More BS for consumers who are now being treated even more like thieves when they shop
A few years ago I remember a solution to problems like this. The store would hire a person and that person would ensure all items a customer had in their cart were scanned. That person would then also help in processing the payment for those items. In exchange for this service the person would collect a wage from the store.
Brilliant! We could call it a… yob?
I’m thinking a rob, because it robs the poor poor shareholders of profits
“Organized retail crime across the entire industry is a serious issue, and has only gotten worse,” said spokesperson Catherine Thomas. She did not provide data to back up the claim.
Riiiight
Is she talking about how Loblaws is essentially an organized crime outfit?
The grocery cartel.
Yes this statement was quite frankly hilarious. I’m certain that the mafia has moved onto stealing bread for black-market redistribution. Or maybe they themselves can no longer afford to shop at Lowblaws.
You know times are tough when even the mafia isn’t recession proof.
“You can trust us to know this,” she went on to say. “We’re the criminals, after all!”
Nah, she’s being truthful. The retail stores have illegally collaborated in secret to raise prices to criminal levels, which is a serious issue.
Customers who go through self-checkout must use the device to scan their receipt’s barcode — confirming that they paid something — which opens a metal gate, letting them leave.
How is that supposed to help at all in stopping theft? “Oh, you paid for something, you definitely aren’t leaving with anything you didn’t pay for.” I can’t see a way “organized crime” could possibly work around that. /s
Its the DRM of shopping.
Impacts legit customers, does very little for everyone else.
After the media hype of a shoplifting crime spree hitting world wide, i imagine this is some businesses answer to that, and they managed to sell it to supermarketsYeah, as much as I think this is a stupid idea I don’t think it’s as bad as Walmart trying to implement Costco style receipt checkers. The less human involvement the more I’m likely to screw up and miss scanning something. Definitely by accident obviously, I wouldn’t want to steal from a faceless corporation that only reluctantly employs anyone.
Small caveat, but Walmart isn’t copying Costco. Sam’s Club has always done the receipt checking, too, and Walmart/Sam’s Club are owned by the same people. So in a way, they’re bringing their Sam’s Club behavior over into general Walmart. What makes this infuriating is not only being treated like a thief and having to go through more steps to get out of the fucking store, but I didn’t pay for any perks or sign any contract that allows you to search my shit.
We don’t have Sam’s club in Canada so I was not aware, but regardless my point was a human looking at what’s in your cart and verifying your receipt vs. a machine checking that a receipt simply exists.
For sure, I wasn’t trying to gotcha or anything. Just adding context for others reading the thread
During the pandemic they forgot to close the store for the entire long weekend and people could just walk in with no employees there at all.
During that time, people grabbed what they needed and left the money at an unattended register.
I’m cynical enough that I suspect these anti-theft measures are an attempt to get people thinking “there must be a lot of theft these days, so the high prices make sense. The government is responsible for crime, not Loblaws”.
People leave grocery stores without buying anything all the time. The self-checkout area is usually the easiest way to leave because there’s lots of empty space. I don’t see what they can possibly accomplish with this.
I already hated shopping at Superstore. What they accomplished was turning me into a broken glass shopper.
Walmart had stuff like this, so when leaving with nothing bought, i would walk up to the chrome fence and duck and sidestep through it. A Fence with giant holes does nothing to stop somebody who wants to shoplift, it just make life hard for the majority of honest people
I guess it would be easier to leave through it since nobody is watching you leave. That’s probably the idea
My local zehrs setup those one-way gates that everyone just ignores. I’ve never stolen from them and yet I’m treated like a criminal.
Whats criminal is $9 for ground beef.
Whats criminal is $9 for ground beef.
With the amount of effort it takes to raise the cow, and the amount of environmental damage it does, beef only costing $9 per pound is almost criminal.
While true, I think the point here is that Loblaw collects a high margin irrespective of the beef’s cost to make. But yes, the cost of meat has been historically absurdly low. Another example of the market not pricing in externalities.
