Thanks to CHS reader Tammy for sharing pictures of the new barriers
QFC, an innovator in unleashing new fresh hells of modern grocery shopping experiences on its Capitol Hill customers, has added yet another indignity to its Broadway retail experience.
CHS reader Tammy posted pictures of new plexiglass barriers installed inside across the front entrance area of the Broadway Market store that show a new maze-like structure for shoppers to channel through when entering or leaving the store. Unlike the installation of plexiglass around many counters during the pandemic to help protect employees and customers from the spread of COVID-19, the new QFC barriers appear to be a security upgrade at the store.
The company has not said publicly what the new barriers are intended to accomplish. Retail theft remains a hot button issue in Seattle and reports of shoplifting at both Broadway QFCs is a multiple times a day occurrence.
The poster’s comments about reporting the situation to the Seattle Fire Department caught the attention of QFC’s parent company’s social media team:
CHS is checking with Seattle Fire to ask more about any inspection. UPDATE: A department spokesperson told CHS that the barriers are up to code.
“Seattle Fire Departmentβs Fire Prevention Division received a complaint pertaining to the plexiglass barriers at the Broadway QFC,” the spokesperson said in a statement sent to CHS Friday. “Our inspectors determined these were not in violation of Seattle Fire Code.”
Thanks to reader Todd for the picture of the new camera outside of the Broadway Market QFC
We’ve also asked Kroger for more information on the installation but the company’s spokesperson Tiffany Sanders did not respond.
UPDATE: Sanders provided a statement to reporter Deedee Sun as KIRO followed up on CHS’s reporting.
“QFC has proactively installed the additional safety protocols to maintain a safe shopping environment for our associates and customers,” the statement reads. “We are committed to our core value of safety. As a result of customer feedback we reconfirmed with the local fire department that it meets code. We are currently piloting this at two Seattle stores.”
The new grocery maze at the 400 block Broadway E store follows QFC’s decision to lock down its ice cream earlier this year, requiring customers to call for an employee to access the frozen treats. Local representatives from Ohio-based QFC parent Kroger never responded to CHS about how the need to lock down $5 to $7 frozen treats came about but they did say another security change this year on north Broadway was a mistake blaming a βnew store leaderβ for the daytime deployment of security rollups added to cover the groceryβs glass windows. βHe wasnβt aware of the protocol,β a spokesperson told CHS adding that the βshutters were installed at a couple Seattle locations to be used during closed store hours.β
In 2019, Kroger installed a new camera and screen system in both Broadway stores that seemed designed to make it very clear you are being watched. This May, QFC also added new security cameras — focused on the Broadway sidewalk outside the store.
The ongoing fortifications including shuttering entrances along the Harvard Ave side of the groceries in 2018 add up to a simple question for neighborhood shoppers who depend on the stores — what possibly could be next?
Another shot of the new plexiglass corral at QFC
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Oh boy, thanks so much to our lovely street people! Very much high contributors to our society who very much AREN’T ruining our city :)
Keep on doing you, our brothers and sisters of the street.
Oh yeah. I forgot that the number one requirement on the job description for the position of shoplifter is not having a roof over your head and being forced to live hand to mouth by any means necessary. It might come as a shock to you, but homeless people are not even close to being the majority demographic of repeat offenders. But that uncomfortable truth, like so many others, is a bit inconvenient for us to actually acknowledge, isn’t it?
What next, internment camps for the undesirables?
But why do most of them not have a roof over their heads? The answer is addiction. Housing is unaffordable anywhere if you can’t hold a job. And if they were truly homeless due to unaffordable housing, well, guess what, we all live where we can afford to, and if they can’t afford to live here, it’s time to move on. I don’t see why we the taxpayers should have to subsidize them living here.
Wrong! Only about 30% of the homeless are addicts. The majority reasons for homelessness are: lack of affordable housing, unemployment, poverty, and low wages.
Wrong…. only about 30% of all homeless people are addicts/mentally ill BUT about 90% of homeless people living on the streets are addicts and/or chronically mentally ill. Most homelessness is temporary and unseen – the homelessness that most people are speaking about – the people tents, sleeping in parks, on the sidewalks – the chronically homeless are not there mostly because of economic reasons.
