In a Florida Walmart, shopper Maria Gonzalez stared in disbelief at a ribeye steak locked inside a metal wire cage. “I just wanted to grill tonight,” she posted on TikTok, her video racking up thousands of views.
“Now I need a store clerk to play jailbreak with my dinner!”
Gonzalez’s frustration is one of many as Walmart rolls out new anti-theft measures, from caging high-value meats to removing self-checkout lanes in select U.S. stores. These changes, aimed at curbing a surge in shoplifting, are sparking debate among customers and reflecting a broader retail trend.
Walmart has begun securing pricey items like steaks in locked cages at stores in states like Florida. The cages, fitted with clasps that trigger alarms if not removed by staff, target high-value meats that have become prime targets for thieves as food prices climb. A 2022 Washington Standard report noted a spike in shoplifting, particularly of meat, as inflation pushes grocery costs higher. The cages aren’t new—Walmart and retailers like Target and CVS have locked up everything from Spam to shampoo in high-theft areas since 2022—but they’re now a common sight, and customers aren’t thrilled.
“It’s annoying,”
said shopper Tom Reynolds at a Tampa Walmart.
“I get why they’re doing it, but waiting for an employee to unlock my steak slows everything down.”
Others, like retiree Susan Carter, support the move.
“If it keeps prices from going up because of theft, I’m okay with it,”
she said. The tradeoff, though, is clear: added security risks frustrating honest shoppers, and some retail executives, like Walgreens’ CEO, have admitted that locking up products can hurt sales.
Walmart’s also tackling theft by removing self-checkout kiosks in stores in Shrewsbury, Missouri, Cleveland, Ohio, and Albuquerque, New Mexico. Self-checkout, once hailed as a time-saver, has become a shoplifter’s playground. A 2024 Supermarket News report cites data showing theft at self-checkout is five times higher than at cashier lanes. Retailers like Target, which now limits self-checkout to 10 items or fewer, and Dollar General, which removed self-checkout from 300 high-theft stores, are following suit. Walmart says the shift back to staffed checkouts improves service and cuts losses, but decisions are store-specific, with no nationwide rollback planned.
The changes come as retail crime spikes. The Council on Criminal Justice reported a jump in retail assaults, from 10,024 in 2019 to 11,273 in 2022, signaling growing safety concerns.
“Retailers are in a tough spot,”
says Dr. Emily Harris, a criminology professor at the University of Florida.
“Shoplifting costs billions annually, but heavy-handed measures can alienate customers. It’s a balancing act.”
On social media, reactions range from memes mocking “fortress Walmart” to rants about long checkout lines. A viral X post quipped,
“Walmart’s out here treating steaks like they’re iPhones.”
Some shoppers, though, see the bigger picture.
“If you’ve ever seen someone walk out with a cart full of unpaid stuff, you’d get why they’re doing this,”
one user commented.
Walmart’s not alone in this fight. In the U.K., retailers like Tesco have also locked up high-value items, while Canadian chains like Loblaws are testing AI-driven checkout systems to catch thieves. The global retail industry is experimenting, from hidden barcodes to restricted self-checkout access for app users, to find the sweet spot between security and convenience.
