I'm not sure if Coles is rolling out their new loss prevention technology Australia wide or just in some areas profiled as being dodgy.
In our local stores, if I enter to browse and/or do price comparisons and try to leave without purchasing anything, I have to ask permission to be allowed out which I find demeaning and embarrassing. This is a first for me, not being free to leave a market empty handed without having to explain myself. What's next, being frisked, or detained?
Plus free air conditioning in a hot summer day.
Coincidentally this just showed up as a recommendation on my YouTube feed
https://youtube.com/shorts/xCzvVFDG_ig?si=tS7Hu-TduxVRIvyU
I've noticed these gates at my local Coles stores. Not only do they stop me exiting, when the worker opens the gate for me the alarm goes off anyway. Just what is the purpose of having an alarm system that probably goes off dozens, if not hundreds of times a day? It's an alarm that every worker will learn to quickly ignore.
I hope we don't go down the route of supermarkets in certain American states like New York. Over there items such as shampoo, toothpaste, and all meat are padlocked behind doors. You have to ask an employee to open every single door for you.
A few months ago there was an Ozbargain forum posting asking if you saw someone shoplifting, would you say anything? Most people said no, with the assumption that inflation and that every shoplifter is just trying to eat something end up justifying theft. Well, increased security measures that are annoying for honest customers are the result of that thinking.
are padlocked behind doors
I think it's more likely supermarkets will soon be replaced by warehouses with robot pickers. You order online and collect at the store, or you use a touchscreen at the store and collect minutes later. In both cases a robot picks your goods, and you pay for them before you get handed your boxful of goods.
I recall reading there is a bargain chain in England that does this already. I don't know how this would go with fresh produce, perhaps you can inspect fruit etc via CCTV before approving it to go into your box?
It would be ironic if we returned back to old style stores where a clerk fetched everything for you. The modern supermarket was a revolution and adopted across the world, but unfortunately selfish a-holes may regress us back to the 1930s.
Not a clerk, a robot. Have a look at this video of an actual robotic warehouse for groceries: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DKrcpa8Z_E
You don't need walking space between aisles, and you could probably stack them 3 levels deep in the typical grocery store. I reckon the store with robots will only require half the floorspace of an equivalent human-occupied grocery store, so there are savings on both rent (as less floorspace) and staff. And no possibility of shoplifting.
@Russ: That was a terrible video. Here's a better video (tom scott video) with actual explanation of what they are and how they work: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssZ_8cqfBlE
Corporate 1984 is here!
How about locking the trolley wheel if someone try’s to run off with a full trolley without paying?
No theyd rather have a single worker harass legitimate customers after you’ve saved them money by scanning all you items and packing them because its making them more money doing it this way .
Hardly an impost. Stay at home if you dont want to be controlled!
The question people need to ask themselves is why we keep getting posts about this crappy stuff. It reminds me of the religious organisations being so het up about the LBGTQ+ community whilst they were enabling paedophiles. They try to point people in a different direction to cover your own tracks. What the GOP are doing in the US is monstrous but whilst they have people who are willing to be distracted from the big picture they will continue doing what they do. Who gives a shit about freedom and democracy, we need to worry about being held up a few minutes by some gates. Much more important. If people are always continually outraged then it all blends into one. Me, I’d rather brush off the trivial sh*t to laser in on what really matters. We should wonder why the puppeteers are doing this. What are they distracting us from?
It's simple. The core of propaganda is to dehumanise your target in order to teach your population to stop seeing another group as human, deflects attention away from their goals and distracts the useful idiots.
Just because people are shaped like adults doesn't mean they have the maturity of one.
In the case of Coles. OP is mad at a situation they placed onto themselves. But not mad at the fact they are shopping at Coles to begin with, feeding the record profits that keeps Coles disinterested from changing. All can be solved by simply shopping locally and support ones own community.
You can checkout anytime you like, but you can never leave.
I think what's likely happening is that overall it's more profitable for stores to ditch checkout's, i.e. self-serve and centre of store checkouts are more profitable. This is likely only the case though if they also treat all customers like criminals. Businesses aren't dumb they are just going to do what is best for their bottom line. It doesn't matter if overall it's a much worse customer experience if the bottom line keeps improving. The only way to fix this is to not go to these places.
I've only experienced this once - gates that were closed after I finished my purchase. I just pushed them open. The gates beeped and had a flashing red light - I just keep walking. It's not my problem. I paid for my goods, I'm leaving. I'm not waiting for someone to "let me out". GTFO.
Hi, my name is ##### from #########. I shouldn't tell you this, but I'm a Mystery Shopper.
