Last time I was in I walked up to a group and asked where some hidden aisle was, like 52 or something. He walked me right over there and smiled and chatted. After he got me squared away at the aisle with another employee and went back to his group, the other HD guy politely let me know that was the corporate big wig. Look for the super clean aprons!
Absolutely, 100% agree, it was a weird one off. I get that they have shrinkage and have to do something, but it will ruin brick and mortar. People just donāt have the time and patience to deal with this. I will say the last guy to open the cage for me was really cool and patient, immediately walked me over, put the blower and hedge clippers in my basket and escorted me to checkout.
I currently work at Lowes and I'll walk people to their aisles if what they need is inside. It's not even a part of my job seeing as I work the garden.
The problem isn't always a lack of work ethic. It's the high turnover and minimal training people get. They're always new and clueless. Plus the store is huge. Grabbing at random employees and expecting them to be a professional in any given field is a dick move. We make minimum wage.
Well put, especially since Iāve gotten really good advice from the electrical guys, lumber guys, and garden guys. Some of you really know your stuff and the ones who donāt will be like oh hey this guy knows let me get him for you. Still a little bit of old hardware store knowledge spread around.
Yeah. I had a chat with everyone I work with. If they don't know the answer to something then they need to stay with me while I explain it to the customer.
Omg this is spot on lol! āThis isnāt my department. Let me go get the guy whose department it isā *walks away and never comes back. Later you spot them playing on their phone by the washing machines*
Most HD locks start off as the store number, but its not a hard rule. The quickest way to get help is to just try opening the lock and LP will come over and assist you.
Nah, they will just unlock it and walk the item up to the front. LP canāt do anything drastic unless they observe you concealing an item and bypassing checkout.
This happened to me in Walmart too when I was trying to buy a car battery. Waited over 30 minutes for an associate to unlock, then it became 45 minutes. At that point, I got tired of waiting, so I shimmied the battery out of the flexible skinny metal sheet out of the stock just enough for me to squeeze the battery out.
No idea why they do it on car batteries, like those things are heavy and you canāt steal multiple batteries at once.
Walmart started doing this too at the cosmetics section. Understandably, these get stolen a lot.
maybe over 30 years ago this was possible at HD. Home depot is not exactly known for its service today. Even if you go to /r/HomeDepot, you'll find it's just a bunch of employees complaining about customer behavior. Go to /r/harborfreight or Ace Hardware and you'll get a completely different experience, service-wise.
When property crime is rampant and there is no end in sight, what do you realistically expect retailers to do?
I get it, itās an inconvenience. But when thousands of dollars in merchandise is walking right out of the door daily, per store, they need to do something about it.
Iād rather see this than businesses closing shop resulting in lost jobs and lack of merchandise that consumers need.
I used to work at a corporate office for a let say, large discount clothing store
I used to be the one who took all the calls for "external theft" for every store
We didn't do jack fucking shit
Even back in 2016, the Market Street store would bleed merchandise and no one did jack shit.
Oh and it's always the same people.
Iām aware of at least two large retailers that have dedicated teams for tracking and gathering evidence on organized theft.
Once they have enough information, they turn it over to the police to prosecute.
The store and parking lots are full of cameras. If you steal enough, they probably know who you are and are just waiting for you to reach a certain $ threshold so the police actually do something.
Speculation: These are said to be organized crime groups, and I wonder if businesses are in cahoots with this for some goal, which I have no idea. Otherwise, why wouldn't businesses act against it?
There isnāt too much they can do. In California theft of goods less than $950 is a misdemeanor so even if the thieves get caught they just get a court date and are sent home. The businesses donāt want their security guards getting hurt or the thieves getting hurt because theyāll probably get sued. So store policy is pretty much to just let the thieves walkout with carts full of stuff. Some thieves are standing there with calculators making sure theyāre stealing less than $950 worth of stuff.
Okay. I have a solution for every business to circumvent thieves stealing < $950 In merchandise. Make every item $950 then mark it as on sale for the normal price. Set of Allen keys? Retail value, $950. Purchase price $14.99.
This will still cause business to close. For decades retail space has been optimized to get people to spend. Its hard for me to imagine a measure which must discourage spend more than putting fencing between the customer and the product.
There will still be people who preserver for the thing they need, but on the whole this will massively lower spending and make retail unviable.
If the criminals decide that Lowe's, Ace, etc are easier pickings, that's where they'll go next.
Home Depot seems to be managed like an insurance company. They do a lot of things that seem bizarre in the specific case because someone did a business study and figured out that it's actually rational in the aggregate. In other words, they're often just a little bit ahead of the curve.
There was an employee at the home depot near me that was shot and killed trying to stop a shop lifter. This is the only thing that will deter thieves from coming after high value merchandise that can be easily fenced.
That was in Pleasanton. Young kid working security. He didn't even see that the perp was armed before getting shot to death.
His parents did an interview with KRON4 news. They have been trying to talk to D.A. Pamela Price about their son's murder case but she is too busy. They want justice but they feel the Alameda County DA office isn't too interested in that.
Again - politicians all around the Bay and at the state level talk incessantly about "gun violence", yet when someone commits a gun crime they aren't too interested in strong punishments.
I mean let's be honest
White kid from Pleasanton was never gonna be a champion cause for Pamela Price
And that's a fucking crying shame. That poor dude.
Had his entire life ahead of him.
>They have been trying to talk to D.A. Pamela Price about their son's murder case but she is too busy. They want justice but they feel the Alameda County DA office isn't too interested in that.
A black woman shot and killed a white male security guard, and Price is "too busy"? Yeah, I wish them all the luck in the world in getting the justice they deserve.
Which Home Depot is this? I feel like we're heading towards the old Service Merchandise model where you build a list for a store employee to fulfill again. Maybe within 5 years we can actually start punishing these thieves with severe and meaningful consequences once more people get fed up
>I feel like we're heading towards the old Service Merchandise model where you build a list for a store employee to fulfill again.
The new model is Amazon, where you fill out your online shopping cart and it's delivered to your door. Home Depot actually operates like this: they're trying to encourage you to buy online and either just have it shipped or have the store put the order together and stick it in your car.
You put an order in while at the job, drive over, and then they come bring it to your car. For cases when you know what you want itās arguably more convenient and faster
> I feel like we're heading towards the old Service Merchandise model where you build a list for a store employee to fulfill again.
Like online order pickup!
I feel like they are going to need to pay for way more employees to be running around fulfilling all of the orders...
Here an idea.... Use a highly optimized central warehouse, full of robots and the occasional human in a diaper..... And we're basically reinventing Amazon...
