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Comment by anonylizard | Hacker News Reader

Its not necessarily good that they just losses happen and close up store.

I guess it gives room for small business owners, who are willing to shield themselves behind bullet barriers, willing to defend their own property with guns, and don't care whatsoever about bad PR.

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Not to mention that small business owners can sometimes change dynamics, depending on why people steal.

It is, sometimes, one thing if it's Susan's shop (you know Susan; she lives in the apartment down on the corner of Fourth and Mission, stealing from Susan would be like stealing from your own aunt) and another if it's Walmart (you will never meet Sam Walton in your life, or any of the management of that company. There isn't even a franchisee).

I think it has to get really bad before they pull the store (a store takes a lot of money to install).

Usually they just offset the losses by raising prices.

Yes, but it’s 100% that bad and they are closing stores because of it: https://www.kiro7.com/news/local/90-target-workers-be-displa...

The Walmart next to me closed due to rampant looting, and it was the only real store in a several mile radius.

I was in there once and people were just taking stuff off the shelves and walking straight out with it like it wasn't shit.

That's very strange. If it's happening enough you can pay a cop to come stand there, can't you?

There was a cop SUV parked outside the door and I never saw them do anything.

They watch trends. If the store isn't making money - losses is only a part of this - they will not invest. The building and parking lot is only expected to last 20 years or so - they will stop maintaining them to milk out more profit until they fall apart and then pull up shop. Stores that are making money get remodeled and the parking lot repaved.

Precisely. And when everyone knows that the commercial lifeblood of a town is so hinged on multiple factors outside people's control, well... Might as well get those underpants while they're still in town, right? If you don't steal them and then Walmart pulls up stakes next month anyway because it makes more sense to invest in Tallahassee than your poor neck of the woods, you'll just feel like a sucker.

My local big-box stores have taken to putting half the store's inventory in locked glass cabinets. Started with liquor, then detergent, socks, electric sawblades, car batteries, regular batteries, flashlights, bike parts, medicine, Monster drinks...if it's something you'll need to survive the apocalypse, it's behind glass.

It's unshoppable; nobody is ever around to unlock them.

Yeah, I feel like policies like the locked racks were thought up before the great decrease in retail staffing levels. At current staffing levels, a lot of places are operating on what would have been considered a light skeleton crew, all the time. I bet there were more workers on the graveyard shift of a 24-hour Walmart 20 years ago, than there are at most stores during the day today (not counting pickers for delivery/pickup orders).

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