‘Barron’s Roundtable’ Panel members discuss calling a break for CFS that appeals to a strategic assessment.
A liberal columnist believes that CVSs anti-theft measures Alienated customers.
Washington Post, who contributed columnist Matt Bai, argued on Monday that the efforts of the drugstore chain to prevent rising theft kill more kill more than theft itself.
“As you may have read, CVs and other pharmacies have difficulty limiting an increase in theft by gangs of fast -moving thieves. Unfortunately for CFS the solution can be worse for business than organized shoplifting,” ” He wrote.
In recent years, CVs and other similar drugstores have experienced an increase in frequent, organized theft, especially in large American cities where crime has risen.
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Man pressing button for Mappare Averschap with locked merchandise, CVS Store, Queens, New York. (Photo by: Lindsey Nicholson/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images) (Lindsey Nicholson/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
For example a group of dozens of school -going children routine And plundered a CFS in Washington, DC’s Columbia Heights -neighborhood in 2023.
“A large group of children, such as 45 or more, comes in for school, after school and late at night to steal chips and drinks,” Fox 5 reported in October that year. “They even throw the food and the drinks on the floor and stamp it, leaving a big mess behind.”
A recent study by the National Retail Federation showed that 70% of the retailers Faith organized shoplifting Has become a more common issue in recent years. As a result of these and similar crimes, large stores such as CVS and others are forced to lock merchandise behind glass and plastic barriers to prevent it from being stolen from the shelves.
But the columnist of Washington Post complained that these barriers have changed his “relaxed” CFS retail experience.
“I not only come back because it is handy, but because it is relaxing. I like to wander through the abandoned aisles at night and consider the countless ways in which the mildness of 21st-century pharmacology could improve my life. What if my hands can really be. Bai asked.
“Except now, I am standing in front of the aisle of Oral Care and something has changed,” he continued. “Almost all of those mysterious products are now encapsulated in glass. It is as if someone has changed the CFS I knew in a museum of the American pharmacy; the only thing that is missing in the lifelike diorama is a wax employee with a price trail.”
A CFS store near Columbia Heights of DC was looted by 2023. Customers had expressed concern about the location on 14th Street after they had noticed that the boards were completely empty. (Screenshot Fox 5 DC)
He mentioned the feeling that the “pressure” of a shopping clerk would open a housing so that he could look at a product that he had not decided to buy while she stood next to him. He also said how when he later had to return products, he was asked if he had opened them. When he said no, he noticed that the cashier “asked every week”: “Do you lie?”
“I would probably have to be offended by this, but I am not. If Body Lotion is so valuable that it must be kept in a glass safe, then I think it is reasonable to ask what kind of game I run. Plus, I seemed suspiciously hydrated well,” he noticed in what this new atmosphere in CVs was in.
‘A small investigation tells us what is going on here. As you may have read, CFS and Other pharmacies Have trouble containing an increase in thefts due to gangs of fast -moving thieves. Unfortunately for CFS, the solution might be worse for business than the organized shoplifting, “he said, adding to it”, according to a recent study, less than 1 in 3 shoppers at CVS are willing to hang around as soon as they realize that the item they want is behind glass. “
Bai noted that this is difficult for the store in combination with the fact that “many online sites” offer the same products “cheaper and just as reliable” and stated that the chain should lean in what makes it unique.
“What your neighborhood chain can offer is the chance to wander through a aisle and suddenly find a new, cucumber-scented solution for a problem that you didn’t even know you had. It is the possibilities for shop.”
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A CFS store in Washington DC is seen in October 2023 images with bare boards after a group of teenagers had looted the pharmacy chain. (WTTG TV)
The columnist then gave his advice to the store.
“If I had CVs, I would think that a little longer-term investment in guards and sales servants, people who can help retain that experience of retail discovery. But I can’t go back,” he said. “Life is full of stressful decisions that you ultimately regret. Body Wash should not be one of them.”
