It’s no surprise that cities currently experiencing a rise in crime are also seeing a mass exodus of major brand name retailers. Unfortunately, in many of these cases, the local policies do not have detrimental repercussions in place for the act of shoplifting, which means these crimes are not abating. Instead of throwing in the towel and leaving town, however, a couple of retailers have decided to redesign their stores and adapt novel approaches to the shopping experience in order to remedy this issue. This summer both Walgreens and Wawa have introduced pilot stores that feature new crime-curtailing measures, which basically eliminate the need for actual physical in-store shopping.
In June, Walgreens redesigned its Chicago South Loop store, locking up all of the merchandise with the exception of two aisles carrying essential goods. For the remaining non-essential items in the other aisles, customers must pre-order the merchandise they’d like from an in-store digital kiosk and wait for an employee to retrieve those items.
In August, Wawa also redesigned its downtown Philadelphia store by making it shelf-free, thus requiring customers to virtually shop either via its own app or through an in-store digital kiosk. An employee then also picks up the merchandise and brings it to the customer. If crime continues to thrive in certain areas, expect to see even more unique solutions as retailers aim to protect their wares, while keeping their customers and employees safe. As for growth goals for both chains, look for Wawa to continue to expand into Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky, while Walgreens plans to close up to 150 of its underperforming U.S. stores.
