Today Walgreens reports that locking up products is hurting their sales. Is anyone surprised? I’m not! As you know Walmart started the trend of locking up a variety of products to deter shoplifters from stealing them and later on were allegedly sued because of it.
Soon after the pandemic ended and lockdown was lifted we saw more and more stores doing the same. Walmart, Target, Walgreens, everyone was locking up a selection of products like deodorant, toothpaste, body lotions, skincare, and more. I always found it rather ironic that they’d lock up the more random items and the entire four or more aisles of makeup never had a lock in place at any of my stores. I guess everyday essentials are more popular with shoplifters.
I’m sure they’re stores are losing a lot less money now that these items are locked up but I fully expected them lose more from the average, everyday customer who had little to not patience to browse items that were locked behind plexiglas. And let’s not forget having to actually wait for someone to come and unlock the case…! That’s a whole other drama. I dunno how your stores are but I literally have to wait 10 minutes or longer to get toothpaste. Once it was as long as twenty minutes at Target. I never went back to that particular Target because time is something you can never get back. Use it wisely and waiting for toothpaste for twenty minutes is not a wise use of your time.
Back in November I know Walmart was playing with the idea of allowing customers to unlock cases with their cell phone. I personally never saw that option available at my stores. I do know that I’m one of the customers that just isn’t interested in shopping at a store where a majority of what I need is under lock and key. I either go to a different store or buy it online.
Apparently, Walgreens reported an operating loss of $245 million for the quarter in comparison to $39 million for the same quarter one year earlier. Granted, this isn’t all loss due to locked up products but that’s a major loss and could account for the reason Walgreens has plans to close hundreds of stores this year.
It just doesn’t surprise me that locking products up would result in loss sales and I don’t understand how retailers didn’t think that would be an issue. Consumers want to experience of shopping and that means touching an item, maybe even stealing a little sniff of the shampoo they want to buy, or reading the back of the label. That’s impossible to do with products locked up. Not to mention people who work at these stores are already super busy! Having them race around trying to unlock cases plus do a million other things is crazy. Is it any wonder stores are losing sales because of this?
What do you think of the current lockdown situation in stores? I personally hate it.
