Across the country, retail outlets are experiencing a major surge in shoplifting, and in its wake, one corporation’s decided to batten down the hatches in a serious way: Target’s latest anti-theft security measure will require you to ring a bell to get an employee to unlock a cabinet containing another employee who you need to unlock the cabinet containing deodorant.
Wow. Target really isn’t playing around with deodorant shoplifters anymore!
According to leaked internal memos, Target outlets nationwide will now institute what they’re calling the “Deodorant Protocol”—an intensive new security measure devised to battle deodorant theft. The protocol is initiated once a customer rings a bell installed in the store’s deodorant aisle. From there, the customer waits for a Target employee, who’s aided by several armed security guards, to meet them in the aisle and take them across the store to a bulletproof cabinet containing a second Target employee. That second Target employee holds the key required to open the locked cabinet back in the deodorant aisle.
In order to unlock the cabinet containing the second Target worker, the first Target worker opens a suitcase handcuffed to their wrist, which contains a 30-digit code that they verify with the second employee inside the cabinet. Once verified, the employees enter the code into dual keypad locks installed on both sides of the door and hit enter simultaneously, thereby unlocking the cabinet. The customer and the second Target employee then head to the deodorant aisle and retrieve the deodorant.
The process is certainly more time-intensive than some customers may prefer, but Target is already seeing results—deodorant theft is down 10% since the protocol’s implementation earlier this month. Clearly, at least a few shoplifters are thinking twice before trying to steal personal hygiene items from Target, all thanks to their Deodorant Protocol.
Yup, Target’s just sent a bold message to would-be thieves everywhere: It’s going to be a lot harder to pocket their deodorant from now on!
