Trader Joe's in Seattle (Capitol Hill) stops selling liquor due to theft

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Trader Joe's in Seattle (Capitol Hill) stops selling liquor due to theft

Post by Brian Lutz »

https://komonews.com/news/business/a-tr ... -of-thefts

The Capitol Hill Trader Joe's store will stop selling liquor (but not wine and beer) due to a large amount of shoplifting at this particular location. It is currently unknown if the other Trader Joe's locations in Seattle will continue to sell liquor.
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Re: Trader Joe's in Seattle (Capitol Hill) stops selling liquor due to theft

Post by storewanderer »

Brian Lutz wrote: August 17th, 2022, 8:18 am https://komonews.com/news/business/a-tr ... -of-thefts

The Capitol Hill Trader Joe's store will stop selling liquor (but not wine and beer) due to a large amount of shoplifting at this particular location. It is currently unknown if the other Trader Joe's locations in Seattle will continue to sell liquor.
I have not paid much attention, does Trader Joe's do strong sales of hard liquor? I notice quite a bit of wine purchasing taking place when I shop in Trader Joe's and some beer but haven't noticed hard liquor quite as much.

I am surprised they did not try some other strategies, or maybe they already did, such as significantly cutting variety/SKUs, locking up what few items they would carry after doing a cut to variety/SKUs, etc. I guess it reaches a point where it isn't worth it.

Trader Joe's operates in some rather choppy big city environments where a lot of other retailers have big problems and we don't hear much about them having issues. I have to think this is due to their product mix being quite basic, almost no drugstore items (which seem to be hot for theft), and somewhat heavily skewed toward private label/perishable. I am sure they have some theft but they don't seem to be taking the measures in some cities that other retailers are.
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Re: Trader Joe's in Seattle (Capitol Hill) stops selling liquor due to theft

Post by BillyGr »

Good question, given that the rules in NY don't allow them to sell any of that stuff (except beer and non-wine items).
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Re: Trader Joe's in Seattle (Capitol Hill) stops selling liquor due to theft

Post by ClownLoach »

Remember that Washington state only recently opened up liquor sales outside of state liquor stores. The number of locations to purchase liquor per capita seems to be significantly lower in Washington than other states that have openly allowed sales for many years. Not all the chains have signed up either. Last time I was in a Bartell Drugs I believe they only had beer and wine.
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Re: Trader Joe's in Seattle (Capitol Hill) stops selling liquor due to theft

Post by Bluelightspecial »

Washington St changed their liquor laws to allow non state liquor sales 10 years ago.... This has everything to do with theft and not a recent change in laws
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Re: Trader Joe's in Seattle (Capitol Hill) stops selling liquor due to theft

Post by Brian Lutz »

Washington had a state-run monopoly on liquor sales until 2012 when voters approved a bill to allow private businesses to sell liquor (beer and wine were already allowed to be sold by private businesses), but it came with significant tax increases and only stores of 10,000 square feet or larger were allowed to sell it (with a "Grandfather clause" exception for privatized former state liquor store locations, although most of those failed quickly and closed.) In 2020 a bill was introduced in the state legislature to allow smaller stores to sell liquor if they already sold beer and wine but it failed. In practice this means that mostly it's grocery stores, a few BevMo/Total Wine type places and Costco stores that sell most of the liquor now, but somehow there's a gas station/convenience store near here that has liquor sales even though their building is nowhere near 10,000 square feet (I'm wondering if they somehow managed to count the gas islands and car wash for purposes of reaching the minimum?

Walmart stores have a small selection of liquor (usually kept behind the same counter as the cigarettes, although this will vary from store to store.) Most stores have the liquor in the aisles, with "bottle locks" that have to be removed by the cashier similar to inventory control tags.
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Re: Trader Joe's in Seattle (Capitol Hill) stops selling liquor due to theft

Post by lake52 »

storewanderer wrote: August 17th, 2022, 11:57 pm
I have not paid much attention, does Trader Joe's do strong sales of hard liquor? I notice quite a bit of wine purchasing taking place when I shop in Trader Joe's and some beer but haven't noticed hard liquor quite as much.

