Woodstock Safeway’s new security steps puzzling to some

Published 12:00 am Saturday, December 23, 2023

In early November, the Woodstock Safeway store installed new security railings to deter shoplifting. There has been a security guard at the door for over a year now, but the new railings have been a surprise to some customers.

After hearing about what had been reported as an “extreme change” at the Woodstock location, one customer investigated for himself and said, “I went in [to look at the new setup] but had trouble figuring out how to get out!”

Three-foot high metal gates at the entrances open automatically; but trying to leave at the wrong place causes a buzzer to go off. Railings extend all along the front of the cash registers, and the self-checkout area now has just one exit.

One employee at the self-checkout said, “I’ve heard complaints, but overall more positive than negative [comments].”

Woodstock Safeway is not alone in erecting barriers to make its stores more secure and to discourage would-be-thieves, but according to one Woodstock employee, this Safeway location is a pilot for all of Safeway District 75,” which includes the Hawthorne, Powell, and S.E. 122nd stores, among others.

Although Safeway corporate did not respond to our questions, Woodstock Safeway Manager Gary Steadman remarked that shoplifting had gotten “out of control.” “For employee safety, our policy is not to have employees confront shoplifters.” That policy does not extend to the security guards, who do respond to thieves, as David Ashton’s report in the November BEE on a violent shoplifter apprehended there makes clear.

Steadman’s comments are in line with those from supermarket administrators throughout the United States. They say such changes are implemented to create a safer environment for both employees and customers.

In San Francisco, near the Castro District – a high crime area — three-foot high glass electronic gates permit Safeway customers to walk in, but their sales receipts must be scanned in order to exit. And the carts there are outfitted with rods that stop them from being taken out of the store.

One Woodstock Safeway employee, backed up later by a second employee, told the shocking amount of dollar loss at just that store in the last year – one million dollars. “It has been about $270,000 to $280,000 a quarter,” was an additional comment.

When asked about the new security measures, a couple of employees’ responses were, “It’s working.” Recent theft loss data is not yet available, but no one questions that it will be less than in recent previous years.

It’s not just Woodstock – or even just the United States. Similar changes are taking place in Europe. In the United Kingdom, according to a prominent London newspaper, one supermarket administrator called these kinds of railings and barriers an “extreme method”, but “a very effective one”.

Woodstock Safeway’s customers, and Inner Southeast Portland neighbors, may agree on the need to stem merchants’ losses – losses which have caused some stores to close, and have brought about unusually high prices at others to try to counter the losses – but the security changes seem dramatic, and may take a while to get used to.