The Walmart video game section was the first place I ever saw to employ that locked case method. Which tells me it was one of the first places to see enough theft that they couldn't just write it off as the normal level in the budget anymore.

Because those things are an otherwise net loss for both the customer and the company. Customers will pass up on impulse buys because of the extra hassle, and the company has to basically tie a bunch of employees to a small section of the store (with its own checkout) and devote their time entirely to that purpose.

So it must have been that bad of a situation to make them do it anyway, which has probably only gotten worse like everything else.