abeppu
12 hours ago
Also in the 'solution to shop-lifting makes me shop elsewhere', there are two locally-owned independent hardware stores in walking distance from my home.
One has a 'buzz to enter' vestibule with two doors whose locks are controlled by the cashier. You ring the exterior bell, the cashier buzzes you through the first door, and only after it closes will they buzz open the second door -- so you're trapped. The same is true on the exit. No one can run out of the store with an expensive power tool they didn't pay for. But even though I'm not stealing anything but I find the whole experience so deeply unpleasant that I've stopped going there at all.
The second independent hardware store now has multiple security people at the front, and a mandatory bag-check policy. Except the bag check line is the customer service line, and I've literally waited 30 minutes total to drop off and then pick up my bag, stuck behind people with elaborate customer service requests. They have a bunch of staff on the floor, but they often don't actually know where stuff is, whether they carry X, etc. It becomes impossible to make a quick purchase of a single item.
So more and more, I'm apt to buy whatever it was online. I don't want the extra amazon packaging. I tried going literally out of my way to buy at the local independent business. But they made it such a crap waste-of-time experience.
OptionOfT
9 hours ago
> but they often don't actually know where stuff is, whether they carry X
That's the standard at all of the Home-Depots / Walmarts / Lowe's around here. If you ask the location of something the associate just looks it up on their devices.
If you ask a question about an item the associate reads the description on the website and can't provide an answer, because I just read the description... and couldn't find the answer. That's why I asked the associate.
vel0city
7 hours ago
Meanwhile my experience at the Lowe's and HD's around me they'll know what you're asking down to the bay. Often even "bottom right of bay x on isle y".
And the kids love the kits on the first Saturdays at HD.
williamstein
9 hours ago
If they really trap you (and there is no manual override, which could have an alarm), this would be a violation of fire codes in the US.
bsder
11 hours ago
> But even though I'm not stealing anything but I find the whole experience so deeply unpleasant that I've stopped going there at all.
You're offended just for being buzzed in and out? Why?
That's about the least offensive thing a business can do.
If they were selling jewelry instead of hardware, everybody would consider it a mark of being upscale.
abeppu
11 hours ago
I'm not offended. I'm uncomfortable being trapped in an enclosed box in which I'm reliant on another person (who clearly distrusts me) taking 4 separate actions for me to enter and exit. The article points out that shoppers at Walgreens would rather go to another store than ask and wait for for a staff person to unlock their razor cartridges or whatever. This hardware store has effectively wrapped their business in such a barrier, and I would rather go to another store than ask and wait for a staff person to unlock 4 doors for me.
Also, implicit in all of this is that:
- you are submitting yourself for judgement based on how you look for them to decide whether you're likely to be a paying customer. I doubt whether any set criteria are used, but I fully expect that race, age, gender, and a range of class markers are involved.
- though they the business are distrustful and unwelcoming of you the prospective customer, you the customer are forced to be entirely trusting of their staff. They start the interaction off by broadcasting the presumption that you may be a threat, and establishing unilateral physical control to restrain people on entry or exit. I read this as both hostile and inequitable.