Fred Meyer locked up ethnic haircare

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SamSpade
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Fred Meyer locked up ethnic haircare

Post by SamSpade »

At the Gateway Fred Meyer (NE 102nd Ave), the company has locked up their "multi-cultural" hair and personal care products.
KOIN.com (orignal story)

So far remained a local story on one TV station, other than being picked up by a blog site in Atlanta, GA.

... this story reminds me of negative coverage that Smith's has received in Utah (in the past) about locking up 'family planning and marital aids' at their 900 E and 900 S location. I found it odd that the practice continued considering the nearby Planned Parenthood location offered to pay for any shrink.
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Re: Fred Meyer locked up ethnic haircare

Post by Brian Lutz »

This seems to be pretty common at Walmart stores. In general, any Walmart in a high crime area will put items in both of those categories into the walled-off section of the HBA department and require customers to check out for them on the spot. In fact in one store I went to (Hollywood FL I believe) the "family planning" items were kept right behind the cashier in that section requiring people to specifically ask the cashier to retrieve them.
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Re: Fred Meyer locked up ethnic haircare

Post by storewanderer »

SamSpade wrote: August 28th, 2018, 12:35 pm At the Gateway Fred Meyer (NE 102nd Ave), the company has locked up their "multi-cultural" hair and personal care products.
KOIN.com (orignal story)

So far remained a local story on one TV station, other than being picked up by a blog site in Atlanta, GA.

... this story reminds me of negative coverage that Smith's has received in Utah (in the past) about locking up 'family planning and marital aids' at their 900 E and 900 S location. I found it odd that the practice continued considering the nearby Planned Parenthood location offered to pay for any shrink.
They may as well just discontinue these products entirely. People will not put up with finding someone to unlock the case to make the purchase. And they are offending at least one customer based on the news story.

Wal Mart staffs the area and the only "added hassle" there is that you have to pay for these items separately at that department. No finding anyone who "has the keys" and asking for the case to be opened, then who knows what (do you get to take the product, or is it "waiting for you" up front)?

I would also think, whoever was stealing these "multi-cultural hair products" will now just start to steal whatever other hair products are unlocked.
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Re: Fred Meyer locked up ethnic haircare

Post by Super S »

This is the latest in additional security measures at Gateway that aren't in use across the chain. I have already posted elsewhere that they essentially walled off the apparel department and limited access. I know that this area has had a lot of issues with shoplifting in general. I do have to wonder at what point this will cause the store to become "unprofitable" though. I would be curious to know what kind of issues adjacent stores are having such as Kohl's, Office Depot, and a WinCo across the street.
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Re: Fred Meyer locked up ethnic haircare

Post by SamSpade »

After bad press, this decision has apparently been reversed. Editorial via OregonLive.com (The Oregonian "newspaper")
Fred Meyer's fix, and a chance to say 'We're sorry'
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Re: Fred Meyer locked up ethnic haircare

Post by rwsandiego »

SamSpade wrote: August 29th, 2018, 12:56 pm After bad press, this decision has apparently been reversed. Editorial via OregonLive.com (The Oregonian "newspaper")
Fred Meyer's fix, and a chance to say 'We're sorry'
This reminds me of two stories from years ad years ago. The First National Bank of Chicago (for whom I worked) for opened a branch on the South Side of Chicago. Aside from a neighborhood-oriented bank it was the only bank branch for miles and the first time a large bank (we were the fifth largest bank in the US at the time) opened a location in the area. It was also one of the first bank branches to install then-new "man trap" doors. These doors allow one person to enter at a time and that person enters a door, which locks behind them, and is the buzzed in by someone inside of the branch. The exit door work in the reverse. The branch also had counter-to-ceiling plexiglass shields at the teller lines. The neighborhood had (and I believe still has) a very high crime rate. Nonetheless, community activists were in an uproar over these measures because branches in other areas of the city did not have these barriers.

Fast-forward almost twenty years. The community bank branch had a takeover robbery where a handful of people were killed and several were wounded. The same community organizations (albeit led by different people) chided the community bank for not having man-trap doors and plexiglass barriers, like the ones in place at the First Chicago (by then Bak One) branch, which could have prevented the carnage.
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