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, which outperformed expectations in 2024 but reported a 23 percent year-over-year decline. He said that tackling the issue of shrink—which accounts for lost inventory because of theft, damage, or fraud—remains "a hand-to-hand combat battle." Their approach to trying to reduce shrink in its stores, however, has had an unintended effect.
"When you lock things up, for example, you don't sell as many of them," he admitted. "We've kind of proven that conclusively." Wentworth said that the company is looking into "creative" solutions to tackle shrink, although he did not explain what that might entail and whether Walgreens plays to reduce the practice of locking up commonly stolen items.
Walgreens, which will close roughly 450 stores in 2025, reported a 52 percent increase in lost inventory in 2020 and 2021. As reported by Business Insider in 2023, Walgreens CFO James Kehoe said the company invested "too much" in private security and other anti-shoplifting methods, which he added proved "to be largely ineffective."