Sometimes, you aren’t aware something is a privilege until it’s snatched away from you. That’s a feeling many consumers may have had lately when shopping inside pharmacies and a few large retail store chains across the country.
Retail theft has grown to become an expensive issue in the retail industry in recent years. According to a study last month from the National Retail Federation, retailers reported a 93% increase in the average number of shoplifting incidents per year in 2023 compared to 2019, and a 90% increase in dollar loss due to shoplifting over the same time period.
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Pharmacies have grown to become especially susceptible to retail theft. According to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, organized retail crime, which is when a group of people steal and resell items, occurs the most inside pharmacies.
Related: Walmart launches plan to stop retail theft without frustrating shoppers
In response to the startling trend, pharmacies such as CVS Health, Walgreens and Rite Aid have opted to lock multiple products behind glass displays in their stores to help prevent theft.
This form of theft prevention, however, is starting to have unintended consequences. Consumers have increasingly voiced frustration on social media with encountering locked-up products in stores. Many flagged that waiting on store employees to unlock these items can take a lengthy amount of time.
In a recent survey from Consumer World, 55% of shoppers said that when they encounter a product that is locked up in a store, they search for another place to buy it instead of seeking a store employee to unlock it.
CVS tackles frustration over locked-up products
As consumers continue to dodge stores that have adopted this form of theft prevention, CVS believes it has a unique solution to tackle frustration over locked-up products, and it is testing it in select stores in New York City.
CVS Health has just revamped its app, and it includes a new feature that allows customers to open theft-proof cabinets to access products, according to a new report from the Wall Street Journal.
CVS is one of many retailers that experimented with keeping products locked up — customers don’t like having to ask employees to unlock cases for them.
Customers will only need to be logged into the app and connected to the store’s Wi-Fi with bluetooth enabled to activate the feature.
The feature is being piloted in three locations in NYC: 630 Lexington Ave., 540 Amsterdam Ave. and 158 Bleecker St.
If the pilot of the feature is successful, CVS plans to expand the feature to 10-15 stores and then, eventually, to all locations.
Related: Walgreens owns up to embarrassing mistake that frustrates customers
“People really, really dislike locked cabinets,” said Tilak Mandadi, executive vice president of ventures at CVS Health, in an interview with the Journal.
The move from CVS comes during a time when Walmart is also allegedly testing out technology at hundreds of its stores that allows employees to unlock theft-proof cabinets with their cell phones digitally. The retailer also allegedly discussed possibly expanding the technology to Walmart+ members.
CEOs sound alarm on consequences of locking up products
One of CVS Health’s main competitors, Walgreens, also recently came to the realization that locking up products in stores can encourage customers to shop elsewhere.
“When you lock things up…you don’t sell as many of them. We’ve kind of proven that pretty conclusively,” said Walgreens CEO Tim Wentworth during an earnings call last week.
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In August last year, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy even claimed during an earnings call that Amazon Pharmacy was seeing a spike in sales due to its “speed and ease” that physical pharmacies are starting to lack as a result of having locked-up products.
“If you walk into pharmacies in cities today, it’s a pretty tough experience with how much is locked behind cabinets, where you have to press a button to get somebody to come out and open the cabinets for you and a lot of shoplifting going on in the stores,” said Jassy during the call.
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