Walmart, Walgreens theft prevention measures causing major problems

If you’ve recently shopped in person at a drugstore, grocery store, or large retailer, you may have noticed a change in the experience.

First, there are likely to be fewer cashiers manning the registers; Many retailers have swapped in-person checkout for a standalone experience with very mixed results.

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However, it’s not just the checkout process that has been overhauled.

You’ve probably noticed fewer employees scattered around the store. Employee attrition over the past few years has affected retailers; it has become harder to get people to come to work for falling wages and an increasingly hostile work environment where difficult customers, longer hours and retail theft are more common.

For bold and determined customers, however, this may not sway you. You may continue to go shopping as usual. But you’ve probably noticed, though, that when you go to fill your cart with everything you need—shaving gel, paper towels, vitamins, you name it—the vast majority of things are enclosed behind Plexiglas barriers.

These barriers are meant to prevent theft and indeed they do. But a recent discovery reveals that they may be a little too effective.

Products sit behind Plexiglas at a Target store in Manhattan’s Harlem neighborhood.

Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Retailers are still struggling to solve the problem of theft

He’s been a bug for years now. CEO after CEO will get up on an earnings call and discuss stock reduction. They’ll usually lose track of how bad it’s gotten, how widespread it is in certain cities, and what they’re doing to reduce profit losses.

Aim (TGT) and Walmart (WMT) for example, they closed stores in the United States that were particularly hard hit by shoplifting.

More retail:

• Ulta’s CEO sounds the alarm on a growing problem
• Lululemon launches the first product of its kind
• Target is introducing a new ’18+’ policy.
• Amazon is launching a genius new subscription product

Target has even gone so far as to institute an 18+ policy in some stores, whereby minors must be accompanied by an adult to enter. The Minneapolis retailer also changed its self-checkout process (which is notoriously permeable to theft), limiting the amount of items eligible for self-checkout to 10 or fewer.

But the overwhelmingly popular solution among retailers has been to simply lock up high-value inventory, often behind clear Plexiglas barriers that require a key from an employee to unlock. This process is effective against thieves who pass the goods without anyone looking. For the honest customer, however, it’s a cumbersome and time-consuming experience.

Blocked goods cause problems

This is especially the case for delivery drivers. People who work for services like Instacart are usually encouraged to complete their tasks in a short amount of time and wait for an associate to grab a key to unlock the shampoo a customer wants in that precious time.

Because of this, delivery drivers said they will actively avoid certain stores notorious for locking their merchandise to avoid problems. Two of these retailers in particular were Walmart and Walgreens (WBA) .

“If your item is in a locked case, I’m not waiting to get it because f— y–. Who’s with me here,” one driver wrote on the Instacart subreddit.

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“Just placed a small order of about 10 items. Customer had some shaving cream on the list and the store had it behind a glass case that needed someone with a key to get it,” wrote another. “My choice was to find someone to work there who could crack the case or refund it. I refunded it, I don’t get paid enough to work that much. Sorry, customer.”

And while the solution may sound drastic, drivers explained that time is money with many delivery services, and taking too long can prove costly.

“Drivers make money per order, not hourly, so every second counts for us,” one driver told Business Insider.

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This is especially troublesome when a driver is expected to deliver perishable food items. The longer a frozen or refrigerated item thaws, the poorer the peak.

“I ended up ripping the cardboard off the package and taking it off the hook,” one driver said of a recent Walmart order that included cosmetics and perishables. The driver said he took matters into his own hands after waiting for assistance for several minutes and no one showing up.

Walmart and Walgreens spokespeople said stores make decisions to close inventory based on shoplifting trends; some locations are hit harder than others and treated accordingly.

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