Thank you for exposing the lie above. Although it is closer to 100% of the street homeless on Capitol Hill that are addicts. The other lie that needs to be debunked is that the people sleeping on the parks are from here when in reality most migrate here for the drugs and lax enforcement.
That is the most ignorant comment yet. Do you have any idea how many students are living in Thier cars? How many 40 hour week workers living in Thier cars? There are more hard working people living in Thier cars than you can possibly imagine. Why do you think junior colleges are building student housing I graduated living in my car. So spare me your self righteous arrogant assessment of people living in Thier cars or homeless.
The answer is more likely medical bankruptcy, mental illness, being kicked out of one’s house for being LGBTQI, or being disabled and unable to work. (Of course, yes, some people also just suck and no one wants to be around them. Being disadvantaged doesn’t automatically make anyone an angel.)
There are a lot of different reasons people end up homeless. Being sober when dealing with that sort of thing can feel like masochism sometimes. Hence frequent self-medication/substance abuse. Unfortunately, desperation, poverty, and substance abuse often breed crime. This is part of why, ironic as it may seem to give healthcare to people who would never be able to pay for it, universal healthcare would be so helpful for all of us – but I digress.
Then why when the city closes down the tent villages, will not go to housing which is available, but they do not to give up their God given right to use drugs, smoking and not keeping their animals. There are rules in a open society, look to Russia… Oh well, where will all of us be doing the fall of the USA will do like all liberal commie government pinkoes fall…………
Perhaps not a majority overall, but Iβd bet my left kidney they are on the hill. Talk to a few local small business owners about whoβs perpetrating the majority of grab nβ gos and theyβll tell you straight out whoβs responsible. Itβs brazen, and I donβt fault QFC one bit for putting significant control measures in place.
I feel like theyβre not even thinking about what theyβre saying. What use does a person living in a tent have with a βcooler full of meatβ? Who is buying street steaks from the homeless? Itβs so absurd.
What are you doing to help, or do you just like complaining?
Paying taxes. & you?
Everyone pays taxes in Seattle. The homeless, and the poor pay more in taxes than the middle class or rich. Seattle needs an income tax to get people like you off Thier high horse.
You need real information or to leave to conversation
Poor people may pay a higher percentage of their income into taxes than people with more money…. but they definitely do not pay more…
Some people have and show nothing but contempt for fellow humans that have hit rock bottom and then wonder why they are unable to escape rock bottom.
They are nothing more than sub-human psychopaths that need to seek mental help but never will. Unfortunately for our society, they tend to be the ones that gain political power.
People are unable to escape rock bottom because we let them wallow there… This city is unwilling and unable to face the reality that people who are mentally ill and/or drug addicted cannot be expected to help themselves… So we let them camp on our streets and in our parks and under freeway overpasses out of some twisted notion that it is compassionate to allow them to slowly destroy themselves. Even if we could house every single one of them, with no strings attached, it’d still only be a temporary solution that would last until they destroy that housing and move back out onto the streets. We need to treat these people to stabilize them before they will ever be able to get their lives back together. Maybe it can be housing first, but it will never be able to be housing only…
We do house some of them at 420 Boylston Ave E. Site of almost daily SPD and SFD calls thanks to the drug dealing and crime that these LIHI-housed addicts regularly cause. Proving you can give a homeless addict a home – a home in a 2 year old building no less – but unless or until we address their addiction issues, there will still be the ongoing burden they place on society. Sharon Lee, head of LIHI, claims theyβre βsupervisedβ but reality suggests differently.
No one is saying the solution is housing only. It should at minimum include addition treatment and mental help. It’s no secret how to solve the homeless problem, most other first world countries have long solved it.
The problem here is that a vocal minority is convinced that helping the homeless is bad for some weird reason. They fight tooth and nail to prevent any and all services that help the homeless.
They then act all surprised and blame everyone but themselves then the homeless end up camping in a city park. It would be hilarious if these weren’t fellow human lives these Nextdoor psychopaths were screwing with.
It’s lovely how modern Americans are actually mimicking the same aristocracy of the king in which they came here to escape. America is repeating history, the poor have now become the dictators. Yes folks America is and was created by the poor, criminals, and the degenerate. And now they are acting like the same aristocracy that said the same thing about them. It’s called insanity.
Zack Pistol, You argument would make sense if becoming a drug addicted felon were a born-in, inescapable fate and not the result of a series of unfortunate choices made by the addict and enabled by the well-intentioned enablers.