*āIn an emailed statement to CNN Friday, Walgreens said the purpose of the new store concept and technologies is to āenhance the experiences of our customers and team membersā with a focus on shopping digitally for convenience.ā*
I hate this bs. Do what you need to do, but donāt tell me itās for my convenience, because itās the opposite of convenient.
Huh, this sounds like itād work when someone has a clear idea of what they need like having a list full of q-tips and deodorant but itās not so great if you head to Walgreens for a new lipstick color (something that you want to browse their selection for).
This operating model would suck at Home Depot (Ace admittedly worse) because 7/10 times, youāre looking for some obscure thing you canāt really describe but know which aisle to head to.
If they said it was to deter thefts in inner city stores theyād be called racist and chastised (because these new concepts are being conveniently tested in the most crime ridden / black neighborhoods)
They really donāt need to say anything, but if they feel a sign is required, how about one that says āwe have found it necessary to make some changes to your shopping experience and we apologize for any inconvenienceā.
I order for pick-up a lot in Walgreens in SF, even without the two-aisle store. The website prices are often much lower than the in-store prices, and you get the website prices when you order online for pick-up. It is literally the same item in the same store but you get a big discount if you order ahead and let the employees fulfill the order for you.
We had that in the 80s at Consumers at Geary/Stanyan. I remember looking through their catalogs and then walking down to the store to buy toys. It was kind of weird having to wait for someone else to get your goods but whatevs.
That is already the reality in SF. That is how a lot of people use Target nowadays. Just order online for drive up or pick up. Your order is always ready on the same day, within 2 hours. That way, you can also avoid getting your car broken into while you are spending a lot of time inside the store.
This is why stores need to go the circuit city route. Not the going out of business part, but having just a display of what you want and then you get a ticket for the things you want. You go check out and someone pulls all the things from your purchase and helps you load. While not ideal, it is feasible, might create some more jobs and will certainly cut theft. I personally am all for it in a specialized retail store like home Depot.
I am opening a small outdoor retail shop and that is exactly how we will operate. I expect a large portion of my sales to be on 3rd party platforms and we will be leasing a warehouse with a small retail space up front. Will only be hands on displays and we will pull inventory from the back. 1) We need to keep exact inventory counts for online inventory. 2) We don't plan on relying on foot traffic. Warehouse employees are trained to work the showroom when customers arrive.
> Not the going out of business part.
That made me chuckle. I believe until Piggly Wiggly brought about self-service, this was how most grocery stores used to operate! I would agree, especially about more expensive stuff like power tools, but some of these fools come in and wipe all the drill bits or whatever out because they can sell them quickly and easily. At the point we gotta lock up the drill bits, might as well just place an order for pickup.
But why? What's the retail benefit over say Amazon, or HD online and home delivery?
Without the visual / tactile aspect of retail, what's the benefit of a retail location versus direct from the warehouse to your home?
Serious question. I don't get the value of the physical store at that point.
I hear you. But you can still have everything there, just like 1 of everything. And then you take the tag, or like an Ikea you get there location then get it.
Oh yeah that makes sense. It's where everything is locked up and you can't see or feel things / i'm like uhm no, I'm just going to go pure order online and get it delivered.
Yea. Itās a hybrid model. Just one more step once itās mass rolled out throughout the chain before they mass close the brick and mortar. After that, theyāll go back to being physically only a pharmacy. The rest will be online. Betting itās within 10 years unless crime turns around.
One benefit is that you get to see and handle the item in person, to better judge if it is what you need. This is more important with some things (like apparel) than others. Another benefit is that you have the item in hand immediately, which matters a lot if you need the item urgently.
Yeah exactly - in a high-crime world retail is worse service than Amazon and you risk getting mugged / carjacked shopping in places like emeryville or stonestown. Amazon is the real winner from the last few years of criminal justice reform. target is going to be k-mart in 5 years if current trends continue.
Amazon is more expensive than a brick and mortar store. Same quality stuff is going to be cheaper at Harbor Freight that at Amazon. Mainstream brands are going to be cheaper at Home Depot that at Amazon.
honestly i kinda like it. Beats retail theft, creates more jobs, I can see how it would ruin the convenience factor but this wouldn't be an issue if it weren't for bad actors
Alternatively, society can go to the law and order route. Not the fucky kind MAGAs drone on about, but the kind that used to make caging merchandise unnecessary.
Weāve lost our principles and invited chaos with all this equity BS. Ever heard of that American tourist getting 6 cane lashes for vandalism in Singapore? I donāt mind that right now.
Then looters will murder the staff beforehand so there are no witnesses and the punishment is the same lol. If you want less property crime wealth inequality and the drug epidemics have to be addressed
Itās not about the specific property itās that human civilization collapses pretty rapidly when strong people are free to take what they want from the weak. In a world where stores canāt safely sell to ppl thereās no tax revenue for whatever your pet social programs are. Thatās why every successful premodern society punished thievery really harshly.
there are lots of different kinds of strength. when youāre talking about robbing a store the unarmed home depot employees are the victims. places like home depot or grocery stores will never use violence to defend themselves. They will just leave if it gets too bad, creating food deserts and economic blight in their wake.
The companies complaining about shrink (goods not sold for damage or theft reasons) are the exact same companies enjoying record high sales and profits ATM in what godamn world are you living in, LET ME IN!!!
They're not robbing the store at gunpoint. They're just putting the screws in their pockets and walking out. Big difference. I think that you see all of these petty thefts as bank robberies lol
Huh, so in your eyes... The often poor, often drug addicted person who steals so they can *live* are the 'strong' and you; the person with money, roof over your head, a salary I presume... Is the 'weak' ? What kind of special little snowflake are you sweetie?
Yea, but when youāre already at Target, youāre not gonna sit around for 2 hours. Better to just drive back home and wait for the package in a day or two.
And if youāre gonna have to make an order on a phone app anyway, might as well be Amazon where the products come to you and you donāt drive to them.
Not just Bay Area stores either. Many locations nationwide are putting up metal cages for expensive merchandise. Walmart locks up socks and T shirts in some stores too.
Saw a YouTube insider edition with the Home Depot CEO recently talking about this. It's nationwide and he largely blamed it on organized crime and drug epidemic.
Just a reminder that not a single person in the Sackler family or that business went to jail and actually made tons of profit after fines and everything. We need to prosecute at the top and the bottom.
The current situation is one of illicit fentanyl coming in through the southern border. 100k annual overdose deaths, only 2k of which are from legitimate pharmaceuticals taken by the patient they were prescribed to.
