Thanks to a CHS reader for the picture
The big chain groceries of Capitol Hill and the Central District say they are taking new measures to create a safer environment for shoppers but the latest changes are also making trips to the stores here an even bigger pain in the ass.
Recent new indignities around Central Seattle include attempts to ban backpacks from stores and the elimination at shopping baskets in at least one Safeway.
The carts will stay, for now, an employee said, because of the wheel-locks that prevent shoplifters from taking off with a full load of goods beyond the grocery’s property. Apparently the baskets were too convenient for thieves.
This week, shoppers at Capitol Hill’s two QFC markets will notice new efforts that require customers to show a receipt to security before exiting the stores.
It’s an increasingly common practice for large retail chains but also the latest in an ongoing wave of alienating changes to shopping for groceries around Capitol Hill.
“At QFC, we are committed to the communities we serve and providing equitable access to fresh food and essentials. Safety is one of our core values and it guides everything we do,” a company spokesperson tells CHS about the most recent changes.
“QFC has proactively installed the additional safety protocols to maintain a safe shopping environment for our associates and customers,” the spokesperson said. “Although it is still early, we are pleased with the positive feedback we have received from them.”
From @deuceohsixx — “The @QFCGrocery at Broadway/E. Pike in Capitol Hill, Seattle are banning backpacks. That QFC has aggressive security (M Security) who falsely accuses people of shoplifting and ban people from the store who are suspected of it but nothing found on them.”
The receipt policy follows a long line of changes over recent years including cameras and plexiglass mazes.
Meanwhile, the city was reportedly investigating the Crown Hill Safeway earlier this year for doing something Capitol Hill groceries have been doing for years — shutting off second entrances to deter theft. There’s no word if the city will require larger changes over fire and safety concerns.
As for the new receipt checks, QFC did not provide details to CHS of why the new policies are being applied at some Seattle area stores and not others but rampant shoplifting and theft have, of course, been ongoing issues for the industry in communities ranging from big cities to rural America that have left even the likes of Walmart scrambling for new solutions to stop in-person shoppers from stealing.
A major factor in increased grocery chain theft is the rapid shift to self-checkout that now dominates the grocery shopping experience in Seattle. So-called “shrinkage” related to self-checkout has become a large enough problem that QFC parent company Kroger has begun redesigning its business to eliminate the machines at some locations despite the potential cost savings of reduced staff.
The old school chains aren’t the only ones turning the grocery shopping experience into a locked-down, security-focused transaction. Amazon’s big grocery store at 23rd and Jackson also has full aisles with products behind locked glass to prevent shoplifting.
Larger changes for one Capitol Hill store, meanwhile, are coming. Final permitting was completed late last year for mixed-use development planned for the land where the 15th and John Safeway stands today that will create two new five-story buildings and a new grocery, around 330 market rate apartment units, some new, smaller retail spaces, and an underground parking lot for more than 300 cars.
With challenging economic conditions causing a slowdown in new development around the Hill, a demolition and start of construction schedule has not yet been announced for the project.
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Oh absolutely not. What are they going to do if I don’t show them a receipt, block me from leaving?
Short answer, they generally can’t stop you from leaving as that would be detaining you, and they need some evidence or knowledge that you were stealing something.
RCW 4.24.220 says that the peace officer, owner, employee or agent needs reasonable grounds to believe that the person so detained was committing or attempting to commit larceny or shoplifting, and defines “reasonable grounds” as “shall include, but not be limited to, knowledge that a person has concealed possession of unpurchased merchandise of a mercantile establishment”
Wouldn’t not having a receipt constitute “reasonable grounds” for thinking someone might be stealing?
That said, this is the policy at the Safeway on 15th, yet I have never been asked to show my receipt on leaving. They simply smile and say “Have a good day.”
Once you pay, just walk out. Head down, ignore, and keep moving. They can’t do shit!
Why does this bother you so much?
Umm, maybe ‘cuz he’s a criminal??
WRONG
sadly it is private property. their rules. you can leave, yes, but if you do not comply with the business’s rules, they will be well within their rights to eject you and make you leave your groceries, as I understand it. They are far from the only store that does this, look at costco, which is otherwise really well considered in terms of consumer friendliness.
