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Two in three shoppers won't buy products in locked display cases

retailbrew.com

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Re: Two in three shoppers won't buy products in locked display cases

#21

Post by bonestamp2 »

AnotherGoodName wrote: post #18

It’s near impossible to buy those things. I live in a region of the world where condoms are locked up at the local mega chemist. Absolutely no embarrassment here on buying them of course. It’s just that pressing the button does nothing. None of the minimum wage staff give a fuck (can’t blame them). You’ll just be standing there waiting in an almost empty store. The sole clerk at the counter can’t really leave their p…

They basically need a store full of vending machines. Then the items would be locked up AND you could actually buy them.

Re: Two in three shoppers won't buy products in locked display cases

#22

Post by vkou »

vel0city wrote: post #6

> “A year ago, America’s stores declared a shoplifting epidemic,” stated the CNN article. “This year, retailers are telling a very different story—or no story at all. It’s as if the shoplifting crisis suddenly vanished.” Or maybe because they closed down a lot of stores which were the worst and then on the borderline stores, they put up all the locked cabinets. Maybe now the rates of shrink have been reduced. There's…

Here in Seattle, all the worst-for-shoplifting stores are still open.

Mysteriously, a bunch of locations that were not bad for shoplifting, but were bad for overall sales (because of shitty layouts, small footprints, limited selection) ended up closed.

Perhaps shoplifting was just the excuse regional management gave for why they closed badly ran locations.

Re: Two in three shoppers won't buy products in locked display cases

#23

Post by bluetidepro »

> For 55% of respondents, it’s a lost sale, because when a product is locked up, they try to buy it elsewhere.

It's wild to me that someone would rather go back to their car, drive somewhere else, HOPE it's not locked up there also, and THEN finally purchase the item at the new store instead of just waiting for someone to come unlock it at the current store you're at. I've personally never had to wait more than a few minutes for someone to come unlock a locked display. I find it very hard to believe anyone would rather add 30+ mins to their overall trip than just wait at the current store.

My hunch is 2 things:

1) This is a case of "wishful" thinking rather than what they actually do. For a survey like this, people probably just unintentionally lied rather than what they would ACTUALLY do (wait for it to be unlocked).

2) The study would be much more accurate if you could actually somehow track what they did rather than just survey them on what they think they would do.

Also, I could see this being a case of not purchasing impulse items. However, if you go to the store for toothpaste that you need, and all the toothpaste is locked up, then again, I find it hard to believe you don't wait.

As someone else said in another comment: "What people say they won't do and what they actually won't do are not the same thing"

Re: Two in three shoppers won't buy products in locked display cases

#24

Post by vkou »

coolspot wrote: post #12
josefresco wrote: post #2

Talk about a downward spiral of terrible decisions. Cut staff and add checkout machines to save money. Customers start stealing (legit or not) so they lock down items behind glass, but have no staff to help customers so they see less sales! Wild. I hope the shareholders who accepted these changes feel pain.

In civilized, high-trust societies self-checkout works well and is very convenient. Of course if you refuse to prosecute crime you will have everything locked.

> In civilized, high-trust societies self-checkout works well and is very convenient.

There's nothing convenient about me having to do the cashier's job, but badly, while having a tiny space to do my bagging in, while a computer yells at me.

Maybe for someone with truly crippling social anxiety, this is preferable to an actually functional check-out counter, but I'm blessed to not be afflicted by it.

Re: Two in three shoppers won't buy products in locked display cases

#25

Post by akira2501 »

vel0city wrote: post #16
akira2501 wrote: post #9

> “If I encounter a locked case, I’m not going to start looking for a store clerk going up and down every aisle or pressing the button and waiting for someone to come over,” Dworsky told Retail Brew. “But the fact that it was over 50% of people that felt the way I did? I was really surprised.” You're surprised that bad customer service leads people away from the business providing it? This was a 101 problem. If you l…

If there wasn't any shoplifting, would they still put things in cabinets? No? So how is this action not related to shoplifting? Like, how does putting it in a locked cabinet reduce their customer service needs? Doesn't this increase their customer service needs, as now they need more people to constantly help unlock cabinets and escort people around the store? Wouldn't they just prefer to have a store with no employe…

> If there wasn't any shoplifting, would they still put things in cabinets?

The article points this out. The problem was likely overblown in the first place or it has magically disappeared without any effort. So, "organized shoplifting" almost certainly _wasn't_ the real reason they did this.

> No?

Obviously, yes, because it looks very much like that's what they did.

> Doesn't this increase their customer service needs

Yea, that's _exactly_ what I meant by this being a "101 problem." The question you _should_ be asking is, why didn't they hire _more_ people when they put the locked cases in?

They obviously didn't. Do you have an explanation for this?

> if shoplifting wasn't a thing?

It's about removing competition, particularly from smaller stores, that can offer better service even if they don't have the variety and hours that the large chain stores do.

No coincidence that in my town Walgreen's then closed 3 of it's major central locations and pushed everyone out to their more favorable and less expensive locations.

These companies want to extract the maximum value from your city at the least cost to themselves. You are now seeing the very long tail of decades of their mostly illegal strategies being allowed to play out unchecked against the population.

Re: Two in three shoppers won't buy products in locked display cases

#27

Post by LordKeren »

giantg2 wrote: post #15
josefresco wrote: post #2

Talk about a downward spiral of terrible decisions. Cut staff and add checkout machines to save money. Customers start stealing (legit or not) so they lock down items behind glass, but have no staff to help customers so they see less sales! Wild. I hope the shareholders who accepted these changes feel pain.

Walmart locks their spraypaint now. Lowes does not. I'll go to lowes since it's easier than tracking down a associate at Walmart.

I would assume that is more tied to vandalism then theft though

Re: Two in three shoppers won't buy products in locked display cases

#29

Post by DiggyJohnson »

create-username wrote: post #20

You can buy a hundred shaving razors for like $10, as of 2016, the last time I bought. They will last you a long time, if you bought them. But you can’t buy them at any supermarket that I know of. They only sell Gillette or Wilkinson’s, which, at around 2,5 each, are a bad deal. These blades must be held behind display cases because consumers would rather risk their honour than paying the deal. Other products that ar…

Alcohol and perfume are literally among the oldest luxury items imaginable.

Re: Two in three shoppers won't buy products in locked display cases

#30

Post by joshruby16d »

I was in a CVS where they had all the Tylenol/Advil behind a locked glass display, and all the CVS headache relief on the shelf. I mentioned to an employee that this seemed unfair/illegal, and they responded that "people only steal the brand name Advil, so that's what we lock up". Seems unlikely to me.

Anyone else see something like this at CVS?

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