CVS Store Pulls Tide Pods Off Shelves—Will Others Follow?

CVS isn’t just a drugstore, as any of us who’ve made a late-night CVS run know all too effectively. These shops supply every little thing from meals to toiletries to magnificence merchandise, making them a really perfect cease whether or not now we have prescriptions to choose up or not. However consumers at one CVS location are in for a barely extra inconvenient expertise in the event that they’re searching for laundry detergent, as Tide Pods are being pulled from cabinets. Learn on to search out out about this stunning transfer, and whether or not extra CVS places are prone to observe go well with.

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Tide Pods, a type of laundry detergent, for sale at Target — Shutterstock

Sure CVS clients must go the additional mile to get their laundry provides. The retailer’s retailer in Delmar, New York, has simply pulled Tide Pods and different detergent packets off of cabinets, the Occasions Union reported on March 10.

In line with the native newspaper, consumers trying to buy these merchandise must request them from a employee first.

“Tide/Acquire Pods have been quickly moved to behind the entrance counter. Please see an worker for help with shopping for,” reads an indication within the Delmar CVS on the cabinets the place these merchandise would usually be situated.

The interior of a CVS pharmacy in Minnesota. — Shutterstock

Customers on the Delmar CVS have misplaced the privilege of accessing Tide Pods and different detergent merchandise immediately due to a surge in shoplifting. A employee on the retailer advised the Occasions Union that too many individuals had been stealing the small laundry cleaning soap packs off the cabinets.

In line with the Nationwide Retail Federation (NRF), detergent is likely one of the prime product classes typically focused by thieves.

“These things are optimum targets for offenders who wish to reduce the effort and time required to commit crime (e.g., the supply/accessibility and removability of things), and reduce danger of damaging penalties (i.e., concealability), whereas maximizing the advantages of any given offense (e.g., worth, enjoyment and disposability of things),” the NRF defined in a 2022 report.

Greatest Life reached out to CVS concerning the detergent merchandise being pulled from this location’s cabinets, and we are going to replace this story with their response.

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Tubes of Colgate-Palmolives Colgate toothpaste are locked up to deter shoplifters in a store in New York — Shutterstock

There aren’t any experiences to point that extra CVS shops have pulled Tide Pods and different related detergent merchandise from cabinets to forestall shoplifting. However different places have carried out totally different anti-theft measures in response to an increase in retail theft.

Throughout a Nov. 2021 Senate listening to, Ben Dugan, the director of organized retail crime and company investigations at CVS Well being, stated that the corporate had seen a 300 % improve in retail theft from its shops for the reason that begin of the pandemic.

In consequence, CVS shops all through the U.S. have been locking up sure merchandise—like detergent—behind plastic circumstances. And that is not all. One CVS retailer in New York Metropolis has additionally turned to utilizing educated safety canine to cease shoplifting, the New York Submit reported in Feb. 2023.

“It is efficient to this point,” Kevin Ward, vice chairman of safety for the group testing this anti-theft measure at an area CVS, advised the newspaper. “We have had a few individuals who had been recognized shoplifters who noticed the canine and walked out with out stealing something.”

Retailers like CVS are looking for the stability between defending their merchandise and turning away clients who’re pissed off they’ve to leap by way of hoops to get what they want.

In Dec. 2022, Roger Evans, a client from Arizona, advised Insider that he has stopped shopping for gadgets like razors at CVS as a consequence of these new safety measures—as an alternative selecting to buy from direct-to-consumer manufacturers like Harry’s and Greenback Shave Membership.

“I all the time discovered it tough to discover a employees member to come back unlock them,” Evans advised the information outlet. “The drug shops have been perpetually understaffed.”

Customers have even taken to social media to share complaints about CVS and its anti-theft measures. “I hate these CVS which have every little thing locked up,” one particular person tweeted on March 1. One other Twitter person had an identical grievance just a few days later.

“I do know shoplifting was up final 12 months, however I additionally know half the merchandise at my native CVS is in locked circumstances now, and the shop is understaffed, so successfully I am unable to purchase deodorant, laundry detergent, or face wash,” they tweeted on March 6. “Is that this… how we do enterprise now?”