I don’t like it either but pretending they can’t or won’t stop you is not going to help. if you don’t like it, take your business elsewhere – I may be doing that myself. when they see receipts drop they may reconsider this policy.
Every Costco member signed an agreement to get their receipt checked, or agreed to have their guests follow the rules if they are badging them in.
that’s fair and a real difference, but I think that the grocery stores are on pretty solid legal ground if they are doing it universally as a store policy. again, not a fan but it’s their prerogative as a private business.
This isn’t Costco. Why do people keep doing whataboutism
I find the restrictions annoying, but why so angry about checking your receipt if you’re not stealing?
Maybe folks don’t want strangers eyeballing what they bought or how much they spent? Maybe they don’t like the implication that a store they just spent money at thinks they potentially could be a criminal?
Think of it like having to have random “inspections” of your home by the police? If you aren’t doing anything illegal it shouldn’t be a problem, right? An extreme example, yes, but many people take their personal privacy seriously – even if it’s just a receipt.
Personally, I don’t care if they check receipts, it’s their business and they can run it how they choose. But I also took my business elsewhere long ago when they set gates, bars, and obstacles in my path as if were just some rat in a maze.
What do you want the stores to do then? If it gets bad enough they can easily pull out of the neighborhood. Part of me can see why you feel the way you do, but I’d rather just show them my receipt than have only Whole Foods to shop at.
This is my thought too. I detest Kroger/QFC but they are a few blocks away so I still shop there. If they close and Safeway on 15th closes for years as they redevelop, we’re kind of screwed. I have never thought twice about receipt checking at Costco so, as others have asked, why does it bother you so much Matt baume? Others have also said they have taken their business elsewhere and I’d like to know where. Maybe I can do that too.
I don’t know, maybe hire more employees to discourage shoplifting, as it’s well-established that the best way to deter shoplifting is to have a greater employee presence in stores? But of course they won’t, because their actual goal is not to minimize theft, but to show short term gains that can best be accomplished by slashing budgets.
The big grocery chains have been walking this path for a while, to the detriment of everyone’s experience. It’s only going to get worse, and the endgame without strong government intervention is only going to be more grocery deserts.
What a time to be alive.
Why are you so offended by this??
I have no problem keeping my receipt hand for a minute or so as I walk from the registers to the door and showing it to the security guard. It is just like Costco. Not a big deal. If this is a way to keep businesses in our neighborhood and discourage theft, I am all for it. Can’t figure why any honest person would complain about it.
Problematic for those of us on a bike who need to use a backpack. But wait, they stole my bike from out front of that QFC, so I don’t go to it any more :)
I’m sure the shoplifting cost to Safeway is bad, otherwise they wouldn’t be doing it. But wtf am I supposed to do, I only travel by bike, am I supposed to just put everything in my pockets, until they ban jackets too?
I also am exclusively a pedestrian and need a backpack for heavy things, what the hell are we supposed to do?
They may just mean large backpacks. They’ve had “no backpack” signs at QFC and Safeway for quite a while, and I’ve never had any issues with mine.
I genuinely cannot drive nor ride a bike, and I have a disability. I have to take public transportation to get to any qfc and this is the closest one. I’m a lifelong local. If I do not have a backpack, I cannot carry my groceries with my arms. Am I just supposed to starve if I can’t afford groceries delivered?
At this point they need a flood of call-in complaints to really understand what they are doing to people who never even steal from them.
The Safeway on John has had the “no backpacks” sign for months now, but I still see shoppers with them. I assume having the sign up gives them a reason to evict those they find suspicious, if they want a reason. I hate that they got rid of baskets though, that also happened months ago and till then I’d shopped for years without having to deal with a cart. Super annoying, who the hell was stealing those? Seems pretty useless even if you’re un-housed.
You think Seattle drivers are bad now… wait until everyone in the grocery store has a cart…
How annoying.
lol if you think I will comply… no. I will keep walking out. This is fully illegal lol
i don’t like it either but illegal? it is private property. is it illegal at costco?
At Costco, members sign an agreement that they will have their receipts checked. No such agreement exists for non-membership stores.
Illegal everywhere. You can walk out.
It’s legal for them to ask for your receipt. If they try to prevent you from leaving it’s a class C felony.
costco is different because it is a private membership with a cost, and you’re agreeing to abide by their terms in return for receiving said membership. private property has nothing to do with it.