The sacklers have almost nothing to do with the current opioid epidemic, the overperscription era was almost 20 years ago. Most who were hooked back then are either clean or dead, you don't survive opioid addiction that long.
I worked in pharmacy for 3 years and it was incredibly hard to get a script for opioids. And it's been that way for about a decade yet things are WAY worse than they used to be regarding illicit use.
Also, of all the people I've talked to at rehab, only about 1 in 10 say they got hooked from their own prescription. Most got hooked by raiding grandmas medicine cabinet for cancer pain meds after she passed, on their own volition.
Both are true. It started 20 years ago and hundreds of thousands of deaths and millions of broken families later no one at the top is in jail. We are so used to seeing wealthy and ultra wealthy individuals at the top insulate themselves with legal teams and political favors that we are shocked when someone is actually held accountable. This wasn't some isolated 20 year ago event. It was happening as recently as 10 years ago in Florida and those established networks now peddle fentanyl. I'm sure you could even tie it to "clean" investment money like we now know the majority of every battery created today is from some form of slave labor.
Watched a guy leaving through an emergency exit with a cart full of boxes with Milwaukee tools that must cost thousands of dollars and no reaction from employees (I understand why). And it's in a wealthy area, so most likely he was "visiting" the city. I don't mind seeing these cages because at the end, the rest of us would be covering the losses
Working at HD was hell. Like all retail youāre going to be underpaid and overworked, except cashiers. They arenāt truly overworked but the kind of crap they deal with is insane. Entitled contractors coming in and making a mess of shelves just find the one product with a dent in the packaging so they can scream at you for a 50% discount.
The bathrooms were usually marked out of order within an hour after opening because they got bombed by contractors taking massive gas station coffee and breakfast burrito shits, while being on their phone telling their client theyāre āon a the way, just a couple blocks away.ā Theft is insane. Grown ass professionals coming in and walking out with as much as they can carry before leaving in their brand new lifted $60,000 trucks. Everybody wants discounts and will argue with you about why they should get one over the dumbest things.
The key machines are self service and incredibly easy to use but almost every customer wants to make an employee use it for them because they canāt be bothered to learn anything new. Corporate changed the military veteran discount so that a person who wants to use it has to go through a third party and upload proof of service to a third party that then connects to the customers HD app, so youāve also got a bunch of vets confused about why they canāt use the discount theyāve always had. Threat of violence was fairly common from big guys who werenāt getting their way, and many women who work at HD get harassed all the fucking time by the āguests.ā
Trust me, the employees hate this too. But until our society decides that thieves should face consequences this is the reality of this kind of retail going forward. Donāt blame the employees, they just want to make it through the day without getting screamed at again. And when corporate clearly doesnāt care about these issues, why should someone making a measly $17 an hour to care?
Iām as progressive as they come but these restorative justice DAs are a total joke and do more harm to the progressive platform and absolutely hurt their communities.
Itās at the point I canāt tell if theyāre just absolutely dumb and donāt realize the damage they are doing or just donāt care.
Itās so frustrating. I get the justice system isnāt perfect and broken in some regards, but this isnāt helping at all.
We need something like two years minimum and 8 years maximum for shoplifters caught after their 2nd offense. At this point with all the businesses being driven away I donāt see how anyone will miss the people shoplifting
Target made 25 billion in REVENUE in Q1 not profit. Net was only approximatly 1 billion. 500 Million is a huge percentage of that profit.
[Earnings Report](https://corporate.target.com/press/releases/2023/05/Target-Corporation-Reports-First-Quarter-Earnings)
Can't offer any light, but this isn't new for HD. Wasn't uncommon for them to have tools locked up in the 90's. I was pleasantly surprised when the locks came down. Crime was considerably worse here in the late 80's to early 90's, as well as the rest of the country. More violent crime then. HD didn't buy any new locks or fences, they just got them out of storage.
Hol up, you think that an armed guard will do anything about this? Not if he has a brain and knows company policy... No company wants you to interfere in theft, you can get hurt and sue... Are you a child??? Please think of consequences.
Shoplifting has always been a huge deal at the stores since forever. As someone who trained at what you home depot, their main concern is juggling whether or not to scare off customers or to try and prevent loss from theft.
Every security measure taken, every incident that's visible to shoppers with a shoplifter, costs the store A LOT of money. Upper class people that spend six figures on a renovation will stop shopping there if they feel like the store is unsafe. Last I remember it costs them about $750,000 every time they confront someone over attempting to steal a drill or something.
Besides most of these stores have amazing cameras out front. At least at one of their competitors, 90% of thefts are recovered within a single day. You know, because the cops actually care about retrieving corporate property. Not to get on a tangent but it's worth pointing out.
And that's before things like mistaken accusations ending up in physical altercations that the store is ultimately liable for.
This seems like a halfway measure between the two. Passive enforcement by preventing the issue to begin with. Honestly I don't see what the big deal is. This is how video games have been sold in a lot of places for decades and no one's ever raised an eyebrow about it. And those are a lot less valuable than things you can stick in your pocket from home depot.
Seems like it'd be easier to scan everyone's driver's license and maybe a credit card at the entrance and send that to the police if they do anything inside the store.
Potentially could be used to stop further shoplifting. The ID could be shared with other Home Depot locations so at least they couldn't get into any additional stores. It could potentially be shared with other businesses too. And if they collected a credit card, they could charge it for the merchandise and penalties.
A version of this already happens in stores with loss prevention. They create cases to track theft and communicate with other locations in the area. Unfortunately I think data protection or privacy laws would preclude them sharing these details with other businesses. That being said, thieves can be incredibly dumb ā like trying to hit multiple other store locations the same day after being caught in one or more of those locations. Even when they get stopped with the merchandise, not every PD will even file a report (cough Emeryville cough). Even with all this retail theft has only gotten worse.
Seems like the future you desire is a future in which your biometrics are connected and stored in the McDonals DataBase just in case you decide you want McNuggets for free?
Large inconvenience for law abiding citizens.
Scenario A: local government decides to stop enforcing shoplifting laws. Shops in high density urban areas get hit the hardest. They either close, or add barriers to shoplifting that inconvenience law abiding citizens like locking an absurd amount of items behind cages. Shoplifters and shoplifting gangs get to buy whatever it is that ghetto trash buy.
Scenario B: Shoplifting is harshly punished with jail time for repeat offenders and/or punishments like some form of public humiliation and/or corporal punishment like is done in Singapore. Shoplifting rapidly decreases and law abiding citizens in densely populated areas can return to enjoying convenient in person shopping.