What is your name, and how long did you work here?
'Oh, you got me. I work for Aldi, and I am just comparing how you guys are still 25% more expensive, as per the recent Canstar review, and we are the cheapest for the seventh year. Did you read the review?'
comparing how you guys are still 25% more expensive
Don't ask that. You'll get a reply like "Well, our store is four times the size of the average Aldi, and has many more times the variety. We stock lots of things that Aldi will never stock (many of which are slow-moving), have a staffed delicatessen, a staffed bakery, a service counter, have rainchecks, and have to regularly clean out the BBQ chicken rotisserie that you'll never find in an Aldi store. All of these things have a cost.
And about that billion-dollar profit that some people mention: ten million Australians Shop at Coles every week. So that means we make less than $2 per customer per week. Given the average purchase per customer per week is $50, we're making less than 4% profit, which is actually pretty low for a business."
I made up the figures for number of customers, average spend and percentage profit, as I don't know the actual figures. If anyone actually knows the figures, please tell.
No, I have never worked for any grocery store or any related industry.
It's really disappointing to see so many votes for "Their store, their rules". What's turning us into bootlickers? Colesworth have significantly contributed to the rise in cost of living by price gauging and other forms of market manipulation.
dont shop there
Yeah plenty of choices oh wait…
You are free to try the other supermarket or if there is little choice and you see a market opportunity you could try start your own supermarket given the significant profit margins apparently available.
@cloudy: Oh sorry I offended others, I didn’t realise people believe starting a supermarket should bear private risks but treated as a public asset.
lets flood their complaint mail box until they remove the gate :)
Corporations understand only one thing: Money. If people leave the affected stores the gates will come down.
Nothing else matters to a corporation. Not kind words, complaint forms, or those rainbow stickers on the door.
To say "just don't shop there" is such a narrow way of looking at the issue. It's not just about a few people not shopping there—it's about these stores setting new norms that affect everyone. Saying 'just don't shop there' ignores the bigger picture and how these changes slowly become the standard. Consumers need to push back, not just shrug it off
That’s the thing,
Mass boycott is the only way.
What do you suggest besides not shopping there? Kick the gates down?
Everyone whinging about a retailer trying to stop theft. I work for one and the items lost through theft is astranomical on a weekly basis. We live in a scum bag world whether it's kids filling up there pockets before school, coloured thinking noone will approach due to racial challenges even those that take meat out of the packets and put them in there pockets.ffs. It extends to home shop with people claiming they didn't get items when they did. Audit processes apply after that. There's even a Facebook page I believe that helps you be dodgy.
If you had enough bogus kids doing this, you’d start getting British like gangs going around stabbing Random’s, the same racist ones that grow up to complain about immigration.
I work for one and the items lost through theft is astranomical on a weekly basis
So the gates don't work.
OP doesn't even know what the three seashells are for!
New time waster unlocked: Going into Coles just to buy nothing and wastes securities time.
The gates are on a swing arm, push them open like a normal swing door and leave.
The security gates in my local Coles are swing gates on the entrance, but sliding doors on the exit.
If someone happened to stumble into the sliding plastic doors I think it wouldn't take much to break them.
The exit sliding doors are on pivots; you can push them open like a swing door. Try it next time you are locked in
Unfortunately shop lifting has increased either due to cost of living or more people has joined the band.
IMO it's the move away from having a service provided to everything being self service to reduce staff.
When I lived in Canada 15 years ago it was common to see bulk bins at the supermarket. You measured out whatever you wanted, then wrote down the item number on the tag that was punched in at the checkout. It was far cheaper than a deli-style system where they cut/measure/package for you then print out a label, but it was rife with people filling up a bag with pine nuts and writing the code for peanuts (and claiming ignorance at the checkout). If you make stealing easy enough for people, they'll absolutely do it.
Self checkouts is the same thing. It's easy to scan a steak as a potato so people do it. The supermarkets will keep playing whackamole on people stealing things and putting in solutions that annoy customers more and more until they do the common sense thing - go back to hiring actual people.
go back to hiring actual people
LOL!
That will NOT avoid the OP asking for "permission to leave the store".
Sorry but her/his story is incomplete and missing the spicy bits …
Have you been to a supermarket with gates and tried to leave without purchasing? The only way out is to ask someone to open the gates. There's nothing spicy here at all, it's just a really shit system they've come up with.
Jump back a few years, "security" used to be that you had to walk through the checkouts to leave without buying anything. Or they had a security person at the door. It's security theatre, but it works.