I am surprised they did not try some other strategies, or maybe they already did, such as significantly cutting variety/SKUs, locking up what few items they would carry after doing a cut to variety/SKUs, etc. I guess it reaches a point where it isn't worth it.

Trader Joe’s pricing on hard liquor often times beat Safeway, but won’t typically beat BevMo! or Total Wine. I think it is more of a convenience thing.

What I will say though is that I’ve been in quite a few Trader Joe’s in Bay Area/Sacramento/LA/Portland areas and have never seen any items locked up. They’d probably claim it’s a “culture” thing but with the amount of volume a TJ’s does, and how quickly they are to pull low volume products, the locked items would need to be consistently unlocked. At that point what’s the point?
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Re: Trader Joe's in Seattle (Capitol Hill) stops selling liquor due to theft

Post by norcalriteaidclerk »

lake52 wrote:
storewanderer wrote: August 17th, 2022, 11:57 pm
I have not paid much attention, does Trader Joe's do strong sales of hard liquor? I notice quite a bit of wine purchasing taking place when I shop in Trader Joe's and some beer but haven't noticed hard liquor quite as much.

I am surprised they did not try some other strategies, or maybe they already did, such as significantly cutting variety/SKUs, locking up what few items they would carry after doing a cut to variety/SKUs, etc. I guess it reaches a point where it isn't worth it.

Trader Joe’s pricing on hard liquor often times beat Safeway, but won’t typically beat BevMo! or Total Wine. I think it is more of a convenience thing.

What I will say though is that I’ve been in quite a few Trader Joe’s in Bay Area/Sacramento/LA/Portland areas and have never seen any items locked up. They’d probably claim it’s a “culture” thing but with the amount of volume a TJ’s does, and how quickly they are to pull low volume products, the locked items would need to be consistently unlocked. At that point what’s the point?
I can verify that the quail pointe Trader Joe's in Fair oaks (my Rite Aid is across the stroad that separates that unincorporated Sacramento county community from the incorporated city of Citrus Heights which has gotten a little on the seedy side due to homelessness)does not lock up it's liquor (we do lock up premium priced items).

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Re: Trader Joe's in Seattle (Capitol Hill) stops selling liquor due to theft

Post by storewanderer »

lake52 wrote: August 18th, 2022, 5:11 pm

Trader Joe’s pricing on hard liquor often times beat Safeway, but won’t typically beat BevMo! or Total Wine. I think it is more of a convenience thing.

What I will say though is that I’ve been in quite a few Trader Joe’s in Bay Area/Sacramento/LA/Portland areas and have never seen any items locked up. They’d probably claim it’s a “culture” thing but with the amount of volume a TJ’s does, and how quickly they are to pull low volume products, the locked items would need to be consistently unlocked. At that point what’s the point?
I've never seen anything locked up at Trader Joe's in any location; I have been to many in larger cities. They have no security cameras either.

Trader Joe's Stores are very well staffed. They stock during the day and aside from whoever is in dairy walk in, everyone is "on the floor" since there are no prep departments where employees are away from customers. The employees also seem to move around the store frequently. Having more staffing in stores absolutely serves as a theft deterrent. With the way Trader Joe's Stores operate, I do not know what their policies on handling theft are, but a shoplifter should be very uncomfortable to shoplift from them. At the same time, the stuff is of such low value they sell, I am wondering if they don't really care if someone takes a loaf of bread... the higher value stuff is more difficult to "get out" with- big glass bottles of oil, wine, etc. Also the way Trader Joe's front ends are set up, it isn't very easy to just run out of the store...

That Trader Joe's in Union Square in San Francisco, you would think you were anywhere else when you go down into that store. The place is staffed, stocked, orderly, there are no "issues" (until you go out to the sidewalk) in there at all. It is odd to see a consumable goods store in San Francisco Union Square looking like that when you go to the nearby Target, Walgreens, and CVS and see how those stores look with so much stuff locked up, visible security all over, customers obviously being followed around, and feel like you are shopping in Fort Knox.
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