Drugstores like CVS, Walgreens and Rite Aid have long been the places where you can get essentials like a can of soup or some Tylenol along with your prescription medications.
Together, the three brands operate approximately 20,000 stores across the United States, in both big cities and small towns, making them some of the most convenient stores where you can find everything you need and get on with your day.
But each year, more and more items appear to be locked away to prevent theft, deterring customers who claim these measures detract from the shopping experience.
On TikTok, videos show frustrated customers trying to make everyday purchases – only to encounter locked shelves and display cases.
One video even shows a CVS store with Gatorade bottles and water in coolers that are locked and have push buttons labeled “Customer Service” next to the handles.
Another image shows a Rite Aid store with an even larger selection of locked goods, including tortilla chips and microwaveable ramen. Gift cards and greeting cards are among the few products that customers can take off the shelf themselves.
“I think if it’s that bad, you might as well close it down,” says the poster author in the video.
Drugstores should be easy to obtain
Convenience is the essence of drugstore retail, Global Data analyst Neil Saunders told Business Insider.
“If you put obstacles there by locking things up and not having enough staff to unlock the lockers, you’re destroying your raison d’être,” he said.
Saunders was recently surprised to see peanuts under anti-theft protection at a CVS store.
“If it were macadamia nuts, I might accept it,” he joked.
At a Duane Reade store in Brooklyn, New York, Business Insider observed an elderly woman asking why the toothpaste was locked away while an employee was unlocking aspirin for her. Duane Reade is part of Walgreens.
Saunders also said that it is a natural reaction for retailers to protect their inventory from shoplifters, but deterring or stopping honest shoppers does not exactly help a store’s financial performance.
Spokespeople for Walgreens and CVS told BI that the anti-theft technologies were installed in response to data on shoplifting at individual stores and to ensure that products were in stock for customers.
“Blocking a product is an action that should only be considered as a last resort,” the CVS spokesperson said. Rite Aid did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Interestingly, the difficulties in the so-called front-of-store business have received little attention from management and investors. The topic was not mentioned on CVS’s question-and-answer conference call this week, where the discussion focused more on the complexities of the company’s drug prescriptions and health care operations.
Meanwhile, Walgreens executives said the company is still struggling with inventory shortages and that one in four of the company’s stores is unprofitable.
Drugstores also announced thousands of store closures last year, many related to Rite Aid’s bankruptcy and Walgreens’ attempt to make its store network more efficient.
Friction and frustration for gig workers with tight schedules
Locked-up goods are also a problem for people who fulfill orders for services like DoorDash and Instacart. The pressure is especially great for gig delivery workers, who have to shop and deliver orders to customers by a certain date.
An Instacart shopper in Nevada told BI that when shopping at a CVS or Walgreens store, she always finds two or three locked items at a time before pressing a button to call an associate. This way, she said, she can complete the order faster and saves the associate time, too.
Some of the recent orders the shopper has filled required picking up as many as seven items under lock and key, she said. She said she even avoids taking orders that require shopping at a specific Walgreens store because so much merchandise is locked there.
“It’s unfortunate and I understand the store’s stance, but it poses a challenge for shoppers,” she said.
Shoplifting is a problem, but this solution brings new problems
The drugstore chains were and are among the loudest critics of shoplifting.
In 2022, a Rite Aid executive said thefts were causing such high losses for the chain that it was considering locking up “literally everything” in its stores. But it’s difficult to get good information on how big the shoplifting problem actually is.
The companies have since softened their stance somewhat, but Walgreens CEO Tim Wentworth says the problem is still not solved and will not be solved without the support of local politicians and law enforcement agencies.
Meanwhile, pharmacies are rapidly losing competition from Walmart, Target, Amazon and local grocers, which still fill prescriptions and often have fewer locks and more staff, as well as other perks like same-day delivery, according to GlobalData’s Saunders.
“People haven’t stopped buying a lot of these things, they just haven’t stopped buying them in drugstores,” he said. “All it takes is one or two aisles where things are locked away and customers say, ‘Okay, I’ll find an alternative.'”
Do you work at CVS, Walgreens, Rite Aid or another drugstore chain and have a story idea you’d like to share? Contact these reporters at [email protected] and [email protected]