@freefall101: I have been multiple times and many supermarkets with security gates and NEVER EVER had to ask someone to open the gates. Sometimes had to stop and then proceed, most others will open on approach.
It must be my trusty persona that inspires goodness. And I guess it works otherwise too.
I don't like these gates, though don't take it out on the one person managing 9 self-service checkouts. Ask them to be let out or walk out via an open cash register instead. If you have a local ALDI or Woolworths without gates, shop there instead.
Push the gates open. They can't hold you in - plus a fire risk if you can't open them.
It doesn't matter what they put in their store policy they can't give themselves the right to detain you or do a search, even the police have got to be careful doing that.
They have plenty of cameras and the like, if someone is shoplifting a trolley full of whatever then the police have got to be responsible for catching up with them. You can't put that responsibility on the min wage staff running the checkouts.
I think people should just push straight through these gates and pay no mind to the red lights and sound warning. You don't have to deliberately damage them or anything just calmly walk through like you're pushing open a door to exit the place.
I can personally attest to the fact that they don't require much force to open. I had one close on me and refuse to let me out after I'd checked out with no staff around. I used what I thought was about enough force to open them and the resistance was much lower than expected. The doors slammed back into the mechanism.
Remember, we are effectively staff at this point. If you're checking out your own items, feel free to open your own doors and check out the back for extra stock yourself.
I just take the path of least resistance, walk wherever you like
It is only a very short matter of time until the shoplifters with a trolley full of potentially stolen goods will be aware of the panic functionality - you just need to push the trolley through them, and they will pivot open, even the sliding ones. They will be ineffective in their intended purpose.
The people who are most inconvenienced are the paying, law-abiding customers.
I got stuck behind one a week ago. The self-checkout attendant looked at me and walked off. I'm guessing it was change of shift. They demonstrated zero care for their customer. If Woolworths or Coles want to implement these, they must have processes to ensure the gates are staffed 100% of the time to allow customers to exit.
Now I am aware of the panic functionality, I'm just going to push them open.
I just slam my trolley into them if they are closed.
I even rushed as soon as I paid and put my items in my trolley so that I was able to make some noise by slamming into them.
The gate opened right away.
Trolleys are fantastic battering rams, just sayin
Dont ask to leave, just leave. If they try to stop you its false imprisonment.
I often go to buy one thing, but then it is out of stock. So I just leave, usually by just walking out past the self-service check outs. No one stops me or asks me anything.
I just give those stupid glass gates a hard kick and they open in a hurry. The other day I crashed my trolley onto them and they opened as well.
What comes next will be interesting :
People do not like being detained and they also don't like the idea of being detained. I think in time, in each store, people will damage the gates. They will probably get kicked in and broken and eventually spend a lot of time out of order, over the next few years.
So how will the supermarkets respond?
Reinforced, stronger gates that can't be so easily broken? With all other exist blocked?
If they do that they may be actually detaining people, not just the suggestion of detaining people, as we have now.
Then where are we as a society?
The creepy story plodding along quietly in the background is the use of facial recognition technology.
It's just so good now and with all of the cameras supermarkets have installed, how could they not use them? It's pretty much the perfect answer to retail theft.
I would worry more about that than gates.
I'm all for catching shoplifting waste's of oxygen who think they are above the law, I really am.
But if a supermarket is restricting people from leaving the premises without reasonable belief that an offence has occurred, they are opening themselves (the employee AND the employer) to being sued for False Imprisonment/Deprivation of Liberty (depending on which state you live in).
A retailer/staffer has a right to detain you if they BELIEVE you've stolen something, and may even use reasonable and necessary force to detain you for the purpose of handing you over to Police. That's IF they BELIEVE you've stolen something however. It's not suspect, its not "I have a feeling they were up to no good". BELIEF… ie they KNOW you've stolen something. If they detain you and can't pass on that belief to Police, and they've used force to detain you… the retailer and staffer are in for a world of hurt legally. They also have NO search powers. NONE WHATSOEVER. Only Police can search, and even then only under certain circumstances. What you're wearing, what colour your skin is, or what your attitude is, is not grounds for search. Police would/should conduct their own enquires on arrival before using their powers of search. If they don't, then THEY are in trouble too. A person's liberties are protected by law in this country. Someone removing those liberties without lawful excuse is breaking the law themselves.
People need to be aware however, that a defence the retailer has to the above offence is if the victim is willing/compliant to the confinement.
As much as I detest people filming crap to post on YouTube etc, if you are being illegally detained/confined, I'd start filming immediately and protesting your unwillingness to being detained. Attempt to leave, and if they prevent you doing so with any force, and you haven't actually stolen anything- an offence has most definitely been committed!