So we shouldn’t help those that desperately need help because helping them out of poverty and despair is enabling them?
Am I interpreting your psychopathic comment correctly?
I hate Kroger with a passion (esp since they closed 15th ave QFC just to not pay their employees a fair wage); but I hate people who steal a lot more than that.
So yeah, if this is inconvenience is what it takes, yup.
We need to support the most unfortunate amongst us with housing, food, and healthcare. Those are rights.
However, stealing from the shelf = not a right. Should be prosecuted as a crime, and repeated offenders just self indicate that they don’t want to be part of the society – and we have a time-tested solution for that.
This is not rocket science. Crime isn’t the solution. Social safety nets are.
None of those things are “rights”, they’re all privileges of being constructive members of society. If you’re choosing to opt out of contributing your time, goodwill, taxes, and whatnot because of “the man”, or because you decided to shoot up, that’s on you.
Thinking of all those poor poor corporations losing a fraction of a fraction of income. #thoughtsandprayers
Is this the root of the upset at the plexiglass? That they’re a big corporation so they should eat it so the shoplifting can proceed?
If a small independent grocer put these up, what’s the appropriate woke response? Put together a GoFundMe to pay for the ongoing shoplifted inventory so they can take down the plexiglass?
Jeez. Heaven forbid a business trying to keep money from literally walking out the door.
Think about the mom and pop shops and residents of the neighborhood that also have to deal with this homeless, fentanyl zombie vandalism and theft crap.
And do you think they just absorb these losses? No, they pass them on. The more shoplifting, the more honest shoppers have to pay.
I hate to break it to you, but in the moment for that individual who is hungry, crime very much *is* the solution, rather than waiting for an imaginary social safety net that will never come under administrations like our current one. I hope you decide to direct your hatred elsewhere. Housing, food, and healthcare are absolutely not rights in our society, and we’ll have to change course in a major way to make that the case.
But they’re not shoplifting because they’re hungry. They’re boosting the items and selling to pay for their next fix.
There are many free food programs available in Seattle. The homeless/addicted don’t have to steal in order to not go hungry, but often that’s what they choose to do.
Those things should only be rights for those that contribute to society
Reagan promised that something would trickle down when he slashed taxes for the extremely wealthy. This is but one of the many effects of trickle down economics.
This comment is so pathetic. Yes Reaganomics was bad, but it is 2022 and you live in a city and state that has been run by Democrats and socialists for decades. You are blind and in some serious denial of reality in this city.
Strip social net funding, ensure it gets funneled into offshore accounts for the wealthy and then (somewhat successfully) get gullible people to blame local governments for not being able to solve issues that cannot be solved at the local level without that funding that was stripped and given to the wealthy instead of the political party that caused and perpetuates the problem in the first place.
Seems like the GOP’s plan is going perfectly.
Honestly don’t mind any of this compared to the chaotic mess a year ago, seeing people load up coolers full of frozen food and just walk out, swiping a bouquet of flowers on the way out just for kicks right in the face of the well-meaning florist unable to do anything about it. I’m grateful Kroger hasn’t abandoned the Broadway stores altogether.
Oh no a private business is securing its inventory. Anybody that has lived on the Hill prior to Covid knows that while theft was visible it got exponentially worse and you know (or were) seeing people as part of organized rings carrying out easily fenced items over and over, carts and baskets full.
Seattle didn’t want to prosecute property crime, so this is the result.
Seattle is dying . . . for more cruise ships!
Oh please. “Unleashing new fresh hells of modern grocery shopping experiences”? You’ve got to be kidding. They’re just entry and exit gates. It’s really not such a big deal. I’ve been to plenty of stores like that, that were just designed that way.
It’s in response to the rampant shoplifting. I’m not sure why they stopped arresting/prosecuting shoplifters. If you recall back in the Capitol Hill Times days, the Police Report section, there would always be reports of shoplifters being arrested. We should bring that back.
To everyone saying “Kroger can afford the losses of shoplifting”; well, they might be able to, but they’re sure not going to. They’re going to pass those losses on to us. That’s why we need to take it seriously.
As long as crime is allowed to flourish in our city, this is what we’ll have to put up with.
Iβm not sure why they stopped arresting/prosecuting shoplifters.
