The real problem is when there’s no employees available to open the cabinet. I’m sorry, Home Depot, but I’m not going to run around the store trying to find someone only to have them call someone else just so I can get a $50 roll of copper wire.
Not to mention that in some locations there’s so few employees, you’ll end up walking a mile before someone says, “I’ll have someone meet you there.” Then no one shows up.
And they always look so put out by the request too. Like they don’t want to help but do it begrudgingly. Who wants to go through all that
Especially in huge stores like Home Depot. Good luck finding anyone within 50 yards.
I just had to do this at lowes for a measily 15ft of Romex and again for a breaker.
It’s ridiculous. I had the same issue for a 50ft roll of 14 gauge romex. Not even the good 10/3 stuff. This was bottom-of-the-barrel 14/2. I was then able to walk over and grab a $100 cable tester and a box of CAT6 right off the shelf.
I guess crackheads aren’t stealing cable testers or ethernet cable.
What’s Romex? I have no idea what this conversation is about but I’d love to know lol
Romex is that whitish electrical cable you sometimes see in unfinished basements, goes from the breaker box to junction boxes. White cable, nailed to the studs with that white plastic tab with a nail on each side, goes to a blue or metal box with outlets in it.
The copper in that is pretty thick so nowadays a lot of places lock up the wires so people don’t try to make off with a bunch of it
I’m not a professional electrician, but I believe the color of the cable is standardized, too. The white cable you refer to is 14-gauge, which is standard for a 15-amp household outlet. 12-gauge is yellow, and 10-gauge is orange.
I’m happy to be corrected if I’m wrong, though.
If I have to wait for an employee to unlock an item, I’m just buying it somewhere else, whether it’s online or another brick and mortar that doesn’t make me beg to spend money there. Same with stores that have passcode locks on their bathroom doors. I’m not asking a retail worker for permission to pee.
I’m not asking a retail worker for permission to pee.
Will someone please tell the Europeans having to have cash to piss or shit is a crime against humanity?
I wish our gvnts understood that. Plus I’m in a wheelchair so I can never enter those fucking doors things even if I want to pay
My only real issue is with health and beauty being locked up. I’m currently transitioning (MtF) and have found myself buying a lot online for this very reason. If it’s behind a glass wall, it can stay there.
Walmart locks up light bulbs and fuses for cars. I was standing around mashing the obviously broken button for 20 minutes before I left, drove 10 minutes further away from home to orielleys, where I had my light bulb within 5 minutes. From then on, I order online or I pay the premium at an auto parts store if I need it ASAP.
The stores that lock up their products are also the stores that don’t enough employees to unlock the cases. The problem isn’t shoplifting the problem is under-staffing.
It’s hard to shoplift in a store that is fully staffed.
I just bought my own key for those cabinets because even if I order something from my local Walmart for delivery or pickup that is in one of these, they will say it’s sold out even if they have a full shelf of shit.
You’re claiming they all use the exact same key and also no one sees you on a security camera and kicks you out…? Also they just refuse to sell you things they have but lie about…?
Allow me to introduce you to the wild world of common keys: This Key is Your Key, This Key is My Key
You ever work at Walmart? Nobody actively monitors the cameras and the cabinets all use a T-shaped barrel key. Usually only a single employee carries the keys and with the time constraints set by OGP (the team that fills pickup and delivery orders), nobody wants to waste time looking for that person.
Never worked retail. All this is surprising to me, especially that they’re consistently refusing to sell you in-stock items
Having worked in a closely related industry, fast food, none of this is surprising.
When I worked FF I definitely told people the Ice Cream/Shake machine was broken/off/down for cleaning all the time when it was busy because I couldn’t be bothered to deal with it (it’s annoying AF to make shakes and it ALWAYS broke your workflow when you were getting to a good speed)
I’ve also told people we were out of something just because it required me to go to the back because we ran out of what was stocked in front
So yea, if I worked retail and I had to find someone with a key to fulfill a pickup order and I had the ability to simply mark it as out of stock…yea I think you know what action I’d take.
That’s what happens when they pay you the bare minimum. Minimum pay, minimum effort.
They’re shitty wafer locks, you can rake them open in 2 seconds with a random key.
Lol, so “security through no-one-would-expect-this-stupidity”
I think you could get an additional charge for having “lockpicking” tools in some states, so instead of a minor shoplifting charge, it could get enhanced to a felony.
I don’t think it’s that necessarily. To me it’s things like that: i needed a toaster, and didn’t want to go on Amazon or whatever. I went to a real store and looked at toasters. I found one that fits my needs. The guy who worked there said they fon’t have that one here, but can order it. Neat, that’s just like me ordering it, bun inconvenient and more expensive.
Same thing happened when i needed a new food processor. They didn’t have the one i wanted, so i took the expedition model they had (yeah i’m an idiot). At home i realised that some parts were missing. So back to the store. They had to order a new one after talking to 3 people, and then pick it up again. So instead of ordering it for cheaper and picking it up from my porch, i wasted like 2 hours to take 3 trips to pay extra. And brick and mortar stores are dying? That’s crazy
Here in the UK there are a number of bigger chain shops that are effectively running their websites as a kind of Amazon, and it’s really frustrating.
Needed a specific chainring for my bike, so went to Halfords website. They had what I wanted, but not in stock. Meaning, when I bought it, they then ordered it from their supplier to collect a few days later.
I needed a cheap tool for a single job from B&Q. Looked on their website, saw they had one for £3, drove up there to get it. But that one is online only, and the cheapest they keep in store is £6.
It’s like the shittiest bits of in store and online all mashed together, and it sucks.
Edit: Oh, do the thieves not like the comment? Too bad. Stop stealing. No, you’re not fucking ‘The Man’, you’re fucking all over the hard-working and overworked retail workers and their stores. So fuck you.
Yup, incoming more salty responses from illogical dipshits with their mental gymnastics.
Here’s an idea - stop planting your stores in places where crime is prominent. Threaten towns that if they don’t clean their crime act, they won’t get a store that’ll be convenient for people living there.
Pulling back on self-checkout too? Self-Checkout can actually still be of use, if it was more modernized and monitored. Also, if people adequately did their jobs too.
Other than theft, people are online shopping for other reasons. Maybe they don’t want to spend too much on gas going to a location an hour or longer away, find out that the shit they want isn’t available so they’ve gotta now go around town just picking store after store until they get even a quarter of what they want.
Maybe people don’t want to put up with all of the shitstains that manage to collect enough braincells to get up and go out, with their wailing stupid kids and their need to obstruct anyway they can while they motion around like fucking zombies.
they won’t get a store that’ll be convenient for people living there
They won’t have a big box store come in, starve out all of the small businesses, and force their town into indentured servitude where everyone has to work there, they’re not paid a living wage, and they can only afford to shop at the big box store, further increasing the problem in a vicious cycle?
The horror, I tell you.
How often do more ethical businesses swoop in to rent out the spaces formerly occupied by indentured servitude corporations? If these businesses aren’t replaced by something, what will the people formerly working there do for an income?
Lemme tell you the amount of plaza chains and stuff that are built around and near big-box stores. Do you just live in a town where it’s just one big box store? Please…
The ignorance of your comment.
Your ignorance is showing. A hell of a lot of people do live in towns where the only options are a big box store, or equally shitty dollar stores.
Here’s an idea - stop planting your stores in places where crime is prominent
But how will Americans survive without shopping?
Doesn’t everyone everywhere need to shop unless they’re subsistence farmers that weave their own clothes?
I don’t know what you all wrote, but the first couple paragraphs just scream asshole.
I think whatever responses you don’t like are more in reaction to your tone.
