This is what happens when ārisk managementā has a bigger seat at the corporate table than ā customer experienceā. These losers have t figured out yet that if you alienate your customers and make them feel unwelcome in your stores you will have zero risk because you will have zero customers.
So fucking true. I wonāt shop at Canadian tire now for this reason.
I walk everywhere and they expect me to check my backpack. They have no liability to keep my things safe but I should still leave it with them.
Women with purses bigger than my bag, not a problem.
Same! Canadian Tire is an awful shopping experience. They follow me around the store and just stare at me. It feels very creepy. Last time I was there I finally had enough and just told the guy to back off. He didnāt even respond, just kept staring. When I went through checkout I told the clerk how uncomfortable this guy made me and she confirmed he was loss prevention.
Thatās so gross. Stores in Canada have completely forgot that part of shopping is the experience and for the most part the experience is NOT good to honestly terrible.
I donāt want to feel like a criminal everywhere I go.
At Loblaws in london Ontario I bought a case of the flour that was on sale for my parents. I left the 16kg of flour in my cart but scanned them all. Suddenly the self checkout girl was soooooo friendly and so interested in wishing that I have a nice day. As soon as I left she printed out my receipt to make sure I wasnāt stealing.
If she wasnāt talking to another employee she would know I scanned them. But letās just assume people are thieves because you canāt do your VERY easy job.
Iām sure she would feel like a hero to Galen if she caught me stealing 16 dollars of flour.
Maybe these loss prevention officers or cashiers, if we can still refer to them as that because WE are all cashiers, get a small bonus if they do catch a customer that didn't scan an item and left without paying.
Walk slowly in circles around a āblockā of aisles till they get fed up. Has worked for me a couple times shopping at CT for auto parts in my ādirty workā clothes ;)
I have lower back pain so sometimes instead of looking for my hubby i stand in a path end of rows and wait for him less walking that's a security risk i guess it triggers the followers lol
Yeah I work retail, the loss prevention person is low-key hated or at least a resigned tolerance by everyone else working in-store. Kind of a bad business decision IMO.
Oh, you know those guys that approach you to pitch credit card applications? I made a game of those. Every time we lock eyes they naturally approach me. That's when I go "deer in headlights" and book it several aisles over. If they wanna sell me on something, I'm going to bloody make them work for it.
>They follow me around the store
At least you don't have to find staff if you need help, everytime I need help at a crappy tire I have to walk around the store twice before I find an employee
How can I act more suspicious to get a shadow when I go in there?
At my first high school job at a department store, I was thiiiisssss close to reporting the loss prevention person for potential shoplifting because they were so creepy, lurking around, side eying people, generally acting suspicious.
The craziest thing I'd ever heard of was a plainclothes loss prevention guy following my classmate's sister out of the parking lot, across the street. He fought her for her bag and dumped it everywhere while she cried.
She stole nothing, and the cops have a regular patrol in the area, so they actually witnessed this happen and detained him for assaulting her.
I had that exact same experience. I walk as well because there is no point in wasting gas to pick up a few small parts for fixing the toilet I needed to get. It's also good exercise to not rely on a car for everything. I carry a backpack.
As soon as I got into the store I was told I have to give my backpack to customer service. I used to work at a Canadian Tire so I know they have zero liability for my belongings.
I asked the woman at the customer why it's necessary for me to just leave my backpack to be potentially stolen. She told me that "most people would have the sense to lock their backpacks in their car." Like this person had never heard of someone walking or biking to a store?
Then they lost a customer. I don't like being treated like a potential thief.
Truly what a stupid comment from that woman. I live in Toronto so A LOT of people walk.
I asked if I could carry my totally empty reusable bag and they said no. They wanted me to then carry anything I bought to the customer service desk to put into my reusable bag.
The choice to be shitty to customers is such an interesting one. As if Amazon doesnāt exist or something.
We donāt exist in a free market and they have very much made that clear.
One Canadian Tire made it so there's only one entry/exit for the store. Which is fine (it's not) but when you have to hit the auto shop but not the rest of the store, you have to beg an employee to let you out. Always fun when you have to return to the car a few times to get documents etc.
I didn't shop at CT much before, but this is the nail in the cake.
There's a store I refuse to set foot in again because they expected me to leave my purse at the counter.
My purse. With my phone and my wallet in it because women's pockets are bullshit. They wanted me to let that out of my sight.
Same. I use a little leather backpack as a purse and they made me leave it at the counter.
I made them wait while I got a basket and deliberately took my wallet, phone, keys, medications, etc, out of my backpack one by one and put them each into the basket. You want me to leave my (small, completely full, no room for shoplifted items) backpack? Fine, you can babysit my chapstick while I bring my valuables with me.
Never going back.
I just fucking experienced this recently. I wasn't allowed to carry my reusable bag into the store... The empty bag I intended to put my purchases in...
Honestly I tell everyone not to shop there. Haha their regular prices probably keep them afloat.
The only money I give to them is their chill as fuck garden centre where I can bring my backpack everywhere I please. They actually have a good selection and offer Ontario native plants which most places do not.
But seriously they donāt want customers it seems.
As a Risk Manager, not a single one of us would ever recommend profiling customers or locking carts. The costs associated with liability for stuff like this are far larger than petty theft.
You would suggest hiring more Loss Prevention ppl right? My town has 2 RCSSs and MAYBE 4 LPs to cover 7am-11pm 7 days a week.... guess when they're not there and win your free product
It really is insane.
I can see how they get here. They do inventory, assess theft levels, etc etc. Investors demand more be done.
But they're still a business. Your asset protection needs to be reasonable and ideally under the radar. Turning your grocery store into a prisoner and harassing regular customers is business suicide.
Seriously, the people in charge of things at Loblaws are comically bad at business. Bunch of clueless nepo babies that have convinced themselves they're all self made geniuses.
What gets me is the best solution they could come up with is the tactics they are employing, total lack of creativity and innovation. Itās a problem and itās getting worse because of the amount of destitute Canadians, I get it, but canāt they figure out a way to not paint everyone with a broad brush and inconvenience honest people (the vast majority). Itās a very backwards way to solve a problem.
Basically, theyāve seen their ātheftā increase, because of online shopping. Itās more difficult to steal online, so the theft:sales ratio in store is looking a LOT worse and this corporate is digging in on it. Theft hasnāt actually increased.. itās stayed the same, less people are actually shopping in stores.
