A CUSTOMER was left extremely embarrassed by the anti-theft measures a grocer used to stop her shopping trolley and check if she was stealing.
Lorraine Young, 61, was leaving the Superstore in Tantallon, Nova Scotia, Canada, on March 7, but didn’t make it through the first set of sliding doors.
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The wheels of her shopping cart, filled with $106.35 worth of merchandise, stopped in the middle of the door without warning.
A supermarket employee soon approached and Young initially thought he was there to provide assistance.
“I’m trying to push my cart forward and I wonder what the hell is wrong with this thing?” Young said SaltWire.
Young asked the man what was wrong with his cart, but he ignored the question and asked to see the receipt.
The first time he asked, his intention didn’t register with Young. Then the employee asked again.
“Then it dawned on me,” Young said. “I thought, oh my God. He’s accusing me of stealing my groceries.
“I started looking for my receipt, but I was really upset,” she added.
The supermarket cart froze due to the chain’s anti-theft measures.
Loblaws, the parent company of Atlantic Superstore, told SaltWire in a written statement that its shopping carts are equipped with smart wheel technology.
The company said it has been hit hard by organized retail crime.
Anti-theft grocery carts are one of many techniques the company is using to curb retail theft.
Legality of receipt and detention checks
In an effort to reduce retail crime, stores are increasingly turning to checking receipts as customers leave.
Legally, stores can ask to see a customer’s receipts, and members-only stores have the right to demand such checks if customers agree to the terms and conditions authorizing them.
Many legal professionals have evaluated and reached similar conclusions, warning that all states have specific laws.
Generally speaking, stores have Shopkeeper Privilege laws that allow them to detain a person until authorities arrive when they have reasonable suspicion that a crime, such as robbery, has been committed.
Refusal to provide a receipt is not in itself a reason for a store to detain a customer; she must have additional reasons to suspect a client of criminal activity.
Due to the recent nature of receipt checks, there is little concrete legislation regarding the legality of the practice, as it takes time for the law to catch up with technology.
Setliff Law, PC states that “there is no definitive case law specifically relating to the refusal to present a receipt for purchases.”
For stores that misuse the Retailer Privilege, they may face charges of false imprisonment.
“The primary law that applies to these types of wrongful arrest cases is called ‘False Imprisonment,’” the local Hudson Valley attorney explained. Alex Mainetti.
“Of course, you are not literally arrested, but you are detained by a person who does not have the legal authority to detain you and/or wrongfully detains a client.”
It is likely that as store altercations over receipt checks continue, more lawsuits will occur giving clearer definitions and limits to the legality of receipt checks.
“It made a huge difference and stopped thieves from pushing carts full of groceries out the doors,” said Dave Bauer, a Loblaws spokesman.
The agency questioned Loblaws about how exactly the smart wheel technology works, but received no response.
Young said he did everything right that day and doesn’t even use self-checkout, which can sometimes lead retailers to suspect shoppers of committing theft.
A cashier registered Young’s items and she placed a receipt in one of three bags in her shopping cart.
“It was so humiliating,” Young said.
Loblaws suggested that Young’s incident was a one-off and that the wheels on his cart accidentally locked.
“Very rarely have we had incidents where the wheels have accidentally locked. We understand how unpleasant this can be for customers and continue to do what we can to make it right.”
Young isn’t convinced what happened to her was an accident.
A Tantallon Superstore employee revealed a keychain-like device with two buttons that lock and unlock a cart to the outlet.
However, the woman said the device is rarely used to stop a cart.
The carts are most likely to be locked after being triggered by the store’s alarm system, the employee said.
Young said she complained about the incident on Atlantic Superstore’s Facebook page, but no one from the company responded to her.
Many dissatisfied customers also took to Facebook to share similar experiences with the retail chain, where their grocery carts abruptly froze and they were asked to show proof of payment.
Shopping carts at supermarket chains have signs posted warning that they may stop unexpectedly.
Ruth Boutilier, another Tantallon Superstore customer, called the anti-theft shopping carts an “extreme tactic.”
She finds the store’s methods insulting, given the already high price of groceries. Boutilier is also concerned about the possibility of someone getting hurt by the carts stopping abruptly.
“If it stops suddenly and you’re elderly and you’re not expecting it, you can really hurt yourself,” Boutilier said.
Although Young was not injured in the incident, she had both hips replaced a year ago.
Young said she will never shop at Superstore again unless she receives an apology.
This story originally appeared on The-sun.com read the full story
