Costco charges a membership fee. That does 99% of the work.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
CVS Tests Letting iPhone Users Unlock Product Cabinets Without an Employee
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Costco charges a membership fee. That does 99% of the work.
They do have those at Walmart for example, and Walmart has certain products locked up.
So this doesn’t work apparently
Like a thief is going to stop. They’ll just push you aside.
You do know that just about everything of size you can buy at an Apple Store has to be pulled from the "employees only" back?
Having products in the back is one thing. Even then - CVS locks up boxes of baby wipes though, not $1500 laptops.
My only slight pushback is Costco is a membership club and the terms of membership allows them to check receipts at the door.
Maybe CVS could introduce terms of CVS’s rewards program to check for receipts at the door?
Buy locked cabinets, high technology, all to stop theft. When all they need to do is higher more employees at less costs and improved customer service. Same with self checkout.
Well, Costco also puts small products into huge packings, which obviously prevents “easy” theft but has other issues
They will just charge you for the items through the phones, or since it requires a phone number to have the CVS account, they will know who you are. In any case, it makes a difference. Whether it's good enough is another matter, but you can't just dismiss it as if it's the same as nothing.
I for one, think this is just as important as the receipt checker.
Organized crime rings are stealing “high value items” — goods that can be resold on the black market. This includes baby formula.
Last edited:
This locking everything up doesn’t seem to be nearly as prevalent as the media portrays it to be. Oftentimes, it’s stores that have been struggling for years due to mismanagement, and they just use 'theft' as an excuse to negotiate lease concessions and save some money.
Also for pricier items you have to pay for it first and then go pick it up from the locked merchandise room from a staff member.
If it was only that simple. Have you been to California? These are organized crime rings that coordinated their attacks. Most stores do not allow you to detain a suspected shoplifter.
The big difference is Costco only lets members even enter their stores. Requiring a membership with photo card that now has to be scanned just to enter the store is their latest move to deal with rising thefts.
What good is a couple of receipt checkers that criminals can just waltz by with a cart full of stolen things?
Ding! Ding! Ding! We have a winner. They don’t want to pay anyone, just have people come in and leave money. It’s why they are firing checkers and replacing them with self serve checkout lanes. It’s why there’s never anyone stocking stuff that you can ask. It’s why the stores are ofted staffed by one person at the front and nobody else anywhere to help you. News Flash: When stores are staffed adequately, theft goers down.
It's not about having your face blown off, but if you're in Germany, I can understand why you would think/write that. Organized gangs and the such don't care about your security tags and most stores/businesses do not allow nor want their employees stopping suspected shoplifters.
What's the implication?
Employees are not allowed to do anything to a shoplifter. City/State laws have been "updated" to promote shoplifting. Don't know what the city/state's goals are unless it's to get those pesky money stealing stores out of their cities/states. It's starting to happen so I guess way to go officials? 🤨
They're rolling in their graves as we allow shoplifting now.
For whatever stupid excuse they make, certain city and states allow you to shoplift under a set amount. Opposite as what you think, crime rates are lower in gun allowed zones. Everyone is a lot more polite to one another and respects each other's property more. Wonder why? 🤔
Yeah, as others have pointed out… by locking up very expensive products. The iPad I just bought there wasn’t even on the floor—they wouldn’t get out of the locked back room to give it to me until I’d already paid for it. And then checked my receipt on the way out.
(I will add they also failed to enroll the AppleCare I paid over a hundred bucks for in spite of all that, so if I had been more ignorant and not caught that later and gone back to complain, I’d have gotten severely ripped off.)
So yeah, if Costco is our standard, the obvious solution is to make people pay first and then give them the product out of a locked room, then check again when the leave the building. Works wonders!
Not to mention that they put small things in absurdly large packages—if I want to buy an SD card or phone charger there, it has more cardboard and plastic than if I had Amazon ship it to me in a box. I shudder to think of the monstrous levels of waste that would result if every retailer did that, and it basically prevents them from selling anything physically small that costs less than $10.
Criminals steal things they can resell through amazon. It's an industry in California.
Well, it would certainly avoid the situation of standing in front of the “intimacy products” case next to two embarrassed college students for 5 awkward minutes waiting for an employee to unlock the condoms while the PA system announces it to everyone in the store.
Honestly, given that experience, I can kinda see why people would shoplift that stuff even if they could afford it just fine.
Honestly, given that experience, I can kinda see why people would shoplift that stuff even if they could afford it just fine.