Retailers have been faced with increases in shoplifting and retail theft. But anti-theft prevention can hurt retail sales, says the CEO of Walgreens.

The top executive at Walgreens lamented the loss of sales from putting items like toothpaste behind lock and key to crack down on rampant shoplifting that has plagued pharmacy chains around the country.

Over the years the pharmacy chain used strategy to combat shoplifting. Walgreens CEO Tim Wentworth said the company’s decision to lock up products after reporting a 52% increase in stolen inventory has backfired, according to multiple reports.

Consider it a simple economic truth, one that ordinary Americans evidently knew long before CEOs: "When you lock things up ... you don't sell as many of them." So declares Walgreens CEO Tim Wentworth,

Walgreens is struggling to deter shoplifting at its stores, according to CEO Tim Wentworth, who described it as "a hand-to-hand combat battle still, unfortunately."

Walgreens’ plan to combat increasing theft by locking products up at their stores has hurt sales, the company’s CEO said in a recent earnings call.

Tim Wentworth, CEO of Walgreens Boots Alliance, the parent company of Duane Reade, acknowledged to investors during a Jan. 10 earnings call that the company's asset protection tactic of locking merchandise to prevent retail theft has slowed sales.

The CEO of Walgreens admits that locking up products to deter theft is irritating paying customers and is hurting sales. The company has found that people will leave without buying products instead of waiting for an employee to unlock access to something as simple as a tube of toothpaste.

In an earnings call, executive Tim Wentworth conceded that locking products up might not be the best move for boosting sales.