Best Buy, Home Depot Lock Up Goods to Fight Theft | Hacker News Reader

Best Buy, Home Depot Lock Up Goods to Fight Theft

wsj.com

22 pointsmalshe37 comments

And neither store has enough employees to get you any of the locked up stuff unless you wanna sit around and wait for 20 minutes for the one guy with the padlock code.

In the Home Depot near my house, even finding an employee to ask for help is a chore. Often I have to walk to the front of the store to ask for help.

At my local Home Depot the router bits are displayed on peg hooks with these little red plastic anti-theft dinguses securing them. I guess it's called a "peg hook lock".

Inside this device there is a spring-loaded (I think) plunger that locks it in the closed position, preventing the device and anything behind it from being removed from the hook. The "key" is really just a magnet, which when applied to the bottom of the plastic housing, pulls on that hidden internal plunger to unlock the device.

One evening, after searching to no avail for an employee to help, I went to the furniture hardware aisle where they sell small magnets that you could use for drawers and the like. Borrowed one, still in its plastic clamshell packaging, and used it to remove the peg hook lock and retrieve the router bit I wanted. Then I returned the peg hook lock to its locked position, returned the magnet to its aisle, and purchased the bit feeling rather proud of myself for solving this puzzle game.

Be very careful when doing this. Technically speaking, Asset Protection could arrest you for shoplifting between the router bit display and the cash register if they spot it. Similar to popping AP tags off of items before purchasing them.

I would like to watch that trial.

Tampering with theft prevention devices can be its own charge or simply be used to show intent. The reason for anti-theft devices like this isn't so much to physically prevent theft, as to require shoplifters to exhibit intent BEFORE leaving the store. If AP catches a person tampering with them then they can be arrested without having to wait for them to walk past the cashiers and doors.

Edit: Example from Michigan https://www.michigancriminalattorneysblog.com/tampering-thef...

Hopefully my intent could be explained to a reasonable person, as I did make a good faith effort to look for help. It was a quiet evening, about half an hour till closing time with very little business going on in the store.

I didn't find any employees walking the aisles, just the guy working the register, who glibly advised me "yeah, you should probably look for somebody to unlock that" and provided no further assistance. Only after another fruitless search for such a somebody did I resort to my DIY technique.

Edit: A funny side note, some months prior to this event I had been in the same store to buy a different router bit. On that occasion I did find a very helpful employee who wanted to unlock the bit for me but did not know how. He cut it off the peg with a utility knife on his belt, slicing through the plastic packaging. I was more nervous going to the cash register with that!

> Hopefully my intent could be explained to a reasonable person.

Yeah. For sure! However, AP guys and cops can be pretty unreasonable.

> If AP catches a person tampering with them then they can be arrested without having to wait for them to walk past the cashiers and doors.

Nobody gets arrested for only tampering with the device.

> If you are arrested for tampering with a theft detection device, retail fraud, organized retail theft, or any other shoplifting offense it is extremely important to not make statements to loss prevention, police officers, or anyone else about what allegedly occurred.

Intent is almost impossible to prove unless the suspect voluntarily admits it during questioning or walks out the door without paying (which speaks for itself).

Tampering with the device is not enough to get you arrested. AP/LP may detain you (and the cops may even be called as a show of force). There's only one way you get arrested in this situation.

do you think this would ever go to trial or even indictment?

I've talked with AP guys who have caught people tampering with these. People have definitely been arrested and booked for these sorts of things.

Is that justice? I don't think so but what do I know.

No, it is not justice.

This probably varies between regions.

When I was working retail you couldn't stop anyone until they tried to leave the store.

Yeah, I'd actually be fine with locking stuff up if the stores reorganized their staff/purchasing experience so that you could still buy things easily.

For me, Best Buy was notorious for not putting their stuff - not even a placeholder - on the shelves, but still had it in stock behind the counter. So you had to wait in the purchase line to check if they even _had_ the item you wanted. Pre-covid, before online checkout was popular and expected.

This is giving me CompUSA flashbacks of going in to get a new Processor/GPU/MB and having the one salesman with the key stuck in a never-ending conversation with a customer who ends the whole thing with "Thanks for the info, I will think about it for a few weeks before buying."

And since the salesman with the key was thinking they were going to score a big bounty would usually just ask me to wait my turn.

And to fight sales as well. If I find an item I want in a big-box store like that locked up, I walk away and order it on Amazon. I don't have time to wander all over the store looking for an employee with a key to come get me the item I want. As the old saw goes "Ain't nobody got time for that."

And in fact, this kind of customer unfriendly b.s. is a big part of the why I don't shop in physical retail stores as much. Lowes and Home Depot both have tried very hard to dissuade me from ever entering one of their stores again with this stuff, over-reliance on "self checkout" crapola, etc.

As for Best Buy, the last couple of times I've walked into the one nearest me, the shelves had a very barren, depleted look that might just be a symptom of the same supply chain issues that have been causing so many other issues. Regardless of the reason, I feel less compelled to go in there, because I don't have a lot of expectation that I'm going to find what I'm looking for.

I mean, I understand that physical retail is a tough gig and all. But at the same time, if you're a retailer and you don't have product on your shelves, or the products are there but locked up, you're telling me to go somewhere else.

>If I find an item I want in a big-box store like that locked up, I walk away and order it on Amazon. I don't have time to wander all over the store looking for an employee with a key to come get me the item I want.

This doesn't compute to me. You've gone to the effort, and taken time out of your day, to physically go to a Home Depot and find the product you're looking for. That's time spent doing all that, maybe at least 20 minutes or so, but you'll throw away all of that effort and time because you "don't have the time" to spend just an extra minute or two finding the employee to unlock it? What you want could be two feet in front of your face, but you'll basically kick rocks and say, "Fuck this, I'm going home"?

