[jnwatson]

It wasn't at all. There's still a serious problem with shoplifting. Wal-mart would not be removing self-checkout if this were just a PR campaign.

At my local CVS, they just started locking up the bulk candy. You don't take the the sales hit and the expense of those locking cabinets unless you have a real shrinkage problem.

[mrguyorama]

>Wal-mart would not be removing self-checkout if this were just a PR campaign

They absolutely would.

Shrink has not gone up

The National Retail Federation, which publishes those numbers yearly, has stopped publishing those numbers to hide that fact.

There are real shoplifting problems but they are extremely local. Your local police department needs to stand up and do their fucking jobs to identify and take down the organized crime perpetuating it.

[api]

I would not have believed the shoplifting thing if I hadn’t seen it.

Walked into a CVS midday in SF. There were even cops not far away. Poor rent a cop in there is just yelling “police have been called” while three or four people are roaming around grabbing stuff and putting it in black bags.

The rest of the shoppers are going about their business, so I do too. I figure if the robbers mess with a shopper or anyone else that’s felony assault and that breaks the grift. The grift is to rip cheaper stuff they can resell but below certain thresholds. Was pretty sure they’d have no weapons too since that would make it a felony.

By the time I’m checking out with my melatonin gummies and toothpaste they’re taking off.

I can break one stereotype though. They were white. They were wearing masks but looked like probably white teenage dudes.

I mean why not. Teen hormones and free money.

It was surreal in a way I’m not describing well here. People were not even reacting.