Because we had – and are still having – a pandemic, that made sending people to congregate settings like jails a
possibleeven more likely death sentence – for workers as well as inmates? And shoplifting sucks, definitely, but it isn’t a capital crime?One: arrests/prosecution were stopping well before covid. I have a friend who worked at a Bartell’s who said they were instructed to do nothing about shoplifting when it happened. Once word got around about that β surprise! Shoplifting increased.
Two: the vast majority of shoplifters are never sent to jail. What happened (or what used to happen) is that the shoplifter would be detained by the store until the police arrived, the police would make a formal arrest, and the shoplifter was released on their own recognizance. And the punishment would generally just be a fine. So jail was never a factor. The shoplifter might have to appear in court, but they’d never set a foot inside a jail cell. You’d only be hauled off to jail if the shoplifting also involved physical violence, like attacking the staff or using a weapon. And those people should be taken to jail.
I feel bad for your sanity if you think the most likely outcome of being exposed to covid is dying. That has never been true.
We have highly effective vaccinations for COVID now…. people in jail can get them too, so no, it’s no longer an excuse. And no, death is not the most likely outcome from getting COVID, even if you aren’t vaccinated. It is a possibility, but not the most likely one.
I imagine what this is for is to make it easier for security to apprehend perps. I’ve seen many times them having to run through this store to catch someone; I suppose this limits where they can go.
Also, the snarky tone of this article is not helpful. If you shop at this QFC regularly, you know how bad that store entrance and sidewalk are. At best it’s uncomfortable to walk there. At worst, I’ve seen people assaulted.
Exactly, whoever writing this obviously has the privilege of feeling perfectly safe while doing ordinary errands in that particular store. Perhaps they have a car, or happen to be tall and strong. It can get pretty nasty.
I call bullshit. I’ve never seen security at either location bother to do anything about shoplifting or any other shady shit. I’ve also heard that they’re forbidden from doing anything, because nowadays the company will get sued, or dragged on social media for protecting the company’s merchandise.
I saw one of their security guards almost get into it with a shoplifter a few weeks ago (after being pushed) – came at them with arm wound up, but another security guard stepped in and stopped him. Probably saved his job!
I’ve seen security and staff do plenty to dissuade shoplifting at both Broadway locations. Maybe you don’t frequent these stores on a regular, daily basis.
Best. Lede. Ever.
I just learned a new word. Lede.
Itβs not a maze after youβve done it once. Easy peasy.
No special love lost on Kroger, but I want to feel safe, and they have an obligation to the most of us, grocery shopping needs to be better secured.
Itβs no more a maze than a typical light rail station. Get over it.
It’s not a retail innovation. And these ‘fresh hells of modern grocery shopping experiences’ are courtesy of a wave of zombified homeless unleashed on our neighborhoods by myopic, idealistic public policy. These are theft prevention measures. And you can’t be mad at the company for wanting to prevent theft – or doing what’s necessary to prevent it in stores where it’s a serious problem.
Yet this article is written as if the theft of ‘$5 to $7 frozen treats’ is just something we should accept. As if the absurdity of protecting $7 ‘frozen treats’ was an arbitrary, silly decision by the company, not a response to the absurdity of grown adults stealing $7 frozen treats.
(haha $7, a piddly sum that grocery stores should just write off, else they be caught doing such silly things as protecting sugary cow excretions!)
Maybe it’s time to recognize that the utopian social policies that led to these problems are self-defeating? Maybe time to criticize the theft and crime that leads to these ‘retail innovations’ instead of sniping sarcastically from the sidelines?
βFresh hells of the modern grocery shopping experienceβ brought to you by the Seattle City Council, Pete Holmes and failed leftist social experiments.
Protecting the $7 ice cream wasn’t arbitrary at all. Ice cream is one of the top items stolen because it’s one of the best aides when you’re coming down from a fentanyl high. Why do you think containers of melting ice cream are a bizarrely common form of litter in our community?
I mean, the moment the ice cream thing happened, i started talking to cashiers about it. More than one person I spoke to literally said “because heroine addicts love ice cream”. If you don’t think the majority of the shop lifting done at that store is done by homeless individuals, you’re dumber than you look or have never been to that store. It’s basically a homeless camp outside the front door.
Thought we locked it up because ice cream is especially unhealthy for the houseless. All that fat and sugar is bad for their health, and here in Seattle we must protect them at all costs.
