We’ve probably all at least seen them - those products that are locked away for some reason. Sometimes the reason is obvious - paint spray cans spring to mind - sometimes less obvious.
Smokes have been behind counters for years - I don’t ever recall seeing them on a shelf.
Paint spray cans I remember seeing on the shelves. When they were moved to locked cabinets seems more recent in my now slightly ageing memory but still not that long ago.
I recall driving through Coober Pedy many years ago when the local supermarket sold explosives and detonators - they weren’t on the shelf - you’d need to ask a staff member and have some kind of paperwork from memory. Yes I asked what the deal was - it was obvious I wasn’t a miner … The reason here was fairly obvious …
Some products are sealed - like kitchen knives in supermarkets and certain magazines in newsagents - and they are both for reasonably good reasons I guess. Here, the register flags for assistance (self serve) if you buy a big kitchen knife, because apparently they can cut more than beef and lamb …
Other products are not on shelves due to handling requirements - like the deli section at most supermarkets … and I’m sure that’s generally a good thing.
Codeine containing 'cetamols is another that was in the news a year or two back …
Alcohol in some parts of the country comes under substantial scrutiny - with two levels of showing photographic identification along with disclosing the place of consumption and pretty much anything else the police (in the first instance) insist you disclose. Pseudo-police in the case of the NT - armed with Glocks and pepper but without much trailing …
Low aromatic fuel is another - in some parts of the country you can’t buy ‘sniffable’ 91 octane, but of course you can buy perfectly sniffable 95 or 98 octane (RON not MON or (AKI) or (R+M)/2 for the pedants and merkins - RON is what most of the planet measures octane as) in exactly the same places. Apparently the people who might sniff 91 won’t spend 20-30c more to buy a good sniffable 95 or 98 - I do because a couple of my machines sniff it with great gusto, but I digress …
Then there is ‘the sniffables’ or otherwise (apparently) misuseables in the supermarket. Below is a picture of the deodorants section in my local supermarket - aerosols AND roll-ons. I’m not sure who they are intending to keep out with the hardware in place, maybe Rambo or the Terminator sniff my favourite roll-on …
What have you had to ask a staffer to unlock, find, approve or otherwise give you from behind the counter?