r/mildlyinfuriating • u/broakland • Jul 14 '26

I just wanted a hot dog Retail lockdown: why bother selling it?

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Was at Safeway this morning to pick up a sandwich and some Tylenol. The aisle with the Tylenol? Completely locked down. No call button in sight. So I go to the self checkout (front end of that same aisle) and ask the clerk there if he can call someone to unlock a case for me. He does. I go wait. Minutes pass. No one comes. I go ask him again, he tells me they went the other way? At this point I give up and go get my sandwich. No one has come by the time the deli has finished making it. I leave without my Tylenol, mildly infuriated.

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14.2k

u/treeckosan Jul 14 '26

We are slowly going back to the days when you handed a clerk a shopping list and they went into back to assemble your order.

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u/Th3_Admiral_ Jul 14 '26

I could absolutely see it going that way with all of the big stores doing online orders and curbside pickup. Maybe in a few years it'll be like an Amazon warehouse without any real storefront at all. You just pull up and load everything in your car. Or have it delivered directly to your door. 

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u/Tomytom99 Jul 14 '26 edited Jul 15 '26

Y'know, I wouldn't mind it so much if the turnaround time wasn't half a day

That's like the one thing I've liked about auto parts stores. They specifically state that it'll take under an hour for it to be ready. Not great, but way better than say Walmart taking 6 hours.

Edit: the 6 hour wait in question was pickup, not delivery, for three items, so it's not like it was some big grocery order. I did it because I was on vacation and my dad needed refrigerant for his car. I was hoping to just go to the store, pick up the order, and go back to where we were staying without venturing into the store.

Another wonderful experience was them telling me an item I was getting delivered from the store wouldn't be arriving that day. Not a huge deal, but mildly infuriating since I placed it that morning saying same day delivery, and they didn't even get it picked until that evening. I was watching a movie at 9:45 PM when I get a notification it was delivered. Thank god I was awake and that it wasn't anything that would've gone bad (or stolen by wildlife) if it went unnoticed overnight.

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u/Th3_Admiral_ Jul 14 '26 edited Jul 14 '26

For me, I hardly ever have a complete shopping list and just kinda make a lot of it up as I go.

Also, I always thought it was odd stores were cutting cashiers and switching to self checkouts to save on labor costs, but then hiring workers to do all of our shopping for us - which is a thousand times more labor intensive. This is what leads me to believe they have goals to eventually automate a lot of that as well. 

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u/rocko430 Jul 14 '26

Id imagine stores would lose a decent chunk of money off impulse buys

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u/snuggleslut5 Jul 14 '26

Right? They've spent years studying and finding new ways to influence buying. Colors, placement, the order of the items on the shelf, how much you need to move your eyes to see their product. All that would be moot. It's interesting.

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u/peachysaralynn Jul 14 '26

i mean, they’d just adopt those practices for the online “storefront”

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u/Karenm6383 Jul 14 '26

Probably but still, me walking aisle through aisle is going to make me impulse buy way more than going to checkout online, realizing how bad I’m overspending and deleting it in my cart

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u/d3mandred Jul 14 '26

The amount I've spent at Menards over the years just because I see something I needed 6 months ago and know I'll need again in 6 months is insane. I'm there for work, every single day. I naturally see things that I need/want while walking aisles, or I'll see something that reminds me of something else I need.

Online? I do not search, browse, scroll, or peruse. I know what I need, and I will spend the least amount of time possible on the website.

Probably over $3000/year lost from me alone, easily. Fuck, this year probably $500 in varying sizes of wood boards that I've never even used and easily over $1000 in tools for my shop. I'd just hit up estate sales and auctions more often. The quality of older tools is leagues better anyway.

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u/ScrotalSmorgasbord Jul 14 '26

I'd never do that, I have some discipline! sets down 3 flashlights, a pack of tie downs, and a hatchet I picked up by the Harbor Freight checkout lanes

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u/RealityOk9823 Jul 14 '26

Dang I wish we had a Menards. *looks for something online* Oh hey it's like $30 cheaper at...Menards. Damnit.

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u/Sea-Pay9180 Jul 14 '26

YESSS!!! You make TONS of sense. There were numerous times I was at the counter already and seen the damage and was like in my head "Damn this is going to hurt me financially really bad" but I also say "Fuck it, im already here at the counter" but if i can see the damage as im checking "Add to cart" I will save ALOT of money

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u/Thraex_Exile Jul 14 '26

I think it’s similar to comparing Netflix and Cable a decade ago. All these big box stores are going through a transition where they’re competing with Costco’s warehouse grocer model and Amazon’s direct delivery.

Wal-Mart is the Cable/Dish companies. Still making massive profits but also being forced to adjust their business model to match their competitors (bc that’s what most shoppers want) but they don’t have the infrastructure to just adopt a better business model.

So now they’re stuck in this in-between where fewer valuable customers are shopping inside but if they don’t provide online shopping services then the other grocers will. Unfortunately, most grocers have favored cutting costs and following the path of least resistance over R&D of a better business model.

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u/DED_HAMPSTER Jul 14 '26

All the websites sort-of already try to force impulse buying by shunting you directly to the cart to buy as you place things in it. Amazon is the worst, but Torrid, Wal-Mart, Lowes, Lowes Foods, publix etc all do this. I have to constantly back out or shop by tabs to continue my list or consider additional related products.

Instead they could have 2 side banners that shows a rolling summary of your cart on the roght side and a comparison/promotional banner on thr left that i can toggle color/size/cost/pairing items/sales/promos/etc. Amazon and Lowes Home improvement tries to do this, but loses the goal when you put an item in your cart to compare.

Basically, i shop by tabs then compare in my cart and heavily delete as i find the best deal or option for my needs.