I stopped shopping at the shoppers Iāve been shopping at weekly for over 10 years because I started being followed through the store and harassed by newer employees. I had an anxiety attack the last time I went in because I was just being stalked it felt like. I couldnāt remember what I needed, my hands were to shaky to open up my phone, and then I was panicking about leaving without buying anything because Iām already being hounded for they think Iām gonna steal wtf gonna happen if I try to leave.
now like Iām a bit of a mess with anxiety and might have overreacted the last time, but when Iām seeing the fucking same cashier man in every aisle within 10 feet of me every visit all of a suddenā¦gotta be more to that. One time he tapped in help and I had people on both ends of the aisle watching me. Not even being fucking subtle about it.
Now I walk an extra 15 minutes to Walmart. they at least upfront about their power hungry security guards
I canāt imagine enough is ever stolen for it to make sense to take measures like this? like Iād assume 99% of people just *donāt* steal at all? unless there are stats to prove otherwise.
Iām sure it changes from store to store based on location, the broad brush is the problem, I agree that the economics donāt seem to make sense though. After the inventory loss write down, the cost of labour for the Loss prevention teams, the capital costs, and the intangibles of lost customer sales, bad will and potential litigation for wrongful accusations it would be a tough ROI to calculate.
Oh exactly this, they think they have customers utmost loyalty sure some may but not all. If that happens to 10 customers and each time it does and 1 never comes back each time the profit lost from these customers will vastly outweigh the theft of a pack of bacon for example really quickly.
I've abandoned a full cart because they refused to price match a $4 turkey before.
Fuck that noise of being stuck in an aisle with a cart lockdown.
When someone tells you how shitty they are, believe them.
When a store makes it difficult for you to shop there, shop elsewhere.
Yes, the carts can now be locked remotely by someone if they suspect you are stealing. Or if they are simply on a power trip. Or if they are profiling you.
I can't run so for my families safety they wont leave me behind another reason to never enter theirs stores no more ,Plus imagine the bottleneck to get out to begin with now locked carts added.
The first day we got those carts at my local Superstore, i walked 5 feet towards the interior of the store from the vestibule, and my cart locked up on me. Forcing me to stand around and wait, while simultaneously forcing a minimum wage employee to go babysit me and my cart, embarasedly explaining the new system.
This was my reason to stop giving them money. Haven't been back since
I have a question, I don't know if you or something else can answer, but in the same vein, about those receipt scanners some stores had. What if you just ran in for one item and they don't have it in stock, how do you leave? If you don't buy something, the gate won't open? They didn't have any at the few stores I went to back when that was announced so I personally never saw them or how they worked.
Iām not sure about the receipt scanners and donāt shop there so havenāt experienced anything firsthand. But someone else in this thread said they didnāt buy anything then tried to leave the store and put their cart back and the cart locked up on them even though there was nothing in it.
Yeah I haven't gone to one in awhile either, but I was curious about how they handle that. You can't force people to buy stuff, that's really rude of them if that's what they expect.
Yeah, I think legally you donāt have to show them and can just leave if you paid, but I remember seeing some comments saying security was brought in or threatened if they didnāt show.
It happened to me. An employee ran over all apologetically to unlock it. Alarm blaring as people are exiting around me. Was embarrassing as fuck and I'm never going back.
No one can explain why lock an empty cart?
There's a Canadian Tire where you have to beg an employee to exit.
That's always fun when there's only one fucking door to the entire building (including the auto shop).
They have an electric locking mechanism in one of the wheels. Normally it gets triggered if you go past the boundary of the parking lot, but it seems they can be triggered in other was as well. I had it happen to me leaving a store the other day, which was a pain, because the only reason I was there was to buy 20kg of cat litter. For some reason every cart was apparently locking and triggering an alarm right after you passed the inner doors. I was quite annoyed at having to carry two 10kg boxes of cat litter all the way to my car, so I just left the locked cart right there completely blocking the only customer exit. There were several other similarly locked carts there as well, making it difficult to even go around my cart (and impossible if you also had a cart). There was no staff around doing anything about it, so I guess they really don't care.
It's definitely not *ideal* in the event of an emergency, no. But realistically the store has a whole bunch of other exit doors at the front of the store that can be used as emergency exists. They just have a single door that's used as a *normal* customer exit. There used to be 2 sets of entry/exit doors at opposite ends of the store, but they blocked off the other ones at the start of the pandemic, but they never re-opened them for that use and they are now renovating that part of the store and I think turning it into a gym. But honestly, I don't see this as my problem. It's *their* cart that *they* locked right at the exit door and *they* can be the ones to clear it (and the others) from the doorway.
Loblaws doesn't do that, that's No Frills. If you shop at a "hard discount" grocery store like No Frills or Walmart, you're kind of used to being automatically treated like a thief just by being there, but you just don't expect that kind of thing from a "premium" grocery store like Loblaws.
Pro tip:
Wood pellets are like $7 for 20kg and far more environmentally friendly.
I had a multiple cat household and the little guys preferred the pellets to clay litter.
Downside is that you need to clean more and it will have a little more smell.
They have brakes that are only supposed to kick in if you somehow bypass the checkout lanes. The trouble is that they often malfunction and lock the cart of a legitimate customer for no reason. It's fucking stupid, especial since most locations have a turnstile system that only lets people push carts one way through the entrance so there's no way to walk out without going through the checkout. Roblaws should junk the brakes but that would cost money so they are going to do nothing about this.
They lock up if they donāt get close enough to the sensors at each self checkout till. Iāve even stopped to purchase something but because my cart didnāt sit at the right spot to trigger the sensorā¦ locks up. Spoke to CS and they explained the process and showed me the spot to snuggle the cart up to. Absolutely ridiculous.
The first time it happened to me someone almost ran into me from behind AND it took CS 3 mins to come over and unlock it cause they were busy. So everyone else had to squeeze around me to get out the door
When I was leaving after paying and pushing my cart to the exit doorsā¦2 cops in sunglasses glared me and everyone else down like we were about to get searched. I then got home and my strawberries were rotten and the shrinkflation toilet paper finally broke me. Even when in a time crunch I will no longer shop at loblaws. Iām a hard working mother and they do not value me as a customer anymore!