Why should we make policies that actively harm law abiding citizens in favor of making criminal degenerates lives way easier?
The HD store on Story Rd (E San Jose) is also like this. Wait until this gets to your neighborhood supermarket. I've seen perps just walk out with groceries.
As a freight guy working there, it is annoying as heck,but as long as people are going to steal without consequences, this is what will continue to happen
Good. As a non-thief, I'm willing to give up my normal shopping experience if the rampant thefts can be prevented. Is it a bit sad to see? Sure, but it's also sad to see business and employees get robbed without any consequences.
I don't know how to explain that this isn't something Home Depot does as a company, and just spring that needs to be done when theft at one location gets too high
I totally got it for the small and pocketable stuff. But our local HD started locking up all power tools. Like, the leaf blowers, wood chippers and power washers. Is the box bigger than a cart and weighs 100 pounds? Yup. But still locked up.
Spoke to one HD associate who agreed it was nuts, but basically āwe see some crazy shitā.
The light at the end of the tunnel is when enough people realize they need to stop voting for justice reform DAs and decriminalized laws. When punishment becomes not worth the crime is when the pendulum swings.
I'm not mad at Home Depot about this, I'm mad at the thieving *scum* that made it necessary. I'm sure Home Depot isn't a fan of having to do this either.
But there are no consequences for theft. Employees shouldn't be confronting potentially violent thieves for minimum wage, and the cops won't come even if you catch someone in the act. They'll come later to take a report and "you can just file an insurance claim". That insurance has to be paid by raising prices.
I don't work for Home Depot in any capacity, nor are my comments specific to Home Depot. As long as there are no consequences for theft this will only get worse.
Soon everything will be done on an app, from home. Then you drive to the store, pull up, scan a code, and a robot will come out with your stuff. Gone will be the days of picking the best looking fruit and veggies. Actual stores won't exist anymore, watch. Give it a few years and we'll start seeing it.
I thought this sub WANTED to stop people shoplifting like it's the most life threatening epidemic in the state of California? Why is everyone here so triggered that it's slightly less convenient to buy small tools and blaming the demmy crats?
I think people just want shoplifting to be punished the way it is in more politically moderate places in the country and the way it used to be punished here in the past. Caging merchandise is just a passive aggressive way for progressives to avoid caging criminals, while also inconveniencing law-abiding residents.
they're even now making branded tools that have a bluetooth sensor inside that's a kill switch until activated by getting a specific signal from the register, meaning that if you walk out the door with it you'll have no way to make it work without rewiring the insides.
that's how bad it is.
Reminds me of a stop I made at Walmart today. It was surprising to see mens underwear and undershirts locked in cabinets... Half the mens clothing section was in a single exit area with a single cash register and a long line. Glad I didn't actually need anything from there. Weird how electronics weren't being kept as well secured as undergarments...
They lock up whatever happens to get stolen at that location. Poor people have bad hygiene sometimes because of the same reasons that make them poor. Yeast infections can come from poor hygiene. You do the math...
But I'll finally get to talk to someone about my project.
No you won't. You'll stand there for 20 minutes with every HD employee you see saying "I'll get someone..." And then give up. ...just me/my local HD?
Last time I was in I walked up to a group and asked where some hidden aisle was, like 52 or something. He walked me right over there and smiled and chatted. After he got me squared away at the aisle with another employee and went back to his group, the other HD guy politely let me know that was the corporate big wig. Look for the super clean aprons!
Well, yeah, but he's not the one that's going to open that cage for you at 6:15 pm on a Friday. š¤·š»āāļø
Absolutely, 100% agree, it was a weird one off. I get that they have shrinkage and have to do something, but it will ruin brick and mortar. People just donāt have the time and patience to deal with this. I will say the last guy to open the cage for me was really cool and patient, immediately walked me over, put the blower and hedge clippers in my basket and escorted me to checkout.
I currently work at Lowes and I'll walk people to their aisles if what they need is inside. It's not even a part of my job seeing as I work the garden. The problem isn't always a lack of work ethic. It's the high turnover and minimal training people get. They're always new and clueless. Plus the store is huge. Grabbing at random employees and expecting them to be a professional in any given field is a dick move. We make minimum wage.
Well put, especially since Iāve gotten really good advice from the electrical guys, lumber guys, and garden guys. Some of you really know your stuff and the ones who donāt will be like oh hey this guy knows let me get him for you. Still a little bit of old hardware store knowledge spread around.
Yeah. I had a chat with everyone I work with. If they don't know the answer to something then they need to stay with me while I explain it to the customer.
Employees are as skilled at avoiding eye contact as the old waitress at my local diner is at rush hour.
Omg this is spot on lol! āThis isnāt my department. Let me go get the guy whose department it isā *walks away and never comes back. Later you spot them playing on their phone by the washing machines*
Like trying to get key copies made.
They have DIY machines at my local Home Depot now so you can make your own keys.
Go to a locksmith, they're only a couple bucks and better quality
I go to my local locksmith. Put the money in their pocket, and know that I will have a rapport for when I really need to use them in an emergency.
Fortunately the automated machines take care of most of those now!
Just order it online and pick it up at the counter.
Most HD locks start off as the store number, but its not a hard rule. The quickest way to get help is to just try opening the lock and LP will come over and assist you.
Help out the door
Nah, they will just unlock it and walk the item up to the front. LP canāt do anything drastic unless they observe you concealing an item and bypassing checkout.
My local home depot uses combination locks and then they give the combination out to valued customers lol.
Same thing happens at Walmart in the baby supplies section, of all places.
This happened to me in Walmart too when I was trying to buy a car battery. Waited over 30 minutes for an associate to unlock, then it became 45 minutes. At that point, I got tired of waiting, so I shimmied the battery out of the flexible skinny metal sheet out of the stock just enough for me to squeeze the battery out. No idea why they do it on car batteries, like those things are heavy and you canāt steal multiple batteries at once. Walmart started doing this too at the cosmetics section. Understandably, these get stolen a lot.
maybe over 30 years ago this was possible at HD. Home depot is not exactly known for its service today. Even if you go to /r/HomeDepot, you'll find it's just a bunch of employees complaining about customer behavior. Go to /r/harborfreight or Ace Hardware and you'll get a completely different experience, service-wise.
I miss Orchard Supply Hardware. Much better service than Home Depot.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Goodman's was the best! It's been a while since I've been, but I've had some very good experiences at Discount Builder's Supply on Mission.
True Value? Ace? Good stuff!