*requiring* a customer to show their receipt in order to exit the store (without reasonable suspicion the person has stolen, i.e. camera/witnesses) is false imprisonment. if they threaten you or touch you, it’s battery/assault.
>is it illegal at costco?
Costco is a membership store. One of the conditions of becoming a member is that you agree to allow Costco to check your receipt on the way out. If you refuse, your membership can be canceled.
None of the above is true at Safeway. It is, in fact, illegal for Safeway to detain you for refusing to show your receipt unless they have reasonable grounds to believe you are stealing something.
Make the shoppers do the work for you, then treat them like criminals because you forced them to do the work. Of course you can’t rely on the incredibly expensive machines you force people to use. Then you make them install an app and scan individual items to get any of the actual sale prices. Yeah, I love grocery shopping in modern times.
Completely agree.
I’m done with Safeway after we came back from a long trip and the ice cream was locked up and the guy could only open one door at a time. I understand the issues they face but they have to remember that the main focus is to shoppers. After that I did a compare for like items against Amazon Fresh and with a good tip the prices were within $3 so now I get groceries delivered.
“why do my own shopping when I can make a poor person bring them to me for basically nothing”
Damn, you caught me. I will miss wearing my furs and averting my eyes at the commoners when I’m goose stepping through the produce aisle. Unfortunately my aversion to locked up ice cream and lack of anything to carry my caviar with will support someone’s job but that can’t be helped.
I’m sure there must be pearls and clutching involved too.
Get your own groceries lol. Wild response to being called out for using app slaves
How do you know they’re poor?
@cdresident that delivery driver probably makes more than the person checking your receipt at Safeway.
Guess what is free, you doing your own shopping and not paying an app slave
This is just not true. No need to lie. You will have to post a picture to prove it. You’re probably leaving out so many membership details and you’re probably not doing the same with Safeway. Something doesn’t add up here.
Sorry, but no. The main focus is to private equity, investment banking, and asset management. Shoppers? Employees? We’re an inconvenient impediment to doing business. Retail sales are not what drives these decisions.
Relying on a behemoth will ultimately be a bad move.
Many of us can’t ever consider delivery as an option. As an example, my max daily grocery expenditure has to be capped at around $3.50. Your flex is a day’s worth of food.
Don’t find this “alienating” at all, and I’m surprised it wasn’t started sooner. As you must know, Costco has done this forever, and it’s not a big deal. Quit complaining.
Everyone going to Costco gets there by car, because the whole point of that store is buying a carload of groceries at once.
Neighborhood grocery stores are frequented by people on foot or bike as well. But this change basically rejects anyone from shopping on bicycle at all, and cuts in half the amount pedestrian shoppers can buy.
lol yeah just accept fascism at every turn! Shut up and eat your supper!
I assume Costco includes this in the membership agreement. I didn’t agree to this.
Costco requires membership so they can enforce whatever club rules they want, but for a gen pop grocery store, this is kind of bullshit.
It’s just another step in making the shopping experience increasingly unpleasant.
First they locked up all the extra doors (I really miss the back doors @ the Broadway Market QFC).
Food and other items are increasingly locked up so you have to wait for a staffer.
Baskets are taken away. Oh, but carts are being stolen too, so you might not get one of those either.
Cameras filming you as you check out because nobody can be trusted.
Now people checking your receipts. At Costco, everything’s piled in your cart when you leave and not in bags, so it’s easy to see what you’ve bought. But people taking groceries out, that’ll be in bags. Will staffers ask to go thru all of your bags?
And all the weird noises and terrible music. It’s a horrible shopping experience.
Yep. Two days ago I was admonished by QFC security for putting a large milk in my kids stroller. I don’t drive and my kid barely started walking so yes, we need a stroller for shopping. And guess what? I can’t push a shopping cart and a stroller. Nor can I hold multiple items in my hand and push the stroller. I get it people are stealing. But I’m not going to shop there anymore. I’ll take the extra walk to Trader Joe’s or something.
Why don’t they treat the problem and not the symptoms? Or start a membership program: -can’t get in without a card, card is free, but connected to ID (and credit card if desired). If you leave without paying, your ID gets flagged. If card is stolen, easy to prove by comparing pictures. You could even have the card trigger the door to be able to come in.
