NEW receipt scanner technology has made shoppers feel uncomfortable and unfamiliar causing distress.
Grocery store Loblaw is doing test runs on receipt scanners at four locations two of them being in Ontario, Canada, and customers have expressed their disliking towards them.
2
Customer Paul Zemaitis explained the receipt scanner made him feel like he was being inspected for theft, per CBC News in Canada.
He also said it was strange because it was clear he already paid, so it confused him as to why he would need to scan.
“It’s very intrusive. It makes you feel like a thief.”
Paul Zemaitis
Zemaitis said he did not notice that the scanner was attached to a gate, so he just pushed through it and it set off a loud alarm.
“I said, ‘What the hell’s going on? I paid already,’” Zemaitis said.
read more on receipt checks
“It’s just not a customer-friendly tactic.”
Another Loblaw customer Jonathan Hayes had a similar experience as Zemaitis with the receipt scanner.
Hayes said he noticed elderly people having trouble recognizing that the receipt scanner was there.
‘CHAOS’
This caused alarms to go off and disturbances to people’s shopping experience.
Most read in The US Sun
“It just introduced so much extra chaos,” Hayes said.
“You had some people, especially a lot of elderly folks, were completely unaware this was a new thing, and were just pushing their carts through the closed gate.
“It would trigger alarms.
“There were alarms going off maybe every one to two minutes.”
Hayes highlighted how it is also not attractive to have receipt check scanners when grocery prices are already tough on everyone.
“Times are tough right now,” he said.
“It is just kind of kicking them while they’re down.”
STICKY SITUATION
Demanding receipt checks at stores can become a sticky situation because customers are supposed to be asked if they would prefer it or not.
Lawyer and professor at Toronto Metropolitan University and the University of Toronto, Daniel Tsai, said if stores wrongly detain someone it could be considered false imprisonment.
Stores that have falsely imprisoned someone could end up in trouble themselves.
“If you haven’t done anything wrong and they can’t confirm with video cameras or eyewitnesses…and they detain you without consent, that’s false imprisonment,” Tsai told Yahoo Canada.
However, the shopkeeper’s privilege gives stores the right to detain someone if they have reason to believe they stole.
There are laws in place that protect both parties.
Read More on The US Sun
Attorney Bryan Waldman explained, “Store owners, shopkeepers, their agents, employees, and security companies that they hire have the right to detain people that they have reasonable cause to believe have committed a crime or theft in their store.”
Waldman added that there is nothing stores can do to force you to show receipts unless it’s a place you have a membership to like Costco.
https://www.the-sun.com/news/10914658/receipt-scanner-check-loblaw-canada-anti-theft-tech/