People buying the premium cuts pay for the cow. Ground beef is the parts they can’t sell as steak or roast or stir fry
It should be cheap
Low fat ground beef should be a little more expensive as trimming the fat before grinding takes skilled time
Customers who go through self-checkout must use the device to scan their receipt’s barcode — confirming that they paid something — which opens a metal gate, letting them leave.
How can scanning a receipt prove that you scanned all the items, and are leaving with only what you paid for?
Also, how does this locking metal gate fall under the municipal fire code?
The article makes it sound like you can push the gate open without a receipt, it will just set off an alarm.
More money wasted on security theater instead of fixing actual issues lol
New York Subway comes to mind.
At my local Loblaws store they installed stupid metal barriers all around the store entrance and checkout last year. Whereas I previously always returned my cart to the corral at the entrance, that area is now blocked off and it would be annoying to exit.
Now carts, including mine, are just left to pile up randomly near the door until an employee comes around.
All of this crap to avoid paying for a few cashiers.
3rd mansions aren’t going to pay for themselves, yo!
Am I the only one who is more annoyed by the lack of efficiency for the consumer. Integrate the checkouts into the exits if you want to do this.
“Organized retail crime across the entire industry is a serious issue, and has only gotten worse,” said spokesperson Catherine Thomas. She did not provide data to back up the claim.
Put up or shut up. I hope Catherine Thomas steps on a Lego.
Also everyone should just keep doing what the old people do and go through the gates without scanning.
I won’t scan shit. They have the damn receipt already. Read that.
I guess they’re trying to protect themselves from me pulling random receipt from the 200 that live in my wallet I’ll never do anything with.
That’s how it works in Swedish grocery stores
At self checkouts I get it, its annoying but at least makes sense. But there is a Willy’s grocery store near where I live where they do that for the normal cashier checkout too. I forget every time I need to keep my receipt to get out. That’s just bullshit.
Simple answer is to stop using the self checkout. If loblaws is stupid enough to let people scan their own items, then what do they expect? That’s like calling the insurance company to report a stolen vehicle and saying you left the keys in, the engine running and the door open.
If people don’t want to scan a receipt then everyone should stop using self checkout.
Sounds more like poor self-checkout design.
All the stores I’ve been to with self-checkout require placing your just scanned item into the bag on a scale. If the weight change doesn’t match what it expects, it locks up and requires a store employee to check and clear it.
Downside is, it has problems with very light items.
it has problems with very light items.
If it doesn’t work well on EVERY SINGLE ITEM in the store than the system is not designed well. Problem is that getting that last 1% of items to scan properly would probably increase the cost of the units or their software by more than a store is willing to pay. Your struggle costs them nothing.
Sounds more like companies refusing to pay a human and relying on robots and the honor system. Doesnt matter how heavy or light items are if a cashier is ensuring every item gets scanned.
The problems with self check outs are caused by the self check outs and corporate greed.
My local supermarket (one of the big two Aussie ones) has this neat technology
You can skip bagging things you buy, you can bag/weigh some things and not others, you can refuse a receipt
They protect themselves by having a staff member in the self checkout area
The only up side of self checkout in my area is that everyone is either too stupid or frightened to use it (still pretty new), so they still queue at the cashiers while the checkouts sit empty. I skip the queue, use the self checkout and leave the store in less than 5 minutes. Everyone always looks at me as if I’m some sort of wizard. It’s even faster with app scanning.
I don’t use it unless I have to but thats because its bs. friggin system needs to call in a person because I bought more than 6 2litter sodas. not to mention F these guys, give me a discount if I do it myself but no that is reserved for folks who accept the tracking app and cede their privacy to the almighty corp.
Don’t forget to tip your cashier 100% when they tell you too.
Don’t forget to only use Loblaws credit cards because they told you too
Parking now costs $150 an hour
You must now rent your shopping cart from Loblaws and you pay based on the amount of total weight that was put inside. Your own children sitting into he cart will also affect the cost.
You must now mop and sweep after you go through an isle.
Don’t fight it…just comply
There is no way I would fucken do this.