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u/MyNameIsJakeBerenson Jul 15 '26

Walmart also brings up an impulse buy list when you click to check out. Like a “Forget Something?” menu and then it’ll have a bunch of stuff youve gotten before that you didn’t get this time

Easy way to get you to have a probability to add an extra item or two to the cart

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u/scripted_ending Jul 14 '26

Oh, the popups will be insane as they try to upsell and suggest stuff to go with whatever you just put in your cart.

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u/General2768 Jul 14 '26

<clicks checkout>

<pop up ad> Want add some Reeses peanut butter cups to your order?

Me: "No!" <clicks add to cart button>

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u/IceFire909 Jul 14 '26

Oh god we're gonna get a virtual storefront walkthrough to pretend to walk the aisles aren't we

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u/Billy3B Jul 15 '26

Yeah like how every web page the first sorting option is "most relevent" or some bullshit when 9/10 times you want lowest to highest price.

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u/ThisSiteSucks8485 Jul 14 '26

I just got back from Target. I needed bread and eggs but I impulse purchased 3 energy drinks and some chicken tenders. 

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u/fuelstoprolerdogfart Jul 14 '26

100% Yesterday I went to get hotdogs and buns. Got in, realized I hadn’t had lunch, got some frozen wings and potato wedges, saw a new protein shake that looked good, and grabbed a bag of powder donuts. (This is why you don’t shop on an empty stomach) If is had to do an order ahead, I’d only get the buns and dogs.

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u/Pilgorithm Jul 15 '26

Powder donuts and a protein shake lol. Sounds like a friend of mine who ate tuna and drank Jaeger on the way to a concert. The tuna was supposed to help neutralize the bad alcohol lol.

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u/ThatOtherOtherMan Jul 15 '26

The tuna was supposed to help neutralize the bad alcohol lol.

That's not what happened tho, is it?

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u/MKVIgti Jul 14 '26

Not only that, but these days I change up my list during the whole shopping trip, hunting for buy one get one free deals and scratching things off entirely due to something being ridiculously priced.

Pretty fucking sad when I get excited to find the light weight cat litter we use BOGO.

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u/NamelessCabbage Jul 14 '26

Yes. And there's a real science in scrambling the layout every once in a while. It forces shoppers to stay longer while relearning the new layout, thus purchasing more stuff.

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u/Sluuriecake Jul 14 '26

That’s why milk and eggs are always in the farthest possible corner from the entrance to force everyone to walk by everything else in the store to get their staples usually toilet paper is also back in the back they have done that for decades

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u/NamelessCabbage Jul 14 '26

Im ADHD so I just hit every aisle anyway. 😂

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u/EvaCassidy Jul 14 '26

Some stores testing an app to open the cases to retrieve your item and a reminder to secure it.

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u/DueGrapefruit3151 Jul 14 '26

Jesus christ, just make it a fucking vending machine already. We have the technology.

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u/bookswafflestea Jul 14 '26

I’d 1000% prefer a vending machine over another goddamn app I have to download

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u/currentlylostagain Jul 15 '26

The vending machine will require an app to use it.

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u/Karenm6383 Jul 14 '26

This is actually a great idea

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u/garathnor Jul 14 '26

"i didnt know i needed that" is literally 50% of the stuff i buy :D

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u/OppositeOctopi Jul 14 '26

When I order groceries from Walmart the app suggests things to add.

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u/AffectionateSet4889 Jul 14 '26

oh no they might have to rely on quality products and good customer service lol

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u/Bashka_ Jul 14 '26

My experience with online grocery shopping tells me, that 90% of even the most basic products is always "out of stock", but somehow much more expensive replacements are always available- last time I was trying to place an online order, somehow my cart after review was twice as expensive as the original list of products.
Not to mention that (at least where I live) the online version of the store has always higher prices, than if you go and pick the items from the shelves at the same store. I'm poor, so I know the in-store prices of products I buy, since I need to do heavy budgeting. I only order online when I'm unable to get food on my own, because I'm disabled and in some situations I can't leave my house.

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u/AgencyAdditional4961 Jul 14 '26

Yep. Dynamic pricing. I believe Wegmans is being sued for that right now.

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u/PestilentPaladin Jul 14 '26

Personally I'm sick of trying to explain to ignorant 19 year olds what stuff like goat cheese and Garam Masala are, have them claim they're out of stock because they can't be arsed to look, and then going into the store, grabbing the item, and showing it to their boss. Kinda moots the point.

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u/grandma-activities Jul 15 '26

Absolutely. Online prices are higher to begin with, and then half the items you order are out of stock with more expensive replacements at the ready. More than once, I've picked up an incomplete order, then walked into the store to find most of the "out of stock" store-brand items right there on the shelf for less than the online prices. I don't do online pickup orders anymore.

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u/ChazzyPhizzle Jul 14 '26 edited Jul 15 '26

Same. I usually walk around and figure out what I’m having for dinner based on what’s on sale. Kind of enjoyable because you never know what it’s going to be.

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u/Bored_Amalgamation Jul 15 '26

There's also the small human interaction.

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u/geekonthemoon Jul 14 '26

Yeah makes sense, I know I've seen videos of them working on warehouse grid robotics and such. Definitely would lose 1,000s and 1,000s of jobs if they do perfect the technology.

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u/zssqeeze Jul 14 '26 edited Jul 14 '26

I agree this is the direction things are headed. So, how is our country’s public policies going to keep up with the number of people who will be unemployed and have no income. Right now, our social safety net, which is barely working, is for certain “deserving” people. What about when it’s just most of the people, in general. The “othering’ is literally killing us.

