US supermarkets and pharmacies also bar access to products on shelves

Products on sealed shelves are not exclusive to supermarkets in neighborhoods with lower purchasing power in São Paulo. The practice is also common in the United States, especially in poorer regions with a greater presence of blacks and Latinos.

There as here, the networks claim that the measure aims to reduce theft, which has been rising.

At a Walgreens drugstore in Washington, even large items like four-liter bottles of laundry soap are locked away. In the country, pharmacies sell almost everything, and put barriers to access to liquid soaps, deodorants, baby formula and cell phone cables.

In a Walmart supermarket, the washing machine has free access, but there are more than 30 cabinets among the shelves, for items like pain relievers (the markets also sell medicines), deodorants, soaps, car odorizers, nicotine patches, packages of underwear and socks and even contact lens cleaning solution.

Monitors in the hallways display real-time images from security cameras to deter theft.

In more central regions — and with more white residents — these cabinets are less used or not present at all. This is the case of a Safeway supermarket, which has medicines and deodorants in an area close to the cashiers with greater visibility, but with free access to consumers.

In no store visited by the report, either in the central region or in peripheral neighborhoods, however, there were restrictions on common foods. In Brazil, networks began to restrict access to meat in some stores.

The relationship between product restrictions and racism has become more debated in recent years in the US. In 2018, Essie Grundy, a California resident, sued Walmart for hampering access to products for blacks. Shampoos and creams for frizzy hair, for example, were sealed in cabinets, while the same items for those with straight hair were accessed without restriction.

An employee would have to take the product to the cashier, which was only delivered to customers after payment. One of the items with extra protection was a comb, which cost US$0.48 (about R$3.25).

In the action, Grundy claims that the other customers kept looking at her while waiting for help to open the closet. “She felt ashamed and humiliated, as if people saw her as a criminal,” says the defense.

The consumer withdrew from the process in 2018, but the case shed light on the problem and more complaints surfaced in the following months. Real change, however, only came after the murder of George Floyd, a black man suspected of presenting a counterfeit $20 bill at a convenience store, by police officers in 2020.

Weeks later, CVS drugstore chain, Walmart and Walgreens announced they would no longer place black beauty products in protected areas, and that the move was a way to leave racist practices behind. At the time, Walmart said it understood the complaints and that products such as electronics, automotive items, cosmetics are locked up for security.

Also at the time, CVS said the lock was a “last resort” and that the decision on what to protect was made based on the shoplifting statistics at each store.

There have been no other policy changes since then. Wanted by sheet, the networks did not comment.

Theft of products is increasing in the country. According to Clear, an American coalition of retailers and security forces, commerce loses around $45 billion a year in the US in robberies. In the past decade, it was US$ 30 billion.

The pandemic has also made the problem worse. A study by the NRF (National Federation of Shopkeepers) found that 65% of traders have noticed more aggressive actions by burglars since last year. The main targets are clothes, washing machines, bags, allergy medicine and razor blades.

In New York, there were 26,385 cases recorded as of mid-September, the highest number since 1995, and a 32 percent increase from 2020. Dermot Shea, NY Police Chief, has linked the increase to a change in state law that facilitated access to bail, with the aim of reducing incarceration for minor crimes. Thus, anyone caught stealing low-value items can usually be released the same day.

“Insanity, there is no other way to describe the crimes that resulted from the disastrous reform of the bail law,” Shea posted on Twitter in October, commenting on a local report about a 22-year-old thief who has already been arrested, and released, 46 times in 2021 alone. Half of the cases occurred at the same Walgreens facility.

Employees are often instructed to call the police and not to question criminals, but agents do not always arrive on time. Large retailers point out that it is common for stolen products to be resold over the internet and that many thieves are part of specialized gangs.

“Despite the growing danger of organized crime in stores, no federal law prevents this type of activity. This leaves investigations, when they are done, scattered in a patchwork of local jurisdictions, even if the crimes typically involve multiple states,” he said. the NRF in a report on the thefts.

“Companies are investing in technology and in hiring more employees. But one thing is clear: the risk environment in retail is more complex and more costly than ever.”