Woman falls victim to Superstore’s anti-theft cart
Company says technology addresses issues with ‘organized retail crime’
“I thought, oh my God. He’s accusing me of stealing my groceries.” Lorraine Young
Her grocery cart wouldn’t budge.
She walked through the first set of automated sliding doors, no problem. Then, Lorraine Young found herself stranded in the vestibule of Tantallon Superstore with $106.35 worth of groceries.
“I’m trying to push my cart forward and I’m wondering what the heck is wrong with this thing?"
Within a few seconds, a man showed up beside her. At first, she thought the employee was there to help. Young was agitated and asked the man what was wrong with her cart.
She said the employee ignored her question and only wanted to see her receipt. The first time he asked, it didn’t register.
He asked again.
“Then it hit me," said Young. “I thought, oh my God. He’s accusing me of stealing my groceries. I started looking for my receipt but I was so upset.”
Young fell victim to an Atlantic Superstore anti-theft grocery cart.
Its parent company, Loblaws, told SaltWire that its carts are outfitted with smart wheel technology. In a written statement, the company said it’s been hit hard by organized retail crime. The antitheft grocery carts are one of many technologies that the company is using to cut down on theft, it says.
“This has made a huge difference and has stopped thieves from pushing full carts of groceries out the doors,” said Dave Bauer, a spokesman for Loblaws.
We asked Loblaws how exactly the technology works but we didn’t get an answer.
Young said she did everything right that day. The incident happened on March 7. She never uses self-checkouts. She said a cashier rang in her items and she slipped a receipt in one of the three bags in her cart.
“It was just so humiliating,” said Young, who’s 61 years old and had both hips replaced a year ago.
Young’s not alone in her contempt for Superstore’s anti-theft carts. Many have taken to Facebook repeating the same story of grocery carts abruptly freezing and being asked to show proof of payment.
But Loblaws suggested Young’s case is an outlier and the wheels of her cart accidentally locked.
“Very rarely, we’ve had incidents where the wheels accidentally lock. We understand how unpleasant this can be for customers and we’re continuing to do what we can to fix this.”
But Young isn’t convinced what happened to her was accidental. SaltWire spoke to an employee at the Tantallon Superstore who showed us a fob-like device with two buttons that lock and unlock a cart. The woman said the device is rarely used to stop a cart. Typically, carts are locked after being triggered by the store’s alarm system, she said.
Young said she complained about the incident on Atlantic Superstore’s Facebook page but no one from the company responded. She says she’ll never shop at the Superstore again unless she gets an apology.
Ruth Boutilier sympathizes with Young. Boutilier was recently shopping at the Tantallon Superstore and called the anti-theft carts an extreme tactic. She said it’s another insult in addition to already sky-high grocery prices. Besides, she says, she’s also concerned that someone could get hurt using them.
“If it stops suddenly and you’re elderly and you’re not expecting it, you could really hurt yourself,” said Boutilier.