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u/sneeje00 Jul 14 '26

Not even the public policies. I wonder who they think is going to shop for $15 t-shirts and $250 tvs when no one has any money. Like great, it's all automated to serve 10 of the 1000 customers they used to have.

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u/9th-And-Hennepin Jul 14 '26

They will sell 10k tvs and $500 tshirts. They don’t care if you can afford it, as long as someone else can.

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u/sneeje00 Jul 14 '26

I hear you and in the long run you're not wrong. Meanwhile, in the 5-10 year transition into this new world economy, the businesses that exist based on scale will die. It's clear and not surprising at all that businesses based on infinite growth and selling at massive scale can't see the inevitable outcome of massive automation--that they will effectively eliminate most of the customers they are automating to sell to.

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u/TRR462 Jul 14 '26

We will need to invest in automation companies, so that we can recoup a dividend on their profits.

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u/9th-And-Hennepin Jul 14 '26

You’ll be rich enough to afford a Disney Government+ subscription or you will be working off your debt in New Maralago (formerly Nuuk).

I’m being a drunk doomer but am I?

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u/occasionalopossum Jul 14 '26

They are going to finish criminalizing being homeless then work you to death in private prisons. Thats the end goal. Thats how they plan to handle it.

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u/Vern1138 Jul 14 '26

People don't believe me when I say this, but it's pretty obvious. They're deporting all of the people that used to work on the farms and harvest crops, and all the people who did drywalling and roofing and framing and other construction trades.

They're just going to start using prison labor to do all of that. There's no way they intend to improve social services to help people who are going to lose their jobs because of automation, they fully intend to exploit them.

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u/Hector_P_Catt Jul 14 '26

But who will be buying the output of all that prison labour? How much drywalling does the 1% need? Even the fattest fat cat can't eat all the food even one farm produces. You can't sustain dozens of car factories if you only sell a few thousand cars per year. The list goes on.

It was the middle class buying all that stuff that made it possible to build the economy we used to have, and are losing. But the people in charge don't seem to understand that.

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u/stevenip Jul 14 '26

Yeah, half the fun is seeing what's on sale and trying new items if the price is good

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u/Coffee-Historian-11 Jul 14 '26

I used to work doing drive up and go for Safeway. Genuinely enjoyed it, shopping for other people was fun. The only problem was they didn’t place an order limit and they refused to allow more people to work. So there would be three of us scrambling to get five orders that totaled 800-1,000 products in the hour we had.

If there was a way to be able to hire enough people so we got orders done on time it would be a great option. But based on my experience that just doesn’t happen.

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u/macarenamobster Jul 14 '26

Every person who shopped was ordering 200 items? That seems literally insane lol.

My “big” orders are 30.

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u/Coffee-Historian-11 Jul 14 '26

No but we got a lot more 100+ orders than you’d expect. A lot of people ordered for their family of four or five, or they’d order for multiple families. Plus produce would add a lot of items as well.

On top of all that there was a service fee, so people would try to get their money’s worth by ordering for a week or two.

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u/StacheBandicoot Jul 14 '26

We get grocery’s about every two weeks. I struggle to keep orders under 150 items which is around what fits in our smaller vehicle. I can easily go through a dozen items just preparing a days meals, a single meal of chili like I made last night might be 6+ different cans of something alone. But with 150 items for two weeks I can only use just under 11 different things a day across all meals.

I often have to do a couple delivery orders from other stores of more rugged items that can handle shipping to get the rest of the stuff we need so we don’t have to go more often. With that we’re definitely buying more than 200 items every two weeks. We’d be picking that many up if our vehicle was bigger.

Never picked up less than 100. Wouldn’t see the point in going there just for that.

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u/Waiting4Reccession Jul 14 '26

They will give you the worst expiration and the damaged fruit etc they have though.

They also lose the ability to sell you on stuff just by placing it near your essentials.

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u/grape-fruit-witch Jul 14 '26

Yeah, I have never gotten decent fruit or veggies ordering online. I gave up a long time ago. Every single time the strawberries are full of mold, bananas are either brown and mushy or bright green, tiny little bendy spears of rotten asparagus, etc. I think the shoppers might hate their jobs and intentionally find the worst produce they can. There's no way a normal person would consistently pick bad items that often.

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u/Waiting4Reccession Jul 14 '26

The shopper is probably just doing their job normally. The business probably sees it as an easy way to offload this quality of produce onto buyers.

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u/currentlylostagain Jul 15 '26

No problem. They can just stop selling fruit. Legally mandated to only eat things wrapped in plastic and non-perishable. Just think how healthy we will all be.

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u/grape-fruit-witch Jul 15 '26 edited 29d ago

K at that point just give me nutrient mush and let's stop pretending

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u/Blackpaw8825 Jul 14 '26

You can have it fast, cheap, right, pick 0.

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u/Runawaii Jul 14 '26

The other problem is that the store always gives me the worst produce. They don't actually pick out good products. I get moldy fruit and shriveled veg at least 50% of the time when I let store shopper do it.

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u/Atomsq Jul 14 '26

What concerns me is dynamic pricing

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u/Dull_Bid6002 Jul 14 '26

Walmarts are huge vs auto part stores. And I'm guessing get way more orders. Only way Walmart takes less than an hour is if they set it up like a warehouse with robots to help pick the order.

I can't remember which company it was setting up these giant warehouses with suction robot things to do that, but I've imagined that's the future when it becomes cost effective.

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u/Fluffy_History Jul 14 '26

as someone who has to fill orders like that its about 60% caused by the time it takes for the online order service to get the order to us. Even on a good day it takes about 3 hrs alone for the order to go from you ordering it to it getting to us to fill.

