Yes, Safeway does have some problems with shoplifting. In Portland, Oregon, for example, a couple was accused early this year of stealing an estimated $5 million of groceries from area Safeway stores over a period of years.
But arresting a pregnant Honolulu woman and her husband this week for forgetting to pay for two sandwiches while shopping with their 3-year old child–total value, $5– was a pretty incredible example of warped corporate and public policies. The incident has been drawing national and international attention to the policies of Safeway and HPD.
First question: How much did it cost the public (read: you and I) to arrest and detain this couple over a $5 dispute? With the expenses of police officers, transportation and processing costs, costs of CPS (brought in to care for the child while her parents were in custody), it has to be in the thousands of dollars. And that’s only if it doesn’t actually go to court, which will drive up those public costs to a whole new level.
So why are we subsidizing Safeway, a $7 billion corporate-owned chain of supermarkets, with our public dollars? They have other private remedies if they really think it makes sense to aggressively pursue this kind of incident. In my view, they shouldn’t be allowed to claim public resources to enforce their policy.
I can say with confidence that if I called the police to report someone for allegedly stealing $5 worth of anything from my house, HPD would not take them into custody, especially if they said it was just a mistake. I’m sure that anyone who has dealt with HPD after a household theft would agree. Guarantee. So the second question–Why is Safeway given special preferential treatment by the police that isn’t extended to the general public?
Then there’s the question of the Safeway checkout process. In the past, you rolled your cart up to the checkout stand and a clerk took it, emptied items out of it, then rang them up or passed them over a scanner. You paid the bill, retrieved your groceries, and went on your way. If you ate a sandwich and left the wrappers in the cart, the clerk would have found them and added them to the sale. No problem.
Then the corporate pencil sharpeners figured out that they could make us do much of the work formerly performed by Safeway’s own employees. They then spent millions of dollars to redesign and replace thousands of check-out stands across the entire chain of stores. The result is the current system where you push your cart into a narrow aisle and empty its contents onto a counter, where a checker then scans the items.
There are obvious problems with this. The design of narrow checkout aisles makes it hard to see what’s in the cart from your position behind it, especially items that slide into the back corners. There have often been occasions where I couldn’t see the last item or two, and they were only discovered with a bit of luck.
And now Safeway has the gall to say that not only are we required to subsidize their labor costs by taking over work previously done by store employees, they are going to hold us criminally liable for making any mistakes in the process. Here again, it seems to me that Safeway is responsible for checking to see whether customers have missed any items while moving them from cart to counter. If the items were hidden, that’s another story. But in this case there doesn’t seem to be any dispute that the sandwich wrappers were in plain view in the cart with no attempt to hide them away or dispose of them before checkout, either of which might have indicated an intent to shoplift.
I’m sure Safeway’s checkers are well trained to make sure the carts are empty before finalizing a sale, but customers have no such training. And, again, the customers view of the cart is severely restricted by those narrow checkout aisles, so things can be missed with even the best of intentions. And that is without the complications and distractions of a pregnant woman with a 3-year old in tow.
The incident is a black eye for Safeway’s corporate image, but it also raises questions about when and to what extent public resources should be subsidizing corporate policies like this one. Using police and courts to resolve this kind of minor dispute, shifting the enforcement costs from Safeway to the public, is just another form of invisible corporate welfare that needs to be reexamined.
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I was recently at costco and placed a phone card in my cart on the plastic baby seat flap. As I pushed the cart around the store I covered it up with other items and at one point made myself aware that I could easily forget about the card and in its safe little space simply push the cart out to my car without paying for it. It would be an easy thing to do. By the way a sandwich is $5.00 so 2 would have been $10.00 or so. Also if the shoplifter makes it out of the store and down the sidewalk they get away with the crime. These folks were probably not shoplifting in the real sense but by getting caught they were low hanging fruit enabling the “security” to earn its keep. The criminals who plan crimes well often get away with it.
Sandwiches apparently were pre-made, on special, according to news reports. $2.49 each.
I’m with you on this one, Ian. Thanks for the coverage. Study after study confirms that what goes out the back door of a business makes the bulk of shoplifting losses miniscule. Embezzlement and shrinkage from the inside is always the big boy of fraud and abuse. These corporate policies are putting too much reliance on zero-tolerance being an effective deterrent. Not all experts agree with that. Zero-tolerance can also make companies look like a horses okole. Swatting flies on your nose with a brick, anyone?
Finally, some common sense! Thank you.
While I’m not husge fan of Safeway (I NEVER buy anything there that’s not “on sale”), and agree that, from what little I know, this was a case of heavy-handedness, I am reluctant to paint all local Safeway employees with the same “uncaring” brush. I’ve gotten acquainted with the managers and most of the checkers at the store I frequent and have gotten good service, expecially for the unusual request. Sure, sometimes they’re a little grumpy/tiresd/stressed/overworked, but who isn’t? And sometimes it’s because these employees chafe at the corporate bit like we do.
So, let’s remember, there’s the corporation and then there’s our friends and neighbors who work there. Kinda like Longs, I mean CVS.
We shop at Safeway because the chain is unionized, unlike some of its competitors.