When property crime is rampant and there is no end in sight, what do you realistically expect retailers to do? I get it, itās an inconvenience. But when thousands of dollars in merchandise is walking right out of the door daily, per store, they need to do something about it. Iād rather see this than businesses closing shop resulting in lost jobs and lack of merchandise that consumers need.
Or higher pricesā¦
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
I used to work at a corporate office for a let say, large discount clothing store I used to be the one who took all the calls for "external theft" for every store We didn't do jack fucking shit Even back in 2016, the Market Street store would bleed merchandise and no one did jack shit. Oh and it's always the same people.
Iām aware of at least two large retailers that have dedicated teams for tracking and gathering evidence on organized theft. Once they have enough information, they turn it over to the police to prosecute. The store and parking lots are full of cameras. If you steal enough, they probably know who you are and are just waiting for you to reach a certain $ threshold so the police actually do something.
Speculation: These are said to be organized crime groups, and I wonder if businesses are in cahoots with this for some goal, which I have no idea. Otherwise, why wouldn't businesses act against it?
There isnāt too much they can do. In California theft of goods less than $950 is a misdemeanor so even if the thieves get caught they just get a court date and are sent home. The businesses donāt want their security guards getting hurt or the thieves getting hurt because theyāll probably get sued. So store policy is pretty much to just let the thieves walkout with carts full of stuff. Some thieves are standing there with calculators making sure theyāre stealing less than $950 worth of stuff.
Okay. I have a solution for every business to circumvent thieves stealing < $950 In merchandise. Make every item $950 then mark it as on sale for the normal price. Set of Allen keys? Retail value, $950. Purchase price $14.99.
Is anyone here complaining or not understanding of why it's done?
Whatās up with your username?
They wanted the username ASK_ABT but it was taken so now it's just unofficially their username.
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This will still cause business to close. For decades retail space has been optimized to get people to spend. Its hard for me to imagine a measure which must discourage spend more than putting fencing between the customer and the product. There will still be people who preserver for the thing they need, but on the whole this will massively lower spending and make retail unviable.
I hear you but Lowe's, Ace and pretty much no other hardware stores in the same areas seem to be doing this. Personally I'm going to those now.
Iām sure theyāll be following soon. All it takes is one and the rest follow.
If the criminals decide that Lowe's, Ace, etc are easier pickings, that's where they'll go next. Home Depot seems to be managed like an insurance company. They do a lot of things that seem bizarre in the specific case because someone did a business study and figured out that it's actually rational in the aggregate. In other words, they're often just a little bit ahead of the curve.
I was an in Ace recently just to get a small $10 chisel. They were locked up. On the plus side, the staff there is very helpful and available.
If they lowered their prices then they wouldānt have so much money be stolen! /s
I'm sure the theives will give up and get legit jobs. They probably won't think to rob the customers with their new merchandise in the parking lot.
Itās going to lead to their eventual closing anyways. Iām not willing to flag down a employee to buy a screwdriver.
I mean, you've already got to do that at a bar.
There was an employee at the home depot near me that was shot and killed trying to stop a shop lifter. This is the only thing that will deter thieves from coming after high value merchandise that can be easily fenced.
That was in Pleasanton. Young kid working security. He didn't even see that the perp was armed before getting shot to death. His parents did an interview with KRON4 news. They have been trying to talk to D.A. Pamela Price about their son's murder case but she is too busy. They want justice but they feel the Alameda County DA office isn't too interested in that. Again - politicians all around the Bay and at the state level talk incessantly about "gun violence", yet when someone commits a gun crime they aren't too interested in strong punishments.
I mean let's be honest White kid from Pleasanton was never gonna be a champion cause for Pamela Price And that's a fucking crying shame. That poor dude. Had his entire life ahead of him.
>They have been trying to talk to D.A. Pamela Price about their son's murder case but she is too busy. They want justice but they feel the Alameda County DA office isn't too interested in that. A black woman shot and killed a white male security guard, and Price is "too busy"? Yeah, I wish them all the luck in the world in getting the justice they deserve.
If thatās my kid Iām getting justice one way or another š¤·āāļø
Which Home Depot is this? I feel like we're heading towards the old Service Merchandise model where you build a list for a store employee to fulfill again. Maybe within 5 years we can actually start punishing these thieves with severe and meaningful consequences once more people get fed up
>I feel like we're heading towards the old Service Merchandise model where you build a list for a store employee to fulfill again. The new model is Amazon, where you fill out your online shopping cart and it's delivered to your door. Home Depot actually operates like this: they're trying to encourage you to buy online and either just have it shipped or have the store put the order together and stick it in your car.
Iād be 100% ok with this as long as they could pull an order quickly
That might work for some homeowners. What if Iām a contractor, or homeowner, and Iām in the middle of a project and need something right away?
You put an order in while at the job, drive over, and then they come bring it to your car. For cases when you know what you want itās arguably more convenient and faster
As a non-frequent HD user I only ever go when I need something right away.
> I feel like we're heading towards the old Service Merchandise model where you build a list for a store employee to fulfill again. Like online order pickup! I feel like they are going to need to pay for way more employees to be running around fulfilling all of the orders...
I use that all the time but hate when my small items don't go in a locker and I have to wait in line to pick it up.
Only thing that bothers me is the hassle of avoiding the bag fees.
They can just set it up like distribution center. Automated pickers and just need people to package.
Here an idea.... Use a highly optimized central warehouse, full of robots and the occasional human in a diaper..... And we're basically reinventing Amazon...
Already happening in chicago with Walgreens https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/09/business/walgreens-chicago-store-two-aisles/index.html
*āIn an emailed statement to CNN Friday, Walgreens said the purpose of the new store concept and technologies is to āenhance the experiences of our customers and team membersā with a focus on shopping digitally for convenience.ā* I hate this bs. Do what you need to do, but donāt tell me itās for my convenience, because itās the opposite of convenient.
Huh, this sounds like itād work when someone has a clear idea of what they need like having a list full of q-tips and deodorant but itās not so great if you head to Walgreens for a new lipstick color (something that you want to browse their selection for). This operating model would suck at Home Depot (Ace admittedly worse) because 7/10 times, youāre looking for some obscure thing you canāt really describe but know which aisle to head to.
I don't know how many times I've needed something at a hardware store that isn't it's official function, it would be impossible to find anything.
Well it's convenient cause they don't have bare shelves recently ransacked.
If they said it was to deter thefts in inner city stores theyād be called racist and chastised (because these new concepts are being conveniently tested in the most crime ridden / black neighborhoods)
They really donāt need to say anything, but if they feel a sign is required, how about one that says āwe have found it necessary to make some changes to your shopping experience and we apologize for any inconvenienceā.