First an NFT museum, now a QFC museum.
I think the fire concern is legit -regardless of what fire department says- that store gets packed and if there was ever a panicked rush to get out I could see people running into the clear glass thinking it was an exit. At minimum they should make the lower portion opaque.
Ok.
I used to live a few blocks away and this was the “nice” QFC. Sounds like a sty now. Interesting to me that so many of the comments here are from people fed up with the state of the city. Maybe something will actually happen to change things if this is good everyone feels.
What a snarky, 1 sided article. Get mad at the blatant theft and criminal element hanging out in front of the store. QFC contributes much to the Hill….love the store. Only drawback is having to watch out for personal safety in the area.
Exactly. I just dropped my monthly donation to CHS. If this is the level of “journalism” we can expect here, I’m not sure the site needs to exist. Relating the contents of a stupid Facebook post is really taking lazy to a new level.
Not saying this is a good or bad thing, but a large portion of grocery stores in Germany (maybe other places as well) have entry and/or exit gates, they can be annoying if you are trying to get one thing and they are out of it, but it’s not that crazy of a concept.
Same experience in Paris.
The Mercer Island QFC has one of those mobile security units with cameras set up in the parking lot. Been there for the past 6 months or so. Seems like Kroger is upping security/deterrence across the board.
This is ridiculous. Close the Harvard Market store, move the staff to Broadway Market. Better staffing equals less shoplifting without alienating your honest customers.
So punish south Broadway residents by closing a busy grocery store thatβs close to their densely populated area of the hill, punish workers at Harvard Market that wonβt be transferred to Broadway Market because no store will over-staff, and turn a blind eye to the rampant theft that happens at our QFC markets in hopes that it will be less with one or two more staff who are asked not to intervene in the first place for their safety?
I just want to confirm if Iβm understanding your statement correctly. Sometimes things get lost on internet posts.
lol, Harvard Market is a bunker in comparison.
Yes! A large, egregiously understaffed store is a dangerous environment for customers and employees alike. And “eyes in the aisles” absolutely does make a difference in terms of theft deterrence, as any loss prevention expert will tell you. If Kroger can’t hire enough people and if they care about the safety of the employees they do have, then obviously they should close their smaller Broadway store and consolidate their staff at the larger one. The two stores are close enough together so as not to be a major (accent on “major”) inconvenience to nearby residents — who, don’t forget, also have two (2) Amazon stores plus WFM as alternatives. We’re not exactly in danger of creating a food desert here.
Again, I was shopping frozen vegetables while the frozen foods manager was stocking other items and a group of two still came in with a rolling suitcase and loaded it up with ice cream. You could have 10 eyes on 5 store employees in that aisle and they would continue to steal what they came in to steal.
further, doesnβt this neighborhood poopoo on all things Amazon? Now we are suppose to rely on amazon and Whole Foods for our grocery needs?
and sorry, a mile schlep for groceries is an inconvenience. Waiting for the bus is an inconvenience, carrying heavy bags home is an inconvenience, pulling a cart over our crumbling sidewalks is an inconvenience, and relying on someone who doesnβt know how to pick produce for online shopping is an inconvenience.
How can you be so heartless to ignore the needs of the vast majority of your fellow community members. It seems like you want us to be penalized to protect the needs of criminals and organized crime rings.
I’m sorry you feel that way, but I’m not the heartless one. Kroger could replenish their staff tomorrow if they were willing to pay people what they’re worth, but they’ve decided to go with plexiglas and freezer case locks instead.
I never said more staff would deter all shoplifting, and it won’t. But do you really think it wouldn’t make a difference if would-be shoplifters knew there was a better-than-even chance they would be spotted loading up their suitcases or whatever and immediately surrounded and blocked from leaving by a half-dozen employees? Besides, the suitcase people are not remotely representative of all shoplifters. Most are furtively taking one or two items and are much less likely to do so if they know they’re likely to be spotted. The increase in shoplifting at these QFCs is a direct, predictable result of their greatly diminished staffing levels. People on the edge who hang around the place notice there are fewer employees on the floor and come to regard it as an easy mark, endangering employees and customers alike. If Kroger isn’t willing to fix this properly, they should absolutely close one of the stores and move their remaining employees to the other one. What they’re doing instead may be cheaper, but it’s making the stores more dangerous, not less. Take it up with them.
https://www.kiro7.com/news/local/puget-sound-grocery-store-workers-approve-new-contract/UW3U7Z2YSZGA5KJULYPKC3OJDQ/
Whole Foods loves that idea. And if you think that the street folks give a crap about the number of staff and whether it’d keep them from shoplifting, you’ve another surprise coming.
