As the smash-and-grab trend plagued business across Los Angeles, more big retailers are stepping up security to keep their merchandise safe.
The Rite Aid store on Long Beach Boulevard in Compton is one of the stores that began to lock up almost every single item under lock and key.
From paper plates, to candy, Ziploc bags and soda, products that are under $10 were all locked in the store shelves.
“It’s better that way, I guess,” Gary Hildreth, a Compton resident, said, while acknowledging shopping takes longer because of the locked shelves. “It takes a little bit over 10 minutes for them to help me. They have to let you in to get it.”
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Another shopper, who declined to be identified, said it was a good idea to keep products locked in.
“Hopefully I don’t see too much crazy things anymore with this,” the shopper said.
A Rite Aid store in South Los Angeles also appears to be implementing a similar policy as a TikTok video showed the locked shelves inside the shop.
An employee at Rite Aid said the secured shelves started going up in July.
Rite Aid explained in a statement the decision to lock up items was based on a "higher level of brazen shoplifting and organized retail crime."
"We apply multi-layer product protection solutions that are regularly assessed, the pharmacy chain said. "We are taking an active role in helping law enforcement in their pursuit of shoplifters, as well as continuing our efforts to educate community leaders on the impact of retail theft and advocate for solutions."
Business owners and workers are also hoping the new “smash-and-grab” that Gov. Gavin Newsom signed last week would lead to harsher penalties for large-scale theft offenses.
AB 1960, which aims to crack down on retail and property crimes, requires prosecutors to start imposing harsher sentences again for those who damage or destroy property valued at more than $50,000 while committing a felony. A similar law expired in 2018. The new law will sunset by 2030.
“California already has some of the strictest retail and property crime laws in the nation — and we have made them even stronger with our recent legislation,” Newsom said in a statement. “We can be tough on crime while also being smart on crime — we don’t need to go back to broken policies of the last century.”
The decision to bring back tough penalties comes as Democratic leaders continue to work to prove that they are tough enough on crime while trying to convince voters to reject a ballot measure that would bring even harsher sentences for repeat offenders of shoplifting and drug charges.
While shoplifting has been a growing problem, large-scale, smash-and-grab thefts, in which groups of individuals brazenly rush into stores and take goods in plain sight, have become a crisis in California and elsewhere in recent years. Such crimes, often captured on video and posted on social media, have brought particular attention to the problem of retail theft in the state.