Like I said above, Coles and Woolies getting tough on theft is long overdue and welcome in my book. But if they are stopping and detaining anyone coming through the registers without purchasing something, that's not lawful.
They need to believe that person has stolen something. They need to know what the item is, when and where it was stolen, and need to keep constant eyes on that person up until including detainment (ensuring preservation of evidence until Police arrive etc). They also have to be dignified in their actions and not cause unnecessary or reasonably avoidable embarrassment while in the public eye. How they conduct themselves in their treatment of you (even if you are in fact a lowlife thief), is very important.
If you're a thief and you think this helps your sorry ass, I would beg to differ… because if you use force to 'free yourself' from being detained- and its proved you did in fact steal something, you're up for assault… as well as the theft charge. And in this circumstance, when you start combining theft and assault when stealing from a commercial premises, you start looking at much more serious charges like Robbery. If you're with a group of people or carrying a weapon it becomes Aggravated Robbery (a very serious charge)…. and for what, a chocolate bar? And remember- assault in Australia is the act of hitting OR the real threat of hitting someone. There doesn't have to be contact for assault to occur, the real threat of it happening is enough. If the other person is reasonable in their belief that they are just about to be hit, THAT is assault.
Both sides need to understand the law better, and it appears neither side is doing the right thing at the moment. I hope this educates someone. Know your rights when attempting to follow the law.
A retailer/staffer has a right to detain you
To be clear, you mean a citizen's arrest?
That is the only legal way for the average citizen, retail employee or not, to detain someone that I am aware of.
yes
Yep.
I wonder how much training is provided to employees and managers at Coles and Woolworths stores re: the rights of their customers / citizens vs. the retailer's right to prevent shoplifting. I'm sure Colesworth have taken legal advice before implementing the gates but I am not sure the process around operating the gates are in-line with that advice.
I am all for detaining and handing over shoplifters to the police / legal system (with a leeway in the store to accommodate young, thoughtless kids, elderly at risk, etc.). But my personal issue with these measures is the impact they have on honest customers. It seems to disproportionately 'harm' honest citizens vs. do anything to prevent serious shoplifting. By 'harm' I mean the feeling of being judged as dishonest, the feeling of being detained/prevented from leaving the store. For some it's like water off a duck's back. For other customers it can have a psychological impact or real feelings of discomfort.
If the retailers want to implement these normally closed gate systems, they must ensure the gates are staffed ALL the time. This is where I think these systems fail. I'm confident their legal advice is something along those lines - gates must open quickly when an honest customer wants to exit. Where this system falls apart is the gates are NOT being staffed effectively. Honest customers are being delayed in exiting.
From profit reporting by Coles and Woolworths, they also seem to be making amazing profits in a difficult financial environment. Stock loss from theft doesn't appear to be hurting them too much.
I think these gates are an over-reaction and over-reach which harm honest customers more than they prevent stock loss through shoplifting.
If you're a thief and you think this helps your sorry ass, I would beg to differ… because if you use force to 'free yourself' from being detained- and its proved you did in fact steal something, you're
Wonderful, so that means I could kick the gates open and so could 99.9% of the population because most are not thieves.
If that's how you've interpreted what I said, that sounds like a you problem.
Good luck with the property damage charge though.
They can't detain you without due cause (evidence of theft would be due cause) and you can't kick their gates in - that's a criminal damage charge.
Just push the gates. They open. (Also making an attention seeking beep, but who cares?)
Instead of being all brave and sounding like a bunch of entitled twats about security measures we all should be pissed off at the scumbags that drive supermarkets and stores to implement these. They aren't cheap and I'm sure they would rather not. The mentality of people on this site astound me sometimes.
You can go on their website and enter your local Coles suburb then browse what you want to look for instead of going all the way there just for price comparison.
It's very annoying. I have been questioned quite sternly by staff because my wife left her flybuys card in the car and I went to go get it. I had a coke that I bought from the food court. We got into a disagreement. I just told her to let me out and she did but she clearly wanted to inconvenience me. I shop at Woolies most of the time instead of Coles now.
It really annoys me that they think it's alright to trap criminals in the same space with their customers. There's also stories around about parents being stopped while toddlers have gotten out. This will eventually be a disaster, hopefully not like Bondi.
This happen to me too no good.
Bloody Coles. I have my own Coles whinge - you can't use their gift cards at their website. What a concept.
I sometimes wonder the supermarket aisles because I am killing time before my kid finishes work at cafe around the corner and it's good way to get in steps.
plus coles radio can play some real bangers.