Business New anti-theft Walgreens store has just 2 aisles of touchable merchandise - Chicago store requires you to order/pay from a kiosk and wait for an employee to fetch your purchase from the back

May 31, 2023 2:49 PM

CHICAGO — During an earnings call with Walgreens investors earlier this year, the company’s chief financial officer opined that his fellow executives may have overstated the effects of organized shoplifting rings on its operations.

“Maybe we cried too much last year,” James Kehoe said.

Good luck balancing that cheery, non-crying analysis with what you see when you walk into the company’s freshly redesigned store at 2 East Roosevelt in downtown Chicago.

In what was once a typical Walgreens, there are now just two short aisles of so-called “essentials” where “customers may shop for themselves.” If you want anything else—a bottle of booze, a deodorant brand deemed “non-essential”—you’ll need to order it at a kiosk and pick it up at the counter.

Walgreens-2-east-roosevelt-essen.jpg
At the new Walgreens concept store at 2 East Roosevelt in downtown Chicago, this—plus a small bank of refrigerated items behind the camera—is the full selection of merchandise you are allowed to touch. | CWBChicago

After undergoing a few weeks of construction, the store reopened on Tuesday. The pharmacy is in the back and to the left, equipped with a fancy new kiosk system of its own. An employee will teach you how to use it.

To the right, gated by anti-shoplifting devices to protect the inventory, two rows of low-rise shelves offer a very limited selection of those so-called “essentials.” Unlike the tall shelves you’re used to seeing in your neighborhood Walgreens, this store’s shelves are no more than five feet tall, giving everyone a clear look at what everyone else is up to.

Walgreens-2-east-roosevelt-chica.jpg
A handful of self-serve kiosks allow customers to shop the store’s “full selection” electronically. | CWBChicago

When we visited the one-of-a-kind store on Wednesday morning, two employees were dedicated to the “shop for yourself” section.

But if you want anything other than the very basic of basics, you’ll need to use one of the iPad-like “kiosks,” where a sign invites you to “Let us do the shopping” from the store’s “full selection.”

After placing your order, a plastic-framed sign next to the computer instructs, you should “relax while we shop for you.” When your order is ready, head to the pickup/FedEx/Western Union counter to claim your goods.

Walgreens-2-e-roosevelt-chicago.jpg
Customers claim and pay for their kiosk-ordered purchases at a counter where FedEx and Western Union services are also offered. | CWBChicago

On Thursday, a company spokesperson said Walgreens is “testing a new experience at this store with new concepts, technologies, and practices to enhance the experiences of our customers and team members.”

“It will continue to offer retail products and pharmacy services, just with a new look and feel that focuses on shopping digitally for convenience. Inside the store, customers will find an area where they can pick-up orders, digital kiosks for placing an order, as well as an area to shop for essential items.”

So, how was our visit? Weird.

After browsing both aisles of touchable merchandise, our intrepid reporter decided to buy an ice-cold Coca-Cola, priced at $1.89 or two for $3.

To start the check-out experience, an employee used their name tag to bring one of the self-serve stations to life.

It promptly charged our reporter $2.89 for the $1.89 soda. Plus tax, of course.

The error was quickly remedied with the help of both “shop for yourself” attendants.

Propped on the sidewalk at the corner of State and Roosevelt, a sandwich board boasts that the company has “built a better Walgreens.”

You can judge that for yourself between 7 a.m. and 10 p.m. daily.

A reader who lives near the Walgreens contacted the company after it shuttered for remodeling, wondering if the store had closed permanently. In mid-May, that reader sent us a copy of the response they said they received.

The response said the store was “undergoing a remodeling effort for Walgreens to test new concepts, technologies and practices aimed at bringing the community a greater convenience and safety for our customers, patients and team members.”

“This redesigned store will have the latest in e-commerce offerings to increase customer service, mitigate theft and increase safety for customers and employees—all the while, continuing to have a full service pharmacy for our patients.”

It went on to say the remodeled store will have “a new look and feel, focused on getting customers to place orders ahead of time digitally at Walgreens.com or in the Walgreens app for in-store Pickup. Customers who don’t place an order in advance will still be able to order in-store by placing orders from our kiosks—with Walgreens team members available to offer assistance.”

The store would also “include an ‘Essentials’ area where customers may shop for themselves from a selection of essential and convenience items.”

