‘Felt I was ambushed,’ says customer sick of anti-theft measures in grocery store – receipt check left her ‘humiliated’
A SHOPPER has said she is fed up with her grocer after a security glitch stopped her in her tracks — and made her feel like a criminal.
Susan Dennison was attempting to exit after picking up a few things from her nearby grocery store, a Loblaw-owned Fortinos, when the problems began.
CBC NewsSusan Dennison was attempting to exit her local grocery store when the wheels on her cart locked up and an employee rushed over to demand to see her receipt[/caption]
CBC NewsHer grocer, a Loblaw-owned store named Fortinos in Ontario, Canada, uses the strategy to prevent theft[/caption]
CBC NewsDennison was allowed to leave once she found her receipt[/caption]
GettyRetail leaders have complained that organized retail theft is to blame for the enhanced antitheft measures, but data may not support the claim[/caption]
The wheels on her shopping cart suddenly locked up as she was walking into the store’s parking lot — located in Burlington, Ontario, about an hour southwest of Toronto, Canada — bringing her to an abrupt stop.
A Fortinos employee rushed to meet Dennison and asked to see her receipt.
“It was exasperating. I felt like I was ambushed,” Dennison told the CBC.
Caught off guard, Dennison struggled to find the small slip of paper.
“She’s badgering me, like, ‘Is it in your wallet? Is it in your pocket?'” she recounted.
The shopper soon found the receipt, satisfying the employee’s concerns who could then unblock her cart and let her go home.
“I realized I was being treated like a thief,” she said.
The entire experience was traumatizing.
“It seemed like [it took] forever, with people walking by. It was humiliating,” Dennison recalled.
She later learned that the cart block can occur automatically to stop suspicious shoppers as part of the store’s anti-theft strategy.
It seems that Dennison was simply unlucky and snagged a cart with a glitch.
“Their methods need to catch the thieves, not honest customers,” she said.
Dennison won’t be heading back to a Fortinos any time soon, she added.
SHOPPERS FED UP
Dennison is not the only shopper to complain about the wave of new antitheft measures rolled out by retailers in recent years.
Many customers have criticized having to request employee help to pick up even everyday, low-cost items that are now locked behind plexiglass in some stores like Target.
Other shoppers have taken issue with the growing prevalence of receipt checking, especially in big box stores like Walmart that employ the strategy alongside self-checkout machines.
Some consumers have said the excessive interference in the shopping experience has made them change retailers and sometimes even feel like criminals.
UNSURE WHO TO BLAME
But retail leaders point their finger at organized retail crime, which they say has started to seriously impact companies’ bottom lines.
Loblaw — the largest food retailer in Canada and the parent company of Fortinos, where Dennison was stopped — has repeatedly said that organized theft has led to the increase in its security measures.
“This surge in organized retail crime remains a significant problem for the retail industry,” Loblaw CFO Richard Dufresne said during a conference call in late 2023.
“These are sophisticated organizations that are increasingly using violent tactics and complex networks to steal and sell stolen goods for profit.”
Anti-theft measures rolled out by retailers
Retailers across the US and Canada have rolled out strategies designed to combat theft. The U.S. Sun has compiled a list of measures that have been implemented at stores.
Locking items in cabinets.
Security pegs.
Security cameras.
Signs warning about the impact of theft.
Receipt scanners.
Receipt checks.
Carts with locking technology
However, the company has not provided hard data to support that claim, according to CBC.
Other retail experts have made similar statements about a phantom rise in retail theft, including the US National Retail Federation.
The NRF published a widely circulated study in April 2023 finding that organized retail crime accounted for nearly half of the estimated $94.5 billion that retailers lost due to “shrinkage”, or product loss, in 2021.
But less than a year later, the organization retracted the study citing that it used erroneous data that led to a major exaggeration of the impact of organized crime on retail profits.
The initial flawed report “led to a massively overinflated figure that was getting circulated in the press,” Trevor Wagener, a researcher and chief economist for the Computer & Communications Industry Association, told CBC.
Putting a number on the cost of organized crime is complicated, Wagener said.
“Generally, you won’t have the evidence as a retailer looking through your security footage,” he said Wagener.
“You may have a video feed showing two or three individuals who are gathering goods and walking out without paying for them. Now, was this subsistence shoplifting… or was this part of an organized crime effort?”
Representatives for Loblaw did not immediately respond to a request for comment by The U.S. Sun.
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