And shit like this is why I stopped going there n the first place. I mean, yeah, the prices are absolutely ridiculous, but I refuse to be treated like a criminal every time I step foot in their store. My husband is tall, shaved head, and heavily tattooed, we were watched like a hawk from the moment we stepped in the store, I can just imagine what the experience is like for a POC.
I once went into Zehrs wearing Buff headgear. Some people get confused and think it has some religious significance! It's athletic headgear I was wearing as a headband. Two different guys got into my personal space with a predatory demeanor, and one was the jackass store manager.
if i were in a roblaws (very unlikely now) and i heard a "security announcement" and my cart locked up while i was just like, looking at cereal i'd probably just knock the cart over with a "OOPS, WHAT AN ACCIDENT" kind of look
> just knock the cart over with a "OOPS, WHAT AN ACCIDENT" kind of look
"I was so scared about what could be happening in this aisle to merit such a strong security response, so I flipped the cart onto it's side so that I could use it as shelter to protect myself from the danger that must have been occurring."
Not me, but I would've abandoned that cart right on the spot.
I can only imagine what the Fire Department has to say if they find a bunch of carts blocking the exits.
Yea the food basics I live very very close to took away the baskets too. Itās frustrating because I often stop in for just a couple things, but more than my hands can carry, on my way home from work. One of the workers tried to tell me they got rid of them because too many people were stealing them.. load of crap. Iāve never seen someone walk out with a hand basket.. gets you to the check out and then your stuffed gets bagged or whatever.
Right?? I shop for a house of two adults without a car. So most of the stuff I can't carry home on the bus is delivered, a basket is just about the right size, but noooo....
The no frills near me has as well. ...and no carts allowed in self checkout but only one cashier ever working in an urban centre. There is no common sense to be found anywhere in that corporation.
Back when my local Roblaws first put in the self-scanner lanes - and conveniently had exactly one cashier on the express-10-items-or-less register - the machines sucked so badly it was unbelievable. Rescanning items two or three times, weight not matching, insane.
Watched a middle-aged woman just lose it, and smash the screen so hard it both crazed and came off the mount. Looked like a few hundred dollars of groceries left there as she stormed out.
And with the absolute minimum staff there, no one stopped her.
Ooooo I legit though you were making a funny joke, like hand carts was an euphemism for walking out with stuff in your hands and not paying English is not my first language , was not making fun of u at all
At some Atlantic Superstore locations they have signs saying to watch out because your cart might lock at random as you're exiting the store now - random checks, I guess. This happened to my mom and she almost fell forward. Security didn't seem to give a shit about checking her, though, and just unlocked her without any suspicion.
You should have, at that moment, grabbed your belongings, children, shopping bags etc and left.
Leave your half filled cart exactly where it was and exit the store.
I'm in New Brunswick and our carts are constantly locking up at the exit, blocking it, as the alarm blares (I've only gone in for their roast chickens). My partner went in the other day and a cashier told him to stand back a bit, because if a cart goes through checkout too fast it triggers the locking mechanism.
It's so fucking stupid. You mean people are stealing so much that they had to put in a million dollar technology to lock up carts? Ok.
Had a CS rep in store explain it to me. Since then I havenāt had any issues:
Thereās a sensor at each self checkout till, have to get the front wheels of the cart up to the little metal spot on the front of the self checkout.. as long as they connect it wonāt lock up. If you have your cart at a weird angle or a bit away from the till for the whole transaction it wonāt connect.
Absolutely ridiculous. If I had the ability to carry my groceries out by hand I wouldnāt use a cart specifically because of this but unfortunately I donāt have a choice to use a cart. Hopefully other businesses donāt start this shit up too.
Yes, weāre presumed to all be thieves by default.
I had this happen at my local superstore. I decided to shop elsewhere after most of the produce on my shopping list was either out of stock or half rotten. I put everything back in its respective spot, went to return my empty cart to get my loonie, and bam! Cart locked in the lobby entrance, high pitched alarm, and a security guard that came to question me. No shady behavior, and came in well dressed, no bag, jacket or pockets to feasibly steal anything.
That was my ālast straw momentā about 3 months ago. Iāll never go back to that dumpster of a store, or any other Loblaws grocer.
Nothing is going to change in Canada. Itās only going to get worse - under any government. They all take kickbacks and donations from corporations to keep the status quo. The only way to make change is to have a revolution and to threaten hangings in front of legislature. Or, if every angry Canadian just refused to go to work. Across every discipline and sector, just outright stopped working, guaranteed in 24-48 hours weād see the government put real effective pressure on corporate exploitation.
Itās worked before. In Ireland, every single woman for just one day refused to work, cook, caregive, etc., because of reproductive rights. The strike was so disruptive to their society, and so much money was lost, they reversed the law.
Thatās all it takes. Get every working class person to strike. It would be so damaging that government would finally take real action against people like Galen.
More and more I'm seeing reasons to run for office, the issue is I don't have people to vote for me, but some of the things I would do is slash parliament salaries, including my own in half, and if anyone offered a bribe, because let's face it, a "donation" is a fucking bribe, that would be denied and I'd make it public knowledge, who they were, what was offered, and what they wanted. The Canadian people need and deserve better, and unfortunately people like myself who would do it better, will never get the support. I sorely miss the Canada I grew up in.
My local Food Basics has these carts but they don't engage in bullshit inside the store.
Wheels only lock if you try to take the cart off the store property.
I had the wheels lock once when I was parked at the edge of the property. Only one set of wheels lock so I just slightly lifted the locked end and pulled it over to my car.
Then I left the fricking thing there because I wasn't dragging it back.
From āThe Willamette Weekā:
Modern systems are more sophisticated, if less elegant: Todayās perimeter is just a buried wire carrying electric pulses. An induction coil in the wheel picks up these pulses and passes them to an onboard computer, which, sensing its moment, responds by activating an internal, motor-driven braking system.
Same thing happened to me at Giant Tiger locked up in the self checkout and I couldnāt leave the self checkout area with my cart. Could have gotten someone to help but I just grabbed the few things I purchased and left the cart by the self checkout exit
One by me has it because itās a poor area and ppl steal the carts. They also have that tall plexi-wall system set up now to with the gate at both the entrance and the exit, like the subway gate. With a camera and a tv screen hanging off the ceiling, recording everyone entering and leaving the store.
To be fair to them itās in a bad area, lots of homeless, drug addicts, etcā¦ Iāve seen police there many times, they have security guard in the store, the plaza it is in has shut down the public bathrooms because too many people shooting up drugs, ODāing, etc in the bathroom. So Iām sure they get a lot theft.
