A CUSTOMER was extremely embarrassed by the anti-theft measures a grocery store used to stop her shopping cart to check if she was stealing.
Lorraine Young, 61, was leaving the Superstore in Tantallon, Nova Scotia in Canada on March 7, but did not make it past the first set of sliding doors.
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The wheels of her grocery cart, filled with with $106.35 worth of goods, had stopped in the middle of the doorway without warning.
An employee of the grocery store soon approached and Young initially thought he was there to provide assistance.
“I’m trying to push my cart forward and I’m wondering what the heck is wrong with this thing?” Young told SaltWire.
Young asked the man what was wrong with her cart, but he ignored her question and requested to see her receipt.
The first time he asked, his intention didn’t register with Young. Then the employee asked again.
“Then it hit 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 so upset,” she added.
The grocery cart had frozen in its tracks due to the chain’s anti-theft measures.
Atlantic Superstore’s parent company Loblaws, told SaltWire in a written statement that its shopping carts are outfitted with a smart wheel technology.
The company said it has been hit hard by organized retail crime.
The anti-theft grocery carts are one of many techniques that the company is using to curb retail theft.
Legality of receipt checks and detention
In an effort to curtail retail crime, stores are increasingly turning to receipt checks as shoppers exit.
Legally, stores can ask to see a customer’s receipts, and membership-only stores have the right to demand such checks if shoppers agreed to terms and conditions that authorize it.
Many legal professionals have weighed in and come to similar conclusions, caveating that all states do have specific laws.
Generally speaking, stores have Shopkeeper’s Privilege laws that allow them to detain a person until authorities arrive when they have reasonable suspicion that a crime, like theft, has been committed.
Declining to provide a receipt is not a reason in itself for a store to detain a customer, they must have further reason to suspect a shopper of criminal activity.
Due to the recent nature of the receipt checks, there is little concrete law on the legality of the practice, as it takes time for law to catch up with technology.
Setliff Law, P.C. claims that “there is no definitive case law specifically relating to refusal to produce a receipt for purchases.”
For stores that improperly use their Shopkeeper’s Privilege, they could face claims of false imprisonment.
“The primary law that applies to these types of wrongful detention cases is called ‘False Imprisonment’,” explained Hudson Valley local attorney Alex Mainetti.
“Of course, you’re not literally imprisoned, but you’re detained by a person who has no lawful authority to detain you and/or wrongfully detains a customer.”
It is likely that as altercations in stores over receipt checks continue, more court cases will occur giving clearer definitions and boundaries to the legality of receipt checks.
“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.
The outlet had questioned Loblaws as to how exactly the smart wheel technology works but didn’t receive an answer.
Young said she did everything right that day and does not even use self-checkout, which can at times lead retailers to be suspicious of shoppers committing theft.
A cashier rang up Young’s items, then she slipped a receipt in one of the three bags in her grocery cart.
“It was just so humiliating,” said Young.
Loblaws suggested Young’s incident was a one-off and that the wheels of her cart locked accidentally.
“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.”
Young isn’t convinced what happened to her was an accident.
An employee at the Tantallon Superstore revealed a fob-like device with two buttons that lock and unlock a cart to the outlet.
However, the woman said the device is rarely actually used to stop a cart.
The carts are more likely 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 has responded to her.
Many disgruntled customers have also taken to Facebook to share similar experiences with the retail chain, where their grocery carts abruptly froze then being asked to show proof of payment.
Grocery carts at the Superstore chains do have signs affixed to them warning that they might stop unexpectedly.
Ruth Boutilier, another Tantallon Superstore customer, called the anti-theft grocery carts an ‘extreme tactic.’
She finds the store’s methods insulting given the already high price of groceries. Boutilier is also concerned that someone could get hurt by the abrupt stop of the carts.
“If it stops suddenly and you’re elderly and you’re not expecting it, you could really hurt yourself,” said Boutilier.
While Young was not injured in the incident, she had both her hips replaced a year ago.
Young said she’ll never shop at the Superstore again unless she gets an apology.
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