Agree that SW was being way to heavy handed in this instance, and I’m also angered that HPD clearly has a double-standard in dealing with issues like this (versus their usual eye-rolling when it comes to residential burglary or personal theft). BUT, seriously, when has it ever been OK to eat something that you haven’t paid for? Maybe I should take a can opener off the rack and make myself a tuna sandwich next time I’m at Foodland.
Ian,
The Weather Underground uses this blog as one of their news sources, including this story. Your cats are also covered.
http://www.wunderground.com/cgi-bin/findweather/hdfForecast?query=Kaneohe+Bay+Marine+Corps+Air+Facility%2C+Hawaii
i saw the mother interviewed on tv. she was not apologetic nor did she act at all culpable for her actions. Instead she made excuses about having a parent moment or pregnant moment or something like that. Basically she didn’t even seem sorry for her error because in her rationale she offered to pay when it was discovered she had not. wow how generous of her. i’m not a fan of safeway or corporations in general but i do people need to take responsibility for their actions. she shouldn’t have been eating product she hadn’t paid for plain and simple. all the other stuff that happened after is overboard but all that could have been avoided if she had any integrity in the first place.
I can’t believe how many people are whining and moaning about Safeway (where I don’t shop, by the way) going after people who steal from them, when the really disturbing part of this story is that a child was taken away by the government. Of course people love to pick apart a corporation. It’s too bad they don’t seem to care as much about the keiki. What a nightmare that must have been for the kid.
The “poor corporation’s” lame move to bring in the police is what led the police to take away the poor child in the first place.
Your argument makes no sense. And if you wish to address my point, please do so without shifting topics this time. Otherwise, there is no point in this discussion.
vSince I am retired and live on a fixed income, I was in no financial position to sue as my two brothers, then each licensed attorneys might have done. I regret not being more proactive now Do I have a grudge? You bettcha!
Against my brothers who wouldn’t take a pro bono case for their own brother! –
“The zero tolerance policy may be harsh but it is fair” Of course, it is not.
“BUT, seriously, when has it ever been OK to eat something that you haven’t paid for? ” Uh about 20% of the time I am at Safeway. I am busy in a rush and sometimes am drinking a shake in line or a can POG. and hand them the empty container and ask, trow dis way please, tanx, ah! and I get an angry rebuking smile for that.
OK, what of the people in line that steal our time? In the 15 items or less line and there are TOO often these eff oh bees with 20 or more things in their cart. Once some haole kid was in that line with 20 items and he was told by the checker, “I will let you pass this time but please be considerate from now on” haole boy had nothing to say. No can help, hah. raised in an entitlement culture that taught “rules are for everyone else’. The checker told me “ah this happened five times today”. Safeway’s double standards amazes. And as others mentioned they do overcharge often. Check yer receipts each time!
Regarding your comments about the “haole boy”: What does someone’s skin color have to do with anything? You’re white, too. So what? You have no idea what “culture” that kid grew up in. Why is it acceptable to you to make assumptions of people based on their race or ethnicity? (Even though “haole” isn’t an ethnicity, but many others remain ignorant of that.)
I see people of Asian ancestry in the 15-or-under line with more than 15 items all the time. Not once have I said to myself, “Oh, that Asian woman, so typical. They think they’re entitled.”
And maybe the checker who gave you an “angry, rebuking smile” did so because you’re a white man clumsily using pidgin, and she thought you were making fun of the host culture while demanding that she take care of your trash.
this has gone national
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/31/couple-jailed-daughter-ta_n_1067510.html?ncid=webmail1
If a law is broken then HPD should arrrest. It should not be up to the police to decide which lawbreaker gets arrested and which does not. If it is ok to steal a $5 item that one “forgets” to pay for, what about $10′ $20…$100? The slope is slippery. If she truly “forgot” then she will be found not guilty because there was no intent, something courts routinely decide.
If you don’t want the court to decide who is innocent and who is guilty, who or what entity should make that decision?
I capitalized the word POSSIBLE for a reason. If you don’t understand why, further discussion is pointless.
“If she truly “forgot” then she will be found not guilty because there was no intent, something courts routinely decide.” meanwhile police resources are wasted on manini s#!t, lifes are dissarranged, thousands of dollars wasted. And that is no guarantee she will be truly found not guilty. whata warped society. Fvkkt up gummint.
Then we get back to my original point. Where do you draw the line as to what crimes HPD arrests for and what crimes HPD ignores?
its not a crime if they were there to pay and it wasnt rang up sorry and since when we arrest people willing to pay what was overlooked?
“you were making fun of the host culture while demanding that she take care of your trash.” That would not be the case. Nowhere near. But thanks for the haole interpretation and attitude.
Your ancestors are German. Mine are Cherokee and Swedish. Who’s haole?
Take this outside, people!
Like any person should learn by age 18, regardless of ancestry: Direct, angry attacks shred reason and communication. Too many people on this site over-react in a passive-aggressive way and it does nothing for the discussion.
Time for a sandwich.
Liquidate them obviously they don’t know how to run a business 7 mil and now there still wasting our money over 2 sandwiches worth $5
Great points Ian. I actually have a Free Sandwich Award from Vons (Safeway) and will be returning it to Safeway HQ in Pleasanton CA to express my opinion
I wish we had a safeway in my town…so I could boycott it.