Citing concerns about theft, Milwaukee area retailers keeping condoms under lock and key.

[TheMightyFavog]

http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=547996

If you wanted to buy condoms 30 years ago, you had to bear the embarrassment of asking a pharmacist to fetch them from beneath the counter.

Now with thieves wiping out the entire stock of prophylactics in some stores, more retailers are putting them back out of reach - and, in some cases, are even locking them up.

Many convenience stores in Milwaukee have again placed condoms behind the counter to keep shoplifters from pocketing them, and some major pharmacy chains have placed them in locked glass cases along with other frequently stolen goods such as costly replacement razor blades.

(snip)

"We are certainly concerned about the availability of condoms in stores," said Eric Ostermann, executive director of the Wisconsin Public Health Association.

[TechBear_Seattle]

1. Why are they getting swiped?

I can't imagine there would be a black market for rubbers. What am I missing?

[jmowreader]

13. You're missing that they're a dollar apiece now

There are three pharmacy chains in Fayetteville--CVS, Eckerd and Walgreen's. All of them are over $12 for the 12-pack of either Trojan or Durex latex condoms.

The general stores--Wal-Mart, Kmart and Target--are around half that, and Food Lion is somewhere in the middle. Even the adult novelties stores aren't as high as the drugstores.

If they'd start vulcanizing the damn things so you could wash them out and reuse them, a dollar apiece wouldn't be that bad. But for something you get one use out of? Ridiculous.

[TechBear_Seattle]

14. Ouch!

I'm glad I live in a big city; it is pretty easy to get condoms for free from any number of public health agencies.

[Rosemary2205]

19. This CAN'T be good for the poor

A dollar a condom? Can you imagine what those little stores that the poor often rely on are charging? Birth control is getting out of reach for poor couples. And when the diseases are passed and the kids are created what will we tell them then?

My god sometimes this country is F'd up.

[jmowreader]

33. It's not all that good for the middle class, either

It's possible to go to the Department of Social Services to get free condoms. I'm in the buckle of the Bible Belt, but they call rubbers a "disease prevention" tool, so that overrides any concerns about people using them for (gasp!) sex before or outside of marriage.

The Department of Social Services building's location kinda sucks; it's way downtown and the way Fayetteville is situated--the Cape Fear River is on one side of it--downtown is on the edge of town. Meaning it's not a good location for very many people.

If condoms go up any more, you know what will happen: regular sex will become an unaffordable luxury. You'll know THAT this has happened when the cover stories about sex in the women's magazines change from discussing "mindblowing" sex to talking about "painless" sex.

[dipsydoodle]

2. Do the thieves leave a note

saying "bet you didn't see that coming" :)

[RobofSWVA]

4. been like that for a year here

From what I've seen, pretty much all the stores in my area (Roanoke VA) have them locked up. Walmart, Kroger(the major grocery chain in our area), and CVS all make you ask. It isn't the most fun thing in the world to do.

[wicket]

16. "It isn't the most fun thing in the world to do."

Definitely not - but it sure beats the alternative of unprotected sex.

BTW, welcome to DU! :hi:

[wuushew]

3. Widespread use of RFID chips would solve this.

restricting display of goods just lowers sales volume and profits accordingly.

[earth mom]

20. WTF?! Are you kidding?! RFIDs are VILE and EVIL!

Are you looking forward to being micro chipped yourself? Because that's next.

[wuushew]

21. Do you object to cameras at gas stations as well?

Do you enjoy subsidizing the business costs of theft? Being able to accurately and quickly verify in store item location and quantity is not evil. If anything it makes for better and more accurate auditing.


Please make a pro vs. cons list of the evils of business technology. I think that you will find that such things are not paranoid conspiracies to deprive you of pride or money.

[earth mom]

24. Yes I'm against anything that is an invasion of privacy!

You must not understand the Constitution and what this country was founded upon if you think it's okay, because it's not and is a violation of the rights of the people.

Here's a tip, watch "V for Vendetta" if you want to get a clue as to what is in store for this country if we let the govenment try and control the people like they are "inventory" or "property". :puke:

[wuushew]

27. Sorry we are not headed for an informational dystopia

You do realize the enormous material and labor costs necessary to collect information on everybody from everything? When is this going to happen? You and I live in a country where the streets are crumbling, the schools are a joke and things in general are built to a poor standard.

Despite this you feel that business or government can get its act together and wire-up society successfully. In general an investment is only undertaken if it generates more than it costs. Will increased advertising revenue make up for the the costs of data mining and paying an analyst to interpret it?

