WALMART customers have been forced to leave their stores after waiting in long queues amid a new safety feature to reduce theft.

Organized crime has been plaguing retailers in recent years, causing leaders to crack down on incidents of theft.

In a conversation with CNBC, Walmart‘s CEO Doug McMillon threatened that stores could close and prices could continue to rise if the issue wasn’t addressed.

“It’s higher than what it has historically been,” the CEO revealed.

However, one Walmart customer has claimed that the latest anti-theft device is the biggest increase in security that the retailer has taken so far.

TikTok user Frönk (@iceage3isadocum) shared his experience of the new security system which got over 38,000 views.

“I went to a Walmart the other day that had taken the loss prevention thing to such a higher level than I had ever seen,” he said.

Frönk explained that he was trying to purchase a battery for $4 but it was locked up in a case.

There are call buttons on the cases to notify an employee with a key that a customer wants to access one of the heavily protected products.

The TikToker said he waited for 10 minutes and no one came so he decided to leave.

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He added that the situation was the same in other sealed-off areas such as the cosmetics section.

“All of these places have been shrinking their workforces and they don’t have enough employees to handle this,” Frönk explained.

He added: “Right next to us in the makeup section, there was like a line of people just trying to get something unlocked from the makeup aisle and the one poor associate in that area didn’t have a key and also didn’t know who had a key.”

The TikToker then explained that from such a frustrating shopping experience, employees would get treated badly by customers.

He noted that the number of customers leaving without purchasing a product due to the security features makes no financial sense to him.

“I don’t understand how it financially makes sense to stop someone from stealing like a $5 product, but then miss out on hundreds of dollars of sales,” the TikToker said.

“People are just getting up and leaving because they can’t get what they want.”

The comments are flooded with equally frustrated shoppers and Walmart workers.

One said: “As a Walmart cashier, it’s the bane of our existence too. Everyone asks if I have a key when half the store is locked up but only team leads have them.”

Another said that Target is the same: “Dude I waited for 30 minutes at Target the other day for someone to unlock a hair curler for me bc they lost the magnet to unlock ALL of the beauty and hair products.

“There were like 30 other ppl standing around waiting for s**t to be unlocked.”

Many viewers also noted the frustration of eventually locating a member of staff just to find out that they cannot help them.

Some people in the comments admitted that the hassle of the cases is just too much and they will automatically go somewhere else without trying to call an employee for assistance.

“I’m an example of the person that leaves as soon as I realize it’s in a case,” one wrote.

Another added: “Yep, same. I’ll just go somewhere else. Press-on nails were locked up at Target! like, the $6 ones! Why??”

Retailers are implementing increasingly noticeable anti-theft measures in stores that include self-locking shopping carts and AI cameras.

It comes as reports have found that shoplifting cost the retail industry over $100 billion in 2022.