Some Bay Area stores are getting upgrades to help crack down on shoplifting, and among those to install new features are Walgreens, Target stores and some Safeway locations.
KCBS Radio’s Matt Bigler shared more on the upgrades from the Western Addition Safeway in San Francisco, where some customers will have to scan their receipt before they can leave the store. This comes as the National Retail Federation’s 2022 retail security survey ranked the Bay Area as the second-most hard-hit metropolitan area by theft. L.A. was ranked first and New York third.
The Safeway location in San Francisco has installed sliding security doors around the self-checkout vestibule and requires customers to scan their receipts before allowing them to leave.
Stanley Walton, a customer at the store, shared with Bigler that he had no issue getting his receipt to scan, but not everyone was so fortunate. When it comes to what Walton thought of the gates, he said he doesn’t have an opinion because the shoplifting is “still going on.”
But Safeway isn’t the only store to explore new shoplifting prevention methods, as select Walgreens stores in the Bay Area have reportedly begun chaining their freezers overnight to stop theft. Additionally, Target has put cosmetics, snacks and other items behind lock and key.
Some customers complained to the New York Post they had to wait 10 minutes for employees to unlock items like Tide Pods.
Video obtained by the DailyMail showed chains over the doors of a Walgreens freezer, padlocked to a bolt drilled into the wall.
Workers at the stores shared with the media outlet that the chains are an effort to stop thieves from breaking in after closing and stealing the contents inside. They also shared that people steal from the store as many as 20 times a day.
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