I don't feel especially proud about this, due to the energy cost to it, but I got really peeved when I went over to the Rite Aid that I lived across the street from in Brooklyn because I was out of needed-right-then dental floss, and it was locked up. So I went back home and ordered a single pack of dental floss on Amazon and had it delivered to the Amazon locker that was at that Rite Aid.
On the other hand, I've been a lifelong mass transit person so I've earned enough carbon credits to throw my household trash in the river, so.
Yes, Robyn. I also worked retail for a time, and the best loss prevention strategy was engaging with the customers, making them feel important, paying attention to their needs and their budgets, and keeping the merchandise and the store spotless. My sales were always higher than anyone else's because I cared about the customer and the product. Bottom line never came into it.
I have walked out of CVS without the product I went in for, because there was NO ONE to open the damned locked case. I really felt bad for the employees, who were doing their best, but they weren't even half staffed. It was inefficient, frustrating, and just plain wrong.
If they could figure out a way to just vaccuum our money out of our pockets without having to give us anything in return...they'd do it in a heartbeat.
I’ve found the solution to a lot of these problems is called “use the store’s app to get shit delivered to you.” It’s quick, convenient, and you don’t have to hunt for the lone employee in the store to unlock anything.
Plus, it’s really helped me out as I’m recovering from knee replacement surgery and can’t drive even though it’s my left knee and my car doesn’t have a clutch. 😡
I like the solution that the local Publix had. Very few items are locked up - those that are are in the pharmacy area, where there is almost always an employee immediately available. And the items that are locked up there are at least pharmacy adjacent and worth keeping locked up, like $60 small glucose testing gadgets and the like.
Non pharmacy items that are locked up at stores like CVS, such as razer blades, were simply moved to the end cap aisles right next to the cashiers. They are not locked up, but they've usually got an employee staring in that general area, and cameras bearing straight down onto it at the customer service desk.
One of the grocery stores in the area, generally pretty decent, has 2 major things I complain about. One is that since the pandemic they won't have an employee help a blindboi find just the milk, bread, & goldfish crackers he needs to get to tide over the family until pay day in 2 days because the people who used to do that now have to run around the store filling on line orders & there's a $35 minimum for those. So convenient. The other's an antitheft measure for formula, namely, you have to go to customer service to ask for it. Despite buying most of our groceries there, I'd go twice as far to the target because I was too annoyed to ask customer service. Got larger quantities of wipes & diapers while I was there, too.
Meanwhile you have to check yourself out at the grocery store. Seems like the issue is, people these days will go to any length to avoid interacting with fellow humans.
The only place I go where they lock up some stuff is the hardware store. There's always a number of people on the floor ready to open cabinets/find the right size for you/give advice. If it works for them I don't get why it should be a moral issue for me.
And of course, the executives and management get their jobs, bonuses and rewards, not for actual success of their actions, but the PERCEPTION of its success. It is far less about having good, effective ideas than it is convincing the people who give them their rewards that they're good, effective ideas.
Profits are down? I can bring them back up by cutting staff costs! "Shrinkage" goes up? I can fix that by locking up high-value items! Sales drop? I can't fix that without losing money through increased staff costs or more "shrinkage," but I can blame it on an "epidemic" of shoplifting and promise to get the government to fix it for us!
Then the next guy comes in and convinces people that the "solution" is to close poorly performing stores and to lobby government to allow them to be even shittier to their employees and their customers, in order to "save jobs."
Eventually they've broken things to the point where it just ain't repairable any more. But everybody involved got their payday, so it's "smart business."
It takes a lot of time and a lot of effort in this way to destroy a really big organization...like, say, Boeing. But as we're seeing, it can be done.
Obviously an attempt to go back 100 years, the good old days. Where everything was behind the counter, you gave the clerk a list, they went to the back and pulled the items and brought them up. Self service is a fairly new system in retail. Of course selection was very limited.
