I once went into a pharmacy to buy a cheap pair of earbuds and found them locked to the rack in the farthest part of the store from the exit. The idea, as the clerk who unlocked the thing explained, was to try to foil shoplifters.

I may have scoffed a bit. This was, again, a pharmacy; surely a $15 pair of earbuds was a low priority for thieves?

I don’t think I overdid it, but the clerk took offense anyway, or at least that’s how I interpret what he did next: he carried the ear buds to the register for me and then stayed there to watch as I paid, so he and his colleague behind the counter would outnumber me if I tried something. The only other time I’ve encountered that level of antitheft protection, I was buying a shotgun.

It was, IIRC, two years or so before I went to that store again.

I don’t remember exactly how long ago this was, but the store was a Rite Aid; if I was soft-boycotting it for two years before all the local Rite Aids got gobbled up by another company, that makes the incident at least ten years old.

I was reminded of it just now, when I heard some fedgov denizen describing a similar instance of retail security theater like he’s never heard of it before and trying to blame it on… immigrants and welfare cheats, somehow, since he was speaking in the context of the gov’s sham of an “anti-fraud task force.”