Loblaw is launching a pilot program that will see employees at two Calgary locations don body-worn cameras in an effort to increase safety.
“Violent encounters at retail locations across the country have increased dramatically in recent years,” explained Loblaw Companies Ltd. in a statement to CTV News.
“By piloting body cameras, we continue to do what we can to protect our customers and team.”
The participating Calgary stores are the Real Canadian Superstore in the East Village on Sixth Avenue S.E., and the Shoppers Drug Mart next door.
Literally willing to spends ridiculous amounts of money on programs like this rather than dropping their prices
I know that a lot of people will agree with my summary here.
FUCK LOBLAWS!
That’s it. Fuck 'em. I hope they declare bankruptcy and are bought by goddamn Ralph’s.
They should try lowering prices and paying their workers better. I suspect that would drive down violence far more than cameras.
But this probably has nothing to do with safety and everything to do with employee surveillance with a pinch of voyeurism.
They should do those things, but having more employees would probably help as well instead of having the bare minimum amount of staff to run the place.
But this probably has nothing to do with safety and everything to do with employee surveillance with a pinch of voyeurism.
Yup. I worked for them many years ago. The shit I saw made me forego ever shopping there again.
Can you expand on that thx?
I worked there over 35 years ago so what I saw then is no longer valid now. I just don’t shop there now because they’re even worse assholes than back then.
At the time tho, what are the highlights of shitty that made you feel like that? Totally believe it but just wanna hear the origin haha
I worked there less long ago and they were still bad, and indeed worse now. Some of the lifers are still there and still nice people, but man can you ever tell by looking how miserable they have been.
Loblaws really doesn’t want my business. I stopped shopping there in May and haven’t had a need to go back. If they are going to treat customers like pre-criminals I don’t want to give them the time of day.
Uhhh, are they going to be paying the cammed employees more than uncammed?
Are there policies in place that ensure that footage will ONLY be used for safety and that the company will not use the cameras to police employees?
We’ve seen a growth in violence against police and peace officers in public spaces over the last number of years, and that’s carried straight on through to private spaces…
Yes there is increasing violence against the 2 major sources of pain for the most desperate members of society, thanks for noticing.
Wait so according to that quote, if increased police presence in public spaces creates increased violence, the answer is… more police in public spaces? And therefore more violence… This feels insane.
Can we ask the question?
… Why are people getting violent at a fucking grocery chain?
Are the customers disgruntled because it’s too expensive?
Are the employees disgruntled because you treat them like wage slaves?
What’s going on at Loblaws?
I used to work grocery before I graduated college, and for the most part, my time there was positive. Granted, that was many years ago, so I have to wonder wtf happened? A nontrivial number of years for me were spent working at a Loblaws subsidiary store. I had not experienced, nor heard of anyone else experiencing violence from a customer. It just didn’t happen.
So what in the glory hole of corporate greed, happened?
Also, why the fuck are body cams needed? Most of their stores have security cameras out the ass. What the fuck could they possibly be hoping to capture by making the employees, who are already on the security cameras, wear additional recording equipment?
Sounds like bullshit to me. This excuse for the extra camera is just blowing smoke up the ass of the civilians to make them think it’s for their protection, when they just want to monitor their employees and what they’re up to when they’re not in front of a camera.
IMO, this is about control.