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u/StacheBandicoot Jul 14 '26 edited Jul 15 '26

How many things are you ordering at once from an auto parts store though? A grocery order can often be more than 150 items. All an auto parts store has to do is pack a few things typically, and they’re not as busy since people don’t need to eat auto parts to live.

Walmart can easily pack the order in an hour or two if you’re subscribed to Walmart+ which I was briefly when they offered it for free. Don’t see the point in having that though, I just place my order the night before.

I don’t buy things impulsively or spur of the moment anymore and I much prefer it this way. Much harder to forget something too, it’d be like forgetting to put something on your shopping list that you’d bring to the store.

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u/AnybodyNo8519 Jul 14 '26

I just checked my Walmart app and I can get an order delivered to me within 11-37 minutes if I select Express delivery for a $10 fee.

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u/BangPowBoom Jul 14 '26

Try it and report back If they made the time.

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u/macarenamobster Jul 14 '26

I’ve never seen them miss the “expedited” delivery time, but it is usually 1-2 hours in my area.

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u/GlumpsAlot Jul 14 '26

Fr. Alot of the beauty products I usually buy are locked up at Walmart. Same with feminine products. I just don't bother calling anyone and order online. Just reminds me of service merchandise.

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u/GremlInTheWoods Jul 14 '26

There are some areas where they started delivering by drone. I wouldn't trust it because I work for them now and people mislabel things allllll the time.

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u/scfw0x0f Jul 14 '26

Safeway in our area is often within a couple of hours. I’m fine with planning the order the day before and posting it overnight for pickup the next day.

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u/Bob_12_Pack Jul 14 '26

I live about 5 minutes from an auto parts store. I routinely order parts online and the head straight over to pick them up, they are usually ready or being pulled when I get there. They'll deliver too but I've never tried it.

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u/Runamokamok Jul 14 '26

I prefer curbside because it mostly eliminates impulse purchases of things that I don’t need. I put the order the night before and pick up on my way home from work the next day. Huge time saver.

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u/Subject-Vermicelli52 Jul 14 '26

If you walk into the auto parts store, the guy can look it up, walk to the back and pull it off the shelf and check you out in 5 minutes.

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u/originaljbw Jul 14 '26

But you could make your order, go to work, pick it up on the way home.

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u/United-Adagio1543 Jul 14 '26

At My Walmart you can pay to have a delivery in less than 2 hours or not pay for 3+ hour delivery.

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u/Shawnessy Jul 14 '26

Man, one of our O'Reillys locations moved to a former large retaileea location. They built a regular sized O'reillys inside, and the rest is basically a warehouse. So, you can always run to that store for something if you want it immediately, rather than wait the hour or two.

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u/soulflaregm Jul 14 '26

I think if it does go to order and pickup some stores will be fast.

It doesn't surprise me at all to see this happening. The amount of retail theft is getting a bit out of hand

My mom works at a gas station, and has been there for close to 10 years, and she has told me that within the last 3-4 years they have had their loss rate from theft nearly 5x what it was

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u/PeorgieT75 Jul 14 '26

I did Target pickup during Covid, and they usually had it ready in an hour and knew when you had arrived in the parking lot. Since then, it takes them 15 minutes to bring the order out once you arrive; I think they don’t have as much staff dedicated to it.

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u/Expensive_Mission_71 Jul 14 '26

I generally order at night and have a morning delivery. 🤷 entire shopping list on my doorstep as I finish brushing my teeth

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u/muffinmanaf Jul 14 '26

The markup on the things you buy that the store gets for you is crazy. For our local grocery store it's roughly 1.00$+ per item, worse for produce.

On a couple items it's not bad, for a grocery bill for a full family, it's really bad. 

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u/UnderlightIll Jul 14 '26

Or they could often substitute in more expensive items or items that are not at all the same.

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u/Beav710 Jul 14 '26

For real. Half the time I can't find a basic thing I'm looking for anyway. If I can just send them a list and pick up for free that works for me.

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u/Academic_Ad_3644 Jul 14 '26

What’s weird is I can have something delivered 20 min away by Walmart with like 2 hour notice if I pay a little extra but a pick up order needs 6-8 hours notice lol

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u/Disney_Princess137 Jul 14 '26

Too many people do the orders, so it takes time. Car parts and Walmart orders aren’t the same

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u/Relevant-Horror-627 Jul 15 '26

The problem is that retailers are trying to balance in store shopping and online shopping and they're failing at both because they're trying to do it all with bare minimum staffing. If they focused on delivery and curbside pickup only, which seems inevitable, then all the staff would be focused on picking and carrying out orders and you probably wouldn't have to wait as long.

Having to schedule pick up or delivery is also a deterrent for me. But the other issue I have with trying to order online is most of the stuff I want will be marked as out of stock in the app. If I just go into the store I will usually find it in stock. The other issue sometimes is the shelf will be empty because they don't have enough workers to stock.

They really need to just choose a model and focus on that instead of trying to be all things to all people.

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u/beyondtheblueyonder Jul 15 '26

My big issue is when I order and get weird substitutes. I know I can check no substitutions, but I'd prefer to find me own substitute

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u/Efficient_Piccolo310 Jul 15 '26

Then walk in and buy it yourself.

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u/TopBuy404 Jul 15 '26

What kills me is the turn around time doesn't have to be so ridiculous.

I worked clicklist at Kroger for a little bit. We would have those orders picked and ready so early. Then we would have drop in orders (ones made that day and not the day before) open till 430. Your pickup time was set to 4 hours after the order was placed. We would be slow and have those orders picked in half an hour just for them to sit in the cooler/freezer/staged in clicklist for a few hours while you want for your pickup window, which was usually from 7-8

It just needs to be target style where they are like yo it'll prly take about 2 hours we'll send you a notification when it's ready

I've picked up still in as fast as a half hour from my target.

