Everybody hates locked-up products. This company says it has a solution

By Nathaniel Meyersohn, CNN

New York (CNN) — People tend to hate going to a store and finding deodorant, toothpaste, shampoo, cosmetics and other everyday products locked up on shelves behind display cases. Now, some stores are testing a new way to let customers open the locked displays.

Customers, accustomed to self-service at stores, don’t like to push a button for assistance and wait for an employee to come open the display so they can buy something for $5. Low paid, overburdened retail workers don’t want to spend their day unlocking shelves in different aisles every five minutes. And retail management knows that locking up products costs the business sales and pushes their customers to shop on Amazon.

So some retailers are testing a way to let customers use their cell phones to open locked shelves.

Toothpaste on lockdown

Retailers have been locking up more household products since the pandemic to stop people from stealing — especially organized robbery sprees that clear entire shelves of products.

Retailers say both petty theft and organized robberies have increased since the pandemic, although data does not always support these claims. Cigarettes, health and beauty products, over-the-counter medications, contraceptives, liquor, teeth-whitening strips and other products are the most commonly stolen items at US stores, according to surveys of retailers.

But the strategy of locking up products, which is cheaper for them than hiring more staff to keep watch throughout a store, has backfired.

So stores are now testing a security tool that lets customers use their cell phone to unlock products on the shelf. It’s essentially self-service for unlocking display cases — in exchange for a customer’s phone number.

The touch screen, called the “Freedom Case,” allows customers to use their cell phone number, a retailer’s app, or a store loyalty card to unlock a display case and access locked merchandise. Shoppers select an option on the display case and then receive a text message with a four-digit code to let them open the case.

The customer’s phone number is “used solely for the purpose of accessing the merchandise and no other purpose,” said Joe Budano, the CEO of Indyme, which developed the security case.

The device also gives customers the option to request an employee open the display without giving any information, as they did before.

Retailers see up to a 20% reduction in sales when they lock up items, Budano said, and also face higher labor costs because employees spend additional time unlocking and locking cases. It takes 1.5 minutes on average for customers to retrieve products behind locked cases, according to a study commissioned by Indyme.

Retailers testing ‘Freedom Case’

So far, 26 retailers are using the security device, Budano said, although he did not say which, citing confidentially agreements with retailers.

Earlier this month, Indyme’s website listed Kroger, Safeway, Lowe’s, Raley’s and other chains as retailers testing the security device. Their company logos have since been taken down from Indyme’s website, and the companies did not respond to CNN’s request for comment.

Schnucks, a St. Louis-based supermarket chain with more than 100 stores, has rolled out the cases to more than 40 stores in its liquor department.

“We’ve seen the benefit,” a Schnucks spokesperson told CNN. Shoppers are “able to help themselves and save a little of time.”

The case “seems to provide a good balance between convenience and security,” said Raymond Burke, a marketing professor at Indiana University who studies how customers interact with new retail environments and technologies.

Privacy will be a main concern for customers when they are deciding whether to give over the phone number to open a product, he said.

But consumers have repeatedly shown a willingness to exchange personal information for purchases. Store and online retailers typically have customers’ email addresses and phone numbers for purchases.

“People routinely use fitness and sleep tracking applications, giving up their biometric data in exchange for performance summaries and coaching,” Burke said. “People who use navigation software share their location data in exchange for mapping features.”

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