Walmart tests new method to manage blocked products

Key points

Walmart is testing a new way to let customers access locked products using their phones.
This new technology will make it easier to purchase items like video games, laundry soap, and toothbrushes.
There are concerns about potential disadvantages if unlocked doors are left unattended.

Walmart is pioneering a new way to give potential customers access to locked products while effectively preventing theft. In recent years, many consumers have noticed a growing, and sometimes frustrating, trend: Products they want to purchase at stores like Walmart or Target are trapped behind glass doors, tightly closed. To get their hands on the coveted deodorant, baby formula or mascara, would-be buyers must press a bell and wait for help from a hawker employee. Or, worse yet, entering these productive prisons often requires wandering aimlessly for several minutes in the hope of stumbling across a staff member with a key.

Although the sale of physical copies of video games has declined dramatically in recent years, this protection against shoplifting also applies to them. In fact, video games were some of the first products to receive this “look but don't touch” treatment, so much so that it's even more surprising to find a game sitting, easily accessible, on a shelf. And while this practice is somewhat understandable, it can also exasperate customers and even negatively impact sales.

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Faced with an increasingly digital sector, Nintendo confirms that it intends to continue supporting physical sales of video games.

According to Bloomberg, Walmart is testing a new method to ease the frustration of finding physical copies of video games, laundry soap and even toothbrushes under lock and key. While details are scarce, this new technology will apparently allow people to bypass locks using their cell phones. This system has already been implemented in a few hundred Walmart stores, but is currently limited and being tested by employees.

Walmart's new anti-theft method could ease customer frustrations

Most people have seen videos on social media of thieves entering stores, grabbing handfuls and bags full of items, and then casually walking out, unhindered by employees or security guards. While this new Walmart technology could alleviate some of the annoyances for regular customers, it could also have some drawbacks. People in grocery stores regularly leave freezer doors open, so much so that many stores have installed self-closing doors. Once unlocked, these anti-theft doors can simply be left open and unattended, defeating their usefulness. Plus, there's not much to stop a thief from accessing the items they want via their phone and then taking more than they paid for.

In terms of video game sales, Walmart's new method, if adopted by other stores, may come too little, too late. Many brick-and-mortar stores are eliminating physical game sales altogether, leaving Walmart, Target and sites like Amazon among the few places left to purchase physical copies of new releases.