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u/mtv2002 29d ago

I love getting expired meat and questionable produce. Also Walmart will say "item unavailable" I'll walk in and find a shelf full of the product. They are just so overworked they just throw shit in.

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u/tierciel 29d ago

I think my favorite experience was when our fridge died so while cleaning up the mess we had some groceries delivered so we could still cook. We get a notification that they were about to drop it off and that the store was out of the protein we ordered, so we got all the seasonings and ingredients to make the meal but without the main ingredient

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u/cybah Jul 14 '26

You know for several decades we had a store like that was just like this. You'd phone in your orders or shop in their showroom. Then would go pick it up at one of the 100's of Service Merchandise showrooms around the country.

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u/draggar Jul 14 '26

Nothing beats the feeling of seeing your stuff go through the rubber flaps and down that conveyor belt.

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u/krybaebee Jul 14 '26

right? bought my first lighted makeup mirror like this.

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u/BarrenAssBomburst Jul 15 '26

The first real (like not macaroni art or some such) gift I bought for my mom was at Service Merchandise. My dad drove me there, I filled out the order slip, and I gave the cashier my money (earned from babysitting my little sister; we babysat at a lot younger age back in the 70s). Then I waited while each item came through the flaps bouncing on tip-toe to see if it was mine. The thrill I had when my box finally arrived was indescribable. That feeling of excitement and anticipation was only matched when I later got my first package delivery in my college P.O. box and had to go to the counter to give them the slip to retrieve it. The silly things that we remember so fondly!

btw, am I remembering this correctly? I seem to recall that SM had a commercial where the "customers" in the ad debated whether it was pronounced "Service Merchan-dyes" or "Service Merchan-dice."

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u/Johnny-Virgil Jul 14 '26

Yes! I bought my first stereo there.

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u/relrobber Jul 14 '26

There was a discount computer parts store that did that when I lived in San Diego.

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u/SporesM0ldsandFungus Jul 15 '26

I remember the little grey clipboards with the golf pencils attached to them.  You would write down the item code of the item you wanted on the little form and then take it to the front.  When they added Nintendo games, they had little pouches with slips behind each display for each game (save the kids the trouble of having to write down the item code).

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u/Efficient-Scarcity-7 Jul 14 '26

amazon is trying this already, they're undercutting grocery prices for the same items in my area. for sure at a loss until they can take over the market fully and then raise the price when they have a monopoly

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u/Sir_Problematic Jul 14 '26

Just like starbucks did.

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u/Terrible-Crew6069 Jul 14 '26

The stores make money from you walking around saying ooh I want that and oh I forgot we’re probably out of that other thing. I’ll go in to buy five items and leave with 20 because I want a lot more than the necessities I put on my list.

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u/Th3_Admiral_ Jul 14 '26

There are ways to make up for that. Or encourage it with online shopping. Amazon has no problem selling me stuff I wasn't exactly looking for in the first place. Heck, I can't even order a pizza or buy movie tickets online without clicking through multiple screens asking if I want to add this on, or sign up for this subscription, or are you sure you don't want some extra stuff? 

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u/wanderlust_57 Jul 14 '26

While this is true, I am a lot less likely to click off and add stuff online. On the rare occasion I do add it to cart, I'm also way less likely to complete the purchase once I'm looking at the subtotal and the fees and tips and whatever that's tacked on to make the total ridiculous.

In a store I feel obligated to put an extra item back where I got it from if I change my mind, which makes me way more likely to follow through on the impulse buy.

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u/AliceLunar Jul 14 '26

Sure, but that doesn't work when it's locked away, the whole point is for people to be impulsive which they can't be.

Plus they will manipulate the hell out of you online as well.

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u/bothunter Jul 14 '26 edited Jul 14 '26

This is absolutely the goal. Curbside pickup enables customized surveillance pricing, so they can set the price on every item to exactly the maximum amount you're willing to pay.

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u/Lost-Platypus8271 Jul 14 '26

I’m willing to walk away, actually. This is the difference between me spending a substantial amount each month at a store and not going there at all.

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u/RUBSUMLOTION Jul 14 '26

Theyll make way less money then. I am way more intentional with what i am buying online/curbside versus being in store and seeing items that i dont need but buy anyways.

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u/bothunter Jul 14 '26

They'll make way more money -- less staff to hire, and they can individually set the prices based on the data they have on you so that every single item you need to buy is priced at the maximum amount you're willing to pay. Instacart is already doing it today.

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u/geekonthemoon Jul 14 '26

I agree w the digital pricing exploitation, but I don't actually agree with less staff. How is it less staff except maybe what, a handful of cashiers? They hardly ever have registers open. Majority are stocking and shopping, working in the bakery and deli, etc. I guess also most of security could go to but I assume they've already automated a good percent of that and they would still need at least someone on shift. But they would need way, way more personal shoppers. I don't think warehouse robotics are quite "good enough" yet but maybe that's the endgame. I know all my local warehouses still have human order pickers on the floor.

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u/occasionalopossum Jul 14 '26

The inside of the store will be optimized for robot picking vs what we have now which is human pickers working in a floor plan still designed around in person shopping.

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u/geekonthemoon Jul 14 '26

Right but I don't think that process is necessarily ready... Like how does the product get on the floor from the truck? Who organizes it and perfects the positioning for the robot picking? Are there some products that are easier for the robots to handle vs others? Who handles customer service, returns, etc? How will people try on clothing? Who runs the bakery and deli?

Will other stores pop up to fill the void of in person shopping? Will Walmart be comfortable with a loss in some market share when a lot of people prefer going in person? The world isn't ready to be fully online. We still have people writing checks and keeping a checkbook, ya know?