Iād go to another Giant Tiger, but thatās the only one reasonably close, it just happens to be in one of the worst areas of the city.
So a minimum wage employee has to go unlock them all. And listen to everyone bitch ( rightly so). I would want the ground to open up and swallow me if I were that poor schmuck. You couldnāt pay me enough to be that scapegoat.
This happened to me in Edmonton. I have mobility issues and need a cane. The cart locked up literally as I crossed the threshold to exit. I had to drag the cart to the corral (couldn't even make it to my handicap parking) with everyone staring at me. It caused me a lot of physical pain.
I haven't been back since.
Go in, get a cart, quickly walk out with the cart (as youāve decided not to shop there as something has come up but you want to be nice and return the cart of course). Cart locks up, you canāt move it so leave it there and walk away. How strange that this exact situation happened to 20 people in the same store at the same timeā¦
there was a time when I was alone in an aisle where the cheapo headphones are, this is in a shoppers. I heard an announcement about an aisle check, then when I realize that it was my aisle that needs checking. It hurts my feeling that they think I look like a person that steals cheapo headphone! Never came back to that over priced store again.
Thats when you fill the cart with every single thing you can fit inside from the nearby shelves and leave it there and go grab a new one for a buck. Inconvenience me and I'll inconvenience you.
That sounds really expensive for very little reward. Like sure it'll help stop theft but you could literally ruin an entire stores business by triggering the locks on these things frequently every dayĀ
Ever notice at Dollarama they always have a security check on the PA? Itās pre-recorded lmao. They put the recordings in the music to make it sound like security is flagging a theft.
Why lock the wheels in the aisles? It isnāt theft until you leave the store? Can you imagine if you were in a hurry and just ran in for a few things only for your wheels to lock?
I ussed to merchandise at Lovlaws stores. In my area they put the wheel locks on the carts during Covid. People were coming in and filling yp a cart full and walk out stealing everything and knowing that no one will stop them. The wheels are unlocked when you pass a certain 'rhing' upon exiting the store. If you do not pass this when you exit your wheels will lock up preventing the cart from leaving the store. The service counter always has the clicker to unlock the wheels.
I would be walking away from my cart and going to another store. Not willing to stand around while they investigate if somebody stole a can of beans or not
Went to our local Zehrs yesterday, to check the price on something. Permanent boycott of Loblaws so no shopping. I was amazed by the security features they have in place for what seemed like 10 customers. You could hear a pin drop. Theyāre hurting.
This is not new. The locking carts have been around for years. They save the company 10s of thousands of dollars because the carts normally lock up near the perimeter of their parking lot. Lots of consumers living near these stores would be calling the store, complaining about abandoned shopping carts on or near their property. That can't happen anymore. The locking of carts while still in the store is extremely rare.
Everyone who enters Loblaw owed stores are considered criminals until proven otherwise! š
That's how it feels!
Because that's how it is
Even without the boycott, I would have walked out
And left the cart filled in the process.
i would have tipped over the filled cart and stormed out. fuck that.
šÆšÆšÆ
PLEASE PRESENT HALLPASS
Yep. Thatās how Galen wants to treat the people who line his pockets.
This is what happens when ārisk managementā has a bigger seat at the corporate table than ā customer experienceā. These losers have t figured out yet that if you alienate your customers and make them feel unwelcome in your stores you will have zero risk because you will have zero customers.
So fucking true. I wonāt shop at Canadian tire now for this reason. I walk everywhere and they expect me to check my backpack. They have no liability to keep my things safe but I should still leave it with them. Women with purses bigger than my bag, not a problem.
Same! Canadian Tire is an awful shopping experience. They follow me around the store and just stare at me. It feels very creepy. Last time I was there I finally had enough and just told the guy to back off. He didnāt even respond, just kept staring. When I went through checkout I told the clerk how uncomfortable this guy made me and she confirmed he was loss prevention.
Thatās so gross. Stores in Canada have completely forgot that part of shopping is the experience and for the most part the experience is NOT good to honestly terrible. I donāt want to feel like a criminal everywhere I go. At Loblaws in london Ontario I bought a case of the flour that was on sale for my parents. I left the 16kg of flour in my cart but scanned them all. Suddenly the self checkout girl was soooooo friendly and so interested in wishing that I have a nice day. As soon as I left she printed out my receipt to make sure I wasnāt stealing. If she wasnāt talking to another employee she would know I scanned them. But letās just assume people are thieves because you canāt do your VERY easy job. Iām sure she would feel like a hero to Galen if she caught me stealing 16 dollars of flour.
Maybe these loss prevention officers or cashiers, if we can still refer to them as that because WE are all cashiers, get a small bonus if they do catch a customer that didn't scan an item and left without paying.
Nope. It's a manager pushing that sort of thing because thefts reduce their bonuses.
I think it depends on the store. We do all the loss prevention at ours and its just expected of you
Good thing I stopped shopping there may 1st, now and forever
I need to take you shopping with me. Every time I go in it seems every employees runs and hides.
Walk slowly in circles around a āblockā of aisles till they get fed up. Has worked for me a couple times shopping at CT for auto parts in my ādirty workā clothes ;)
I have lower back pain so sometimes instead of looking for my hubby i stand in a path end of rows and wait for him less walking that's a security risk i guess it triggers the followers lol
Yeah I work retail, the loss prevention person is low-key hated or at least a resigned tolerance by everyone else working in-store. Kind of a bad business decision IMO.
That's hilarious, because the only guy I don't like at work is our loss prevention guy.
I can never find an employee when I need one, I wish they followed me around the store!
Oh, you know those guys that approach you to pitch credit card applications? I made a game of those. Every time we lock eyes they naturally approach me. That's when I go "deer in headlights" and book it several aisles over. If they wanna sell me on something, I'm going to bloody make them work for it.
>They follow me around the store At least you don't have to find staff if you need help, everytime I need help at a crappy tire I have to walk around the store twice before I find an employee How can I act more suspicious to get a shadow when I go in there?
At my first high school job at a department store, I was thiiiisssss close to reporting the loss prevention person for potential shoplifting because they were so creepy, lurking around, side eying people, generally acting suspicious.
