A CVS shopper goes viral for calling out an unlikely merchandise now beneath lock and key: ice cream.

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TikTok person @queendotugc, who lives in Jacksonville, Florida, mentioned she was surprised to search out that grabbing a pint at her native CVS wasn’t as simple as opening a freezer door. As a substitute, she needed to push a “customer support” button to summon an worker, who unlocked the case after confirming her choice.

“Y’ALL GOTTA BE STOPPED,” @queendotugc mentioned, calling out shoplifters whose antics have pressured shops to get extra aggressive with anti-theft measures.

“Why I gotta push a button for some ice cream?” she requested. Her video had racked up greater than 1.7 million views.

Since when is ice cream beneath lockdown? 

Seems, this isn’t only a Florida factor—and it’s not distinctive to CVS.

Again in August 2023, NPR reported on a New York Metropolis grocer who slapped lid locks on particular person pints of ice cream. This made them unattainable to open with out worker assist, and helped crack down on theft. With pints working $5 to $6 apiece, the grocery store mentioned they’d turn out to be simple targets for grab-and-go crime.

A month earlier, Outkick reported that grocery shops throughout New York had began locking up ice cream amid a spike in shoplifting and petty crime. Not as a result of crooks have been determined for cookies and cream, however as a result of they might swipe it with out consequence. 

“To assist preserve the bottom attainable price, a protecting lock has been positioned on some models of ice cream,” learn an indication at Fairway Market. The shop had outfitted some cartons with bolts or locking units that solely workers may take away.

A CVS spokesperson instructed the Each day Dot that theft stays a widespread concern in retail, and locking up objects, whereas inconvenient, is usually obligatory.

“Retail theft is a problem for all retailers,” the spokesperson mentioned. “We all know protecting merchandise locked up may be inconvenient, however it’s essential that we hold merchandise in inventory and out there for our clients to buy. Completely different merchandise expertise completely different theft charges, relying on retailer location and different components, and our product safety choices are data-driven. Locking a product is a measure of final resort.”

It’s not simply the frozen stuff

Ice cream would be the newest shock, however it’s removed from the one on a regular basis merchandise getting locked up. Retailers have lengthy put issues like razors, laundry detergent, child components, and tooth whiteners behind protecting glass.

Shops argue they’re responding to an actual uptick in theft. Some say organized retail crime has surged for the reason that pandemic, with thieves focusing on high-value objects which are simply resold. In 2022, almost 70% of shops reported that organized crime contributed to as a lot as $69 billion in losses, in keeping with Forbes, citing statistics from the Retail Business Leaders Affiliation and the Purchase Protected America Coalition.

These aren’t one-off incidents, both. “Retail gangs” reportedly carry out coordinated thefts, making off with large hauls they’ll flip for hundreds of thousands.

However not everybody’s satisfied the shoplifting wave is as widespread as retailers declare.

The Council on Legal Justice, a nonpartisan suppose tank, analyzed developments in 24 main cities from 2019 to mid-2023 and located that shoplifting truly declined in additional than two-thirds of them. The exceptions have been New York and Los Angeles, each of which have seen notable spikes, significantly in thefts beneath $950, per the Los Angeles Occasions.

Whether or not the danger is actual or overstated, the outcome is identical for on a regular basis consumers: extra buttons to push, extra hoops to leap by way of—and apparently, much less spontaneous ice cream.

@queendotugc THIS IS INSANE!!! Yall stealing simply something at this level! #CVS #StopStealing #fyp ♬ unique sound – QueenDotUGC

Viewers urge compassion for CVS employee 

In her viral TikTok, @queendotugc expressed frustration with CVS’s resolution to lock up ice cream—and appeared to direct a few of that frustration on the worker who got here to help her.

“Y’all gotta lock up the ice cream?” she requested the employee who unlocked the freezer door.

However many viewers have been fast to leap in and defend the staffer, reminding @queendotugc that retail staff don’t make the principles.

“Employees don’t make these choices, higher-ups do,” one commenter mentioned.

“Don’t get aggravated on the workers for issues they’ll’t management,” one other added. “They need to cope with this greater than you do; it’s not their fault.”

“She’s in all probability over it, too,” a 3rd viewer wrote.

Nonetheless, not everybody had endurance for the ice cream lock-up coverage. Some mentioned they’d’ve merely left the shop.

“I’d have simply went elsewhere,” one TikTok person wrote.

“I’d have not noted that retailer instantly,” one other chimed in.

The Each day Dot has reached out to @queendotugc through a TikTok remark.

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