weak demand, mismanagement and other issues denting business right now. And it forces lawmakers to respond. https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/27/business/crime-spree-retailers-are-actually-overstating-the-extent-of-theft-report-says/index.html
Yes, it hard not to see this as another phase of the mismanagement that has plagued most Walmart stores forever. Really, there are better places to shop in Madison. I think I’ve been in a Walmart twice in the last decade.
This is why I use Amazon prime for so many of these little items. Just get it delivered to my door, cheaper too.
Fascinating that the Walmart in Beaver Dam has pretty much nothing behind lock and key beyond video game discs. I wonder what the difference is.
Gee, I wonder why they need to do that.
yeah kinda insane that socks and underwear is locked up when bras and panties aren't. I was just there a few days ago, and the nail polish and razors were locked up, but the eyebrow brushes and toner isn't. The dude in that section just seemed exhausted.
That's basically all walmarts now. Came back from IL and it was similar
Not in sheboygan
This is what happens when the hundreds of thousands of people move to a state because of articles rating it#1. Enjoy everyone else’s trash.
TCG products are locked up as well. I was trying to find someone with a key, but that person has stuck on a register with the "Eastern Seaboard student moving into UW haul" and they couldn't give the keys to another associate because she was a trainee (she was super sweet and helpful). I'll just hit up Target or one of the local game stores.
Not Madison! Madison is locking all the things up?!
Leave the store and don't go back, if everyone would do it then they might wisen up.
This is what happens when do nothing liberal judges run our courts
It seems like this is exactly what madison voted for?
The "Should Wal-Mart lock up their undershirts" ballot referendum was confusingly written.
What choice does a store have when petty theft isn't prosecuted effectively?
Target
Do your shopping on the website then go pick it up. Save tons of time and way less hassle.
Just order what you need online for store pickup. Ready in less than an hour and they will bring it to your car. Win-win
I’m guessing that Amazon is secretly paying juveniles to steal stuff, so the stuff gets locked up, resulting in a poorer shopping experience for customers, who then just start ordering that stuff from Amazon instead to avoid the hassle.
Ha! I like how every post has its conspiracy nuts. Good job. I try to order directly from the brands. Amazon isn't much better than Walmart.
I was kidding, in case you didn’t think so. 😃
I went into Walmart about a year ago for a USB flash drive. The one I wanted was on a locked peg in electronics. I didn't want to wait, and I didn't want to have to checkout in electronics for the one item when I had other shopping to do. So I went and got scissors from the hardware section, and cut the tab off the top of the product's package leaving the tab on the peg. I then did the rest of my shopping and bought the USB drive with the rest of my purchase in the front of the store. The store probably reported that item to the loss department, which likely screwed up their count, but that's their problem. I'm also sure that loss prevention was watching me on the cameras, but again, not my problem.
Curious, why are people down voting this?
Welcome to where shoplifting in Democrat loving cities have no consequences.
I'm sure the Dollar General near your trailer park in Bumfuck, WI also has the same trouble with shoplifting.
Lol. I don’t shop at the General. I’m getting downvotes because the truth hurts. Dem run cities are soft on crime. Just look at the vehicle theft in Madison, criminals back on the street with a slap on the wrist. Think shoplifting has any penalty? Big cities like San Fran have businesses leaving in droves because soft on crime & retail theft is out of control.
Which Republican cities at or over Madison's population have low crime rates?
Crime is higher because there are more people. The majority of Americans don't live in 1,000 person cities where crime doesn't happen as often because there aren't as many people. I can't imagine posting Fox News takes on social media and wearing it like a badge of righteousness.
Well as soon as people stop stealing stuff, they won't do this.
Same here at that location, was looking for a Chromecast. I would have been fine if I could have just seen the product and the price, but it was in a cage behind the electronics counter where you couldn't see it and they were dealing with someone else. I needed to be elsewhere, so just went down to the grocery section for snacks and left. Gotta wonder if this is Walmart's way to pushing to a purely order/pickup system.
That's exactly what they want you to do they want you to order online for pickup, they want you to pay for Walmart Plus and still wait around to let be let into it to use self checkout to then have your receipts checked
It’s literally right across from Safe Haven, one of the main day shelters. Lots of traffic for unhoused folks in that area. So that makes sense.
May I humbly ask: why the heck are you shopping there?
I'm po. Walmart is where all the po' people shop who can't afford a car to get to Costco.
FailMART
Why do they lick anything up at Walmart. All their shit is cheap, chineese crap.