Also, too, I suspect there's vastly more shrinkage going out the back door than the front door. I bet it's a lot more work to get serious value out of scooping up a bunch of shampoo bottles off the shelves than to boost a couple cases out the back
I don’t ask the clerk to unlock the cabinet, I wait until I get home and buy the item online. Because 2-day shipping is way preferable than unnecessary human interaction
I no longer shop for the upscale skin care and makeup I like at Marshall's here for this reason. I like to browse and compare and take my time to decide. Can't do that while an employee stands there to make sure I don't just want to pilfer something. I get it that there may be "shrinkage" happening at that store but this does not work for me and I can afford to go to the big department stores instead. So though I love a discount, I hate hassles more.
Here's an idea for CVS and all the stores worried about shoplifting: Keep all your precious things you don't want shoplifted behind the counter, like you do with cigarettes and Covid test kits, where the employees can get to them easily without locking the register, leaving other customers waiting, and having to walk to the other side of the store. But that might entail some planning on your part and some remodeling of your checkout counters.
Also get rid of those damn self-checkout machines. Unless you plan to pay me to do my own scanning and bagging. K' thx.
Drop some money to me via Venmo. My ideas aren't free.
Plus I can pack my stuff the way I want and don't have 9,000 plastic bags with like 2 cans each in them, or 5 pounds of potatoes on top of the loaf of bread.
At the grocery, if you're scanning too fast the machine sometimes thinks you're trying to steal something.
At the convenience store, booze/tobacco requires the cashier to override the age check anyway.
One reason I don't love on-line shopping w/delivery is that I like finding something that inspires me to experiment making something new or picking up something marked down for clearance. Plus I can compare price between something on sale vs something what I would normally buy easier instead of doing two hours of searching on a website.
I don't feel especially proud about this, due to the energy cost to it, but I got really peeved when I went over to the Rite Aid that I lived across the street from in Brooklyn because I was out of needed-right-then dental floss, and it was locked up. So I went back home and ordered a single pack of dental floss on Amazon and had it delivered to the Amazon locker that was at that Rite Aid.
On the other hand, I've been a lifelong mass transit person so I've earned enough carbon credits to throw my household trash in the river, so.
Yes.
Yes, Robyn. I also worked retail for a time, and the best loss prevention strategy was engaging with the customers, making them feel important, paying attention to their needs and their budgets, and keeping the merchandise and the store spotless. My sales were always higher than anyone else's because I cared about the customer and the product. Bottom line never came into it.
I have walked out of CVS without the product I went in for, because there was NO ONE to open the damned locked case. I really felt bad for the employees, who were doing their best, but they weren't even half staffed. It was inefficient, frustrating, and just plain wrong.
If they could figure out a way to just vaccuum our money out of our pockets without having to give us anything in return...they'd do it in a heartbeat.
I’ve found the solution to a lot of these problems is called “use the store’s app to get shit delivered to you.” It’s quick, convenient, and you don’t have to hunt for the lone employee in the store to unlock anything.
Plus, it’s really helped me out as I’m recovering from knee replacement surgery and can’t drive even though it’s my left knee and my car doesn’t have a clutch. 😡
I like the solution that the local Publix had. Very few items are locked up - those that are are in the pharmacy area, where there is almost always an employee immediately available. And the items that are locked up there are at least pharmacy adjacent and worth keeping locked up, like $60 small glucose testing gadgets and the like.
Non pharmacy items that are locked up at stores like CVS, such as razer blades, were simply moved to the end cap aisles right next to the cashiers. They are not locked up, but they've usually got an employee staring in that general area, and cameras bearing straight down onto it at the customer service desk.
Hey Retailers:
Play stupid games, win stupid prizes...
One of the grocery stores in the area, generally pretty decent, has 2 major things I complain about. One is that since the pandemic they won't have an employee help a blindboi find just the milk, bread, & goldfish crackers he needs to get to tide over the family until pay day in 2 days because the people who used to do that now have to run around the store filling on line orders & there's a $35 minimum for those. So convenient. The other's an antitheft measure for formula, namely, you have to go to customer service to ask for it. Despite buying most of our groceries there, I'd go twice as far to the target because I was too annoyed to ask customer service. Got larger quantities of wipes & diapers while I was there, too.
