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A viral shopper video captured the frustration millions of Americans already feel when they walk into drugstores and find everyday items sealed behind plexiglass cases. The clip, which shows a customer stunned to discover candy, toiletries, and even Plan B locked away, is part of a wider stream of footage from annoyed shoppers across the country.
Those images aren’t theater — they’re the fallout of a retail crime wave. Stores like Walgreens have publicly acknowledged locking up candy, ice cream, and basic toiletries at locations hammered by repeated thefts, and shoppers are being forced to ask employees to unlock items just to make a simple purchase.
This isn’t a minor operational hiccup; it’s a business crisis. Walgreens executives have admitted the anti-theft strategy has backfired, noting that locking merchandise hurts legitimate sales even as so-called shrink spikes, with leadership calling out a dramatic increase in unaccounted losses.
The human cost is obvious on the ground: managers in cities like San Francisco have chained freezers and rebuilt torn-down plexiglass after brazen thefts, and the company has been forced to close underperforming stores where losses are unsustainable. These are not isolated anecdotes — they are the predictable consequence of turning a blind eye to persistent shoplifting and violent retail crime.
There are two dishonest narratives being shoved at the public right now: one that blames all of this on corporate greed and another that wants to reduce the debate to race-baiting. Corporations have in the past been criticized for how they protect certain products and have adjusted policies in response to concerns about unequal treatment, but that does not erase the simple fact that brazen criminals, not law-abiding customers, are the reason stores are locked down. We can fight criminality without surrendering businesses to looters and without letting demagogues turn every enforcement decision into a racial cudgel.
If you care about your neighborhood and your paycheck, demand a return to law and order: prosecute repeat offenders, fund local policing and storefront security, and hold political leaders accountable instead of punishing honest businesses or customers. Hardworking Americans shouldn’t have to endure the indignity of shopping by permission — it’s time for common-sense enforcement and for leaders who will protect commerce, property, and public safety.
