There was a recent article about this in DC’s local newsweekly – the fact that CVS stores continue to keep condoms locked up and inaccessible to customers. I’m not a regular condom purchaser myself these days – at seven months pregnant, I think that ship has sailed – but it’s a big enough pain in the ass to track down a CVS employee to unlock the razors. In a town like DC, where HIV rates are distressingly high, the last thing we need is to make condoms harder to get.
Advocates for Youth is taking aim at this problem with their new campaign.
CVS is one of the nation’s largest pharmacy and drugstore chains. With more than 6,000 stores across the country, they are a major provider of condoms to people of all ages. However, a recent study showed that CVS stores in low income and minority neighborhoods tend to lock up condoms. Often times these stores are in communities where the rates of HIV infection are the highest.
Advocates for Youth, in partnership with the Cure CVS Campaign, is working with colleague organizations to push CVS to adopt a policy that would prohibit stores from locking condoms behind glass. CVS’s largest competitor, Walgreens, already has a policy in place forbidding locked condom cases. It’s time that CVS does the same!
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Young people ages 15-24 represent almost half of all STD cases in the United States, yet barriers are constantly placed in our way that prevent us from taking control of our sexual health.
Sign this petition demanding that CVS unlock the condoms! It only takes a moment – and when you’re done, please forward it to your friends.
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What exactly is the purpose of locking them up anyway? I’ve always wondered if it was to prevent theft, but I doubt that condoms are stolen more than any other product in a CVS store.
It just seems that locking something up or making it difficult to get to communicates that it’s something you shouldn’t be getting in the first place.
CVS does lock up a lot of its products. In D.C., a lot of CVS stores lock up soap, but activists often stick to the condoms because it’s a serious public health issue. It’s funny, because now I’ll often go to a CVS in D.C. and see the pregnancy tests and lube locked up right next to the unlocked condoms—because those stores have only “freed” them to appease the activists.
Here, CVS has attempted to compromise on the issue by “unlocking” its condoms and placing them in vending-machine-like click boxes (push a button and get your product). The click boxes, though, are often broken and sometimes even—shocker—completely locked!—so you need to ask an employee to grab your condoms for you anyway. But taking that step allows CVS to brush off the activists and stop answering access questions.
“What exactly is the purpose of locking them up anyway? I’ve always wondered if it was to prevent theft, but I doubt that condoms are stolen more than any other product in a CVS store.”
Yes they are. Small, easy to conceal and carry, in high demand. Accessibility is one thing but theft is a real problem in lower income areas.
My Walgreens locks up pretty much EVERYTHING. (It seems to mostly be products that affect men actually, all axe products, razors, anything that is small and costs more than 5 bucks.)
I’d be willing to bet condoms are stolen A LOT especially in areas where people like to steal. If you’re going to steal axe body wash, and razorblades, why on earth would you pay for CONDOMS which are embarrassing to purchase and really easy to conceale.
I find it odd that we would expect CVS to make it easier for people to steal their merchandise because HIV infection rates are high.
If we want to improve access to condoms there should be more programs to give them away to people who need them. Or to provide other forms of access (Vending machines?).
Expecting CVS to just take the hit because people want to steal something seems, I don’t know, not very productive.
Amanda here is the author of the Washington City Paper piece I linked to (as well as a blog and column on sex and gender issues in DC). I appreciate you stopping by!
No one is suggesting CVS permit theft. What Advocates for Youth and others are advocating is that this product – legal and an important tool to protecting public health – not be kept under lock and key.
One other issue that CVS, and other stores which lock up condoms, could address: How its employees react when asked to unlock condoms or other sexual health items. Since the main barrier with the locked cases is the embarrassment factor, making respect of condom purchasers a priority could go a long way.
A couple months ago, I bought a pregnancy test from a Washington, D.C. CVS. It was locked up in a case, so I asked the manager if someone could help me unlock it. As I waited for the employee to unlock the case, he informed me that I should have used condoms. That way, I wouldn’t need to be buying the pregnancy test. He also told me which test he thought I should buy. Then, I took the test back to the manager at the counter who refused to look me in the eye or respond when I said “Thank you.”
The point being—to me, the problem is sometimes deeper than “loss prevention” might excuse.
Exactly. The first time this painfully shy teenager went to buy condoms, I was lucky to be greeted with a “good for you” and genuine smile from the cashier. If I had to have someone unlock a case for me and interacted with someone like Amanda did I probably would have just walked out of the store.
@Amanda,
PLEASE tell me you contacted an area manager or some higher up about that CVS customer! That was totally unneccessary and uncalled for.
