Why I will never shop at a Safeway

M

msdw24

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I'll never shop at a Safeway/Randalls again since it sounds like "policy" to hire managers that can't see when someone makes a mistake.

Hell I've done something like this once or twice. Usually it's with a bottle of the HEB brand coke, and I just forget about it.

How can someone in this whole chain of events say you know what make them pay for the $5 sandwhich and be done with it. " against their policy to pay for items that left the store,", just unreal and retarted if you regognize a mistake and want to correct it.

Safeway you'll not be getting my business anytime soon.
 
If you're really serious about this boycott then you won't shop at Randall's,either.

Put the hurt to the man, man.
 
My guess is that they have a pretty strict and clear policy, and the manager followed it. Is it stupid? Yep. But it's the world we live in more and more - common sense, judgment and initiative are not encouraged when the legal department is writing or influencing policy, because those are the qualities that get people sued.

My experience has been that legal departments more and more look down the road for worst possible outcomes and write policy accordingly - regardless of how far-fetched the possibility. The reason of course is that more and more it's hard to predict how a judge or jury may rule in a given situation. as ridiculous as it sounds, once you have a day in court, you have a shot regardless of how ridiculous your case may be.

If they're going to have this policy, they need to post a sign that tells patrons that they cannot "graze" - store policy requires them to pay in advance for any items they intend to consume in the store. That would have solved this issue easily enough.
 
This is incredibly stupid on two levels. First, if you're going to adhere to a dumb policy, and there are kids present, instruct the cop to write a ticket and not go through the taxpayer-funded effort of arresting people. Shoplifting $5 sandwiches is an extremely light deal - akin to a speeding ticket. Or it least it was, in '95, in Texas. I was a teenager, stole a can of dip from a Randall's, got caught, and got a ticket. I took care of it, and while my parents never found out, it was an effective measure as I never stole again. If Hawaii police do not have the option to simply issue tickets here, then they need to attain that option ASAP and cease from being ******* morons.

Second, what evidence exists that this couple had any intent of shoplifting? Who pays for $50 worth of groceries and intentionally omits $10 worth? Even if your suspicious that they are trying to discount their grocery bill, employ some common sense: they're pregnant and have a toddler in tow - make them pay, send them on their way, and have managers watch out for them in the future.
 
First things first. As a former Safeway/Randalls corporate employ I can say with 100% certainty that their organization sucks on OU levels. .

Example 10000000000 that common sense is just not so common.

Now, on to a personal pet peeve of mine that these people have violated. This is not to say the people deserved to be arrested here. Don't get me wrong. However, it is my opinion that if you simply cannot wait 10 mins to get to check out before stuffing your face with crap inside the store, then perhaps you should consider going to pay for it at the express line, then eat is while you continue to shop. I discourage anyone from eating product inside the store because I personally find it repulsive behavior, but since the woman was tired and preggo I guess I could understand. Anyway, bottom line is Safeway and Randalls suck. not much else to say about that.
 
companies pay lawyers a lot of money to draft a policy that eliminates the use of discretion because at the same time they're hiring folks too stupid to be trusted with the use of discretion. it's the cheapest way to do business, and economies of scale mean that this tactic is employed ad naseum.

it also sucks a fat one.
 
I concur with Texas007. While it's pretty clear that Safeway management and the police acted more punitively than they needed to, I also find it despicable when people have the nerve to consume food or other items in a store before paying for them. My philosophy is it ain't yours until you pay for (or sign for) it. It's way too easy for a scumbag to wolf down some food or drink and then "forget" to pay. The most common exception to this is a sit-down restaurant where you don't pay until after your dinner is done.

I would be curious to know how frequently that Safeway store arrests people for shoplifting.
 
It's remarkable to me how dumb many stores are on customer shoplifting. Throwing the book at or making a big scene about a $5 sandwich just isn't smart business. If the person walks in a blatantly steals something, that's another matter. However, if it's clearly an honest mistake like this way, I'd very politely approach them and ask if they had remembered to have the sandwich wrapper scanned. If they said they hadn't and offered to pay, I'd graciously and thankfully accept the $5. If they disagreed, I would tell them I was sorry for any misunderstanding and would let them go on their way. You don't piss away thousands of dollars of business, a lot of bad press, and a possible lawsuit over a $5 sandwich.

Smart stores know better. I've screened hundreds of HEB slip and fall cases (90 percent of which I didn't sign up because of a lack of evidence of fault), and in most (though not all) situations, the store has helped the person get up and if it's only a handful of items, offers to comp the groceries, whether the store was legally culpable or not.

It keeps the customer happy. He keeps shopping there and is less likely to talk to a lawyer. They may lose $10 or $20 on situations in which they'd win in court. However, they also only end up paying $10 or $20 to people who might have had a workable case that would cost the store tens or hundreds of thousands if the person was badly hurt.

(On a side note, Randalls sucks anyway. It's expensive, and its food isn't anything special, and usually their service is crap - complacent and slow. I'm not exactly sure why anyone shops there.)
 
Bob Stoops has been known to graze on grapes, and then puts the rest of the vine back into the section with the untouched grape vines.
 
If they're going to have this policy, they need to post a sign that tells patrons that they cannot "graze" - store policy requires them to pay in advance for any items they intend to consume in the store. That would have solved this issue easily enough.

No, it wouldn't. Unless you somehow think store policy equates to the law. Which you might.
 
Poor management at that Safeway.

Reminds me when I stopped by a Randall's a long way from home and picked up a dozen or so items.
Two of the items being tuna sandwiches I intended to take to camp with me the following day.
When I got home...no sandwiches. They were on the ticket but were stolen by the bagger at checkout.
That was the end for me and Randalls.
 
You still seem to be missing the point of the couple being arrested (a matter of law). Instituting a store policy of "no grazing" would not have solved this matter, because the matter is not them being kicked out of the store but of them being arrested.

So, if you care to go back and read what you wrote, then what I wrote, you'll see that I was disagreeing with your conclusion that a store policy "would have solved this issue easily enough".

No, it wouldn't. Unless you equate store policy with law. Which is what you seemed to be doing. That's less a barb than an observation.
 
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