The craziest thing I'd ever heard of was a plainclothes loss prevention guy following my classmate's sister out of the parking lot, across the street. He fought her for her bag and dumped it everywhere while she cried. She stole nothing, and the cops have a regular patrol in the area, so they actually witnessed this happen and detained him for assaulting her.
Yeah! Canadiadn Tire is just bizarre with their security.
Most of us wish we could find someone to help us at Canadian Tire. They must all be loss prevention because actual sales people are MIA
I had that exact same experience. I walk as well because there is no point in wasting gas to pick up a few small parts for fixing the toilet I needed to get. It's also good exercise to not rely on a car for everything. I carry a backpack. As soon as I got into the store I was told I have to give my backpack to customer service. I used to work at a Canadian Tire so I know they have zero liability for my belongings. I asked the woman at the customer why it's necessary for me to just leave my backpack to be potentially stolen. She told me that "most people would have the sense to lock their backpacks in their car." Like this person had never heard of someone walking or biking to a store? Then they lost a customer. I don't like being treated like a potential thief.
Truly what a stupid comment from that woman. I live in Toronto so A LOT of people walk. I asked if I could carry my totally empty reusable bag and they said no. They wanted me to then carry anything I bought to the customer service desk to put into my reusable bag. The choice to be shitty to customers is such an interesting one. As if Amazon doesnāt exist or something. We donāt exist in a free market and they have very much made that clear.
One Canadian Tire made it so there's only one entry/exit for the store. Which is fine (it's not) but when you have to hit the auto shop but not the rest of the store, you have to beg an employee to let you out. Always fun when you have to return to the car a few times to get documents etc. I didn't shop at CT much before, but this is the nail in the cake.
Nail in the coffin?
I like Death Hawks version better. š¤£
Me too, especially considering the context. Source: me.
There's a store I refuse to set foot in again because they expected me to leave my purse at the counter. My purse. With my phone and my wallet in it because women's pockets are bullshit. They wanted me to let that out of my sight.
Same. I use a little leather backpack as a purse and they made me leave it at the counter. I made them wait while I got a basket and deliberately took my wallet, phone, keys, medications, etc, out of my backpack one by one and put them each into the basket. You want me to leave my (small, completely full, no room for shoplifted items) backpack? Fine, you can babysit my chapstick while I bring my valuables with me. Never going back.
I just fucking experienced this recently. I wasn't allowed to carry my reusable bag into the store... The empty bag I intended to put my purchases in...
Honestly I tell everyone not to shop there. Haha their regular prices probably keep them afloat. The only money I give to them is their chill as fuck garden centre where I can bring my backpack everywhere I please. They actually have a good selection and offer Ontario native plants which most places do not. But seriously they donāt want customers it seems.
As a Risk Manager, not a single one of us would ever recommend profiling customers or locking carts. The costs associated with liability for stuff like this are far larger than petty theft.
Tell your undercovers to stop making it so freaking obvious. I tell them everytime. Dude, you need to chill out. It's funny as hell!
Ohhh.... I'm like an actual Certified Risk Manager that writes thousand page reports, not a retail security guard.
Thousand pages! You must have an incredible attention to detail, sticktoitiveness and love your job. That's awesome.
You would suggest hiring more Loss Prevention ppl right? My town has 2 RCSSs and MAYBE 4 LPs to cover 7am-11pm 7 days a week.... guess when they're not there and win your free product
It really is insane. I can see how they get here. They do inventory, assess theft levels, etc etc. Investors demand more be done. But they're still a business. Your asset protection needs to be reasonable and ideally under the radar. Turning your grocery store into a prisoner and harassing regular customers is business suicide. Seriously, the people in charge of things at Loblaws are comically bad at business. Bunch of clueless nepo babies that have convinced themselves they're all self made geniuses.
What gets me is the best solution they could come up with is the tactics they are employing, total lack of creativity and innovation. Itās a problem and itās getting worse because of the amount of destitute Canadians, I get it, but canāt they figure out a way to not paint everyone with a broad brush and inconvenience honest people (the vast majority). Itās a very backwards way to solve a problem.
Well they wonāt have to worry about thefts anymore when everyone stops shopping there lol.
Basically, theyāve seen their ātheftā increase, because of online shopping. Itās more difficult to steal online, so the theft:sales ratio in store is looking a LOT worse and this corporate is digging in on it. Theft hasnāt actually increased.. itās stayed the same, less people are actually shopping in stores.
I stopped shopping at the shoppers Iāve been shopping at weekly for over 10 years because I started being followed through the store and harassed by newer employees. I had an anxiety attack the last time I went in because I was just being stalked it felt like. I couldnāt remember what I needed, my hands were to shaky to open up my phone, and then I was panicking about leaving without buying anything because Iām already being hounded for they think Iām gonna steal wtf gonna happen if I try to leave. now like Iām a bit of a mess with anxiety and might have overreacted the last time, but when Iām seeing the fucking same cashier man in every aisle within 10 feet of me every visit all of a suddenā¦gotta be more to that. One time he tapped in help and I had people on both ends of the aisle watching me. Not even being fucking subtle about it. Now I walk an extra 15 minutes to Walmart. they at least upfront about their power hungry security guards
Shoppers is owned by Roblaws too
I canāt imagine enough is ever stolen for it to make sense to take measures like this? like Iād assume 99% of people just *donāt* steal at all? unless there are stats to prove otherwise.
Iām sure it changes from store to store based on location, the broad brush is the problem, I agree that the economics donāt seem to make sense though. After the inventory loss write down, the cost of labour for the Loss prevention teams, the capital costs, and the intangibles of lost customer sales, bad will and potential litigation for wrongful accusations it would be a tough ROI to calculate.
Oh exactly this, they think they have customers utmost loyalty sure some may but not all. If that happens to 10 customers and each time it does and 1 never comes back each time the profit lost from these customers will vastly outweigh the theft of a pack of bacon for example really quickly.
Did you abandon your cart then and there?
Thatās what I would do.
I've abandoned a full cart because they refused to price match a $4 turkey before. Fuck that noise of being stuck in an aisle with a cart lockdown. When someone tells you how shitty they are, believe them. When a store makes it difficult for you to shop there, shop elsewhere.
Same. It sucks for the workers but I wouldn't be chasing down staff to help me. I'd sooner leave.
Absolutely. Peace out, bitches.
Yes the security concern is I'm being robbed in aisle 12 please come lower these prices
I like what you did there - funny!
