First the news, if you haven’t already heard: Since May 23rd, Giant Food has been barring shoppers from entering certain stores with backpacks, suitcases and other bags larger than 14 by 14 by 6 inches. One of those stores is the Van Ness Giant, at 4303 Connecticut Avenue.
The new policy is as popular with customers as you might expect.
We have been getting messages from backpack-toting neighbors who have been turned away from Giant. They include Margaret Romig, to whom the policy just seems “bizarre.”
“I called the manager from outside,” Romig wrote in an email, “and he said it was a new theft prevention measure and I should shop somewhere else. Whoa!”
The no-backpacks policy will certainly stop my husband from stopping in on his way home from work. I often shop there with my own backpack. No more.
Do they mean to drive us all into MOM’s arms when it opens (hopefully sooner rather than later)?
I checked with the corporate office and asked how much they are losing to theft, and whether they’ve considered the business they will lose to this policy. I also asked whether they considered checking receipts as shoppers leave the store. This is the reply I received from Jonathan Aron, Giant Food’s community relations manager:
We understand your concern and appreciate you sharing them with us. We realize this approach is extremely disruptive and goes against the shopping experience we want to provide for our customers. These stores were chosen because they are recording extremely high levels of shrink and unsustainable product loss. We have to be able to operate our stores safely and profitably. Like many other retailers that have recently been forced to take similar actions, we are implementing these changes in an effort to mitigate the unprecedented levels of theft that we are experiencing at these stores.
While this policy limits backpacks and other oversized bags, it does not limit the use of open reusable bags. Enforcement also seems inconsistent. Another neighbor who shopped twice at the Van Ness Giant over the weekend saw other shoppers with backpacks and one with a rolling shopping tote, which – like backpacks – are popular with the car-free set.
Grocery stores around the region are trying out other anti-theft tactics. As The Washington Post reported on May 29th, some Safeway stores have installed electronic exit gates in self-checkout areas. To leave, customers have to scan their receipts. And Harris Teeter is stationing employees at exits to check customer receipts.