Crime alert: Pharmacy forced to display photos of its stock
Yes, you read right, there was an increase in theft of toilet paper in this neighbourhood...
Thieves are able to find value in the most unusual of ways.
In this case, it was everything on the shelves of a pharmacy in Washington DC.
"A sticky-fingered mob of shoplifting teens has almost entirely cleaned out a Washington, DC-area CVS outlet — leaving the retailer’s shelves almost bare." (New York Post)
The shoplifting teens have been hitting the store regularly, stealing chips, drinks, and other items.
Street vendors allegedly pay the teens to steal items from the store and then turn a profit by selling the stolen items on the sidewalk.
This has caused the CVS store to become creative in the way they handle their sales.
The pharmacy, which many customers use as a convenience store, has resorted to an interesting way of selling items they still have in stock.
"Framed images of items such as toilet paper and kitchen towels stand in place of the real thing, according to pictures shared to X, while customers have to press a button to request staff fetch the products from storage." (Internews Cast)
Sadly, these raids have caused many drugstores (what we call pharmacies) to close down.
This is from the CVS on H Street in Washington DC.
— Joey Mannarino (@JoeyMannarinoUS) October 27, 2023
Due to the out-of-control theft, they have now put away almost all their items and just have photographs of what is in stock.
You press the button and the sales associate gets you what you need.
I was in Barcelona, Spain a few… pic.twitter.com/jOif99w77d
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With Black Friday approaching, we cannot imagine having something like this happen in stores in South Africa.
Not to throw shade, but in our country, we are quite accustomed to theft and even we haven't resorted to such methods.
It goes to show that even the regular criminal who makes his dime with the small steals can have a huge impact.
Image Courtesy of Pexels