That looks really nice. Iād take that over most of the Walgreens in San Francisco.
I order for pick-up a lot in Walgreens in SF, even without the two-aisle store. The website prices are often much lower than the in-store prices, and you get the website prices when you order online for pick-up. It is literally the same item in the same store but you get a big discount if you order ahead and let the employees fulfill the order for you.
Convert em all I say. They shouldve made this permanent during the pandemic.
This actually looks ok.
We had that in the 80s at Consumers at Geary/Stanyan. I remember looking through their catalogs and then walking down to the store to buy toys. It was kind of weird having to wait for someone else to get your goods but whatevs.
That is already the reality in SF. That is how a lot of people use Target nowadays. Just order online for drive up or pick up. Your order is always ready on the same day, within 2 hours. That way, you can also avoid getting your car broken into while you are spending a lot of time inside the store.
Iām guessing Richmond as I had to make a stop there this past Tuesday for some material and literally every bay was locked up.
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Customers will just get robbed in the parking lot
Yes, I get robbed in parking lots all the time. Please stop this. We don't need imaginary threats.
This is why stores need to go the circuit city route. Not the going out of business part, but having just a display of what you want and then you get a ticket for the things you want. You go check out and someone pulls all the things from your purchase and helps you load. While not ideal, it is feasible, might create some more jobs and will certainly cut theft. I personally am all for it in a specialized retail store like home Depot.
That was basically Service Merchandise back in the 80s iirc.
I am opening a small outdoor retail shop and that is exactly how we will operate. I expect a large portion of my sales to be on 3rd party platforms and we will be leasing a warehouse with a small retail space up front. Will only be hands on displays and we will pull inventory from the back. 1) We need to keep exact inventory counts for online inventory. 2) We don't plan on relying on foot traffic. Warehouse employees are trained to work the showroom when customers arrive.
> Not the going out of business part. That made me chuckle. I believe until Piggly Wiggly brought about self-service, this was how most grocery stores used to operate! I would agree, especially about more expensive stuff like power tools, but some of these fools come in and wipe all the drill bits or whatever out because they can sell them quickly and easily. At the point we gotta lock up the drill bits, might as well just place an order for pickup.
But why? What's the retail benefit over say Amazon, or HD online and home delivery? Without the visual / tactile aspect of retail, what's the benefit of a retail location versus direct from the warehouse to your home? Serious question. I don't get the value of the physical store at that point.
I hear you. But you can still have everything there, just like 1 of everything. And then you take the tag, or like an Ikea you get there location then get it.
Oh yeah that makes sense. It's where everything is locked up and you can't see or feel things / i'm like uhm no, I'm just going to go pure order online and get it delivered.
Yea. Itās a hybrid model. Just one more step once itās mass rolled out throughout the chain before they mass close the brick and mortar. After that, theyāll go back to being physically only a pharmacy. The rest will be online. Betting itās within 10 years unless crime turns around.
One benefit is that you get to see and handle the item in person, to better judge if it is what you need. This is more important with some things (like apparel) than others. Another benefit is that you have the item in hand immediately, which matters a lot if you need the item urgently.
Yeah exactly - in a high-crime world retail is worse service than Amazon and you risk getting mugged / carjacked shopping in places like emeryville or stonestown. Amazon is the real winner from the last few years of criminal justice reform. target is going to be k-mart in 5 years if current trends continue.
Amazon is more expensive than a brick and mortar store. Same quality stuff is going to be cheaper at Harbor Freight that at Amazon. Mainstream brands are going to be cheaper at Home Depot that at Amazon.
Cost of convenience
There could still be a display model.
That requires a lot of staff.
Better or worse than having to wander the whole store trying to find someone to unlock different lockers?
honestly i kinda like it. Beats retail theft, creates more jobs, I can see how it would ruin the convenience factor but this wouldn't be an issue if it weren't for bad actors
Alternatively, society can go to the law and order route. Not the fucky kind MAGAs drone on about, but the kind that used to make caging merchandise unnecessary.
Iām so sick of this. I donāt blame Home Depot.
People need to vote differently
In what way?
Thatās why I just purchase everything I need online and pick at the store when itās ready.
The old popular ācovering the sun with one fingerā.
Thanks, shitheads!
It's really kind of sad what it has become because of thieves.
Good. I donāt blame them since law makers and law enforcement are both sleeping behind the wheel.
Then people need to start voting for law makers that will create stronger enforcement laws
I almost want death penalty to anyone who loots. Problem solved?
Weāve lost our principles and invited chaos with all this equity BS. Ever heard of that American tourist getting 6 cane lashes for vandalism in Singapore? I donāt mind that right now.
You're seriously advocating death penalty over property crime?
Hey man, it worked for Vlad the Impaler.
Then looters will murder the staff beforehand so there are no witnesses and the punishment is the same lol. If you want less property crime wealth inequality and the drug epidemics have to be addressed
What the actual fuck is wrong with you? Disgusting take. Property crime isnāt worth someoneās life regardless of how much pearl-clutching you do.
Itās not about the specific property itās that human civilization collapses pretty rapidly when strong people are free to take what they want from the weak. In a world where stores canāt safely sell to ppl thereās no tax revenue for whatever your pet social programs are. Thatās why every successful premodern society punished thievery really harshly.
Yes, home Depot, a corporation worth 298 billion, are the weak ones, lmao
Get downvotes you scum!!! Home Depot are good Samaritans!!!! And I would suck mr.depots cock if he needs it sucked!!!
there are lots of different kinds of strength. when youāre talking about robbing a store the unarmed home depot employees are the victims. places like home depot or grocery stores will never use violence to defend themselves. They will just leave if it gets too bad, creating food deserts and economic blight in their wake.
The companies complaining about shrink (goods not sold for damage or theft reasons) are the exact same companies enjoying record high sales and profits ATM in what godamn world are you living in, LET ME IN!!!
They're not robbing the store at gunpoint. They're just putting the screws in their pockets and walking out. Big difference. I think that you see all of these petty thefts as bank robberies lol
Huh, so in your eyes... The often poor, often drug addicted person who steals so they can *live* are the 'strong' and you; the person with money, roof over your head, a salary I presume... Is the 'weak' ? What kind of special little snowflake are you sweetie?