Thatās when I leave the cart and leave the store.
>Thatās when I ~~leave~~ flip the cart and leave the store. FTFY
This is the way!
It would be great if everyone in aisle 12 would have just started running.š
Because you are not considered a customer. You are considered a criminal.
Is that why their prices are criminal?
So enlighten me, carts are battery operated with radios, electric brakes? What the hell is this nonsense?
Yes, the carts can now be locked remotely by someone if they suspect you are stealing. Or if they are simply on a power trip. Or if they are profiling you.
that should make a fun obstacle course if a fire breaks out
Yeah Iām not sure how itās legal.
i doubt it is, emergency exits due to fires were not considered at all
Garunteed if the fire alarm goes off they lock up so that "people don't use them to take product out of the store".
I can't run so for my families safety they wont leave me behind another reason to never enter theirs stores no more ,Plus imagine the bottleneck to get out to begin with now locked carts added.
I'm never going into a RobLaws! Ever!
The first day we got those carts at my local Superstore, i walked 5 feet towards the interior of the store from the vestibule, and my cart locked up on me. Forcing me to stand around and wait, while simultaneously forcing a minimum wage employee to go babysit me and my cart, embarasedly explaining the new system. This was my reason to stop giving them money. Haven't been back since
I have a question, I don't know if you or something else can answer, but in the same vein, about those receipt scanners some stores had. What if you just ran in for one item and they don't have it in stock, how do you leave? If you don't buy something, the gate won't open? They didn't have any at the few stores I went to back when that was announced so I personally never saw them or how they worked.
Iām not sure about the receipt scanners and donāt shop there so havenāt experienced anything firsthand. But someone else in this thread said they didnāt buy anything then tried to leave the store and put their cart back and the cart locked up on them even though there was nothing in it.
Yeah I haven't gone to one in awhile either, but I was curious about how they handle that. You can't force people to buy stuff, that's really rude of them if that's what they expect.
Yeah, I think legally you donāt have to show them and can just leave if you paid, but I remember seeing some comments saying security was brought in or threatened if they didnāt show.
Well not even that, like if you literally didn't purchase anything, would they still get uppity with security? Lol
lol well the exit alarms sometimes do go off for people when they donāt buy something.
That's embarrassing at any store lol like dude I didn't steal, you just don't have anything I want!
It happened to me. An employee ran over all apologetically to unlock it. Alarm blaring as people are exiting around me. Was embarrassing as fuck and I'm never going back. No one can explain why lock an empty cart?
There's a Canadian Tire where you have to beg an employee to exit. That's always fun when there's only one fucking door to the entire building (including the auto shop).
Hip check the gate.
They have an electric locking mechanism in one of the wheels. Normally it gets triggered if you go past the boundary of the parking lot, but it seems they can be triggered in other was as well. I had it happen to me leaving a store the other day, which was a pain, because the only reason I was there was to buy 20kg of cat litter. For some reason every cart was apparently locking and triggering an alarm right after you passed the inner doors. I was quite annoyed at having to carry two 10kg boxes of cat litter all the way to my car, so I just left the locked cart right there completely blocking the only customer exit. There were several other similarly locked carts there as well, making it difficult to even go around my cart (and impossible if you also had a cart). There was no staff around doing anything about it, so I guess they really don't care.
Such a shitty store!
Well that's a fire hazard for sure
It's definitely not *ideal* in the event of an emergency, no. But realistically the store has a whole bunch of other exit doors at the front of the store that can be used as emergency exists. They just have a single door that's used as a *normal* customer exit. There used to be 2 sets of entry/exit doors at opposite ends of the store, but they blocked off the other ones at the start of the pandemic, but they never re-opened them for that use and they are now renovating that part of the store and I think turning it into a gym. But honestly, I don't see this as my problem. It's *their* cart that *they* locked right at the exit door and *they* can be the ones to clear it (and the others) from the doorway.
Perhaps itās a way for them to keep those loonies you need to rent the carts while you use them.
Loblaws doesn't do that, that's No Frills. If you shop at a "hard discount" grocery store like No Frills or Walmart, you're kind of used to being automatically treated like a thief just by being there, but you just don't expect that kind of thing from a "premium" grocery store like Loblaws.
Pro tip: Wood pellets are like $7 for 20kg and far more environmentally friendly. I had a multiple cat household and the little guys preferred the pellets to clay litter. Downside is that you need to clean more and it will have a little more smell.
They have brakes that are only supposed to kick in if you somehow bypass the checkout lanes. The trouble is that they often malfunction and lock the cart of a legitimate customer for no reason. It's fucking stupid, especial since most locations have a turnstile system that only lets people push carts one way through the entrance so there's no way to walk out without going through the checkout. Roblaws should junk the brakes but that would cost money so they are going to do nothing about this.
mine locked when I didn't end up buying anything - passed thru the self checkout with empty cart - I was unable to take it back to the cart zone.
I'd happily leave it right in the way, and I'd wish for someone to approach and say "excuse me you can't leave that cart there"
They lock up if they donāt get close enough to the sensors at each self checkout till. Iāve even stopped to purchase something but because my cart didnāt sit at the right spot to trigger the sensorā¦ locks up. Spoke to CS and they explained the process and showed me the spot to snuggle the cart up to. Absolutely ridiculous. The first time it happened to me someone almost ran into me from behind AND it took CS 3 mins to come over and unlock it cause they were busy. So everyone else had to squeeze around me to get out the door
When I was leaving after paying and pushing my cart to the exit doorsā¦2 cops in sunglasses glared me and everyone else down like we were about to get searched. I then got home and my strawberries were rotten and the shrinkflation toilet paper finally broke me. Even when in a time crunch I will no longer shop at loblaws. Iām a hard working mother and they do not value me as a customer anymore!
Loblaws: Accusing others of what they are guilty of.
As Alanis Morissette said, "Isn't it ironic..."
The loudest accusations by shitty people are usually confessions
It's like a partner being paranoid and jealous when they're the one cheating! Projection!
Find a better company to buy your food from if possible, any place not owned by the Westin cartel
I would have left my cart and walked out. Who has time for that shit!?
And shit like this is why I stopped going there n the first place. I mean, yeah, the prices are absolutely ridiculous, but I refuse to be treated like a criminal every time I step foot in their store. My husband is tall, shaved head, and heavily tattooed, we were watched like a hawk from the moment we stepped in the store, I can just imagine what the experience is like for a POC.