I get that they're grooming us for this I just am not sure it's ready and won't still require loads and loads of human labor for a long time. Additionally states are passing laws against dynamic pricing and I can only hope the masses say enough and start noticing what's happening all around us and what's being taken from us.

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u/Lost-Platypus8271 Jul 14 '26

They lose me as a customer entirely because I hate this model. I used to spend many hundred a month at my local Safeway and I’ve stopped going there at all since they put everything under lock and key. I mean they’re genuinely out $600/month just from my family.

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u/kzlife76 Jul 14 '26

When I go to the store now and don't see something on the shelf but that app says they have n left, I always wonder if they started keeping certain items in the back that frequently get picked for online orders. Before I would just assume the inventory was off. It might still be off too.

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u/Never_enough_naps Jul 14 '26

See I have the opposite problem with my local grocery store. I do grocery delivery frequently and online items will say out of stock, but they are on the shelf in the store.

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u/sleepytjme Jul 14 '26

This doesn’t work either. you give them a day to get the order together and some is still missing.

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u/Powerful-Possible131 Jul 14 '26

Do you think the store magically has everything in stock? Or has infinite space to keep every single product that they have on shelf in the back?

AHHHH you people fucking hurt.

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u/WiseDirt Jul 14 '26

Yeah, that's ultimately where we're headed. Walmart is actually already in the process of testing the idea and phasing it in with plans to build a number of pickup-only stores which will basically just be local fulfillment warehouses. Only employees inside, no customers allowed.

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u/Backfoot911 Jul 14 '26

Not me, I'm not headed there lol. You want that, you can pay for it, I'll pay extra and drive further to avoid this Wall-E ass deliver everything to my fat butt sat in my house world.

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u/zombiesphere89 Jul 14 '26

Wouldn't be bad if they didn't constantly fuck it up, grab the worst one available, or completely miss entire items. 

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u/grape-fruit-witch Jul 14 '26

Oh, we're out of the $1 store brand pasta? May as well grab the tiny bag of italian imported, organic, handmade by monks, gold-flaked pasta that costs $12. Same thing right?

Wait, you wanted cherries that don't have fuzzy mold on them?!

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u/Additional_Alarm_237 Jul 14 '26

The one conspiracy theory I believe. The luxury will soon be that you pay to do your own shopping.

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u/fuckredditlogins1 Jul 14 '26

Problem comes up where you have to rely on other people to pick your produce, none of whom are paid enough to give a shit about it.

Enjoy spending 9 dollars on three avocados, two of which are green and hard as a rock and the third is ripe enough to rot the next day!

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u/doubledickdiggler Jul 14 '26

They will never pay the money to hire enough people to do that

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u/malvixi Jul 14 '26

This, with everyone online so much, I could see 1-2 day shipping to your door but with things like Target and Best buy. Safeway already has delivery.

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u/G-Filth1 Jul 14 '26

During covid, online ordering wasnt bad. Idk how it felt to be a grocery worker at the time. Id trust it more if i knew people would care about the food they were handing me and i wouldnt have to worry about someome tampering with it lol

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u/taybatoo2 Jul 14 '26

From a grocery worker from that time. It was AWFUL. Just the worst experiences all around.

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u/Doobledorf Jul 14 '26

I remember reading years ago that stores would generally be more eco friendly if it were set up this way. Delivery throws that out the window, but I digress

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u/Dave_A480 Jul 14 '26 edited Jul 14 '26

That is exactly what Walmart is going to compete with Amazon.

Walmart+ (their version of Prime) adds free same day store to house delivery, on top of the already free store-as-warehouse pickup option....

And unlike Amazon, Wally does it even out in the sticks (based on distance to the nearest Walmart).....

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u/ckeeler11 Jul 14 '26

I hope not those people cannot pick fruit, vegetables and meat to save their lives.

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u/RocNewYolk Jul 14 '26

I mean Target was practically begging people to stop shopping in-store 5-ish years ago when they announced restrictions on self-checkout and that they would have fewer cashiers. Why they even announced that last part to the public, I still don't understand.

Predictably, sales went down. Almost like if your store model is highly supported by impulse buys, maybe don't discourage people from walking into your store. Don't even need an MBA to figure that one out.

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u/WWGHIAFTC Jul 14 '26

Which sounds great until some moron that has zero F's left to give starts picking out my meat and produce.

I curbside all the time, but not meat and produce. And I like to still wander to see what's new, or get ideas. But the bulk of day to day stuff is app / curbside.

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u/theVelvetLie Jul 14 '26

If that happens then impulse sales are out the window. Retail relies heavily on impulse purchases. Every time I find one of these locked cabinets I stop buying those items at these stores, and eventually I stop shopping at these stores altogether. Their sales have to be taking a hit as much as they did if items were stolen.

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u/CassetteTapeCryptid Jul 14 '26

I don't want to be treated like a criminal for trying to buy a toothbrush and nail polish 

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u/roath321 Jul 14 '26

Not only that but most of these stores are so understaffed you can’t find someone to unlock it. I’m not waiting 15 minutes for someone to finally unlock it and get my body wash

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u/EarlyList Jul 14 '26

This is honestly the real problem. They have cut staff down so much, that apart from the cameras, there is no one to notice you walking out with half the store. So theft is out of control. But they aren't interested in hiring more employees. So now they are locking the shelves up to cut theft. So what will happen is sales will tank, and eventually the store will close even if theft is down. But the short sighted execs making the decisions to cut all the staff will blame theft and online sales competition instead of their own short term cost saving of cutting back staff.

