Coles supermarkets used to warn customers that stealing was “a crime” with prominently placed signage, before realising shoppers didn’t like being treated as thieves.
After a management rethink, the signs came down, and the stores upgraded their drab 1970s layouts. Many started selling flowers at the entrance for aesthetic purposes, and eventually the shoppers returned.
Fast forward 15 years, and Australian supermarkets are grappling with a surge in retail theft, prompting responses ranging from covert security to self-checkout cameras and biometric trackers, all of which are raising privacy concerns.
The methods are triggering a torrent of criticism in online forums, the usual marketplace for shoppers to vent, raising the question: are supermarkets repeating the mistakes of the past?
Social licence
After a pandemic lull, retail theft has surged in Australia, as it has around the world.
The major supermarkets report an annual 20% rise in stock loss, which includes theft as well as food wastage.
The increase has largely been attributed to a rise in stealing from cash-strained shoppers and organised crime, the latter involving two or more people who typically resell the stolen products.
The Australian Retailers Association (ARA) puts the size of the stock loss problem at 2% to 3% of total retail sales, which is large enough to weigh on supermarket profits, prompting a strong reaction from the companies.
Dr Paula Dootson, associate professor at Queensland University of Technology, says not enough consideration is being given to how customers feel about the technologies being used at major retailers.
“Until we can come together to give that social licence to operate … and they get some kind of informed consent, I don’t know how effective these measures are going to be in having longevity,” says Dootson, who researches deviant consumer behaviour and digital transformation.
“They need to have more involvement with the customer voice to look at what is the trusted technology that’s going to benefit customers without making them feel like they’re being surveilled as a criminal.”
Woolworths has used Auror’s retail crime intelligence platform since 2020, which identifies known shoplifters and people who have previously been aggressive to staff.
“All Woolworths supermarket, Metro and Big W stores across the country use the Auror system as a means of reporting antisocial and unlawful incidents including theft, abuse to team members and violence,” a Woolworths spokesperson says.
The company has indicated only a limited number of authorised staff have access to the system.
Woolworths’ chief executive, Brad Banducci, said in a recent results call the measures were also there to protect staff.
“It is partly about theft, but it is partly about aggression towards our team … we see that as more important than the theft issue,” Banducci said. “We have seen a rise in aggression.”
Other measures include double gates on entry at stores to prevent people pushing shopping trolleys out the front, and the $50m “assisted scan” technology at self-checkouts that prompt people if the system flags an incorrect scan.
The self-checkouts can also show a video of the person scanning, which is one of the most complained about changes on social forums. Woolworths says it does not see what people are keying in on eftpos terminals and stresses no images are recorded and kept on record.
Woolworths is also trialling technology that will assign digital IDs to customers via sensors located in the roof.
The red marker assigned to them will go green once they’ve paid, and then gates at the front of the supermarket will automatically open when a customer has walked up. Woolworths says the customer will be unidentifiable, and the ID deleted when the customer exits the store.
Coles in recent years has trialled trolley locking systems to prevent people from leaving without paying, in addition to the standard security gates and CCTV in stores. A Coles spokesperson says the safety of staff and customers is the top priority.
“Like most businesses and public spaces, we use surveillance technologies in accordance with stringent privacy laws, and we have strict protocols in place around access to the footage,” the spokesperson says.
Samantha Floreani, the program lead at Digital Rights Watch, says supermarkets are turning into an environment where an incredible amount of data-collection and surveillance is becoming normalised.
“Even if customers are aware and may be uncomfortable with it, many people have no choice but to continue to shop at the major supermarkets because of a lack of competition,” she says.
She says people should be able to shop without being tracked and monitored. “It’s telling that major supermarkets are prioritising investment in privacy-invasive surveillance technology in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis, rather than considering other ways that might lower rates of theft such as reining in their huge profit margins and lowering prices. It’s really cynical, and it’s really punitive.”
Checked out
The rise in theft is closely linked to a surge in grocery prices, which has strained households.
The high prices have also made grocery store items a more lucrative target for organised crime, with meat products, baby formula and cosmetics among the most favoured items.
While supermarket staff may remind someone they haven’t paid for their groceries, they are told to avoid confronting situations, which means the stores are seen as soft targets.
Few people have empathy for the two big supermarkets, Woolworths and Coles, especially after they increased profit margins during the pandemic and inflationary period.
“These retailers are just not seen as victims, either by organised crime or by everyday people who are impacted by cost of living pressures,” says Dootson. “My research on understanding deviant consumer behaviour suggests if you don’t perceive the retailer to be a victim, then you can justify your behaviour.”
The widespread use of automated self-checkouts, which has aided that profitability, has also left the door open for increased levels of shoplifting.
As one criminologist noted, an Australian supermarket only found out how big the issue was after discovering it was selling far more carrots than it had in stock. It became apparent some shoppers were scanning more expensive items as carrots to save significant sums.
But even though self-checkout technology helped create the problem, many in the industry believe technology can fix it.
The ARA chief executive, Paul Zahra, says smaller retailers are at particular risk, because theft can decimate their business and pose a physical danger to staff.
He advocates for a broad use of technology that he said ultimately protects staff and honest shoppers.
“It’s employed to not only protect inventory, but also people which is why I’ve been a strong advocate,” Zahra says. “The need to invest in security is becoming first and foremost.”
