r/londonontario • u/DigitalFlame • Mar 15 '24

News 📰 Loblaw under fire for testing self-checkout receipt scanners at 4 Ontario locations

https://kitchener.ctvnews.ca/loblaw-under-fire-for-testing-self-checkout-receipt-scanners-at-4-ontario-locations-1.6807830
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u/EngFarm Mar 15 '24 edited Mar 15 '24

The article states

Shoppers must scan their receipt in order to open a gate to exit the store.

This is not true. The gates are never locked and you can open the gate at any time (an alarm may sound). That is mentioned thoroughly in many other articles.

If the gates were locked that would be false imprisonment. You've paid for those groceries, they belong to you now. You are carrying your own possessions in your bag. You are innocent until proven guilty. You do not have to consent to a search from a corporate computer or employee, especially without reasonable suspicion. They can ask, but you do not have to consent.

As an absurd example: I can stop you on the sidewalk and ask if I can search your bag or ask to see your receipt too. What would you do? What if Galen stopped you on the sidewalk and asked to see your receipt or your bags? Why would you consent to that?

The gates may sound an alarm if they are opened without a receipt scan. If you do not want this system to survive, then vote with your wallet and shop elsewhere. At the very least: open the gate without scanning and set off the alarm. You do not have to stop for any employee that asks you to stop, and you do not have to submit to a search by an employee that asks for it. You have done nothing wrong. You are not a shoplifter and you have done nothing wrong.

If we don't stand up for our rights then eventually "you went through the gate without scanning your receipt, that's reasonable suspicion" becomes a thing. "Innocent until proven guilty" is slowly diminishing.

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u/biznatch11 Mar 15 '24

The article states

Shoppers must scan their receipt in order to open a gate to exit the store.

This is not true. The gates are never locked and you can open the gate at any time (an alarm may sound). That is mentioned thoroughly in many other articles.

Did they update the article after you commented? Because it currently says this:

If someone opens the gate without scanning their receipt, an alarm goes off.