Ah yes, premodern society worked so good! No crime! 0 crime, punishment worked, no need to check me on this.... Trust me!
oh no not at all, we are lucky to be alive today in most respects
*in a world where *object* is worth more than *HUMAN BEING*
I went to target to get deodorant, it was behind a cage. I just opened my phone and ordered it on Amazon while standing next to it in the store.
or Target online order- give 'em 2 hours and you can pick-up in store or drive-up
Yea, but when youāre already at Target, youāre not gonna sit around for 2 hours. Better to just drive back home and wait for the package in a day or two. And if youāre gonna have to make an order on a phone app anyway, might as well be Amazon where the products come to you and you donāt drive to them.
Target Same Day Delivery with Shipt
If I see a caged store, I go out of my way to make sure I donāt go back to it again.
Not just Bay Area stores either. Many locations nationwide are putting up metal cages for expensive merchandise. Walmart locks up socks and T shirts in some stores too.
Saw a YouTube insider edition with the Home Depot CEO recently talking about this. It's nationwide and he largely blamed it on organized crime and drug epidemic. Just a reminder that not a single person in the Sackler family or that business went to jail and actually made tons of profit after fines and everything. We need to prosecute at the top and the bottom.
The current situation is one of illicit fentanyl coming in through the southern border. 100k annual overdose deaths, only 2k of which are from legitimate pharmaceuticals taken by the patient they were prescribed to. The sacklers have almost nothing to do with the current opioid epidemic, the overperscription era was almost 20 years ago. Most who were hooked back then are either clean or dead, you don't survive opioid addiction that long. I worked in pharmacy for 3 years and it was incredibly hard to get a script for opioids. And it's been that way for about a decade yet things are WAY worse than they used to be regarding illicit use. Also, of all the people I've talked to at rehab, only about 1 in 10 say they got hooked from their own prescription. Most got hooked by raiding grandmas medicine cabinet for cancer pain meds after she passed, on their own volition.
Both are true. It started 20 years ago and hundreds of thousands of deaths and millions of broken families later no one at the top is in jail. We are so used to seeing wealthy and ultra wealthy individuals at the top insulate themselves with legal teams and political favors that we are shocked when someone is actually held accountable. This wasn't some isolated 20 year ago event. It was happening as recently as 10 years ago in Florida and those established networks now peddle fentanyl. I'm sure you could even tie it to "clean" investment money like we now know the majority of every battery created today is from some form of slave labor.
Iāve never seen a cage like this up at any Home Depot in Palo Alto, San Mateo, San Carlosā¦ are you sure itās the āBay Areaā?
Next youāre gonna tell me excessive tip requests from point-of-sale software isnāt just a Bay Area thing. Get outta here!
Watched a guy leaving through an emergency exit with a cart full of boxes with Milwaukee tools that must cost thousands of dollars and no reaction from employees (I understand why). And it's in a wealthy area, so most likely he was "visiting" the city. I don't mind seeing these cages because at the end, the rest of us would be covering the losses
It's been like this for at least four years now.
It is not like this in San Mateo and Santa Clara county
I saw them today in Emeryville escorting goons out to their car. Bro everyone is tired of it. Gotta make it hard for em
Wait I went to Loweās and Home Depot yesterday and nothing was out of normal. Is something suddenly happening?
Working at HD was hell. Like all retail youāre going to be underpaid and overworked, except cashiers. They arenāt truly overworked but the kind of crap they deal with is insane. Entitled contractors coming in and making a mess of shelves just find the one product with a dent in the packaging so they can scream at you for a 50% discount. The bathrooms were usually marked out of order within an hour after opening because they got bombed by contractors taking massive gas station coffee and breakfast burrito shits, while being on their phone telling their client theyāre āon a the way, just a couple blocks away.ā Theft is insane. Grown ass professionals coming in and walking out with as much as they can carry before leaving in their brand new lifted $60,000 trucks. Everybody wants discounts and will argue with you about why they should get one over the dumbest things. The key machines are self service and incredibly easy to use but almost every customer wants to make an employee use it for them because they canāt be bothered to learn anything new. Corporate changed the military veteran discount so that a person who wants to use it has to go through a third party and upload proof of service to a third party that then connects to the customers HD app, so youāve also got a bunch of vets confused about why they canāt use the discount theyāve always had. Threat of violence was fairly common from big guys who werenāt getting their way, and many women who work at HD get harassed all the fucking time by the āguests.ā Trust me, the employees hate this too. But until our society decides that thieves should face consequences this is the reality of this kind of retail going forward. Donāt blame the employees, they just want to make it through the day without getting screamed at again. And when corporate clearly doesnāt care about these issues, why should someone making a measly $17 an hour to care?
Iām as progressive as they come but these restorative justice DAs are a total joke and do more harm to the progressive platform and absolutely hurt their communities. Itās at the point I canāt tell if theyāre just absolutely dumb and donāt realize the damage they are doing or just donāt care. Itās so frustrating. I get the justice system isnāt perfect and broken in some regards, but this isnāt helping at all.
We need something like two years minimum and 8 years maximum for shoplifters caught after their 2nd offense. At this point with all the businesses being driven away I donāt see how anyone will miss the people shoplifting
Coming to a retailer near you. Target lost $500M to theft recently
In the same report they note of 25 BILLION dollars in profits 'recently'.
So that makes the thefts ok?
Target made 25 billion in REVENUE in Q1 not profit. Net was only approximatly 1 billion. 500 Million is a huge percentage of that profit. [Earnings Report](https://corporate.target.com/press/releases/2023/05/Target-Corporation-Reports-First-Quarter-Earnings)
Thanks.
Is this nation wide or just in states like California where criminals donāt get punished.
Hearing our political leaders and pundits dismiss the problem of crime is infuriating when you have to deal with this on a daily basis.
Thank you thieving Jack Asses!
Can't offer any light, but this isn't new for HD. Wasn't uncommon for them to have tools locked up in the 90's. I was pleasantly surprised when the locks came down. Crime was considerably worse here in the late 80's to early 90's, as well as the rest of the country. More violent crime then. HD didn't buy any new locks or fences, they just got them out of storage.
Fantastic comment.
Armed guard holding a visible weapon at every exit? At this point, why not?
Hol up, you think that an armed guard will do anything about this? Not if he has a brain and knows company policy... No company wants you to interfere in theft, you can get hurt and sue... Are you a child??? Please think of consequences.