Amazon Fresh on Pike you couldnt get in without scanning your phone or something but now that closed.
I cannot tell you how idiotic this all is.
So my neighborhood Safeway is the city’s worst: the 15th/John St. store that is truly a disaster.
They’ve permanently closed the doors along 15th Ave. — which I assume is illegal, but with Bruce “Republican in all but name” Harrell in office who is going to enforce that? — and even the double doors facing the parking lot have only one door open.
Then there’s the implicit treating of every customer as a criminal by disinterested security guards who are absent 50% of the time.
I mean…what is the point here? I understand shoplifting is an issue, but there must be other ways to reduce it.
It’s maddening. I’ve switched to simply having most of my groceries delivered by Amazon.
How any of this is allowed is beyond me. When will shoppers, and city residents more generally, say “enough?”
Also, what is the status of the development on the site? I will lament not having a grocery nearby, but the project was approved ages ago, the site is in dire need of redevelopment, and the sooner the project starts the sooner it will be complete.
Grocery stores are really going all-in on the “cut off your nose to spite your face” strategy, aren’t they? Doesn’t seem like they’re trying to turn around and recover, but instead hold a gradual retreat from doing business at all. Maybe they’re just planning on holding on until they can convince a judge to let them merge. And meanwhile, it’s not like there’s anyone trying to win your business from them.
I wonder how much of their shrinkage is actually stuff getting misfiled because they don’t have enough staff to do real inventory counts anymore.
the backpack thing is soooo fucking annoying especially because at the QFC on broadway and pike there was no apparent schedule for when it was a backpack day or not– you just had to show up and see what direction they had turned the sign. like ok ummmmm so what do I do now if i brought my bag and it’s not a backpack day. Also– say I come from work, I bring my backpack w a laptop in it, and they say I can’t bring a bag in bc they’re so scared of shoplifting. OK, so you want me to….. leave my backpack with my computer in it somewhere i can’t see it instead?? What a joke. Let’s see if the “new improvements” they’ve come up with do any better.
I go to QFC after work and going to the gym upstairs… Which requires me bring a backpack to pack my clothes. Now they are telling me I can no longer grocery shop with my backpack. Do they realize how many shoppers they are alienating by doing this?
I was @ the BW QFC yesterday (Weds), wearing a backpack, and no one said anything.
If you see someone shoplifting, bounce their skull off the linoleum. If we all do that, the problem will resolve itself quickly and the store can go back to normal. And it goes without saying that the store rent-a-cops should be empowered to do this also.
Ah yes MUST simp for Safeway and Kroger… nothing more evil than someone who is poor stealing toothpaste
“elimination at shopping baskets in at least one Safeway.
The carts will stay, for now, an employee said…”
For now???!!!! How do they expect people to shop without anything to hold their items?!
Oh well. I stopped shopping for anything more than I could hold in my hands when they took away the baskets. Then I stopped going there altogether when they locked up the ice cream.
I guess now I will also stop going to QFC. I should be supporting local farmers’ markets and coops anyway.
It looks luke the North Broadway QFC has a new security company – Phoenix Security?
Yes and they were spread throughout the store as well as posted at the entrance/exit
Lotsa guns now.
Well there is a Qfc north of Seattle that had not people stealing groceries, but they were stealing the handheld baskets because they didn’t want to pay the 8 cents for the paper shopping bags. It’s things like this why we end up having to do things like this.
I had to go to Lynnwood last week and stopped at a QFC up there and, weirdly, no baskets there either!
Given the level of shoplifting and the state on Capitol Hill, this is what’s needed to stay in business.
When they are actually present to check receipts Safeway, they don’t even look at the receipts. I handed an old one on accident and they marked it.
I look forward to putting the receipt up my ass and inviting them to fish it out.
Free fentanyl for the homeless will help and I would just close down if I was Safeway and QFC let them get nothing.
