You may have seen something like this yourself. W
out shopping, big name retail stores like Walmart and
Target are putting everyday items including deodor
under lock and key to prevent them from being stolen.
Some customers say it's ruining the shopping experience
Our national correspondent Stephanie Sandoval is live
with us now from Nashville, Stephanie. What are
hearing from shoppers about thi People I spoke to say
it's really disheartening to see things being locked up
like that and then having to ask an employee to come
and unlock the door. But the problem is bigger than
just people coming and stealing individual items. The
National Retail Federation says it's all due to
organized retail crime groups ever seen this at Walmart.
They lock the socks. I'm trying to steal that man in
socks. Frustration on both sides of the aisle. What's
up Walmart Get it together Why are you locking things
up that you're actively recording retail stores like
Walmart and Target are taking matters into their own
hands, locking up everyday items like toothpaste and
deodorant customers. On the oth hand, are tired of it
the most. I've waited one time was like 10 minutes and
that was frustrating. I come here to buy some deodorant
and, and discover that they've been locked up re to
Braddock posted this video on tiktok back in October
after seeing products locked up at her local target in
Los Angeles and the area that it's in, it sits at um,
the lower end of Baldwin Hills in Los Angeles, which is
an affluent, um, African American community. So when
you went in that day in October, you didn't, you
weren't expecting what you were expecting to see.
Absolutely not. I was in shock. She says since posting
that video, they've also locked up more stuff like
makeup products and laundry detergent. It takes away
from the pleasures of shopping. You know, you just
can't walk into a store and just go, you know, I like,
I like this product. I wanna check it out, you know,
and see if I could take the top off and smell it. You
know, you can't do that. Travis Hodges stopped by a
Walmart during his trip to Nashville later posting this
video. His first reaction. What is the world coming to
I guess I mean, it's kind of sad that, you know, you
have to lock things up. You know, people just can't go
to the store and buy something and I guess it takes one
person to ruin it. I don't know, a new report from the
National Retail Federation says individual shoplifters
aren't the problem. It's organized retail crime. David
Johnston from the National Retail Federation says it's
becoming an increasing problem in the US. These are
criminal enterprises that organize plan and orchestrate
groups of shoplifters who go in and steal often and
large quantities of theft. The report found organized
retail crime groups mostly go after everyday consumer
goods which it says are easier to steal and resell on
places like Facebook marketplac But as retail stores
are on a mission to prevent retail shrink, the repo
also mentions security measures to stop theft like lock
boxes could actually hurt sales because of the
inconvenience and delay these measures introduced to
the shopping experience specifically at stores that
don't have enough employees. Retailers do not want to
lock up items, they want items to be readily available
and accessible to their customers. Unfortunately,
also want the items to be there. Even traditional
security measures, security off and, and anti um
theft tags, they don't work. So oftentimes locking up
the merchandise is their last Res Scripps news reached
out to multiple retail stores, implementing loc
requesting an interview target the only one to get
back to us but didn't provide any more detail other
than the store takes a quote multilayered approach t
combating theft which includes using locking cases.
Makes me especially as an African American woman feel
like I'm already, you know, being targeted and profil
as a, as a criminal. I'm just being real and I'm being
honest about that and legislation designed to combat
organized retail crime has been introduced at the
national level. Now, if passed the combating organized
Retail Crime Act of 2 23 would then create a center
under the Department of Homeland Security. Then
allowing them to investigate these types of crimes and
hopefully prevent them from happening. Alexa.