I find it odd that we would expect CVS to make it easier for people to steal their merchandise because HIV infection rates are high.
i think there’s several ways that CVS could remove some of the existing barriers to condom purchasing without making them easier to steal. for example, at the CVS i go to, the condoms are still in a locked glass case in the back of the store, which necessitates finding an employee who can go unlock the case. given that CVS isn’t exactly fully stocked with employees ready to help people out, this means that people often have to wait in line and then ask the cashier to unlock the case – which requires walking back there while the whole line waits. in contrast, they have cigarette packs behind the main cash register so you ask for them while you’re being rung up and the cashier just turns and grabs one. those two different arrangements both prevent theft, but one has much higher barriers than the other.
another alternative is what Target and other retailers are doing to handle the need to check ID for sudafed purchases after new laws were past to restrict access and prevent meth production. there’s a space on the shelf for the product, with a plastic slip with a picture of the product box – different ones for different sizes and dosages. the customer takes the slip to the pharmacy and they give the product and go through the ID rigamarole.
finally, i can think of an alternative that would allow the actual product to be on the shelf, so the consumer wouldn’t have to orally request the product. i go to a lot of stores that are worried about theft and have worked out all kinds of clever anti-theft tagging. put the condoms in an unbreakable plastic box that the cashier has to unlock, like a cd or a dvd.
this is just off the top of my head, and i’m no loss prevention specialist. but i think it’s clear there’s a way retailers can meet their needs around theft and shoplifting while simultaneously lowering barriers to accessing these key health products.
As someone who works at a grocery store, I can tell you that we lock up our condoms because people steal them all the time! I want people to be protected, don’t get me wrong, but each time condoms (razors, cd players, and $100 liquor bottles) get stolen, our bottom line is effected, and we get our hours cut. I can tell you right now that we, as a general rule, are more likely to lock up products at stores where shoplifting rates are high, and I can’t condemn the company for not providing free shoplifted condoms- if you want them free, you gotta visit the health department.
I bet these areas are also places where there is a lot of stigma against buying condoms, even for adults. For example, I live in a Hispanic area that is mostly Catholic. People would rather steal condoms that buy them, even if they have the money, just so they don’t have to take them to the cashier. The stigma against condoms is probably why HIV rates are high in my area, not the lack of access. It’s not like there aren’t tons of places to get free condoms in DC.
And if the employees give people crap about condoms or pregnancy tests or whatever when unlocking the case, what makes anyone think it would be any different when they check out? There’s still a judgmental person in the process.
Its not just poor areas that lock up the condoms. I worked in a grocery store in an upper middle class mostly white suburb where they locked up the condoms and pregnancy tests, as well as baby formula. Why? Because of dedicated shop lifting rings and teenagers who are too embarrassed to buy them.
Vending machines seem like a brilliant idea. No need to interact with a clerk, low vulnerability to theft. Or any of Abby Jean’s suggestions. We’re not asking CVS to be the public health department and hand out free condoms.
Trying to get condoms after about 9:00 at night is nearly impossible in this city (Atlanta, Buckhead/Midtown). Most every store locks them up at the pharmacy, and when the pharmacy closes you have to spend a year looking for an employee with keys who’s not tied to a register to open the case for you. It’s embarassing and frustrating for me, and I’m 25 and married with my own transportation and no curfew. I can only imagine it’s more embarassing (and thus off-putting) for teens.
Thanks Rachel!
You can also pass along this shorter link to the petition:
http://amplifyyourvoice.org/curecvs
I am a total capitalist, but if there’s one item that I think it’s completely morally justified to steal, it’s condoms in DC. DC has one of the highest HIV and poverty rates in the country. They should be being handed out free everywhere. There’s a CVS on every corner in even the worst neighboghoods, but it takes hours on the phone to get an appointment at Planned Parenthood, and then you have to take the bus to get there… Just think what could happen if CVS decided that as a community service it would give away condoms and provide advice on other birth control measures!
I don’t see why CVS doesn’t take the gas station approach, wherein condoms hang directly behind the counter. Sure, it requires the additional work of having to ask for it but it wouldn’t lead to the delay that is necessary for getting an employee to come back and unlock one of those doors for you.
At my local CVS (in Northwest DC), the only things that are behind lock and key are electronics. Any time I have to buy something like new headphones (which I do woefully often due to a kitty with chewing issues) it takes about 5-6 extra minutes to get them to unlock something. On the other hand, if you have to purchase something that’s hanging behind the counter e.g. cigarettes or any of the allergy meds that aren’t allowed to be shelved anymore, 15 seconds later, you have the items in your hand.
It seems to be a pretty easy solution to the problem.
All that being said, it’s always continues to amaze me the wealth of resources that are available on one side of DC when, 4 miles away across town, it feels like you’re in a completely different city.
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