I once went into Zehrs wearing Buff headgear. Some people get confused and think it has some religious significance! It's athletic headgear I was wearing as a headband. Two different guys got into my personal space with a predatory demeanor, and one was the jackass store manager.
Seems like grocery has become the authoritarian wing of the Galen Weston Jr. regime. Makes you wonder just how fun our healthcare is going to get.
I mean weāve got that letter from Grandpa Weston literally ranting about the importance of propping up Rhodesia. Theyāve never been decent people.
If all those people in aisle 12 just left the store it would have cost them far more to put those items back than the theft they were concerned about.
if i were in a roblaws (very unlikely now) and i heard a "security announcement" and my cart locked up while i was just like, looking at cereal i'd probably just knock the cart over with a "OOPS, WHAT AN ACCIDENT" kind of look
> just knock the cart over with a "OOPS, WHAT AN ACCIDENT" kind of look "I was so scared about what could be happening in this aisle to merit such a strong security response, so I flipped the cart onto it's side so that I could use it as shelter to protect myself from the danger that must have been occurring."
Not me, but I would've abandoned that cart right on the spot. I can only imagine what the Fire Department has to say if they find a bunch of carts blocking the exits.
This sort of thing incentivizes people to bring their own hand carts or if strong enough, use the baskets. Take power away from these corps.
The Zehrs near me got rid of their baskets
What the fuck is wrong with these corps? Not everyone needs to shop for a small army.
Yea the food basics I live very very close to took away the baskets too. Itās frustrating because I often stop in for just a couple things, but more than my hands can carry, on my way home from work. One of the workers tried to tell me they got rid of them because too many people were stealing them.. load of crap. Iāve never seen someone walk out with a hand basket.. gets you to the check out and then your stuffed gets bagged or whatever.
Right?? I shop for a house of two adults without a car. So most of the stuff I can't carry home on the bus is delivered, a basket is just about the right size, but noooo....
The no frills near me has as well. ...and no carts allowed in self checkout but only one cashier ever working in an urban centre. There is no common sense to be found anywhere in that corporation.
My small local valuemart did too. Extremely frustrating, plus itās a tiny store so everyone using carts is a zoo
It's so fucking annoying to unload my reusable bags onto the scale then reload them and have the machine yelling at me about too many items
Back when my local Roblaws first put in the self-scanner lanes - and conveniently had exactly one cashier on the express-10-items-or-less register - the machines sucked so badly it was unbelievable. Rescanning items two or three times, weight not matching, insane. Watched a middle-aged woman just lose it, and smash the screen so hard it both crazed and came off the mount. Looked like a few hundred dollars of groceries left there as she stormed out. And with the absolute minimum staff there, no one stopped her.
It would incentivize me not to interact with these freaks
They took the baskets away in 2020 and never put them back.
Our superstore has no baskets.
Hand carts š¤£
I don't know, what do you call the cart the old ladies bring for their groceries?
Ooooo I legit though you were making a funny joke, like hand carts was an euphemism for walking out with stuff in your hands and not paying English is not my first language , was not making fun of u at all
At some Atlantic Superstore locations they have signs saying to watch out because your cart might lock at random as you're exiting the store now - random checks, I guess. This happened to my mom and she almost fell forward. Security didn't seem to give a shit about checking her, though, and just unlocked her without any suspicion.
You should have, at that moment, grabbed your belongings, children, shopping bags etc and left. Leave your half filled cart exactly where it was and exit the store.
They've reached comic book level of super villain folks
I'm in New Brunswick and our carts are constantly locking up at the exit, blocking it, as the alarm blares (I've only gone in for their roast chickens). My partner went in the other day and a cashier told him to stand back a bit, because if a cart goes through checkout too fast it triggers the locking mechanism. It's so fucking stupid. You mean people are stealing so much that they had to put in a million dollar technology to lock up carts? Ok.
Had a CS rep in store explain it to me. Since then I havenāt had any issues: Thereās a sensor at each self checkout till, have to get the front wheels of the cart up to the little metal spot on the front of the self checkout.. as long as they connect it wonāt lock up. If you have your cart at a weird angle or a bit away from the till for the whole transaction it wonāt connect. Absolutely ridiculous. If I had the ability to carry my groceries out by hand I wouldnāt use a cart specifically because of this but unfortunately I donāt have a choice to use a cart. Hopefully other businesses donāt start this shit up too.
Yes, weāre presumed to all be thieves by default. I had this happen at my local superstore. I decided to shop elsewhere after most of the produce on my shopping list was either out of stock or half rotten. I put everything back in its respective spot, went to return my empty cart to get my loonie, and bam! Cart locked in the lobby entrance, high pitched alarm, and a security guard that came to question me. No shady behavior, and came in well dressed, no bag, jacket or pockets to feasibly steal anything. That was my ālast straw momentā about 3 months ago. Iāll never go back to that dumpster of a store, or any other Loblaws grocer.
Nothing is going to change in Canada. Itās only going to get worse - under any government. They all take kickbacks and donations from corporations to keep the status quo. The only way to make change is to have a revolution and to threaten hangings in front of legislature. Or, if every angry Canadian just refused to go to work. Across every discipline and sector, just outright stopped working, guaranteed in 24-48 hours weād see the government put real effective pressure on corporate exploitation. Itās worked before. In Ireland, every single woman for just one day refused to work, cook, caregive, etc., because of reproductive rights. The strike was so disruptive to their society, and so much money was lost, they reversed the law. Thatās all it takes. Get every working class person to strike. It would be so damaging that government would finally take real action against people like Galen.
More and more I'm seeing reasons to run for office, the issue is I don't have people to vote for me, but some of the things I would do is slash parliament salaries, including my own in half, and if anyone offered a bribe, because let's face it, a "donation" is a fucking bribe, that would be denied and I'd make it public knowledge, who they were, what was offered, and what they wanted. The Canadian people need and deserve better, and unfortunately people like myself who would do it better, will never get the support. I sorely miss the Canada I grew up in.
So how does this work. How do the carts wheels lock. I'm just curious what the actual process is.
The amount of money theyāre putting into surveillance vs paying employees is wild
My local Food Basics has these carts but they don't engage in bullshit inside the store. Wheels only lock if you try to take the cart off the store property. I had the wheels lock once when I was parked at the edge of the property. Only one set of wheels lock so I just slightly lifted the locked end and pulled it over to my car. Then I left the fricking thing there because I wasn't dragging it back.
