REQUIEM FOR THE SELF-SERVICE GENERAL STORE.

For the business model to work, it requires a law-abiding population.  "Self-service shopping only works as long as the shoppers respect their side of the bargain, which is to settle up."  The return of the old-style general store, with the stock clerk filling your order from behind the counter, began gradually, with fungible items such as razor blades or items in short supply such as baby formula being locked up with the crown jewels, er, Crown Royal, but in Chicago, where the law is an arbitrary social construction, now it's easier to track what isn't locked up.  "In what was once a typical Walgreens, there are now just two short aisles of so-called “essentials” where “customers may shop for themselves.” If you want anything else—a bottle of booze, a deodorant brand deemed “non-essential”—you’ll need to order it at a kiosk and pick it up at the counter."  I suppose we should be grateful the self-service doesn't operate the way a Communist store does, where the customer pays first, gets a voucher for the items, then claims the items either off the shelves or receives them from the comrade behind the counter.  On the other hand, the comrade totting up the sale on an abacus (yes, as common in Soviet Union as in Chinese friendship shop) probably did a better job than the Walgreen kiosk.

After browsing both aisles of touchable merchandise, our intrepid reporter decided to buy an ice-cold Coca-Cola, priced at $1.89 or two for $3.

To start the check-out experience, an employee used their name tag to bring one of the self-serve stations to life.

It promptly charged our reporter $2.89 for the $1.89 soda. Plus tax, of course.

The error was quickly remedied with the help of both “shop for yourself” attendants.

Propped on the sidewalk at the corner of State and Roosevelt, a sandwich board boasts that the company has “built a better Walgreens.”

You can judge that for yourself between 7 a.m. and 10 p.m. daily.

A reader who lives near the Walgreens contacted the company after it shuttered for remodeling, wondering if the store had closed permanently. In mid-May, that reader sent us a copy of the response they said they received.

The response said the store was “undergoing a remodeling effort for Walgreens to test new concepts, technologies and practices aimed at bringing the community a greater convenience and safety for our customers, patients and team members.”

That sort of "better experience" spin is at least as shameless as old school Communist propaganda, dear reader.  As is the Official Response from Walgreens, "[A] Walgreens spokesperson told CWBChicago that she is the only person authorized to speak about the new store and she did not create the letter that our reader received. On Friday, the spokesperson said the letter 'was not sent from Walgreens to a customer.'"  Yeah, right.  A week after that CWB column, Fox 32's Greg Norman filed a report.

"We are testing a new experience at this store with new concepts, technologies, and practices to enhance the experiences of our customers and team members," a Walgreens spokesperson told Fox Business in a statement. "It continues to offer retail products and pharmacy services, just with a new look and feel that focuses on shopping digitally for convenience.

"Inside the store, customers will find an area where they can pick-up orders, digital kiosks for placing an order, as well as an area to shop for essential items," the spokesperson added.

The requiem for the self-service general store is in the report.

Block Club Chicago reports that a sign instructs shoppers to "place your order and relax" while staff at the store pull requested items off shelves kept away from the public.

"Let us do the shopping," the sign reportedly reads.

The redesign comes after Walgreens Boots Alliance told analysts at the start of this year that the drugstore chain may have overblown concerns of retail theft in 2022 and is pulling back on private security guards.

I wonder if any of the general store proprietors losing sales to A&P and the other self-service groceries a century ago ever tried that "Place your order and relax" slogan.