A HOME Depot shopper has blasted the retailer after being unable to buy a garden essential – despite their polite request to workers.
Bosses at the homeware giant promised a probe after the customer vented their frustrations.
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Home Depot is among the retailers that have rolled out anti-theft measures in its stores to deter shoppers.
One woman, from North Carolina, revealed she went to a store to buy a leaf blower but was met with in-store barriers.
She claimed the garden essential was locked in a cage and said she waited for 10 minutes so an employee could unlock it.
“It’s not as if it would fit in my purse,” she slammed in the X post.
The furious shopper then revealed she trooped over to the customer service desk and asked workers three times.
“I needed that brand,” she complained.
A Home Depot worker responded to the woman’s fury and apologized.
“This is not the quality of service we strive to provide,” they said in response.
The Home Depot spokesperson told the disgruntled shopper they had escalated the matter.
Bosses have invested in different types of technology to try and combat retail theft.
Stores have rolled out carts with locking technology and cameras that detect license plates in parking lots, per Pymnts.
The retailer has also rolled out extensive training programs for its workforce and teams up with law enforcement as part of its efforts to combat theft.
Chiefs have also locked items ranging from drain covers to expensive power tools in cages.
“It used to be big-ticket items, but now even the detergent is locked up,” one worker from a store in Emeryville, California, told The San Francisco Standard last year.
Anti-theft measures rolled out by retailers
Retailers across the US and Canada have rolled out strategies designed to combat theft. The U.S. Sun has compiled a list of measures that have been implemented at stores.
- Locking items in cabinets.
- Security pegs.
- Security cameras.
- Signs warning about the impact of theft.
- Receipt scanners.
- Receipt checks.
- Carts with locking technology
Some workers welcomed the measures as they branded theft a nuisance.
Last year, Home Depot CEO Ted Decker warned how theft represented a big problem for retail.
And, data from the US Chamber of Commerce, revealed organized retail theft caused more than $125 billion worth of losses across the US in 2023.
The issue sparked more than 650,000 job losses.
Organized retail theft isn’t just an issue for Home Depot. Target and Walmart bosses have taken drastic measures in their approach to tackle the problem.
Major chains such as Walgreens and CVS have also rolled out anti-theft precautions.
Last year, bosses were forced to close nine Target stores because of the impact of crime.
The U.S. Sun previously reported how Walmart had rolled out an extensive program of anti-theft measures, from signage to locking items in cabinets.
Brian Cornell, the Target CEO, said he hopes to remove locked cases from stores in the future.
“I feel so much better today than I did a year ago,” he told Yahoo Finance.
But he warned that a solution wouldn’t arrive overnight, adding that it would take many years to achieve.
