Canada

They can afford these insane security measures, and buying all the equipment that goes with it, but lowering prices? Paying their employees more? No no, that's too much money.

I get when a company puts wheel locks to ensure carts don't leave the property, believe it or not, buying new carts is quite expensive; each one is several hundred dollars and the store likely has nearly 100 of them, if not more. It's not a cheap asset. I get that.

Loss due to theft is also a non-trivial problem for obvious reasons, though there's plenty of loss due to damage, best before expiry, bad handling by workers, defective products, etc.

I've worked in grocery and every store I worked at had a bin on a pallet overflowing with damaged or otherwise unsellable stuff. It happens.

But, criminalizing your shoppers? The vast majority of them are people who live local, and are regular shoppers spending thousands a month on products. In business, this is the 80/20 rule. 80% of your sales comes from 20% of your clients (the ones who shop there regularly). I'm betting for grocery stores, that number is a bit different, but the concept stands. Start alienating those regular shoppers, and they will walk, and 80% of your sales get flushed down the drain as a result. It's both shocking, and completely unsurprising to me that Loblaws doesn't seem to understand this.