“We are targeting re-opening the full store Memorial Day weekend,” it said. The store reopened on Tuesday, the day after Memorial Day.

After this story was published, a Walgreens spokesperson told CWBChicago that she is the only person authorized to speak about the new store and she did not create the letter that our reader received. On Friday, the spokesperson said the letter “was not sent from Walgreens to a customer.”

Source (Archive)
 
I've never used it from the store-side before, but in the... perhaps dozen times I've ever used a "pick up" or "delivery" option from a grocery store in my life? *every single time* I've had at least, say, 5% of my order, if not more, that was said to be "in stock" not actually apparently be in stock.

So yeah. I'm betting this is going to be real fun.
Let me tell you, Inventory Systems, (At least the one mine uses, and I can't imagine there isn't a Monopoly on Inventory POS Systems because the Top Competitor to the one we use is Fucking Square Mobile OS Bullshit and I don't think anyone is retarded enough to run a Self Check out lane off an Ipad) might be one of the most useless pieces of software I have ever seen.

I have seen items go into the Negative, Fix the counts (The Number was zero..we had none, I know it for a fact because I was the only one in the department for six months, and I knew we had ZERO of them and none in the throw-aways because I had emptied them) and come back the next night and have them be Negative again.

This happened for a week straight, I would come in..see that the item (it was a high traffic item) was still empty..work that section see we once again did not get any..check the counts and see we have -10 of the item. I had..a Salaried Member of Management use their MANAGEMENT Credentials to fix the count..and the next day we still had negative.
 
I doubt they'll actually be able to do this thanks to civil rights laws.

This was already a couple years ago but Asian shopkeepers in Philly got sick of niggers stealing so they put up bulletproof glass and wire cages and the niggers sued and a judge ruled that they had to take all that shit down because racism or something.

Benjamin Crumb and Al Sharpton are probably licking their lips and firing up their Outlook clients as we speak.
A handful of small time store owners isn't going to hold the same sway as a massive international corporation. Ben and Al might have deep pockets, but I bet walgreens has even deeper pockets.
 
A handful of small time store owners isn't going to hold the same sway as a massive international corporation. Ben and Al might have deep pockets, but I bet walgreens has even deeper pockets.
Yeah but they can make it expensive enough that they'd probably just settle and scuttle the store entirely. Especially if they're going to get multiple lawsuits, one for each location open, for example.
 
Let me tell you, Inventory Systems, (At least the one mine uses, and I can't imagine there isn't a Monopoly on Inventory POS Systems because the Top Competitor to the one we use is Fucking Square Mobile OS Bullshit and I don't think anyone is retarded enough to run a Self Check out lane off an Ipad) might be one of the most useless pieces of software I have ever seen.

I have seen items go into the Negative, Fix the counts (The Number was zero..we had none, I know it for a fact because I was the only one in the department for six months, and I knew we had ZERO of them and none in the throw-aways because I had emptied them) and come back the next night and have them be Negative again.

This happened for a week straight, I would come in..see that the item (it was a high traffic item) was still empty..work that section see we once again did not get any..check the counts and see we have -10 of the item. I had..a Salaried Member of Management use their MANAGEMENT Credentials to fix the count..and the next day we still had negative.
this is what your software looks like on H-1Bs. Total pajeet death, now.
 
This is how shops used to operate. You'd walk up to a counter and order out of a catalog or just bring a written list. While you were paying, a clerk in the back would pick everything from the inventory shelves. The current shop system where you browse the inventory shelves yourself is a surprisingly new concept in an attempt to increase efficiency (and cut down on the pay of clerks). This is clearly an experiment that failed. Because of niggers.
I'm curious how this shift will affect impulse purchases. Retail stores are designed the same way that shitty gacha games are, i.e. Convince to buy more than what they originally intended.

People aren't going to that when they can't pick up a box to read the back. It's one of the reasons that many retail stores were apprehensive with store pickup via parking spot during covid.
 
We got a constable at our store and you have to check your bags. But maybe this might be a good idea too? I noticed the chips and candy aren't locked down. Junkies love chips and candy. They also love energy drinks.

I doubt they'll actually be able to do this thanks to civil rights laws.

This was already a couple years ago but Asian shopkeepers in Philly got sick of niggers stealing so they put up bulletproof glass and wire cages and the niggers sued and a judge ruled that they had to take all that shit down because racism or something.

Benjamin Crumb and Al Sharpton are probably licking their lips and firing up their Outlook clients as we speak.