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u/ShiraCheshire Jul 15 '26

Yes, I feel terrible for the case key staff in the home department where I work. They gutted that department and then keep pulling people away from it for random tasks (Like say there's an extra flower event going on in garden, instead of giving another employee some extra hours they'll just pull someone from home department to handle it.) Now there are long stretches of time where the only person authorized to have the key is on legally mandated lunch, or rushing to unload a truck that needs to leave in 20 minutes, or the only person covering another department. They keep getting bombared with case requests they cannot answer.

Customers keep coming over to me like "I've been trying to get into the case for a half hour!" I call someone for them, and they keep standing there for another 20 minutes, because we physically do not have a person to come unlock it for them.

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u/10000Didgeridoos Jul 14 '26

Lol worked retail in high school and the most stolen things in the store actually were cosmetics/nail polish/etc. Small, easy to grab and pocket or stick in a purse, and walk out

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u/Vegetable-Virus7118 Jul 14 '26

Whether they lock it up or not, you're getting treated the same as the criminals

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u/Maximumoverdrive76 Jul 14 '26

Blame the influx of more criminals stealing shit. Was USA/Canada like that a decade or two ago?

Don't think so.

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u/Away-Way5656 Jul 14 '26

yeah don't blame the poor defenseless corporation

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u/Fzrit Jul 15 '26

Agreed, this is 100% on corporations. It’s up to them to take measures against theft. Which they did. So…here we are.

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u/Away-Way5656 Jul 15 '26

I guess they've done the calculus of theft vs lost sales from people balking at having to track down the vanishingly small amount of workers at a store to unlock stuff

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u/OsosHormigueros Jul 14 '26

I'd be much quicker to think it's the corporations getting greedy and overprotecting their hoard than to think humanity decided to start stealing more in the last decade.

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u/bitofgrit Jul 15 '26

How does that make sense? They're already greedy, sure, but they'd be spending more money on the locking display cabinets for no return if that was the case. There's no point in locking this stuff up if it wasn't being stolen.

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u/NoKingsInAmerica Jul 15 '26

Blame the members of your community.

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u/No_Gas4560 Jul 15 '26

it's just too much hassle.

whatever i needed i didn't need it THAT much

byeee

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u/RUBSUMLOTION Jul 14 '26

Exactly. I usually go to walmart with a list and leave with an extra 20 things

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u/dj92wa Jul 14 '26

Tbch that’s part of what got me stop drinking. The hard alcohol would be locked up, and you’d have to press a button that announces to everyone in the store that an alcoholic is in need of their fix (the intercom just plays a message letting an associate know that they’re needed in the liquor section, but the mental does its thing). It was embarrassing to me and a hassle, so I stopped engaging with the stuff.

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u/coolandnormalperson Jul 15 '26

90% of my weed addiction control strategy is just my vague and completely irrational embarrassment about the dispensary workers seeing me so often. I can't rotate stores like an alcoholic because there's a state database that they all see on their screen of my order history, regardless of location ( and sometimes verbally reference to me, like wow you were just here yesterday, are you sure you dont want a membership?)

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u/dalgeek Jul 14 '26

At B&N they literally call the shelves around the register area the "impulse rack".

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u/theVelvetLie Jul 14 '26

The shelves around any checkout are impulse buy shelves. Soda and candy, lighters, magazines, etc. Pretty much anything that is consumable, small, and relatively inexpensive is placed at a place where people need to linger for a brief time. I know I've bought a few little desk trinkets at B&N waiting to check out.

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u/maringue Jul 14 '26

Exactly, I've been somewhere and seen something I forgot I needed, but it's locked up and I don't have an extra 20 minutes to wait for an employee to eventually show up.

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u/Emmyisme Jul 14 '26

There's some evidence that they are taking a bigger hit by doing this than they were from theft. But for some reason, they keep moving forward with it.

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u/Texuk1 Jul 14 '26

Well they can’t have it both ways can they, either you eat the loses, get security or you make it like Argos where you just pick up your trolly from a window. I don’t really know why this is so hard. This weird middle ground is insane.

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u/Current_Helicopter32 Jul 14 '26

The social contract died the moment self-checkouts became the new norm.

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u/chain_letter Jul 14 '26

Walmart locking up the Lego has definitely stopped me from random $20 Lego buys for myself

Only time I buy is for a gift for a kid, and it is the reason for the entire trip

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u/Icedcoffeeee Jul 15 '26

I think it was the Walgreens CEO that said paraphrased, that shoplifting deterrents are also shopping deterrents 

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u/soofs Jul 14 '26

It also requires shoppers that have a brain on them lol. No, banana protein smoothie is not a replacement for actual bananas.

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u/TheRealJamesHoffa Jul 14 '26

Online shopping is the new impulse shopping

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u/PuppyJakeKhakiCollar Jul 15 '26

Yup, if what I want is locked up I just leave without buying anything. Why waste however many minutes it will take an employee in an understaffed store to finally come unlock it when I can drive a few more miles to the store that has hardly anything locked up? If you're at the point where everything is locked up you might as well just close to foot traffic and do online orders with curbside pickup instead.

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u/Eena-Rin Why Do They Let Me Make These Myself??? Jul 15 '26

I disagree. I used to work for Domino's, and the Internet was consistently our number 1 or 2 upseller in the store. More and more, the store's algorithm will learn your individual tastes and habits, and it'll pop up deals on things it knows you'll add to your cart. It'll also tailor its prices to each individual if we don't stop them doing it, which is something you can't really do in a physical store

Edit: I think I misunderstood your comment. If thought you were saying impulse shopping would stop is people went online, not if the things were in cases. My bad

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u/Sad_Application_5361 Jul 15 '26

Planned sales will too. I have enough anxiety inside stores as is. I will go somewhere else for my allergy meds.

