Best Buy, Home Depot Lock Up Goods to Fight Theft
And to fight sales as well. If I find an item I want in a big-box store like that locked up, I walk away and order it on Amazon. I don&#x27;t have time to wander all over the store looking for an employee with a key to come get me the item I want. As the old saw goes &quot;Ain&#x27;t nobody got time for that.&quot;<p>And in fact, this kind of customer unfriendly b.s. is a big part of the why I don&#x27;t shop in physical retail stores as much. Lowes and Home Depot both have tried <i>very</i> hard to dissuade me from ever entering one of their stores again with this stuff, over-reliance on &quot;self checkout&quot; crapola, etc.<p>As for Best Buy, the last couple of times I&#x27;ve walked into the one nearest me, the shelves had a very barren, depleted look that might just be a symptom of the same supply chain issues that have been causing so many other issues. Regardless of the reason, I feel less compelled to go in there, because I don&#x27;t have a lot of expectation that I&#x27;m going to find what I&#x27;m looking for.<p>I mean, I understand that physical retail is a tough gig and all. But at the same time, if you&#x27;re a retailer and you don&#x27;t have product on your shelves, or the products are there but locked up, you&#x27;re telling me to go somewhere else.