We still have bullet proof glass. Some stores are completely enclosed in it and you have to tell the shopkeeper what you want and get it through a slot after paying. A lot of the small liquor stores are like this. Some won't even let you inside. It's all through a slot. One Chinese takeout won't even let you in. They have the entrances walled off by pallets and the lady will come up to you, take your order then you sit in a chair outside until it's ready. Our Dunkin Donuts took out the seats pre-pandemic. But the trash was harassing all the customers and refusing to leave. They'd demand free products from the staff too. They still do. But it's harder now because there's no seats to loiter on. They even put those plastic anti-pigeon spikes on the window ledges so they can't sit there.:lol:
 
And then Walgreens closes the store. Bold strategy on their part.

I wonder if Walgreens is already flexing a bit in places because they're sick of nigger behavior. San Francisco's DA won't press charges against the security guard that shot that black tranny dead. Why? I mean, SF is not exactly the self-defense capital of the West. Far from it. Why NOT charge him?

Unless the DA gets told, 'You charge him, we start shutting down stores because you won't protect them, faggot.'
Newsome is weirdly quiet about "shutting down walgreens" a bit after too. Coincidence? These dumb faggots finally figured out who's paying for their communist utopia experiment and they thought siccing their nogs at them would work.

Especially after crippling our fucking economy. Three times. In a fucking row. Cuz muh raytheon/moderna/trannies
 
So, good job at actually literally setting us back a century?

This is how shops used to operate. You'd walk up to a counter and order out of a catalog or just bring a written list. While you were paying, a clerk in the back would pick everything from the inventory shelves. The current shop system where you browse the inventory shelves yourself is a surprisingly new concept in an attempt to increase efficiency (and cut down on the pay of clerks). This is clearly an experiment that failed. Because of niggers.
The reduction of the number of clerks is key, and it actually started the whole "commercial grocery craze" - back when everything was behind the counter you didn't have five or ten types of flour, you had a giant box that said "flour". Once they realized they could get the customers to pick stock for them, they also realized that customers are dumb and you can directly advertise to them. It's honestly an improvement to go back, if they hadn't fucking stuck a goddamn computer in the middle of it. Being able to walk into the store and have the clerk go "Ah, Sword, the usual?" and you being able to say "yep, but add an extra pound of butter" is amazing. And they'd often have most of it picked out before, because they know you.
I had..a Salaried Member of Management use their MANAGEMENT Credentials to fix the count..and the next day we still had negative.
Shit gets misbarcorded all the fucking time and nobody notices if the prices line up or are close. You'll be entirely out of Diet Coke, but someone will scan in a case of Diet Coke as Coke Zero because the pallet label is all sorts of fucked up, and suddenly it's selling but under the wrong barcode, counts are going negative, everyone's freaking out over inventory.

What gets batshit is when it's some place like best buy or home depot and they're like "well the system says we have ten of these things what cost a grand each, but fuck if we can find a single one."
 
I'm curious how this shift will affect impulse purchases. Retail stores are designed the same way that shitty gacha games are, i.e. Convince to buy more than what they originally intended.

People aren't going to that when they can't pick up a box to read the back. It's one of the reasons that many retail stores were apprehensive with store pickup via parking spot during covid.
well this store in the article still has impulse items for sale. notice in the pic and the article there are two rows of it, but they now call them “essentials”. so sugary drinks and candy are there for impulse buying. but yeah, other things which might buy arnt there. i know when i go shopping either grocery or walmart, sometimes i end up buying something which i didnt intended to; walking down the aisle and something catches my eye sort of thing. that sort of impulse purchase will long be gone from this type of store, sure. i wonder how much this type of thing makes up sales wise for a large store?
 
I like to think of this scenario as an example of what I call oppression from the bottom-up. It's not Walgreens that's the oppressor, but the regular people (of a certain demographic) whose toxic dysfunctional behavior causes other regular people to lose their rights, opportunities, and conveniences because they have no respect for the law or social contract. It's the People oppressing the People. Not exactly mob rule, but casual popular disregard for society.

Sorry for getting on my soapbox, but this article just reminded me sometimes the People can be their own worst enemy. Who needs Big Brother when Average Joe (or in this case Average Jamal) is willing to take everything from you?
 