Good! Screw anyone who thinks stealing stuff is ok. It’s not les miserables out there
What’s the big deal? If you pay for your groceries then you have nothing to hide. I don’t understand why people get so upset over having to show a receipt- there are so many other things going on in the world to be upset about this
Personally I’m not too bothered by the receipt thing. As a habit I usually don’t get one so I’ll have to remember to keep it. I’m more bothered by no carts and no backpacks
They can’t check your receipt without your permission! Just say no thanks and walk past
This is just another incremental cost imposed on law abiding residents of Seattle because of the overall lack of the enforcement of laws. Shoplifting under $750 is only a misdemeanor in Seattle. I’m not surprised by this at all. What else are businesses supposed to do? Seattle and WA state continue to try and catch-up with LA, SF, and Portland. I’m soooo glad I moved off of Cap Hill. I like to read this blog to remind me of what I’m missing LOL…
Just about one out of every ten trips to the store I end up at a self-help kiosk with no paper. What are people supposed to do: finish checking out and then wait to get an escort out the door from the already distracted kiosk person, or stop the order until the paper is replaced, get the order cancelled, and check out again?
Honestly, it impresses me that they can find new ways to make the shopper experience worse.
I bring a large day pack to Safeway on 15th and nylon bags to put groceries in while I’m shopping and checking out. I’m on foot so have to bring the day pack. I haven’t been hassled for this. Maybe because I’m in the granny demographic.
I’m glad the granny demographic is safe from scrutiny!
Shopping at these stores is already a giant pain in the ass. I’m sick of spending so much money at a place that treats me like a criminal by default.
Exactly why this is a simmering thing. Like, we’ve all watched Kroger do all sorts of ludicrous shit to allegedly tamp down on shrinkage including locking up ice cream and seafood or cold medicine so we have to beg an employee to do us a favor we could otherwise do ourselves, all for some alleged shrinkage goal of Kroger.
I have a rolling back pack that I use for groceries because I can’t carry all the groceries in bags home (I’m kinda old and crunchy). I’m hoping they will allow me to use it. Not sure what to do otherwise. I’ve got to get groceries tomorrow so I guess we’ll see what happens.
It seems like our tolerance of anti-social trash behavior like shoplifting, graffiti, and open use of hard drugs is the primary reason we cannot have nice things anymore.
100%. But you will get slammed by the usuals for this comment.
Who said you deserved or were entitled to nice things to begin with… graffiti keeps down rent btw
Yeah, it’s so entitled to expect a public restroom in a park. And graffiti does not keep the rent down. Rent has doubled since I’ve lived here.
Sounds like a wonderfully Progressive shopping experience!
I’m old enough to remember shopping in 2019 before literally everything was locked up in the store, entry doors sealed off, high value items sold from a store within a store, armed security in bulletproof vests guarding the dwindling entries and actively roaming the aisles, strict no bag policies, turnstiles to enter a store, self checkouts removed, when there was a drug store on every corner, Target was opening multiple urban neighborhood stores, supermarkets checking receipts on entry, etc.
corporate grocery stores stoking anti-poor sentiments… must be a local election season coming up!
So the grocery stores – who are dealing with lots of shoplifting – are “stoking anti-poor sentiment” by asking to see receipts? Come on – seriously? That’s ridiculous. Dr. Evil and mini-me are up to it again with the corporate grocery stores!!! Egads!!
Then you should support harsher penalties for shoplifters and the ability for stores to forcibly detain them as well. This has nothing to do with poor people.
I have no problem with this. Fred Meyer innBurien usually has a guard or employee you show your receipt to so they can mark it with a highlighter. I see weaker stealing stuff almost everytime I go to Harvard Market QFC and it pisses me off because they don’t have a right to steal. Prices are bad enough theft just adds more to the increases and potential closures.
Remember when Fry’s did this? Just say, “No Thank You” and keep walking. The only requirement to do so is someplace like Costco where you’ve signed a membership agreement to do so.
Y’all voted to abolish the police and legalize drugs. This is what ya gets. They should close all cap hill stores and let you junkie lovers starve. Amen.
We didn’t vote to “abolish the police.” The city council put forth a proposal for budget cuts but it never went through. And we only voted for marijuana to be legalized. What’s happening out front of the QFCs is not pot smoking.
give it a rest. amen.
They just added these signs at the Safeway in SeaTac 216th. It’s getting dystopian out here. Got Africans walking around soliciting “African” goods in the parking lots on pac hwy. At least they’re not beggars.
weird racism alert
OMG how does this have so many comments? I see people boosting shit all the time in Seattle – this makes sense to everyone that has to pay for their things.
Interest that despite this being about “safety concerns”, there was not a single reference to any incident where customers or staff were not safe. So it’s not about safety.