San Francisco Grocer Mandates Keeping Carts Indoors Amid City's Rising Theft Concerns

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

A grocery store in San Francisco has taken steps to keep customers from taking shopping carts outside of the store amid an increase in retail thefts in the city.

The Market Street Safeway is preventing customers from taking the carts outside by adding poles to them so they can't be rolled through the front doors, San Francisco's KNTV reported.

The store's manager told Newsweek that the Safeway added the poles in the past couple of weeks. The manager also said the store has another set of shopping carts outside, where employees can help customers bring their groceries to their vehicle.

The decision at the Safeway store follows a wave of retail thefts. The SF Gate website recently reported that customers have been leaving reviews about the lack of shopping carts outside the store, including one review claiming that 160 of the store's shopping carts had been stolen.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/san-francisco-grocer-mandates-keeping-carts-indoors-amid-citys-rising-theft-concerns/ar-AALT8s4

[sanatanadharma]

1. Growing up, the A&P grocery near home had a system...

Shoppers with carts in the store went through the check out where the bagged and paid for groceries were placed into tote boxes, identified with customer, sent down a roller line (conveyor) to the pick up window.

The customer went to their car, drove to the pick-up with receipt and there the groceries were put into the car by an employee.
Elegant.

However, that was all long before Reagan turned the USA into a shit-hole land of greedy-rich grabbing the nation's commonwealth, leaving shopping-cart crumbs for the masses.

For those who have nothing, a good-wheeled shopping cart is everything; car, closet, tool for salvage work, carrier of all home comforts.

[missingthebigdog]

2. I lived in several military bases growing up

For many of us, bagger at the commissary was our first job. We bagged the groceries at the checkout, carted them to the customer’s car, loaded them, and returned the cart to the store. We worked for tips only, but did okay- we were kids looking for spending money.

Now, I would pay extra and go out if my way to shop somewhere that had customer service like that. Increasingly, we have to do more and more while companies provide less and less. Self checkout. Self bagging. Apps to find things. Online return processing. I certainly would not shop somewhere that wouldn’t let me take a cart full of groceries out to my car….

You have to wonder how much it cost to add anti-theft poles to the carts, and how that compares to hiring some young person to monitor the lot and bring carts back in….