Walmart launches probe after shopper fumes over locked up items – without a single associate to get $13 tool kit for him

CUSTOMERS are becoming increasingly fed up with security policies in major retailers around the country.

Some have even been so frustrated with their shopping experiences that they have expressed their disillusionment with these policies on X, formerly Twitter.

"@Walmart tell me why half of your damn store is locked up behind cases now but there’s not a single associate with a key who can unlock the case," one frustrated customer, named Will, asked.

Walmart apologized to Will and said "this isn't the kind of experience we want you to have," urging him to send the company a DM, but it is unclear if he did and what the outcome of the message was.

Aside from customers complaining about most items being locked up, issues with self-checkout, extra receipt checks, an overall lack of employees, and limited amounts of checkout lanes resulting in long wait times have left customer furious with their shopping experiences since the pandemic.

One customer even called the lock-up displays "dystopian," saying that it "makes it truly impossible to shop in person."

"Self-checkout process is nuts, but then they wanna check my receipt for the diapers and wipes in my cart," another customer posted.

Retail executives have often cited a jump in shoplifting and theft over the last four years as the reason for these security measures.

It is true that large retailers are expecting $132 billion in combined shoplifting losses this year alone, according to research by Capital One.

Figures as high as that one have led many retailers, like Target and Walmart, to say they simply had no choice amid this spike and inflation.

It's important to note that although the country did see a spike in overall crime since 2020, shoplifting and theft numbers have declined nationally in the last year, though it varies by state and city.

For example, in Los Angeles, the monthly rate of shoplifting nearly doubled from roughly 540 thefts per month in 2021 to just short of an average of 900 per month last year, according to the Los Angeles police department.

In total, there were about 12,000 shoplifting incidents in LA county last year - an 81% increase compared to 2022.

However, across the country in New York City, all five boroughs also saw an increase in shoplifting rates, rising an incredible 65% from 2019 to mid-2023, according to a study by the Council on Criminal Justice.

But despite that massive jump from the pandemic, New York's shoplifting rate has been actively declining since 2022.

To put it into perspective, there were nearly 52,000 shoplifting incidents reported in the city for 2023.

This is down roughly 7% from 2022, which is about 4,500 fewer reports, according to the city's police department data.

And while businesses were obviously affected by this increase in shoplifting and theft, corporate profits didn't take too much of a hit, despite the large amount of losses.

In fact, in the very same time frame that theft skyrocketed, corporate profits account for the largest share of national income in the last decade, according to the National Bureau of Economic Analysis.

Just last month, Walmart reported a massive quarterly profit of $5.1 billion, effectively tripling what they made the same quarter just one year earlier.

Walmart has also been a main contributor to a massive 3,225% spike in retail layoffs among major chains nationwide, according to a report from Challenger, Gray, and Christmas - citing the need to cut costs because of those same losses from theft and inflation.

At the same time, competitors like Target also saw massive profit increases as well, raking in over $2 billion more in profit last year than they did the year before, despite an almost 2% drop in sales within that year.

Target also announced in May it would be slashing prices on over 5,000 items in stores, a move it attributed to that slight decline in sales.

However, some customers remain skeptical, viewing the price cuts as an admission of price gouging by the chain.

"Alternative headline: Target confesses to blatantly price gouging millions of consumers, no penalties expected," one social media user commented under the news.

But despite their record profits, both chains continue to cut costs on labor in stores, with Walmart recently announcing they are investing hundreds of thousands of dollars into expensive digital price labels that can be changed instantly, which would allow Walmart to operate with even fewer floor workers than they have now in stores.

Although it is not clear exactly how much money Walmart is allocating to spend on this change as of now, just 10,000 electronic shelf labels could be anywhere from $60,000 to $100,000, according to Solum, a wireless communication technology manufacturer that makes these types of labels.

Wendy's, for example, announced in February it is investing $20 million into high-tech digital menu boards, leading to a similar backlash.

"If it’s hot outside, we can raise the price of water and ice cream," Phil Lempert, a grocery industry analyst, told NPR about the new change coming to Walmart.

"And if there's something that’s close to the expiration date, we can lower the price — that’s the good news," he continued.

"Why is it so much easier to justify investment in technology vs in people?," asked one person on X.

KEY INSIGHTS: Locked Up Items

In Novmber 2023, WSL Strategic Retail surveyed shoppers about the use of theft-proof cabinets for its How America Shops report.

Here are the key findings:

• 70% of shoppers had faced locked-up goods when hoping to purchase an item.
• 78% of these shoppers said they got help from an employee and waited to buy a product though this number dropped for customers under the age of 26.
• 12% of shoppers said they refused to buy the product and many went online or to another store instead.
• Meanwhile, 10% said they bought a similar product that was readily available in the same store. Again, among Gen Z customers there was a difference with 19% of them saying they did this.

Why did 22% of customers not wait for assistance?

Source: WSL Strategic Retail