American pharmacy store chain Walgreens has discovered that locking its wares behind lock and key in an apparent effort to stop shoplifters has backfired spectacularly. As Fortune reports, the company has been battling with a major year-over-year decline in earnings and announced it would close an additional 450 stores across the country this year.

Retailers have been faced with increases in shoplifting and retail theft. But anti-theft prevention can hurt retail sales, says the CEO of Walgreens.

Walgreens’ plan to combat increasing theft by locking products up at their stores has hurt sales, the company’s CEO said in a recent earnings call.

Walgreens’ strategy of locking up merchandise — from deodorants to bags of M&M’s — to deter theft has backfired, according to CEO Tim Wentworth. “It is a hand-to-hand combat battle still, unfortunately,

"When you lock things up … you don't sell as many of them," Tim Wentworth said during the company's latest earnings call.

Despite efforts to prevent retail theft, Walgreens reported a 32% in "shrink," or a loss of inventory that can’t be accounted for through sales.

In a Q1 2025 earnings call, Walgreens Boots Alliance CEO Tim Wentworth admitted that its approach to tackling shoplifting at its stores has backfired. Per Fortune, Wentworth spoke about the state of the company,

Some retailers, like Walgreens, report that locking items behind displays to deter shoplifting may not be effective. Walgreens CEO Tim Wentworth recently described theft prevention in stores as an ongoing and challenging struggle.