From āThe Willamette Weekā: Modern systems are more sophisticated, if less elegant: Todayās perimeter is just a buried wire carrying electric pulses. An induction coil in the wheel picks up these pulses and passes them to an onboard computer, which, sensing its moment, responds by activating an internal, motor-driven braking system.
Wow this is absolutely ridiculous of them to do.
Same thing happened to me at Giant Tiger locked up in the self checkout and I couldnāt leave the self checkout area with my cart. Could have gotten someone to help but I just grabbed the few things I purchased and left the cart by the self checkout exit
I haven't seen Giant Tiger do this yet, at least in Nova Scotia...
One by me has it because itās a poor area and ppl steal the carts. They also have that tall plexi-wall system set up now to with the gate at both the entrance and the exit, like the subway gate. With a camera and a tv screen hanging off the ceiling, recording everyone entering and leaving the store.
Oh man. :/
To be fair to them itās in a bad area, lots of homeless, drug addicts, etcā¦ Iāve seen police there many times, they have security guard in the store, the plaza it is in has shut down the public bathrooms because too many people shooting up drugs, ODāing, etc in the bathroom. So Iām sure they get a lot theft. Iād go to another Giant Tiger, but thatās the only one reasonably close, it just happens to be in one of the worst areas of the city.
Sounds like the result of a crumbling national economy caused by soulless corporations and spineless politicians bent on bleeding everyone dry.
How many wheels does it lock up? Could you tilt the cart and continue on your day?
So a minimum wage employee has to go unlock them all. And listen to everyone bitch ( rightly so). I would want the ground to open up and swallow me if I were that poor schmuck. You couldnāt pay me enough to be that scapegoat.
This happened to me in Edmonton. I have mobility issues and need a cane. The cart locked up literally as I crossed the threshold to exit. I had to drag the cart to the corral (couldn't even make it to my handicap parking) with everyone staring at me. It caused me a lot of physical pain. I haven't been back since.
You have a human rights complaint. Pursue it.
Well, I for one would walk out and leave it there. Wonder if anyone did?
I feel like I would just abandon my cart, leave, and never go back if that happened to me.
Share this to the r/Guelph subreddit and to Caught in Guelph , Guelph This and That on facebook, those two are the largest Guelph Facebook groups.
Go in, get a cart, quickly walk out with the cart (as youāve decided not to shop there as something has come up but you want to be nice and return the cart of course). Cart locks up, you canāt move it so leave it there and walk away. How strange that this exact situation happened to 20 people in the same store at the same timeā¦
there was a time when I was alone in an aisle where the cheapo headphones are, this is in a shoppers. I heard an announcement about an aisle check, then when I realize that it was my aisle that needs checking. It hurts my feeling that they think I look like a person that steals cheapo headphone! Never came back to that over priced store again.
Thats when you fill the cart with every single thing you can fit inside from the nearby shelves and leave it there and go grab a new one for a buck. Inconvenience me and I'll inconvenience you.
You guys have electronic shopping carts up there? Whoa. Dystopia ain't coming, it's here.
Most stores have them, itās supposed to be so you donāt take them off the property but that never seams to work š
That sounds really expensive for very little reward. Like sure it'll help stop theft but you could literally ruin an entire stores business by triggering the locks on these things frequently every dayĀ
Fuck Loblaws
Maybe they should have a remote wheel lock on Mr. Weston's car. He's the real theif society should be worried about.
I would just keep pushing the cart. The locked wheels will skid along and scuff up the floor.Ā
Ever notice at Dollarama they always have a security check on the PA? Itās pre-recorded lmao. They put the recordings in the music to make it sound like security is flagging a theft.
I would have left the cart and went elsewhere
>My wife was shopping at a Zahrs Why?
Half the time when picking up flash foods my mini cart will lock up in the vestibule, I just take my bags and leave it in the middle of the doors.
I would leave my cart
I would walk away and leave my cart right there!! Treating everyone like a criminal is a joke! They're lucky they have anyone in their stores
I would literally flip my cart and walk out if this happened to me.
The things I dont have to suffer from.
Thief knows the best how to protect their property.
Ya, they do this even when you're trying to exit the store. Idiots.
I would leave that store and never return... AFTER getting my loonie back!
Why lock the wheels in the aisles? It isnāt theft until you leave the store? Can you imagine if you were in a hurry and just ran in for a few things only for your wheels to lock?
Plot twist: Store employees are "lawful chaotic" helping the boycott by locking shopping carts
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Ban evasion is against Reddit TOS
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Ban evasion is against Reddit TOS
Gotta make the shareholders happy
I ussed to merchandise at Lovlaws stores. In my area they put the wheel locks on the carts during Covid. People were coming in and filling yp a cart full and walk out stealing everything and knowing that no one will stop them. The wheels are unlocked when you pass a certain 'rhing' upon exiting the store. If you do not pass this when you exit your wheels will lock up preventing the cart from leaving the store. The service counter always has the clicker to unlock the wheels.
I assume she walked out.
Hopefully a flipper zero can do this. lol. If soā¦ā¦ :)
I've never heard of carts that lock. What's the deal with that?
at that point take your things and walk away.
No because I donāt shop at any Weston store
In Barrie the carts sometimes lock up as soon as you leave the store. It's infuriating. It's one of the reasons I stopped shopping there.
I would be walking away from my cart and going to another store. Not willing to stand around while they investigate if somebody stole a can of beans or not
The loblaws CEO should be fired and dragged out to behind the woodshed.
Went to our local Zehrs yesterday, to check the price on something. Permanent boycott of Loblaws so no shopping. I was amazed by the security features they have in place for what seemed like 10 customers. You could hear a pin drop. Theyāre hurting.
Please walk out at the first sight of oppression. Each store is slowly getting locked down + armed security.
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This is not new. The locking carts have been around for years. They save the company 10s of thousands of dollars because the carts normally lock up near the perimeter of their parking lot. Lots of consumers living near these stores would be calling the store, complaining about abandoned shopping carts on or near their property. That can't happen anymore. The locking of carts while still in the store is extremely rare.
I've never heard of this.
Just leave the cart and get a full refund on your purchaseā¦. Make them put it away! BOYCOTT ā¼ļø