Locking up retailer merchandise can deter shoplifters and paying clients alike, in line with Walgreens.
The pharmacy chain’s CEO Tim Wentworth stated in Walgreens Boots Alliance’s first-quarter earnings name Tuesday that “When you lock issues up … you do not promote as lots of them. We’ve sort of confirmed that fairly conclusively.”
Keeping retail merchandise beneath lock and key’s a maneuver designed to thwart rising retail theft. But it additionally irks — and turns away — would-be paying clients who do not have the persistence to attend for a retail clerk to retrieve items they want to purchase.
Walgreens and different retailers have needed to fight so-called “retail shrink,” or the lack of stock from causes aside from gross sales, Wentworth famous. The firm took steps to safe extra merchandise after it discovered retail theft accounted for a rising share in shrink. However, locking merchandise behind a see-through case has not proved efficient, he stated.
The firm’s asset safety division is growing “artistic” options to combat retail theft, Wentworth stated Tuesday.
“I haven’t got something magnificent to share with you immediately. It is a hand-to-hand fight battle nonetheless, sadly,” Wentworth stated.
The firm reported an working lack of $245 million for the quarter, in contrast with $39 million for a similar quarter one yr earlier.
Walgreens plans to shut lots of of shops by the top of 2025 to show round its flagging gross sales. It has already closed roughly 2,000 places over the previous decade and has “loads of expertise with retailer closures,” the corporate stated.
“Naturally, we anticipate our future footprint to assist stronger efficiency,” Wentworth stated.
