Hi, I’m Garrett Leahy, and you may remember me from Standard retail theft stories such as the one about the shuttering Safeway that loses $7,000-a-day to theft, timing how long it takes to buy locked-up items, and how they’re even locking up the gum at Walgreens.
Suffice to say, I’ve seen it all when it comes to thwarting shoplifters with locks and plexiglass. Until now that is, thanks to a Thursday Reddit post, when I discovered at least two CVS stores are locking up chips and single-sale canned drinks costing as little as $2, roughly half as much as the cheapest pack of locked-down gum from last year.
In the CVS at 399 Geary St., the gleam of acrylic panels is everywhere, with everything from bottles of soda to Tide Pods to Goldfish crackers under lock and key. The most recent items to be put behind plastic are chips and drinks, which happened roughly a month ago, staff said.
Getting a $2.69 bag of Lay’s potato chips took exactly a minute (and 25 milliseconds), by the way.
Ten people steal from the Geary Street CVS daily, workers estimated, with food and drinks stolen most frequently. The thieves are typically unhoused people, rather than organized retail thieves, and they can make off with locked up soda if a worker forgets to re-lock the drinks case, staff said.
Otherwise, they steal bottled water, which is one of the few things that still sits openly on shelves. One staffer said he doesn’t mind having to unlock most things for customers, saying he can do so in about 10 seconds.
Customers felt differently.
“I hate it, it’s so uncomfortable,” said Maria Dellipiane, a 48-year-old Argentine tourist visiting San Francisco with her teenage daughter, Micaela. “In Argentina you can pick things up, look at them. We might go somewhere else, like Walgreens. Is it better?”
If only she knew.
A week after Walgreens announced it would shutter 12 San Francisco pharmacies due to rising operating costs, its CEO Tim Wentworth admitted during an investor call that locking stuff up had hurt sales. (Who’d have guessed?)
Indeed, across town at the CVS at 3900 Geary Blvd., I met Fifth Avenue resident Andrew Tada, 52, in the locked-up drink section, who called the security measures an inconvenience.
“I get why they have to do it, but it’s a psychological thing,” he said.” Like I wish there was a better way. Now that we’re talking about it, I think I might start ordering more stuff off Amazon,” he added.
Staff at the Geary Boulevard store said theft happens daily, with food and acne cream most frequently stolen.
I asked for more details on what foods were taken, how often drinks and ice cream (which is also locked up) were stolen, but neither said they knew. Just two staff were working Friday afternoon. One had been there for a few weeks and another for several years. Workers at both stores spoke on the condition of anonymity because they aren’t authorized to speak to the press.
The more experienced staffer said they remember most items getting locked up a year ago — even toothbrushes and deodorant, which have been locked up for years at other stores. Cosmetics were locked up two years ago.
“Some people will just get bags and fill them up,” the worker said “We get it every day. Sometimes it’s like one or two; other days it’s one after the other.”
Apparently, Friday was a quiet day at CVS, and this reporter witnessed no theft during the 45 minutes I spent there.
“I just hope the new mayor does something about it,” the worker said. “They have to get these guys. When you call the police, it takes them an hour to show up. We can’t do anything about it, not even grab them. We don’t want to lose our jobs.”
When asked about theft issues at their stores, CVS replied with a brief email saying locking up merchandise is meant to ensure they have items in stock for paying customers, and that they lock up more things depending on how much theft a given store faces.
“Our product protection decisions are data driven,” a spokesperson said.“We utilize a variety of different measures to deter or prevent theft and locking a product is a measure of last resort.”
I timed how long it took for me to have the drinks fridge unlocked and it took almost three minutes. But then, you can’t order a cold can of Coke on Amazon — not yet, anyway.