This may be fresh hell but don’t blame Kroger blame the ones in power who allow the addicts to do as they please. The ice cream is locked up because that is all the meth heads eat. It’s loaded with sugar and they ain’t got no teeth and they certainly don’t pay for it.
I’m actually grateful for the ice cream lockdown. The knowledge that buying a pint would entail standing in place for 15 minutes listening to the PA plead “customer service needed at the ice cream” over and over means I’m no longer tempted to buy any. My waistline and b.p. have surely benefitted as a result of this enlightened policy.
For those that donβt visit the ice cream and frozen novelty area often- The locks have been unlocked since shortly after they went on. You can notice the lock tabs are turned up on the door frames and not down. You are free to grab all the waistline adding and blood pressure raising (and health shaming?) tubs of ice cream you want without buzzing customer service. Iβm sure youβll be paying for them at least.
My only concern about these is that if people need to vacate the store and evacuate quickly this might be a lawsuit waiting to happen. With all the recent issues lately I’m surprised they installed these.
This is what you get when shoplifters are deemed βvictims of povertyβ by out of touch politicians and activists, instead of being punished for being theives.
“… what could be next for shoppers who depend on the stores?” Closing down altogether is what’s next. So a bit of inconvenience or total inconvenience, your choice. They are a private entity, not a government run food bank (and ftr, QFC is not a store I shop at – decades ago we coined it as “Quick, F*ck the Customer” due to their prices).
But, the theft problem is a trickle down one if left unchecked. Do you really think these thieves differentiate between the corporate Kroger and the ‘mom and pop’ biz? Give them an inch and they take a mile, no morals or ethical qualms, that’s always the way it’s been with most drug addicts (and face it, we’ve all known one, at least, where that’s the case). And if the linchpin business go down, often the smaller ones get dragged down with it. The city just handed over 12th and Jackson to the junkies for so long, many immigrant run businesses had to fold. Was that really fair to anyone?
And this new breed of fent/supermeth is different – no qualms about dropping trousers and shooting up at the bus stop, as my ten year old daughter and I witnessed the other day. Things have to be made uncomfortable for them to move on or institute some change in their lives. Outreach by well meaning college kid social workers isn’t going to hack it with this level of addiction. Time to get real. It may mean a slight inconvenience picking up your luxury ice cream, but at least it’ll be there in stock and not melting away in some junkie’s backpack.
North Broadway residents are excited about Americaβs favorite new game β βWhat Will Broadway QFC Do Next?β
Wrap the seafood counter in barbed wire?
Affix anti-theft devices to each Top Pot donut?
Individually padlock each piece of fruit?
Place live tigers strategically throughout the store?
Install a moat at the entrance?
Conduct body cavity searches in the bakery?
Just give up and shut down that location?
None of the above. Those of us that use and depend on that QFC for daily life would prefer it stay open. A minor interior revision isnβt changing that.
We’ll If y’all didn’t have such sympathy for the thieves stealing s*** from there they wouldn’t have to do that. Prosecute criminals to the facts so that law abiding citizens can live good lives
If the comments on this article are reflective of public opinion in Capitol Hill and Seattle, Iβm optimistic weβll turn this city around after the last several years of failed experiments in legalizing theft and vagrancy.
Kroger needs to just leave the neighborhood completely.
No. We need grocery stores within walking distance.
This is actually my red alert. If the grocery stores shut down, I am out. As much as I hate QFC under Kroger, no DETEST is the word, if they shut these stores due to the flagrant unstoppable shoplifting from the meth heads, that’s my trigger.
Tell that to the workers whoβd be out of a job if the store closed. Not to mention all the shoppers who depend on the store for essentials. Not everyone can afford to have their groceries delivered.
Why do you think this would help anything for anybody?
Shoplifting is now a cottage industry. Individuals know that major stores have policies which prohibit their employees from apprehending shoplifters.
Even private store security guards are prohibited from apprehending shoplifters.
Why?
