A TECH CEO confirmed that shoppers are not happy with items locked away in stores.
The anti-theft measure is backfiring for retailers, with more consumers making their purchases online.
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Joe Budano, CEO of anti-theft technology company Indyme, said Axes that blocking items can lead to sales drops of 15% to 25%.
Although the extreme method is intended to deter crime, Budano estimated that 98% of people in the stores are “legitimate customers” and 2% are some type of offender.
“Protecting against 2% is bad math,” said Budano, whose company created the “Freedom Case,” a locked display that customers can open with their cell phones.
GlobalData retail analyst Neil Saunders said blocking items had a negative impact on consumers.
“Locking products makes the shopping experience worse and makes things inconvenient and difficult,” he said, for Axes.
Saunders added that the anti-theft measure encourages customers to shop online.
Barricading products, from razors to laundry detergent, has largely “backfired” and hurt shopping in the US, Bloomberg reported.
Major retailers like Target, Walmart, Walgreens, CVS and Dollar Tree participated in the anti-crime approach gone wrong.
Despite reports of falling sales and customer dissatisfaction, some stores defended their lock-up technique to Axios.
CVS spokeswoman Amy Thibault told the outlet that the retailer uses “a variety of different measures to thwart or prevent theft and locking down a product is a measure of last resort.”
She continued: “Different products have different theft rates depending on store location and other factors, and our product protection decisions are data-driven.”
Walgreens spokesperson Fraser Engerman told the publication: “Actions such as installing anti-theft devices are intended to prevent theft and ensure security in our stores.”
Engerman continued: “These measures are taken in response to data theft and for this reason alone, and these additional security measures allow us to improve the availability of products on shelves for customers.”
While it may prevent theft, barricading items doesn’t appear to have saved these retailers money.
Manmohan Mahajan, Walgreens’ global chief financial officer, said in a June 2024 earnings call that the company was facing “higher levels of retrenchment,” according to Axios.
However, theft has still been a major problem for retailers.
In 2022, retail crime was responsible for losses of $112.1 billion, according to the National Retail Federation 2023 Security Survey.
Organized retail crime has caused huge losses for businesses.
This involves gangs of thieves stealing items from stores that they resell online, which has “become increasingly brazen,” according to Axios.
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