I like to think of this scenario as an example of what I call oppression from the bottom-up. It's not Walgreens that's the oppressor, but the regular people (of a certain demographic) whose toxic dysfunctional behavior causes other regular people to lose their rights, opportunities, and conveniences because they have no respect for the law or social contract. It's the People oppressing the People. Not exactly mob rule, but casual popular disregard for society.

Sorry for getting on my soapbox, but this article just reminded me sometimes the People can be their own worst enemy. Who needs Big Brother when Average Joe (or in this case Average Jamal) is willing to take everything from you?
The west has a boner in general for the idea of being oppressed. Niggers in the US have it the easiest time any melanated person in history has ever had. The only stipulation is "don't hit people when you get mad, don't take things that don't belong to you" and they still fuck that up.

But the problem is white people.

We love the Hunger Games. We love being the rebel alliance. We need to be gay dumbledore fighting against mean dolores umbridge. We love the idea of a powerless rising up against the powerful. The CEO is not allowed to tell the janitor to clean the bathroom, or even be upset when the janitor says his kid is ugly becuse its "punching down". In-fact that CEO should clean the bathroom and thank the janitor! Because the CEO has "power". Though people are completely blind to the idea that crying you're oppressed carries a lot of social and governmental weight and confers enormous power.

No one wants to be the big meany that says "stop" because our identities are so wrapped up in being the cool teenaged rebels.
 
As multiple kiwis have noted, this is literally back to the future. Fix the shitty computer ordering software and you've basically got a c. 1890 drugstore except the clerk doesn't know you by name. Of course, if your preferences are saved in the POS system it doesn't matter, just walk in, press a few buttons, get handed your stuff, and go.

Of course, this eliminates branding as noted, but on the megalocorp end it eventually saves money since they don't have to make 20 different variants of the same item all with different branding to appeal to each small sliver of society.

The problem with the original model was that the "gofer" clerk could make more money at the big Megalocorp Widget Factory on the other end of town, and the local corner grocery-usually run by a single family living upstairs-couldn't compete. Today, the problem is that giant squads of rampaging niggers storm in and strip the store bare right after it gets stocked. Eventually the losses become so great that the business can't function.

Shutting down is one option, but if vast swaths of Murikan cities have nowhere for the local ghetto rats to buy so much as a bag of Fritos, there will be massive riots, then the survivors invade the exurbs where the White people live. Having to call a clerk to unlock a cabinet every time you want to buy a tube of toothpaste is tedious and makes the stores understaffed. This way is a workaround to both problems-place your order, get it, and go. The clerks don't have to worry about drug crazed niggers murdering them. The customer doesn't have to check the doors every 5 minutes to make sure that some Kalashnikov-wielding troon hasn't had a bad day.
 
If this works then I am assuming that all stores in black neighborhoods will end up converting to this model. But will stores in white neighborhoods follow suit? If they don't, you know there will be cries of racism from the usual suspects.
Corps can (and should) point to their inventory data that show that shrink in vibrant communities necessitate the shift. They won't but they should. would solve a lot of the "stores closing because of issues" and "locking up hair dye with black guys on the box" bullshit.
Shutting down is one option, but if vast swaths of Murikan cities have nowhere for the local ghetto rats to buy so much as a bag of Fritos, there will be massive riots, then the survivors invade the exurbs where the White people live.
Depends on the suburbs and their prosecutors.
 
You'll be entirely out of Diet Coke, but someone will scan in a case of Diet Coke as Coke Zero because the pallet label is all sorts of fucked up, and suddenly it's selling but under the wrong barcode, counts are going negative, everyone's freaking out over inventory.
Who codes this shitty software? Is this some pajeet shit? Is there no sanity checking to check that having a negative number of something is literally impossible?
 
  • Agree
Reactions: innocent jogger
Probably going against the grain here, but I actually do like this shop format.

I love Argos, the stock management is very accurate, so you can check online to see if they have what you want rather than wasting your time.
Also because their stock management is on point, they are one of the very few places in rural UK who offer same day delivery (on items that are in stock in your local store).
You can see on the display thingys in store how many items are in stock, order and voila a few mins later you are packed, paid and on your way. There is no wandering around looking for shit, there is less chance of stuff having been molested by other shop goers.

AND it has the added benefit of stopping niggers from stealing shit… or at least having to get a job there to steal from it.

Yup. Argos is the future.

(This post was not spondored by Argos, I have no affiliation with Argos or niggers in general).
 
Back