The store’s insurance carrier mandates this policy to prevent litigation and large settlements for injuries to the shoplifters, store employees, and security guards.
Consequently, shoppers will be seeing more high-end goods and equipment displayed in secured cabinets and displays. This will prevent shoplifters from placing these items in their shopping carts and walking out of the store.
I love the Capitol Hill Blog, so it is disappointing to see that this ridiculous rant about common sense security measures was written by it’s publisher, Justin. I am a frequent shopper at the Harvard QFC, and if you wanted a vision of hell it was coming down the stairs from Bartell’s, navigating through the people sitting there smoking up their drugs next to the items they just stole from the store. It’s so much better now.
Considerably better. There’s been a new wave of Fentanyl addicts coming through neighborhood. Maybe because summer is upon us?
This is the result of our city leaders confusing enabling with compassion.
I appear to be the only person in Seattle that has never seen a parade of homeless people running out of the grocery store with coolers full of groceries. Theft is happening, sure, but the dramatic over exaggerating and pearl clutching is laughable.
So, the QFC is spending all the money to do this for no reason at all? Interesting that you accuse others of being dramatic and over exaggerating yet you do the same in your comment (coolers full of groceries).
It sounds dramatization c because I pulled it out of one of the hand wringing comments above
I assure you, in the moment when you do see it for yourself, that pit in your stomach will hit when you realize that just like the security guard you’re not going to do anything about it except watch it happen.
I’ve not seen coolers, but giant duffle bags the size of a standard cooler has been a pretty common sight for me, until lately.
Maybe you’re not from the neighborhood and don’t frequent the store all that regularly, or maybe you’re not paying attention?
Maybe you are. You’re so blessed. I’ve lived next door to that QFC for over 6 years. In the past month alone, I’ve seen two different guys leaving with $100+ in goods. One crossed the street and started snacking in front of the mattress store. I just hope they return the QFC hand baskets they left with…
You aren’t the only one who hasn’t seen anything. All these keyboard warriors crawl out of the woodwork whenever a blog post like this is posted.
I may not have seen it at QFC, because I rarely get down there to shop, but I’ve definitely seen it at the Safeway I live near… I’ve seen a guy stuffing his pockets with free-trade, organic chocolate bars (which I doubt they even have on the shelves anymore – the Safeway has responded by just not carrying nice things anymore – and locking up the necessities that are frequent targets.) someone who tried to brazenly walk out of the front door with a shopping cart full of meat, had two shoplifters have a punch out in my front yard when their caper didn’t go to plan (called the cops when the guy started smacking around the woman) and found my recycle bin hidden in the bushes down the street stuffed with stolen merchandise…
I also saw it at the Lowes down on Rainier. One time when I was there, at the height of the pandemic, and old lady just walked right out the door with a bag stuffed full of air fresher products… the alarm went off, she looked back to see that no one had moved a muscle to stop her, and then just kept right on going…
You must either shop at off hours or not actually live in Seattle then. Iβve seen it every where – Harvard market, Broadway, target downtown, CVS in belltown, QFC at uvillage. Last time I saw someone had loaded up a whole shopping cart of corona 12pks and just walked out.
I’ve shopped at this QFC for more than 20 years. I’m just glad it’s gone back to having a check-stand open all the time. The glass maze is amusing to me.
Qfc has made the shopping experience so unpleasant that I refuse to shop there anymore. The 15th ave store was the only one worth going to. The ones on Broadway make me feel like I’m part of some end stage capitalist dystopian reality which I guess is not far from the truth. I would rather take my shopping $$$ to the coop which actually treats its employees well and gives back to the community. Qfc has gone down hill ever since Kroger bought it
I know, there was a time when QFC was a distinct cut above the general run of Safeways, Albertsons, Luckys, etc. It may not be worse than those chains nowadays, but it sure has lost its edge.
It is unfortunate that our ongoing crime wave caused by tolerance of homeless crime has resulted in this. But it is better than Kroger closing the store, which employees have thought was coming for months now. All because βour unhoused neighborsβ steal to afford their lifestyle choices. Anyone who has ever advocated for tolerance of shoplifting as βbig corporations can afford it,β this is on you. Pat yourselves on the back.
Employees of the 15th Ave QFC store told me that it closed because It no longer penciled to operate the store with the Council-mandated covid hazard pay on top of the rampant shop lifting from the drug zombies. The pay requirement was the straw that broke the camels back, not the cause of the store closure which was the amount of theft.
