American pharmacy store chain Walgreens has discovered that locking its wares behind lock and key in an apparent effort to stop shoplifters has backfired spectacularly. As Fortune reports, the company has been battling with a major year-over-year decline in earnings and announced it would close an additional 450 stores across the country this year.

Walgreens’ strategy of locking up merchandise — from deodorants to bags of M&M’s — to deter theft has backfired, according to CEO Tim Wentworth. “It is 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.

Despite efforts to prevent retail theft, Walgreens reported a 32% in "shrink," or a loss of inventory that can’t be accounted for through sales.