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

How does putting things in locked cabinets remove competition? How do big companies reducing locations make things worse for the smaller, more local stores? You're still not making any sense to me on this point.

We want to eliminate the competition! I know, we'll make our customer experience worse, that'll definitely force those smaller stores to be less competitive! We'll close many of our stores to leave market voids where other stores can come in...that'll show those smaller stores that are now suddenly far more convenient!

And you still haven't actually answered my original question. If shoplifting just didn't happen, would they still put things in these cases?

1. We generally go into multiple stores anyways. If there isn’t someone around, I won’t bother waiting around. Those razors at Walgreens are genearlly available at the Costco I goto once per week.

2. I generally will just order something online if there is any amount of friction. Amazon Prime and Target Circle 360 are easy.

I didn’t upgrade my iPhone this year, because they canceled the Apple Leather case and getting a Leather case was a huge pain last year when I upgraded and I don’t want to bother this year while case manufacturers work out their camera button. I bet Apple executives would be shocked how just introducing a tiny bit of friction stops people from spending $1,500 to upgrade their device.

One has a 'buzz to enter' vestibule with two doors whose locks are controlled by the cashier. You ring the exterior bell, the cashier buzzes you through the first door, and only after it closes will they buzz open the second door -- so you're trapped. The same is true on the exit. No one can run out of the store with an expensive power tool they didn't pay for. But even though I'm not stealing anything but I find the whole experience so deeply unpleasant that I've stopped going there at all.

The second independent hardware store now has multiple security people at the front, and a mandatory bag-check policy. Except the bag check line is the customer service line, and I've literally waited 30 minutes total to drop off and then pick up my bag, stuck behind people with elaborate customer service requests. They have a bunch of staff on the floor, but they often don't actually know where stuff is, whether they carry X, etc. It becomes impossible to make a quick purchase of a single item.

So more and more, I'm apt to buy whatever it was online. I don't want the extra amazon packaging. I tried going literally out of my way to buy at the local independent business. But they made it such a crap waste-of-time experience.

As someone whose job was to carry that key in an office supply store, I can say that it's awful. We have other things to do, and even if you're acknowledged, you have no idea when that clerk will get to you. (And the clerk doesn't know either.)

Aside: I once had a customer snap their fingers at me while I was walking another customer to a product because they wanted in the case. I looked at them, but was so thrown off that I didn't nod or anything, and just kept helping that customer. By the time I got to the case, they were gone. Later, I found I had a complaint issued against me for ignoring them, which I hadn't actually done. It just wasn't their turn yet. Management tried to turn it into a big thing in a meeting with the entire store, singling me out (not the first time). Someone else stood up for the situation and said they wouldn't help someone that snapped their fingers... Management started to rebut, but then a guy from furniture said, "Yeah! And I won't help people that whistle at me like a dog, either!" and management quickly changed the topic. Ah, such fun memories.