Along the banks of Bayou Teche in southern Louisiana, you’ll find several smaller communities. In these communities, like Port Barre, Cecilia, Loreauville, and Charenton, you’ll find hard-working people who are as honest as the day is long. And it’s this hint of dishonesty that embarrasses many small-town shoppers or big-box retailers like Walmart and Walgreens.

My father always said about honesty: “A lock keeps only an honest man out, a thief finds a way.” I think that observation hits the nail on the head. And as always, it is “the honest man” who suffers the inconvenience caused by the actions of the dishonest.

Shoplifting is a major problem in this country. Major retailers like Target have closed entire stores in high crime areas because the loss of product and profits at those locations was too great. Once again, the honest man has to put up with inconvenience because some parents have not taught their children not to steal.

This brings us to the latest “loss prevention” techniques implemented by retailers like Walmart and Walgreens. To prevent items from being stolen from their stores, these two retailers have begun locking away the most commonly stolen items.

This means that a store employee has to come and put the products in their cart and “unlock” the display case or remove an electronic tag so that the customer is not accused of a crime at checkout. For the store, this practice is great. For the customer, it absolutely sucks.

If you’ve ever had to retrieve an item from a secured display, you know that store employees become invisible when you need their help. I once waited fifteen minutes at one of the above retailers for an employee to unlock an electronic device I needed.

The “locked goods” are also causing chaos among those who make their living shopping, namely Shipt and Instacart employees. They are not paid by the hour, but by the delivery, and having to wait fifteen minutes for “a manager with a key” can literally drain their money.

Some personal shoppers now say they avoid Walmart and Walgreens simply because of the anti-theft policy. I suppose you have to do what you have to do. But it seems like the easier solution would be if people just didn’t steal. I know that’s such a far-fetched concept.