Rubber Soul: CVS Accused of Locking Up Condoms in Its Eastside Stores

[JI7]

Source: la weekly

CVS pharmacies are being accused of keeping their Eastside stores' condoms locked up at the same time its Westside outlets have the rubbers on open display. A press released issued by the labor federation Change to Win stated today that this practice "stigmatizes condoms and condom users," while noting that Walgreens has anti-lock policy toward its condoms. The statement, issued after a demonstration took place outside a Lincoln Heights CVS, implies that by locking up the condoms, CVS is helping to spread HIV and AIDS. It quotes Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles' Jorge-Mario Cabrera as noting:

"uying condoms can literally mean the difference between life and death, and people on the Eastside should have equal access to condoms. In HIV prevention, communities of color, women and young people, need a partner in prevention, not another insensitive corporate giant."

Change to Win claims that none of CVS's 23 West L.A. stores had locked up condoms, whereas half of 22 Eastside CVSes visited "were inaccessible without staff assistance."

"This campaign," corporate spokesman Mike DeAngelis told the L.A. Weekly, "is being waged by a labor union that had threatened to 'expose' us in the press if we refused to violate our employees rights by having union election that wasn't fair and secret."

Read more: http://blogs.laweekly.com/ladaily/city-news/rubber-soul-cvs-accused-of-loc/

---

corporate whores once again claiming labor unions want to violate rights of workers.

[CAG]

1. East end boys and west end girls....west end girls...bah dum bah dum bum

Depeche Mode, right?

[cboy4]

2. Pet Shop Boys

<Price is Right loser horn>

[CAG]

3. Ah, yes, thank you very much Bob Barker (or is it Drew Carey?)

I was much more into New Order than either one of those two bands.

[Norrin Radd]

7. Oops. Someone already answered.

[TrogL]

20. Chemical Brothers

[TechBear_Seattle]

4. I've seen the same thing in Seattle

Where in some areas, the condoms are available for easy purchase and, in other areas, you needed the assistance of a sales clerk to get them. This is true based on area, not by chain. I asked about it, and was told that they were kept locked up because the theft rate was so high that the stores were losing a lot of money. It basically came down to either keep them under lock and key or stop carrying them completely.

[tomm2thumbs]

5. aren't they basically handed out free in places? someone should publicize where so they can go

free is pretty cheap

[elleng]

6. East side, West side, lalalala!

http://kids.niehs.nih.gov/lyrics/sidewalk.htm

[rebecca_herman]

8. Maybe they are worried about theft?

I could see it being a store-by-store rather than corporate policy if some stores just had a ridiculously high rate of the particular product being stolen. I don't think condoms are cheap if you buy them in a store and I can see people stealing them. They lock up baby formula at some of the drugstores here and I don't think they are making a statement that baby formula is eeeeevil. Just that it's expensive.

[Codeine]

9. Where people steal them they get locked up.

In areas where they don't, they aren't. If people stop stealing every fucking thing that isn't nailed down then retailers will stop locking shit up. It's as inconvenient for them as it is for the consumer.

[Fumesucker]

10. Everything in the store is not locked up..

So people obviously aren't "stealing every fucking thing that isn't nailed down"..

[hack89]

11. Some things are easier to steal and in greater demand.

I suspect CVS knows exactly what is in high demand by shop lifters.

[Fumesucker]

12. But the same things are not locked up at every store..

Which indicates that demand is different in different places..

[hack89]

13. So where things get stolen, those things get locked up

like the OP talks about.

[Thor_MN]

15. Well, the description WAS qualified.

It wasn't claimed that people were stealing everything in the store...

[Codeine]

21. Everything gets stolen,

but certain items are stolen in quantity. Those items that combine small size, easy concealability, higher price, and high shoplifter demand get locked up. Lots of places lock up pregnancy tests too, for example, simply because not doing so means five will be stolen for every one that sells.

I can tell you've never had the pleasure of working retail. ;)

[GinaMaria]

24. My Walgreens locks up

razors, toothbrush replacement heads and bandage tape :shrug: Guess the 'hot' items vary from store to store. Maybe my neighbors aren't really getting that much sex.... possibly because they can't steal razors or a clean toothbrush head. Hairy with bad breath in no way leads to needing a condom. :evilgrin:

[DangerousRhythm]

26. True. I know someone who works at a store...

a large chain one that sells condoms, not locked up, just out on a shelf. He finds empty condom boxes all over the place. I can't really fault a store for protecting goods that get stolen so often.

[jmowreader]

14. If CVS' condoms weren't way overpriced, maybe shrink would be lower

In Fayetteville, Target sells Trojan condoms for less than $6 per dozen, while CVS sells them for over $12 per dozen. The other brands are similarly outrageously priced.

And how, exactly, does locking up the condoms stigmatize condom users? It is my experience that anyone who doesn't have the courage to ask for condoms also doesn't have the courage to ask another person to help him use them.

[Freddie Stubbs]

16. Condoms are not the only things which CVS locks up

Mach 3 razor blades, teeth whiteners, and Rogaine are also locked up at the CVS in my neighborhood.

[Blue_Tires]

17. it's not like there is some great social stigma associated with buying them

anymore...I mean come on; this is 2009, not that immortal scene from "Amazon Women on the Moon"

[tabbycat31]

18. I worked for CVS right out of high school

and this does not surprise me one bit. Condoms were a very high theft item (and this was in the upscale NYC suburbs)

[hunter]

19. Maybe condoms should be subsidized.

Lock up the fancy condoms if you have to, but there could be an open rack of USA subsidized condoms that the drug chains got for nothing and sold for 79 cents a box.

If somebody is going to shoplift condoms, let it be in a way that doesn't cost the store money.

It's an important public health issue. People desperate enough to shoplift condoms are people who have very good reason to use condoms.

[Codeine]

22. My experience with shoplifters

(and this is twenty years of grocery retail in downtown areas) is that they are normally not all that desperate. They almost always have the money to buy the item in their pockets when the police search them. Honestly, if we catch some homeless dude stealing salami we generally just get the food back and send them on their way without calling the cops.

Some people just prefer to steal shit.

[hunter]

23. It's best these people who "just prefer to steal shit" don't have kids or spread STDs.

And "desperate" doesn't have a lot to do with the money in someone's wallet or purse.

[KamaAina]

25. This used to be the case everywhere

back when I actually made use of these, it was next to impossible for me to obtain them. I have enough trouble, say, ordering a burger without mustard, without having to say -- usually to a female cashier -- "Excuse me. Could I have a half-dozen Trojans, please?", followed by the inevitable "Regular or Extra Sensitive?", etc. :scared:

[LostinVA]

27. I guarantee it's because of theft