Posted on 09/21/2024 7:15:34 AM PDT by george76
COMPTON, Calif. -- More and more stores across the Southland and the country are taking stricter measures to fight a growing epidemic of shoplifting.
At least one Rite Aid store in Compton appears to be taking security to the extreme.
The store on Long Beach Boulevard installed locked glass cases on every aisle, meaning a majority of items for sale apparently require the assistance of a store employee.
It's a sign of a growing and disturbing trend that's been seen in social media videos and news reports of shoplifters taking items from retailers without significant resistance by employees or security.
"It feels weird when you walk in there," customer Eduardo Ramirez said of the Compton Rite Aid store. "Really uncomfortable."
"The only thing that's not locked up is the drinks, but that's it," he added. "Everything else is locked up."
Roy Barocio of Lynwood visits the location often and said he noticed the changes several weeks ago.
"Now I've got to press the button and wait about 10 minutes to seven minutes for them to come and help me, and they come moody," he said.
Eyewitness News reached out to Rite Aid to ask what prompted the measures, if they are store-specific or if the measures will be rolling out at other locations in California. Rite Aid has not yet responded.
Some stores say they are legally powerless to take aggressive actions against shoplifters.
One California sheriff last year blasted Target, saying their policies limited his deputies' ability to stop shoplifters, with restrictions against handcuffing and processing suspects inside the store.
Sacramento Sheriff Jim Cooper said deputies watched a woman take items off the shelves and return them at customer service, with no intervention by Target employees.
Lawmakers are looking for ways to combat the problem. Gov. Gavin Newsom recently signed a bill putting tougher penalties on bigger theft schemes and smash-and-grab robberies.
And law enforcement agencies have formed task forces going after the big players in the theft market, such as the fences who buy and then resell stolen goods.
I stay away from these chain drug stores. Their stuff is about 50% over prices at HEB or Walmart.
Dozens of juveniles on bikes ransack Pico-Robertson 7-Eleven store for second time..
https://abc7.com/post/large-group-juveniles-bikes-ransack-2-los-angeles-7-eleven-stores/15333295/
Completely mendacious lawmakers.
They are the ones who need to be locked up.
“Sacramento Sheriff Jim Cooper said deputies watched a woman take items off the shelves and return them at customer service, with no intervention by Target employees.”
Returns without a receipt? If true ... no need to haul items out of the store. Just take them to customer service and get cash. I think that’s what they’re saying. Crazy
It’s not shoplifting it’s open raiding.
“EXCEPT THE CRIMINALS!!”
Very well played and you are 100% right! Is there any more visible evidence of the rot and decay in our country than products being locked up in stores?
I went to Walmart-Mart a month ago for something simple like detergent. It took 20 minutes for the person with the key to the case to show up. I talked to the store manager and he said they have five people on the floor with keys and are trying to hire another five. TEN people with the keys to the kingdom.
I’m continuing to shift more of my purchases to Amazon. It takes seconds to order, the selection is bigger, and almost everything arrives within 24 hours.
To be buzzed in, please show your Costco membership card.
Up until about 100 years ago, one stood at a counter and told the clerk what to fetch.
All that ink spilled on this story and not once does the journalist say which group is primarily engaging in this criminality. Blacks.
Stores in San Francisco have been doing this for years - went into one supermarket where everything was behind plexiglass.
Unfortunate that it has to be this way, but the voters of Compton and San Francisco have spoken - that they don’t want shoplifters arrested and charged.
My own local supermarket (SoCAl) - I noticed yesterday has moved all of the laundry supplies, personal care items and baby products onto several aisles that are now blocked off with a one-way in and out door - with a register right there to check out those particular items. I’m sure it because of shoplifting.
Rite-Aid is swirling the drain anyway.
Here in southwest Florida NOTHING is locked up, anywhere. Left California in 2020 before the massive thievery started but I’ve been reading about it since then.
It’s part of Rite-Aid’s pilot Product Lending Program.
Imprisonment is costly.
What could be done instead is to chain one hand, run the chain between the legs and up the back to a neck collar.
How do they change their underwear and pants? They don’t. The pants and underwear get washed in the shower.
How do they sit on the john? The chain is of a length to be pushed aside.
What if they cut the chain? Imprisonment.
The IRS collects over a trillion dollars a year via the threat of imprisonment.
Blacks and assorted meth and fetty heads of all colors.
In my part of Florida, Home Depot and Lowe’s lock up all the large copper cable and hand power tools. Walmart locks up much of its smaller electronics.
Stores in Blue-controlled areas already know that allowing people to pick up and touch items prior to purchasing is obsolete, and that sticking items behind locked shelves is STUPID AS HELL, due to the labor costs involved, not to mention ‘youths’ soon coming into stores with explosives to blow things open.
So the OBVIOUS solution, at least if they want to keep their store around, is to put their inventory in a vault, or something close to that - only accessible by the ‘back crew’, being workers who pick out the items ordered up front, and send them forward only AFTER the customer has paid.
Today’s ‘youth’ in Blue-controlled areas see the traditional style of stores no differently than we would see a bank with all it’s cash right in front of us, with their operational model being that we come in, grab a bunch of cash, then write a write-up a withdrawal slip for the money so that bank can debit our account. Banks don’t do that, but stores still do (in Blue areas), but not for long.
Wow, incredible. Thieves brazenly walk out the front door with stolen merchandise and employees are told to not interfere.
What will the clerk at that separate aisle do when some thief just walks by him or her and proceeds to the store exit?
That sounds like another unworkable solution.
The only solution is harsh and strict law enforcement and tough judges. We would need to double or maybe triple our prison capacity to hold all the criminals, but we could get a livable and civil society in return.
All of this started when the courts started ruling that the prisons were too crowded and prisoners had to be let go. Then California led the way with a revised law that set the amount of felony shoplifting at $950. But it all started with the liberal judges emptying the prisons.
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