At a Safeway grocery store in Denver’s Five Points neighborhood, customers planning to peruse aisles 2 and 3 first must enter a secure shopping area cordoned off from the rest of the store.

Security cameras monitor an extensive list of products stocked on those protected shelves, including batteries, lightbulbs, laundry detergent, pregnancy tests, deodorant, candles, medicine and baby food. Patrons pay at one of two dedicated check-out counters before being handed receipts and continuing their shopping trips.

The anti-theft measures at the store, 757 E. 20th Ave., don’t surprise some shoppers: “They call it ‘Un-Safeway’ for a reason,” Alex Haskins told The Denver Post in the parking lot, repeating a common nickname for that location.

Major supermarket chains are ramping up their efforts to prevent stealing by restricting access to certain aisles, installing merchandise lock boxes, hiring security guards and more. Corporate spokespeople point to retail crime as a major problem for the grocery and convenience store industries, though several declined to discuss measures at specific stores in Denver.

“Different products experience different theft rates, depending on store location and other factors,” said Amy Thibault, a spokesperson for CVS Pharmacy. “Locking a product is a measure of last resort.”

Often, such actions come as an inconvenience to customers, with the new security protocols recognized as nationwide annoyances. The union representing Colorado grocery store workers says they’re Band-Aid solutions to larger problems: shortages of employees and security.

“Locking up merchandise can be an effective theft deterrent, but it underscores the need for more staff and more security in our stores,” said Kim Cordova, the president of the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 7. “With limited staff, customers face delays in accessing products, leading to frustration that often falls on our essential grocery store workers.”

The grocery industry, which is making less money now compared to recent years, predicts it will shell out more cash to hire and keep employees through benefits, training and other measures, according to the industry publication Grocery Dive.

Last year, the industry’s profit margin — 1.6% — was about as low as percentages before the COVID-19 pandemic years, which sent margins up to as high as 3% in 2020, when Americans spent months under lockdowns.

“It’s a marginal business. We work at the margins,” said Pete Marczyk, the co-founder of Marczyk Fine Foods. He runs a locally owned grocer with two locations in the Uptown and Hale neighborhoods.

His small business isn’t spared from theft — and he feels the financial hits personally.

“To us, it’s rent money,” Marczyk said. “That’s the money I need for tuition for my kid.”

Denver neighborhoods with highest theft rates

In Denver, several stores that have implemented some of the most extensive anti-theft measures aren’t located in neighborhoods with the highest reports of shoplifting offenses at supermarkets.

From Aug. 1, 2023, to Aug. 1, 2024, the Central Park neighborhood had the most larceny reports at local stores, with 98, according to the Denver Police Department. Union Station followed with 45, then Montclair with 37, Baker with 31 and Hampden with 14.

Five Points — home to the Safeway store with cordoned-off aisles — didn’t make the top 15 neighborhoods, ranking 17th.

But perhaps owing to the store’s past experience with crime, a security patrol car was parked by the entrance on a late August afternoon while an officer talked to a customer by a car in the parking lot. And on a recent weekend, just inside the entrance, a security guard and an employee confronted a man they suspected of theft.

Creating a store within a store for certain products is a less-common approach, but Safeway has implemented the setup at some other locations — and customers who commented on a recent Denver-specific thread about the practice on Reddit had no shortage of opinions.

Albertsons, the parent company of Safeway, didn’t respond to requests for comment about its strategies to prevent stealing.

Several miles away, the protocols at a King Soopers location in the Central Park neighborhood — No. 1 on the police’s list for grocery thefts — felt relatively normal this week.

A sign at the front of the store, 10406 E. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., informed patrons that receipts were required when exiting the building. It banned the indoor use of suitcases, duffel bags and roller bags. In small print at the bottom, the sign said: “These enhanced safety measures will help combat crime.”

The store itself offered an upscale shopping experience, with sushi and cheese counters. Security cameras watched overhead, but infant care items, medicine, vitamins, toys and wine sat openly on display. Only cosmetics and detergent were stored under lock and key.

A security guard stood at the exit, but he didn’t make a move to check receipts.

Jessica Trowbridge, a spokesperson for King Soopers and City Market, declined to provide details on their anti-theft practices “to preserve the integrity of our security measures.” But she said stores work with law enforcement to fight crime.

“We are disappointed by the increased level of crime across retail establishments,” Trowbridge wrote in a statement. “We have recently deployed additional solutions to help prevent and deter illegal activity, and although early in implementation, we have received positive feedback from associates and customers.”

Other well-known brands keep their theft-prevention tactics concealed from the public.

“Some products are subject to additional security,” said Kelsey Bohl, a spokesperson for Walmart. “Those determinations are made on a store-by-store basis.”

Companies offering business security to the grocery industry are more direct about potential strategies. InVue, a North Carolina-based technology company, highlights several methods to prevent shoplifting, including employee training, inventory checks, security tags, smart locks and more.

At a Walgreens location at 120 N. Broadway on the edge of the Baker neighborhood, the security measures were pronounced.

Lock boxes were common along many of the aisles, making facial products, perfume, deodorant, games and dietary supplements inaccessible unless a patron pressed a customer service button to flag down an employee.

The impact of crime was also apparent: Shoppers entering and leaving the pharmacy on Tuesday were greeted by a busted window covered with plywood.

“Retail crime is one of the top challenges facing our industry today,” said Megan Boyd, a spokesperson for Walgreens. “These additional security measures allow us to improve on-shelf availability of products to customers.”

“It really is almost fruitless”

At some big-name stores, it’s largely business as usual.

The Berkeley neighborhood’s Safeway location, 3800 W. 44th Ave., sits in a quiet shopping center near a State Farm Insurance office and an Anytime Fitness health club. Vitamins and detergent are within arm’s reach. The only items locked away are premium wines, including bottles of Veuve Clicquot and Dom Pérignon.

The neighborhood recorded just four larceny offenses at grocery stores over the last year, DPD’s data shows.

For now, smaller retailers operating in the Denver area are keeping their items unlocked, too.

At the 7305 N. Pecos St. location of the Hispanic grocery chain Lowe’s Mercado, toiletries, laundry detergent, wine and beer are readily available to patrons, with only jewelry and medicines like NyQuil shielded in display cases.

Marczyk Fine Foods’ stores use security cameras, barcode tracking and employee training to mitigate stealing, which Pete Marczyk estimates happens about once a day.

Since the pandemic, he said, he’s noticed a lack of police presence in the city, and his business can’t afford its own high-level security guard. Customers shouldn’t expect lock boxes throughout his stores, he said, in part because expensive products, such as ribeye steaks, are already behind glass.