Militarized surveillance systems are becoming the new normal in many Canadian grocery stores, marking a disturbing symptom of an already fraught food retail system.
At a FreshCo in Toronto and a Superstore in Calgary, staff have begun wearing body cameras in response to rising theft at self-checkouts, organized retail crime where high-value items such as meat are stolen and resold and increased food insecurity.
Surveillance systems in commercial retail are nothing new; cameras, mirrors and store design have long been used to deter shoplifting. But these newer, more militarized approaches seem both heavy-handed and misguided.