I don’t see anyone here advocating for “tolerance of shoplifting.” I sure don’t. Petty theft erodes the social fabric and absolutely should have consequences. (Attempting to understand why it’s happening and critiquing the greater social forces that give rise to it are not the same as tolerating, justifying or excusing it.) But Kroger’s number-crunchers have apparently decided to “tolerate” it as cheaper than those measures that would actually make a difference, i.e., hiring sufficient staff and pressing charges against major offenders.
I’m not sure what those new barriers are intended to accomplish. It might not be to curb theft, at least not primarily. If Kroger’s policy is to let people take whatever they want and leave unchallenged, this isn’t going to stop them. I suspect it has more to do with keeping fights and other street chaos out of the store. (I’ve never personally witnessed shoplifting, but I have seen people run into the store obviously trying to get away from someone outside.) If that’s the case, the barriers are an understandable attempt to protect staff and customers. But Kroger won’t say.
From a practical point of view, Kroger does not have the option to “press charges.” Why? Because that would require that a security guard detain and securely hold a shoplifter (or 2) for the extended time it takes for the police to show up (if they show up at all), and this approach is not going to happen.
Maybe all the shoplifters are secretly sending the message of βtase me broββ. Hey what are the legal ramifications of tasing shoplifters?
βWhat possibly could be next?β Wellβ¦ they could just close up shop and leave multiple grocery deserts in the center of our city. You, the city council, and Seattle Police need to get it together and start holding thieves accountable before that happens! Canβt afford groceries? Get a job like the rest of us. Thereβs nothing special about these thieves that exempts them from paying for the things they need to sustain life.
Corporate is just sick of people stealing. It has less to do with customer safety. π Oooh put plexi glass over the flowers to keep me safe.
It’s not going to stop theft!! You can easily kick your foot through that. Kroger would have been better off not wasting all that money on plexiglass. Hire more loss prevention officers and actually prosecute shoplifters!
In Portland,businesses on transit streets (like Hawthorne) are required by zoning code to have doors for entry and exit on those streets. Fred Meyer on Hawthorne had those doors closed for months, but since the city got multiple calls about it, they finally opened the Hawthorne doors. They did, however, arrange several merchandise cases to slow down patrons. A one-way low gate can be overridden if you push hard enough, the cashier explained.
To a lot of the commenters here: you may not be an addict stealing ice cream for a fix, but you are someone who comes to a neighborhood blog to post rabidly about them anytime a related article goes up, calling them zombies etc, and that says a lot more about you than you probably think. Enjoy your revenge fantasies against people ravaged by mental illness/addiction/disease/exposure, i guess
People aren’t really mad at the addicts and mentally ill people… they are mad at the leadership of this city that has allowed a small number of people – both the chronically homeless mentally ill/addicted folks and the organized theft rings to do as they please to the extent where greater numbers of people are finding that it actually has an effect on their everyday lives…
It may have been all fun and games and misplaced compassion at first – but when people found they couldn’t use their local parks anymore, when people began being randomly assaulted on the streets on what certainly felt like a shockingly regular basis and stores began reacting by either packing up and leaving or locking down anything that could be stolen the situation turned a bend that more and more people found to be intolerable.
I’d bet if you asked most of the people who live here do want the folks on the street to get help – just not the kind of help they’ve been getting… assistance that allows them to stay addicted, stay on the streets, stay a burden and even a danger (fires, assaults, garbage/rats) to the neighborhoods. Many people are tired of throwing a ton of money at this problem, only to see it steadily worsening, not getting better.
I think the hardest part about these damn things is that they basically installed it *backwards* – literally nobody who shops at this store starts in the deli unless you’re literally stopping in only to get something FROM the deli. The whole flow of the interior of the store naturally drives people to the left on entry, through the produce section, which then leads directly to all the other food. But for some reason, the airlock makes you go through the deli, which is literally the farthest place you can start from the rest of the store. You have to go right, through the deli, past customer service, cross through the big open atrium space and THEN you get to the groceries. It’s dumb. But also pretty clear that Kroger/QFC leadership is really just panicking about loss to theft and scrambling to keep their bonuses by just doing ANYTHING no matter how unpleasant and unconsidered it may be for customers.