Want to check if anyone here has been told that they are not allowed to take photos inside Coles or any other supermarkets for that matter? I went into a store earlier and despite being genuine about intent, I was told to put my phone away as photography is not allowed in private property.
Maybe 1 day they'll put all the sale prices on paper, put it all together like a tidy magazine. Maybe even put them in the letterboxes of everyone in the local area.
That'll mean the competitors don't have to come in and take pictures of every aisle…!
Negged you because that’s clearly a stupid idea. It will never catch on.
Plus it would be a massive waste of paper.
Could be wrong but I'm fairly certain their competitors have the internet. It's been catching on for a while now. All the prices are right there for anyone to see.
Market intelligence. Absolutely not
Sure it's not so that the competitors don't copy store design and setup?
They're onto us
What was the product?
A Playboy magazine
They don’t sell those at supermarkets only newsagents or home delivery. Well that’s what a friend told me.
a friend who likes the articles?
.
Fair enough since wearing pyjamas whilst shopping became fashionable, and mine are a bit lacy and revealing.
My experience with Supermarkets is some lowly payed manager seems to think they are the biggest sheet in town.
At least in their little space and make them think that to increase your chances to get your way :)
Store managers are on $100k plus
Why do most OzBargainers misspell 'paid'?
Payed has a completely different meaning to paid, and refers to several different activities carried out by our nautical friends.
Name the Coles store please?
Sure thing, it was Coles
How did we go from “please don’t photograph in our store” to playing the race card? Lol
It’s more of an inner guilt than racial profiling
Hahaha wtf, I didn't even notice that there at the end.
Saying "They must be racist" is always easier than saying "I'm a miserable twat that everyone hates".
tots this!! Zero respect for people accusing others of any racism/sexism when a stack of other issues are at play to justify any action against them they don't like.
Personally never, or not yet.
despite being genuine about intent
So what's your intent? How many photos were you trying to take?
racially profiled
What's your race?
I give my husband a shopping list, he has to take photos to check which brand item, and whether it’s a reasonable price (in true Ozbargain style) ¯_(ツ)_/¯
Here, you dropped this
(ツ)_/¯\
Hahaha… the whippet with the onesie on. I seriously lost my shit. 5 mins of laughing… this FB group is priceless.
intent: took one photo of the olay beauty products which was being sent to partner to choose from as they were on sale today.
i work at coles I've never heard or seen this happen before. you should ring up coles head office "customer care" or complaints
racially profiled: this particular store has had a problem with some of the chinese community buying trolleys of baby formula. On one occasion I've noticed an older floor staff yelling and telling them off for popping into this store every day/night to buy up all the baby formula.
And what correlation does that have to your situation that makes you think you were racially profiled for a beauty product?
Oh phalease!!!
If Chinese people are buying baby formula in bulk…and a shop starts being more suspicious of chinese people…that isnt racism. That's a direct correlation.
I imagine if white people were going into store and buying in bulk then they might be suspicious of them too….but guess what…white people aint. So it's not about racism but a community of people abusing the shopping limits to make money in sending the product back overseas.
Heck I've seen this myself…with the person coming in and out of the store over an hour. She must have bought 12-14 packs.
Don't want to be discriminated as a community…then don't as a community be consistent in a specific action that isn't allowed.
Just got a reply from Coles FB. Their photography policy indicates that members of the public is allowed to take photos or videos of products for shopping-related purposes.
Can you post a link to the FB post so that we can refer to it in the future if we get stopped taking photos?
I worked at Coles 20 years ago and was told to not let people take photos.
To be fair, cameras back then would have taken a while to set up, block half the aisle and the flash bulbs used left a mess when they shattered.
Ha yeah, something like that
They set off the fire sprinklers.
I've never been told off and I take photos weekly, usually when my partner gives me a vague description of what she wants, so I flick her a photo of it so she doesn't beat me when I get home with the wrong thing.
Ha, I kid.
She beats me even when I get the right thing.
Anyway, never been told off for taking photos.
She beats me even when I get the right thing.
That'll happen when you're married to a Dominatrix
Yes, I took a photo on my phone to compare the price of something (can't recall), and a staff member told me not to.
OP, I think your anger should be directed towards the daigou that continue raiding the supermarkets.
Saw a couple of these filthy leeches being told to go jump and never come back, at my local Coles.
Lol I'm Chinese, and I always take photos of the A2 powders when I see they have it on the shelves but I only send it to my family as a joke going 'heres my shot!' (we don't partake in the baby formula trading!) . Lucky my bub is OK with Aptamil as A2 is pretty $$
I had the same at a Bunnings store.
I was looking at various tools and taking some photos….was going to go home and get some reviews etc. ..check prices etc
I was told no photos. The store guy was pretty shirty and quite adamant.
Followed me round the store till eventually I left.
Coles and Bunnings? Wesfamers group.
"no mate. Not taking photos, using the camera app on my phone as a magnifying glass, forgot my glasses".
1000 IQ strategy
"Oh, I actually took a photo?! Jeez, mate I can't see what I am doing"
Great response! Cracked me up laughing tonight :)
Had the same thing happen to me at Woolies. Although I wouldn't say I was racially profiled, it was mostly just a manager who was following everything by the book I suppose. I was just taking a pic of a random food product (Don't remember but it wasn't baby formula) because a mate wanted me to grab him something and I wanted to confirm it was the right one. Manager came flying by and told me to put my phone away and that I wasn't allowed to take photos. Just ended up waiting for them to leave so I could send it over.
Thank you for just calling out the manager as a knob and not going down the whole racial victimhood avenue.
I'm a white male and have been told off for the same. So easy to play the racism card. Kudos to you sir!! Using your brain and common sense.
Personally..it's this sort of attitude that forces more and more people to buy online and leave the retail space. It's scary to think that offering you help might actually retain your loyalty, rather than having a go at you and you not coming back. Retail staff just do not understand that they are more in the service industry now with the advent of e-commerce than the product industry.
Could please each poster that indicated has been harassed at Coles to clearly indicate where?.
Which store did it happened?
I have been FaceTime'ing and discussing loudly "is this what you want? … or the other one? … " and never been approached by anyone of authority (exclude onlooking bored shoppers).
Never had a problem with photoing stuff (which I do a ton because my memory is trash), but I also don't care either way. Depending on how well my medication is working that day I'd either say fine and just stop or I'd spend the next 15 minutes tearing out their self esteem with my tongue. Mental illness makes every day an adventure!
Any signage indicating NO PHOTOs ????
I took a photo of mouldy cheese once at the Chadstone store and a few weeks later I was warned. It kind of went viral on social media.
I think they saw me on the CCTV afterwards because their manager got in trouble.
Hi all and thanks for your comments. I've read most and recognise now that the racial card shouldn't have been played. It was the heat of the moment. Apologise to anyone that were offended. Moving on.
Its easy to take things personally in the heat of the moment. I've been told off for little things too, like taking photos of my son at the dentist. Annoyed the hell out of me, kept wondering why I was targeted when people beside me were doing the same thing with their kids, and there weren't any signs saying photography wasn't allowed etc… Just try not to let it get to you
They ban photography to stop competitors getting their prices easily.