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CVS Tests Letting iPhone Users Unlock Product Cabinets Without an Employee
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My response to those managers and their bosses at corporate would be, pay more money for wages and people will work.
They won’t work for garbage wages, bad micromanaging, little benefits, and bad customers (included, but that’s last because it could be offset with adequate training from corporate which would involve spending money).
also correct me if I am wrong, part of Costco's membership is showing a receipt at the door..
Walgreens isn’t much better. Went to one on Lexington Ave in midtown and literally everything was under lock and key. The coolers where the drinks are, locked down. The little redbull fridge up in the front by the registers was locked up. 🤣
This is a class action lawsuit waiting to happen. If protected classes are statistically less likely to have a compatible iPhone compared to other demographics, you've just proven disparate treatment. And, you're treating the non-iPhone owners like thieves who can't be trusted.
Walgreens is another place I don’t shop at. Any retailer that puts most products behind a lock and key is asking to go out of business!
You know what else shoppers can do with their smartphones even if they don’t have the CVS app installed, a CVS account, Bluetooth enabled, a connection to CVS’s Wi-Fi network, and physical presence in a CVS store? They can order products from CVS’s many competitors that are delivered to their doorsteps, sometimes the same day.
That won't work. Criminals won't put the shoplifted merchandise in their bags with legitimate purchases. The shoplifted merchandise usually ends up down their pants, beside their scrotum.
I agree. I look at it as, I don’t shop at stores where the kind of people who shoplift deodorant go. I don’t want to be anywhere near those kinds of people for my personal safety.
Then physical punishment would quickly be adopted as an "answer" to a lot of other things too, that would quickly be used on you too.
Fail to pay your car registration renewal on time? They send someone out with a knife who inserts it into your nostril and slices your nose up a treat, like Jake in the film "Chinatown".
Speed while driving? You lose a toe or finger for every five miles over the speed limit.
And so on. No need to cheapen ourselves in a clumsy way to "take care" of issues that are better taken care of in less drastic ways.
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I live in a halfway upscale town in Northern California, where last year the local large Walmart started keeping things like brand-name underwear, socks, etc. behind locked glass cabinets. I asked the guy who I got to unlock the underwear why this was being done, and he said underwear was one of the top things that some people steal. And this is in an area where I wouldn't have expected any significant amount of shoplifting. So significant levels of retail theft isn't just happening in "ghetto" areas.
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I think the point is really just to make a potential thief think twice. Now their phone number will be associated with the theft if they do it. CVS could literally never do anything with your information, but it still puts the thought in your head that they now know who you are. I'd guess that it would stop most thieves, because just like how most thieves cover their face with a mask, they want to be unknown. Obviously there are ways around it with a simple prepaid phone, but it's not meant to be an ironclad defense.
A lot of it is media sensationalism. There are some crime rings in areas, but they’re just getting more attention than they used to. Blaming shoplifting is just easier to sell to shareholders than “we’ve already nickel and dimed our customers to death and can’t bleed them any more” or “we’re not good at our jobs and don’t want to lose them”. Stores that haven’t decreased their employee coverage tend to have no increase in shoplifting.
Will there be a training video on how to avoid "tailgating" like with key cards? Like "When you open the door, do not politely keep it open for another customer, they may be a thief! If they they seem "off", tell a manager immediately! If you feel something, say something!"
An app to solve a problem that shouldn't exist in the first place
Good thing they days of being able to steal things in broad daylight and nobody is allowed to stop you in California are about to be over.
Dear Californians, let's go through this slowly; in other countries, shelves are not locked. In fact, they're not locked anywhere except high value goods in a few 3rd world countries. Nobody locks shelves. No normal person needs locked shelves. Normally, being able to defend your property is considered self defense and thieves go to jail or worse.
I mean I live in Bali; the traditional punishment for theft here is death; villagers will take you where your body will never be found. As a result, there is no theft here (as locals are concerned - theft is committed by indonesians from other places at times, or foreigners, but balinese won't steal your stuff, ever)
Good thing they days of being able to steal things in broad daylight and nobody is allowed to stop you in California are about to be over.
Dear Californians, let's go through this slowly; in other countries, shelves are not locked. In fact, they're not locked anywhere except high value goods in a few 3rd world countries. Nobody locks shelves. No normal person needs locked shelves. Normally, being able to defend your property is considered self defense and thieves go to jail or worse.
I mean I live in Bali; the traditional punishment for theft here is death; villagers will take you where your body will never be found. As a result, there is no theft here (as locals are concerned - theft is committed by indonesians from other places at times, or foreigners, but balinese won't steal your stuff, ever)
The mindset that welcomes killing people for stealing something as insignificant as a Chap-Stick, or as necessary as baby formula, is sickening. There's a big problem with retail theft in many places, but solving it with the death sentence or even just maiming, especially via extrajudicial action, lowers respect for humanity by orders of magnitude.
California does have a significant amount of retail theft, but it’s not the only US state dealing with it. In fact, California’s rate is lower than the national average. Maybe what led people to think it’s a bigger problem in California than elsewhere is that more higher-value items might be stolen here, sometimes in organized smash-and grab operations.
Figures I’ve found show that in 2022, California had about $8.72 billion in retail theft, which comes to about $285.70 per California resident affected. This is 17% lower than the national average. Pennsylvania and Arkansas have higher retail theft rates than California. Retail theft is also relatively high in Colorado, New Mexico, Oregon, and Louisiana, and the District of Columbia, where it’s the highest in the US.
It’s a cost-benefit trade off. You might have a little extra “shrinkage” (shoplifted stock) with less staff, but saving more by paying less wages.
Retailers are running these numbers all the time: does adding an extra staff member increase sales? Improve customer satisfaction? Deter shoplifting? Is the improvement big enough to cover the extra staff costs?
Security cabinets are not common at pharmacies in the UK or Europe in my experience. Some items that are obviously small and high value (like razor blades) have RFID security tags that must be deactivated at the checkout. And some items (certain drugs etc) can only legally be sold from stock kept behind the counter.
Sometimes you do see them at department stores containing small electronics items (like Apple Watches or AirPods) though, and you have to find an employee to open the cabinet and get you the item.
people *are* punished for theft. this perspective that this doesn't happen is absurd. sometimes it just doesn't make sense.
prosecution for a crime isn't just magically free, or even beneficial. it's not like a CVS or walgreens everywhere has an LP team like walmart or target on hand to work on deterrence and coordinating with local LEOs to get arrests.
and then what? the person ransacking a CVS for 50 deodorants isnt exactly going to have a fat wallet to pony up punishment money. so we can pack up the jails with personal hygiene thieves, or work on why a stick of deodorant that used to be $3 is now $8....
This is indeed the answer, but the problem for their profits is that hiring more people is not cheaper than buying locking cabinets and trying this new app system.
And even still this may not save them. Walgreens admitted they exaggerated how much theft was a problem to their bottom line. It's mostly being unable to compete with Amazon, Walmart, Target, and Dollar Tree. So now they're closing a bunch of stores.
Oh, was shoplifting made legal in the US recently and I've just been unaware of it?