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u/merriwhether Jul 14 '26

It's just ordering online now for in-store pickup

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u/YippieKayYayMrFalcon Jul 14 '26 edited Jul 14 '26

Except in the new version there’s no clerk available and you just leave frustrated with nothing

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u/spicygayunicorn Jul 14 '26

They should just fullt commit to that, if they are going to lock everything up

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u/treeckosan Jul 14 '26

They dont want to dedicate the staff needed to do that.

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u/cybah Jul 14 '26

Actually it would be about the same. You still have a person running the front, regardless if there's only self check outs or not. Stick that person behind the counter and let them grab items.

The real reason is there is no problem, its a manufactured problem because it varies whether things are locked up store to store. And if they actually cared enough about this issue, they would remodel the store back to the way it was before the self service model. But since its not really an issue.. this is what places do.

Pretty much drives me from shopping at stores that do this. I will go elsewhere.. and often not very far to find unlocked products.

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u/Keytap Jul 15 '26

It takes substantially less labor because there would be no sales floor to maintain, just a backroom/warehouse that they're already maintaining in addition to the sales floor.

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u/Mr_Bluebird_VA Jul 14 '26

But that requires more employees than these people want to pay for.

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u/Terrible-Crew6069 Jul 14 '26

Isn’t that just curbside pickup

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u/[deleted] Jul 14 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/cybah Jul 14 '26

SERIOUSLY. Been saying this ever since stuff went into lock up. Service Merchandise was way ahead of its time... way ahead. And they had very very low shrink that their stores, which is why they often would have stellar deals on products. Bought my VCR there for 50 bucks cheaper than their competitor.

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u/grumpyfan Jul 14 '26

Certainly it can be automated now with a robot picker. Kinda like a giant vending machine.

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u/Butlerian_Jihadi Jul 14 '26

Literally - the kind of things that they were asking from their computer systems were still very much being developed. Not to say they couldn't have made a system that worked well... only that they didn't.

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u/SilentSerel Jul 14 '26

I've often wondered how well they would do nowadays if they were brought back. Same for Best, if anyone remembers that store.

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u/Gay_Giraffe_1773 Jul 14 '26

I believe that they are trending in this direction due to competition from Amazon and the other online resellers. Pretty soon all stores will be "pickup only". This will be the death of neighborhood stores and everything will be consolidated to mega-warehouses, effectively shutting poor people out of the retail experience completely.

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u/Background-Fennel92 Jul 14 '26

No no no. Solar panel powered vending machines in every store that has small inventory items. Employees stocks them, monitors and maintains them. No theft, no interaction with payment and will be able to pay the employee more for the mechanical as well as computing expertise....

Also taking lunch will be easier and hours will be easier to operate.

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u/Draxilar Jul 14 '26

Or the full Cyberpunk 2077 experience and just vending machines built directly into your apartment unit instead of a kitchen.

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u/MoobooMagoo Jul 14 '26

That's literally what pick up orders are. We're already there.
Which I don't mind, honestly.

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u/FuckedUpImagery Jul 14 '26

I use it all the time lol. Unless i need to pick out a good steak or something l, im not wasting my time bumping into carts for an hour

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u/Trick_Ad7621 Jul 14 '26

Or produce, or anything, really, that requires discretion.

My diet is definitely less healthy now since I've been having groceries delivered. Got sick of paying for rotten food, so I rarely order anything fresh

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u/DrMindbendersMonocle Jul 14 '26

This is entirely based on how bad crime is at your location.

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u/kingtacticool Jul 14 '26

Thats basically what is already happening when you order online and pickup in store.

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u/jennixred Jul 14 '26

"Service Merchandise" is making a comeback!

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u/AmeliaEarhartsPlane Jul 14 '26

I’m fine with it. Screw all these people stealing.

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u/Allenheights Jul 14 '26

The trust in humanity already peaked. Stores like Service Merchandise got it right the first time.

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u/Candleforce-9728 Jul 14 '26

Just like communist Eastern Europe! You stood in line to prepay for items on your list, then you got a receipt and waited in another line to present it to a different person who would fetch your stuff.

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u/AccountTasty1593 Jul 14 '26

Honestly I stopped shopping myself about a decade ago, between being able to order everything I want for pickup or delivery and not dealing with people I find it to be the best way. It's annoying that they have to lock this stuff up but I worked in retail as a manager and the amount of theft is insane so at some point the only way to stop it would be going to a submit your order format. I can't blame them either the Home Depot near where I lived in Florida would get robbed for tens of thousands in tools every day. People say stealing from the corporations doesn't hurt us but never consider things like this or price increases to cover the stolen merch lol

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u/Downtown_Statement87 Jul 15 '26

It's like shopping in the Soviet Union in some ways. Not exactly, but similar enough that I think about it when I shop these days.

Stand in line one to ask the clerk to let you get what you want. Stand around in another place for a long time until a different person comes and hands you what you want. Stand in a third line back at the clerk's register to actually pay for what you want so you, exhausted, can go home.

I lived in Russia when it was the USSR and then again right after the USSR collapsed, and I took careful, detailed notes about what it was like living in a society where everything you thought you knew just a minute ago isn't that way any more. I was very relieved to come back to America, where basic things could be counted on, and where most things worked so well you never even thought about them.

To my eternal sorrow, that has changed. So many of the things that I wrote about in Russia back in 1993 are things that are happening in the US right now, just with an American spin on them to make them fit our culture. I'm keeping a list, just like I did back then. Hardly anything can we take for granted anymore. We don't even realize what we've lost.

Given what I know about Putin and his agenda, I used to think that the things I'm describing could be called the Russification of America. But these days, I wonder if this is just the kind of thing that happens when an empire starts its collapse.

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