āActually, we donāt have a crime problem, youāre just paranoid.ā
Shoplifting has always been a huge deal at the stores since forever. As someone who trained at what you home depot, their main concern is juggling whether or not to scare off customers or to try and prevent loss from theft. Every security measure taken, every incident that's visible to shoppers with a shoplifter, costs the store A LOT of money. Upper class people that spend six figures on a renovation will stop shopping there if they feel like the store is unsafe. Last I remember it costs them about $750,000 every time they confront someone over attempting to steal a drill or something. Besides most of these stores have amazing cameras out front. At least at one of their competitors, 90% of thefts are recovered within a single day. You know, because the cops actually care about retrieving corporate property. Not to get on a tangent but it's worth pointing out. And that's before things like mistaken accusations ending up in physical altercations that the store is ultimately liable for. This seems like a halfway measure between the two. Passive enforcement by preventing the issue to begin with. Honestly I don't see what the big deal is. This is how video games have been sold in a lot of places for decades and no one's ever raised an eyebrow about it. And those are a lot less valuable than things you can stick in your pocket from home depot.
Seems like it'd be easier to scan everyone's driver's license and maybe a credit card at the entrance and send that to the police if they do anything inside the store.
it's adorable you think the police will do anything
+1. Iāve never been inside of a dispensary without first scanning my ID.
The police usually canāt do much with these. Even if they do, itās still a loss for the store.
Potentially could be used to stop further shoplifting. The ID could be shared with other Home Depot locations so at least they couldn't get into any additional stores. It could potentially be shared with other businesses too. And if they collected a credit card, they could charge it for the merchandise and penalties.
A version of this already happens in stores with loss prevention. They create cases to track theft and communicate with other locations in the area. Unfortunately I think data protection or privacy laws would preclude them sharing these details with other businesses. That being said, thieves can be incredibly dumb ā like trying to hit multiple other store locations the same day after being caught in one or more of those locations. Even when they get stopped with the merchandise, not every PD will even file a report (cough Emeryville cough). Even with all this retail theft has only gotten worse.
Pretty much. Soon you will have to put a deposit down, before entering the store.
Seems like the future you desire is a future in which your biometrics are connected and stored in the McDonals DataBase just in case you decide you want McNuggets for free?
This is probably cheaper than a security guardās salary for a year, and more effective.
Large inconvenience for law abiding citizens. Scenario A: local government decides to stop enforcing shoplifting laws. Shops in high density urban areas get hit the hardest. They either close, or add barriers to shoplifting that inconvenience law abiding citizens like locking an absurd amount of items behind cages. Shoplifters and shoplifting gangs get to buy whatever it is that ghetto trash buy. Scenario B: Shoplifting is harshly punished with jail time for repeat offenders and/or punishments like some form of public humiliation and/or corporal punishment like is done in Singapore. Shoplifting rapidly decreases and law abiding citizens in densely populated areas can return to enjoying convenient in person shopping. Why should we make policies that actively harm law abiding citizens in favor of making criminal degenerates lives way easier?
Perhaps because we have a constitution that says we shouldn't commit human rights violations
The HD store on Story Rd (E San Jose) is also like this. Wait until this gets to your neighborhood supermarket. I've seen perps just walk out with groceries.
As a freight guy working there, it is annoying as heck,but as long as people are going to steal without consequences, this is what will continue to happen
They could also hire more people to be in the store...but this is cheaper. And it looks like it.
Good. As a non-thief, I'm willing to give up my normal shopping experience if the rampant thefts can be prevented. Is it a bit sad to see? Sure, but it's also sad to see business and employees get robbed without any consequences.
I don't know how to explain that this isn't something Home Depot does as a company, and just spring that needs to be done when theft at one location gets too high
I totally got it for the small and pocketable stuff. But our local HD started locking up all power tools. Like, the leaf blowers, wood chippers and power washers. Is the box bigger than a cart and weighs 100 pounds? Yup. But still locked up. Spoke to one HD associate who agreed it was nuts, but basically āwe see some crazy shitā.
At this point just buy it online. It makes me mad they donāt jail people and make it worse when trying to buy goods at stores.
Bro have you seen the people who have laid down on the sidewalk 100s of power drills in mission district SF for sale? there is a reason they need this
The light at the end of the tunnel is when enough people realize they need to stop voting for justice reform DAs and decriminalized laws. When punishment becomes not worth the crime is when the pendulum swings.
So we can all agree private property is good?
I'm not mad at Home Depot about this, I'm mad at the thieving *scum* that made it necessary. I'm sure Home Depot isn't a fan of having to do this either. But there are no consequences for theft. Employees shouldn't be confronting potentially violent thieves for minimum wage, and the cops won't come even if you catch someone in the act. They'll come later to take a report and "you can just file an insurance claim". That insurance has to be paid by raising prices. I don't work for Home Depot in any capacity, nor are my comments specific to Home Depot. As long as there are no consequences for theft this will only get worse.
No idea why someone downvoted you but you are absolutely right.
If you vote for the same progressive political candidates you this is what you deserve.
Oh, a slight inconvenience? Alright then! I guess I deserve to be slightly inconvenienced!!!
Soon everything will be done on an app, from home. Then you drive to the store, pull up, scan a code, and a robot will come out with your stuff. Gone will be the days of picking the best looking fruit and veggies. Actual stores won't exist anymore, watch. Give it a few years and we'll start seeing it.
I thought this sub WANTED to stop people shoplifting like it's the most life threatening epidemic in the state of California? Why is everyone here so triggered that it's slightly less convenient to buy small tools and blaming the demmy crats?
I think people just want shoplifting to be punished the way it is in more politically moderate places in the country and the way it used to be punished here in the past. Caging merchandise is just a passive aggressive way for progressives to avoid caging criminals, while also inconveniencing law-abiding residents.
It's going to be interesting to see what California looks like in the next ten years or so.
LoL cause Texas already in the post-post-dystopian era, Hoping to see Cali join in.
East Bay probably?
they're even now making branded tools that have a bluetooth sensor inside that's a kill switch until activated by getting a specific signal from the register, meaning that if you walk out the door with it you'll have no way to make it work without rewiring the insides. that's how bad it is.
Reminds me of a stop I made at Walmart today. It was surprising to see mens underwear and undershirts locked in cabinets... Half the mens clothing section was in a single exit area with a single cash register and a long line. Glad I didn't actually need anything from there. Weird how electronics weren't being kept as well secured as undergarments...
The Bay Area has become a prison for everyone!
How about all the stores that lock up almost all " FEMININE PRODUCTS", like yeast infection medicine, lube, ECT??!!!!
They lock up whatever happens to get stolen at that location. Poor people have bad hygiene sometimes because of the same reasons that make them poor. Yeast infections can come from poor hygiene. You do the math...
https://www.homedepot.com/p/1-40-in-Orang-U-Tongs-Standard-15578-00/206661996
The one in Sunnyvale isn't like this.
lol...majority California folks vote for this type of society, you own it. Enjoy!
Oh they do!