Meanwhile you have to check yourself out at the grocery store. Seems like the issue is, people these days will go to any length to avoid interacting with fellow humans.
The only place I go where they lock up some stuff is the hardware store. There's always a number of people on the floor ready to open cabinets/find the right size for you/give advice. If it works for them I don't get why it should be a moral issue for me.
Republicans really become anti-market when it bites them in the ass.
And of course, the executives and management get their jobs, bonuses and rewards, not for actual success of their actions, but the PERCEPTION of its success. It is far less about having good, effective ideas than it is convincing the people who give them their rewards that they're good, effective ideas.
Profits are down? I can bring them back up by cutting staff costs! "Shrinkage" goes up? I can fix that by locking up high-value items! Sales drop? I can't fix that without losing money through increased staff costs or more "shrinkage," but I can blame it on an "epidemic" of shoplifting and promise to get the government to fix it for us!
Then the next guy comes in and convinces people that the "solution" is to close poorly performing stores and to lobby government to allow them to be even shittier to their employees and their customers, in order to "save jobs."
Eventually they've broken things to the point where it just ain't repairable any more. But everybody involved got their payday, so it's "smart business."
It takes a lot of time and a lot of effort in this way to destroy a really big organization...like, say, Boeing. But as we're seeing, it can be done.
Sums it up pretty well I’d say
Obviously an attempt to go back 100 years, the good old days. Where everything was behind the counter, you gave the clerk a list, they went to the back and pulled the items and brought them up. Self service is a fairly new system in retail. Of course selection was very limited.
I blame Piggly Wiggly....
Also, too, I suspect there's vastly more shrinkage going out the back door than the front door. I bet it's a lot more work to get serious value out of scooping up a bunch of shampoo bottles off the shelves than to boost a couple cases out the back
"Fell off the truck..."
And., your pissed off employees aren't going to give a shit
I don’t ask the clerk to unlock the cabinet, I wait until I get home and buy the item online. Because 2-day shipping is way preferable than unnecessary human interaction
I no longer shop for the upscale skin care and makeup I like at Marshall's here for this reason. I like to browse and compare and take my time to decide. Can't do that while an employee stands there to make sure I don't just want to pilfer something. I get it that there may be "shrinkage" happening at that store but this does not work for me and I can afford to go to the big department stores instead. So though I love a discount, I hate hassles more.
Here's an idea for CVS and all the stores worried about shoplifting: Keep all your precious things you don't want shoplifted behind the counter, like you do with cigarettes and Covid test kits, where the employees can get to them easily without locking the register, leaving other customers waiting, and having to walk to the other side of the store. But that might entail some planning on your part and some remodeling of your checkout counters.
Also get rid of those damn self-checkout machines. Unless you plan to pay me to do my own scanning and bagging. K' thx.
Drop some money to me via Venmo. My ideas aren't free.
Nope.
I love self-checkout.
No chit-chat, and I can, generally, check myself out faster than they do.
Last time I didn't use a self-checkout (happened to be at Target), I got double-charged for an item. I prefer to do it myself
Plus I can pack my stuff the way I want and don't have 9,000 plastic bags with like 2 cans each in them, or 5 pounds of potatoes on top of the loaf of bread.
Grrr, baggers go out of their way to murder my tomatoes, every time!
I like Aldi, where the checkers zip you through super quick bing bang boom, and I bag my own fucking tomatoes.
i'm pandemic-trained to get ten items or less and get in and out of the store in five minutes using self-checkout.
Wonkers in general seem to despise self-checkout but I love it.
Downsides to self checkout--
At the grocery, if you're scanning too fast the machine sometimes thinks you're trying to steal something.
At the convenience store, booze/tobacco requires the cashier to override the age check anyway.
One reason I don't love on-line shopping w/delivery is that I like finding something that inspires me to experiment making something new or picking up something marked down for clearance. Plus I can compare price between something on sale vs something what I would normally buy easier instead of doing two hours of searching on a website.
As a single, older person, I thrive on chit-chat.