Caged Tools and Locked Aisles

How Big-Box Security Is Reshaping Home Improvement and Why It Could Ignite a Small-Business Comeback

BY JOSEPH AMATO

The new normal: shopping through glass and cages

Walk into any big-box home improvement store today and you’ll be confronted with locked cabinets long before you meet a salesperson. Power tools sit behind cages; tools, electrical fixtures and even plumbing fittings are held away from the ordinary consumer under lock and key.

The retailers’ rationale is straightforward: theft, especially organized theft, has driven “shrink” levels to painful proportions. According to a 2023 National Retail Security Survey from the National Retail Federation (NRF), average shrink rose to 1.6% of sales in fiscal year 2022, with more than $112 billion in lost inventory revenue.

This security buildup is not hypothetical. In 2024, Target announced the closure of nine stores in four states, explicitly citing theft and organized retail crime as creating unsafe conditions and unsustainable performance. Whether or not one agrees with the decision, it crystallized the retail sector’s dilemma: how to best protect people and profits.

Two things can be true at the same time — retailers are facing real losses, and our public conversation about theft is often clouded by politics. After decades of annual shrink reports, the NRF paused its 2024 reporting, acknowledging that its data and methodology could not keep up with escalating incidents and in-store aggression.

A companion NRF/Loss Prevention Research Council (LPRC) study published in December 2024 highlighted a 93% increase in shoplifting incidents since 2019 and rising violence that affected companies, consumers, and the bottom line. Other analysts urged caution, noting that the term “organized retail crime” lacks consistent definition and is often conflated with other forms of inventory loss, making it difficult to identify a single cause. Theft is clearly costly, but it’s less certain how much inventory loss comes from organized retail crime versus other causes, internal theft and accounting errors.

Even retailer voices aren’t monolithic. Lowe’s CEO Marvin Ellison said in 2023, according to Business Insider, that retail theft wasn’t expected to have a material impact on the company’s profits, emphasizing people and process over panic, which is an outlier stance among his big-box peers. Walgreens’ CFO similarly conceded, “Maybe we cried too much,” after the company stepped back some of its security spending, CNN reported.

But security has a cost — especially when consumers want to actually hold a product they are seeking to purchase. In home improvement stores, the feel is part of the allure: the weight of a drill, the tooth of a saw blade, the comfort of a wrench. Lock all the inventory away, and you force customers to wait impatiently for someone to allow them the opportunity to hold the item.

That friction shows up quickly. A 2024 Numerator survey found 27% of shoppers will either switch retailers or abandon their purchase when they encounter locked merchandise. Separately, field research, according to Retail Brew, reported average waits of 7.7 minutes to get a product unlocked at mass retailers, and I personally experienced a 22-minute wait when trying to purchase an electric hedge trimmer. The longer the wait, the higher the abandonment rate, and I can attest to that exact reaction.

Consumers are beginning to voice their frustration with these practices, saying in blogs and online forums that they still want hands-on shopping for “considered” purchases. According to Retail Dive, a global 2024 survey found that three in five shoppers want to see and touch items before buying, and more than two-thirds seek expert advice for higher-value purchases — exactly the kind of consultative experience home improvement projects demand.

But there is a middle path that protects inventory without denying customers’ direct access. One new direction may include benefit denial technology. Home Depot and Lowe’s have piloted point-of-sale activation for power tools that remain nonfunctional until legitimately activated at checkout. Lowe’s Project Unlock uses low-cost RFID tags so a stolen tool simply doesn’t work, while a legitimate buyer retains proof of purchase.

These approaches shift deterrence from the aisle to the product, preserving open access while curbing resale value for thieves. No single solution fits every product, but optimizing open display and benefit denial beats locked cases and staff escorts for customer experience — especially in categories where customers truly want side-by-side comparisons when buying certain products.

Although it appears that this article is prosecuting home improvement stores as the most notorious culprit on this subject, the problem also exists at local pharmacies, big-box warehouses and other retailers, where criminal and theft prevention measures include encasing everything from health and beauty products to toiletries, razors, clothing, food and other everyday staples.

Ironically, the big-box tilt toward heavy security and minimal staffing has created an opening for independent retailers to compete for increased sales through easier access, expertise, and trust.

Independents can keep more merchandise reachable, enabling real comparison and fit-for-purpose selection with no wait. Owner-operators and tenured staff can guide projects, substitute components, and prevent returns — and they truly value their shoppers. A store that treats customers as neighbors rather than suspects builds loyalty and frequency, especially when big boxes have become caged fortresses.

These changes have had a profound effect on the marketplace, evidenced by new unit growth. Ace Hardware, a cooperative of locally owned stores, added 215 new U.S. stores in fiscal year 2024 (net gain of 150) and reported record results, bringing its domestic count to 5,144 by year-end and 5,177 at the end of the first quarter of 2025, according to a company news release. That growth coincides with its strategy to double down on “experience” categories — including paint, power tools, backyard, and home renovation — where try-before-you-buy matters.

Consumers want to touch the things they’re about to install behind drywall or bolt to a foundation. Independent companies can meet that unmet need while big boxes deal with prison-like optics and reduced staffing. And when the value is obvious, customers are often willing to pay a little more for independently sold products.

What big boxes can do is very apparent. It starts with swapping cages for activation and expanding point-of-sale activation in theft-heavy, high-touch categories. They also may need to rethink how display units are positioned.

This includes improving line of sight by lowering gondolas, widening sightlines, and placing more vulnerable items closer to staffed workstations to reduce both theft and customer waiting times. If something must be locked, guarantee rapid access, set measured response times, and increase staff to improve the customer experience. The goal is to decrease theft without alienating customers — investing in more sales associates is key because people are the best deterrent, and a visible, helpful staff can reduce inventory losses.