[nutjob2]

In what sense are you keeping the general public out? Some percentage of any population will be shoplifters.

What makes more sense is store sized vending machines. Pay for what you want and it is dispensed. Order on site or online. I'm surprised no one is doing this on a wide scale yet.

[ajcp]

->store sized vending machines

Which was literally the shopping experience before Selfridges "revolutionized" the department store experience by letting customers have direct access to goods for sale.[0]

Before that everything was behind a counter and you have to be served and monitored. Even the grocery store was a similar experience, whereby you would give the clerk your list and they would select everything for you.

Everything that is old is new again.

0. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Department_store#Innovations_1...

[ryanmcbride]

I'd be perfectly content with this model, but the problem is then they'd have to hire employees to do things! Stores would much rather have us pick everything ourselves, checkout ourselves, and have our cars remote detonated by robots automatically if the crime computer deems it appropriate.

That way they only have to hire two employees. One to drag carts around the parking lot and one to drag keys to all the locked cabinets of soap and shampoo and diapers and whatnot.

[cjbgkagh]

The main issue is spiky demand, you’d have keep a cadre of employees around to minimize peak latency. Offloading tasks to the shopper scales well with usage.

[aerostable_slug]

Also revenue loss due to fewer impulse purchases. You could still have candy bars in the line to get to the counter, but it's not the same thing as merchandising in aisles and on end caps.

With robots doing the picking and packing the employee problem becomes reduced, but it might take some serious innovation to reliably get customers to leave with more products than they went to the store to buy.

[lostlogin]

Click and collect has made grocery shopping almost tolerable in my household. It seem a modern take on the pre-Selfridges model.

[TulliusCicero]

People willing to pay a membership fee like Costco are probably less likely to be shoplifters, plus signing up for a membership means they have your info which further discouraged shoplifting, and then if they do catch you then it's easier to ban you from all their stores.

[nutjob2]

Shoplifters aren't going to follow any of those rules, they'll just use fake or stolen card or identities.

But I think people still do it, I don't know if they still do it but Costco would check your receipt against what was in your trolley when I shopped there, if I remember correctly (10+ years ago).

[rck]

In 2023, shrinkage at Costco was less than 0.2%, vs a US national average of 1.44%.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/costco-winning-war-against-re...

[margalabargala]

This isn't a situation that requires a social contract where they follow some rules. The ease of shoplifters "not following the rules" with fake/stolen identities will simply approach the experience of someone trying to do the same with an airline ticket.

[TulliusCicero]

> Shoplifters aren't going to follow any of those rules, they'll just use fake or stolen card or identities.

I think you'd be surprised.

And in any case, some shoplifters will obviously be dissuaded by the need to get a fake or stolen card in the first place.

[tracker1]

Costco now checks your picture against your card on entry.

[mothballed]

You don't need a card to enter nor even a friend with one. Just say you're going to the pharmacy.

They don't check at the food court, either. Wouldn't surprise me if people have stole stuff via the big pizza boxes.

[sbuttgereit]

Or... just open up big warehouses, only do online sales, and then deliver to customer?

The truth is we have tried it and on a large scale: The Automat (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automat). Don't see to many of those around anymore, except maybe analogues in Japan.

With some perspective on the idea, would you invest in the retail real estate, the technology development, and later maintenance, and then still need to have staff to stop people from just breaking into the machine?

[mothballed]

I guess it's up for interpretation whether stealing from an Amazon van is easier or harder than stealing from a store. Is it more risky for the thief to bring the Amazon van to the hood, or the hood to the store?

[sbuttgereit]

The store tends to always be there, there is often times need to have a lot of them, and they're available at well known (even published) times whereas the van isn't always at the same places at the same time and doesn't even carry predictable goods... just that you know there will be goods. Sure you can guess or make your luck by waiting for the van or search for it in good spots... but the cost is higher for the criminal to try and count on such a thing.

The truth is I expect stealing from a delivery van is ultimately simpler... or simply stealing the package off the porch easier still. The issue isn't the ease or difficulty.

Where I expect consumer delivery businesses to do better in the face of theft is on the cost of theft (assuming a certain scale in the delivery business). Given the economies of scale of a warehouse and the delivery model vs traditional retail locations, I bet means the loss for any item stolen from the van is less than that of the same item stolen from a traditional retail location.

[tristor]

> Some percentage of any population will be shoplifters.

This is only true in ways that don't matter, because you count "any population" being large enough to obviously include miscreants. Most people do not shoplift, and therefore there are MANY ways to slice a population which will not include shoplifters.

[emchammer]

Welcome to iCostco, I love you