And then, because you "don't have time", you'll wait an additional 24-48 hours?

I’m sure Home Depot and others have numbers on how much sales drop (or don’t?) when they add these locks. I’d love to see those numbers.

And maybe for some people there’s an opposite effect! “Lock == valuable -> buy”

If you try, you can see many sets of circumstances where this would make sense to a person.

Also, you don't need to have an instant need for a product to buy it. Time waiting is not the same as time wasted. You can use all 8-200 hours (Amazon has a personal record for me of 8 hours in my medium size Canadian city) effectively.

You are not waiting in line nor waiting for an employee to be able to help you, just walking out of the store with the item in ordered status before you hit the door anyway.

What you want could be two feet in front of your face, but you'll basically kick rocks and say, "Fuck this, I'm going home"?

Yes, I absolutely will do just that.

And then, because you "don't have time", you'll wait an additional 24-48 hours?

I don't have time to waste wandering around a store looking for an employee. It's not usually the case that I specifically need the item right now. In that rare exceptional case I'd stick around and find the employee, but that would definitely be the exception and not the norm for me. For me, if I go into Home Depot or somewhere it's more likely that the store was on my way home from work, I had a vague notion that "I need a new tape measure" or whatever, so I stop and go in. In that case, I have NO problem walking right back out if they make it hard to buy the thing I want.

Also, just to elaborate, if there are other things I planned to buy while in the store, I may well go ahead and go get those (assuming they aren't locked up as well) so it's not necessarily the case that the entire store visit is thrown away because one item is locked up. But they definitely lose the sale of that specific item, barring the aforementioned exceptional case where I absolutely, positively, must have it "right now".

>For me, if I go into Home Depot or somewhere it's more likely that the store was on my way home from work, I had a vague notion that "I need a new tape measure" or whatever, so I stop and go in. In that case, I have NO problem walking right back out if they make it hard to buy the thing I want.

You stop in on your way from work. You see that tape measure, but it's locked down. There's an employee one aisle over who can help.

You bail.

The act of going to HD, parking, and going to find that tape measure probably takes about 5-10, maybe 15 mins depending on how far off of your route home the store is. Do you consider the cumulative time spent performing those tasks to have been wasted if you leave empty-handed?

You're over-analyzing this. None of that matters in any way here. Humans are not homo-economicus - obsessively rational creatures who roam around minimax'ing every decision. At least I'm not.

From a rational perspective, this doesn't make sense. But from an emotional and impulsive perspective, it makes perfect sense. People are not entirely driven by rational thinking especially when it comes to trivial tasks like going to the store to buy something, which people usually expect to go smoothly.

A rational person shows consistent behavior to maximize their utility. It's perfectly rational if the consumer attaches very high utility to mental peace.

From a rational perspective, this doesn't make sense.

Sure. But how is that relevant to anything?

But from an emotional and impulsive perspective, it makes perfect sense. People are not entirely driven by rational thinking especially when it comes to trivial tasks like going to the store to buy something, which people usually expect to go smoothly.

Exactly this. There's more to the "equation" so to speak than just minimax'ing around some naive notion of rationality.

Coincidentally enough, I just bought a computer from BestBuy that I ordered online and then had delivered to my car by selecting "curbside pickup". Technically I didn't enter the store so maybe your point still stands -but still, it didn't phase me one way or the other that things were locked up.

Replacing physical items with high fidelity video and automating the picking process when the shopper clicks add-to-cart could be sold as an improved experience.

I'd add a physical add-to-cart button with real-time inventory and give shoppers a bracelet when they walk into the store. They can pair that bracelet with their phone. They can either add items digitally from their phone or browse the store and add them from item locations. Stores would transform into customer service/fulfillment locations where storing items on the floor is unnecessary.

Sounds kind of dystopian to me. For what kind of goods would you find this style of shopping appealing?

Heck you could even selectively change what appears in the aisles based on shoppers preferences. But solution looking for a problem - not sure why I wouldn't rather shop online if the content is all digital

Apple retail, by comparison, separates most of their salable product from the showroom, requiring a "runner" to pick up most items. But they were designed like this from the start, and have so many staff who can do this, so it doesn't feel like a colossal effort.

And the defunct Fry's Electronics went through such weird efforts to display their products even when it made no sense, going to extremes like bolting motherboards to the wall.

My local small hardware store keeps its router bits in a locked display cabinet ... with the key in the lock. Which reminds me of a covid mask worn under the chin. There is no easy one size fits all balance between security and convenience. Besides the propinquity, that extra convenience helps keeps the little stores alive, so I can almost cheer the big boxes for this trend.

We used to have a retail chain called Consumers Distributing. The showroom was just catalogues. You would take a slip of paper, write down the product code and take it to the desk. Someone in the back would the pick your order and it would arrive by conveyor belt to the cash.

Actually worked quite well but they didn't get the impulse buyers that regular retail has.

Best Buy’s is really dumb they just hide products they have in stock. Like I tried to buy a new release game and they were all hidden and it looked like it was sold out. It was a poor strategy

remember consumers distributing ?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consumers_Distributing

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Service_Merchandise

the catalogue store could make a comeback, shoplifting is hard to do like that.

you can focus on insider theft and inventory shrink.

I was thinking the same thing. And it's perfectly ready for online ordering + pickup as well.

My neighbor activated a DSL connection at home, and went to Best Buy without me. She came home with a cable modem.

Paywall removed: https://www.wsj.com/articles/best-buy-home-depot-lock-up-goo...

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