You speak of privacy. I agree privacy exists but only in the sphere of the home and other areas which Congress speaks to. If am in a store at the same time as you and I observe what you purchase how is that secret? No law prevents me from freely disseminating that info. Technology has altered nothing save the scale and speed at which such lawful information can be traded.

Where is your appreciation for ability of info to reduce waste, spoilage, theft or nullification subjective testimony? Just as you can have a personal utility for the benefits of privacy so to can you for the benefits of the later.

[earth mom]

31. Waste, spoilage, theft, etc., are NOT my problems.

I am NOT interested in helping greedy companies profit from me by using-MY-get it?! "MY" information. Businesses who want to control their inventory and costs can do it the old fashioned way: keep a detailed inventory of what's in stock and what's been sold.

BTW-our country may be falling apart, but there sure is plenty of money for wars and whatever else the powers that be deem are necessary. That's why a V for Vendetta style America complete with micro chipping of it's citizens and residents is not as far out or far off as you assert.

[DBoon]

22. Yes. They could track the condom's location after purchase

What fun...

[wuushew]

28. I really doubt that

we live in a sea of diffuse electromagnetic radiation which bathes everything. It is hard enough to get a cell-phone to receive properly and that is a fairly powerfully transmitter attempting to communicate to a dense network of radio towers.

The laws of nature make such passive devices useless outside the controlled environments of a retail store.

[Warren DeMontague]

34. Um, if they need an RFID chip to figure out where a condom can go

they're in worse shape than I thought!

[jmowreader]

32. Put me down as first in line when they come out with case-level RFID

I don't know whether I want item-level RFID--privacy concerns, price increases, need for all new equipment on the Point of Sale terminals--but case-level RFID would be wonderful.

Hi. I'm Jim. I work in a store with 16-foot-high shelves.

If someone comes in to buy something that we're out of at shelf level, and it's in the electrical department--lighting fixtures are the major problem here--you almost need a pair of binoculars to try to find the item in the overhead. We've even used heavy equipment to try to find things. With case-level RFID, I could point my scanner at the top shelf, push a button, and know in an instant what's up there.

Added bonus for privacy advocates: no one buys a whole case of this shit, so the RFID tag would never leave the building. (I feel that a tag readable from 20-30 feet away is something the distribution center would want back.)

[DBoon]

5. why don't they just sell them via vending machines?

that way they don't get swiped and they don't lose sales

[RobofSWVA]

6. they are evil...

if you live in the Bible Belt. We can't sell evil in a vending machine.

[dipsydoodle]

7. Are you saying they don't ?

In the UK they've been in vending machines in the Gents and the Ladies for years.

[DBoon]

9. not at most us retailers, no they don't

maybe in the men's room of strip clubs

[peacetalksforall]

12. How smart. I don't think it would work here - seems to be a religious issue. nt.

[kestrel91316]

11. Silly DBoon.............that would make WAAYYYY too much sense.

[lectrobyte]

17. I'm here in the Bible Belt, and see lots of condom vending machines.

In fact, this is the only part of the country I can recall seeing those vending machines. Must be a "Southern Thing." Anyway, I've noticed condoms behind the counter or in locked cabinets for a while now in drug stores, assumed it was shoplifting prevention, but who knows?

[DBoon]

25. Are the machines in retail outlets

convenience stores, liquor stores, pharmacies?

The only places I see them in LA are restrooms of nightclubs and such.

[lectrobyte]

26. Yes, gas stations especially.

[deadmessengers]

8. Not news to me

I don't think I've ever seen condoms here (Cobb Co., Georgia) that weren't either behind a counter or in a locked display case.

[Lisa0825]

10. They have been behind lock an key in my local grocery store

as far back as I know, along with other contraceptives too. No wonder my town has such a high teen pregnancy rate! :mad:

[wicket]

15. For those too embarassed to ask:

Please stop by your local Planned Parenthood, they have baskets of condoms for free.

[Rosemary2205]

18. Unfortunately many live in PParenthoodless zones.

The right to lifers have been very successful at getting planned parenthoods and other reproductive health facilities closed in many places. Even many that did not provide abortions on site have been nit picked and forced to close.

[wicket]

30. Very true

:(

[Warren DeMontague]

23. Bull. I'd bet you anything this is related to the Christian Right's war on contraception. nt

[TheMightyFavog]

29. The only place I've ever seen condoms under lock and key..

Was at the Piggly Wiggly in Oconto Falls, WI.

I thought at first that it was an anti-theft measure, but then again, Oconto Falls (and pretty well much all of Oconto County for that matter) is a really ass-backwards part of the state.

[Warren DeMontague]

35. You aint gonna do any screwin' unless I can get a Reeeeeeeeeeal good lookat bothaya.

And I'll need to see a marriage license.