this post was submitted on 05 Jun 2026
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Organized crime groups are behind grocery store theft across Canada

The Retail Council of Canada is calling grocery store theft a national crisis, with losses now approaching $10 billion annually across the grocery sector and it’s only growing.

Honestly it sounds more like a crisis for the retail council of Canada rather than a national crisis.

“Eastern European organized crime has certainly been involved, and this isn’t just a big city problem, it’s happening straight across the country,” says CTV News crime specialist, Mark Mendelson.

It’s Canada so of course they’re going to be racist about it as well.

Watch out, Canadians. Eastern Europeans are causing a national crisis by taking advantage of our assault on labor.

“People are running away, going to a car right away and giving that product to whoever’s in the car, in exchange for something. Its either drugs or money,” according to Ottawa Police Chief, Eric Stubbs

Eastern European drug addicts.

This month, Guelph police arrested a man who they claim swapped out expensive products for cheaper ones at self-checkouts. Police claim that the individual in question, would scan items that cost less than one dollar, in exchange for baby formula priced at $97 dollars each.

BABY FORMULA COSTS $97 FUCKING DOLLARS????

They’re right, this is a national crisis.

Just last August, in Windsor, Ont. more than $220,000 worth of beef was stolen from a parked tractor trailer. The large-scale heist is another example of lucrative grocery crimes on the rise.

There are differing opinions on where items like black market beef are ending up. Mendelson and others who spoke to CTV News believe that some restaurants struggling to turn a profit are likely purchasing stolen goods. In some cases, smaller grocery stores and restaurants might not even realize they’re purchasing stolen food for their establishments.

Yeah sure they don’t realize this. They’re honest businessmen, buying misc meat off the back of a trailer in an alley. They wouldn’t be the “organized” part of this crime. Actually, they’re victims.

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[–] buckykat@hexbear.net 2 points 37 minutes ago

I Love Boosters

[–] Bronstein_Tardigrade@lemmygrad.ml 5 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

Tim Horton CEO fears cut to his $1M annual bonus and $7M compensation package. Blames (checks list to see which group is next) Eastern European.

[–] LemmyBruceLeeMarvin@lemmy.ml 2 points 7 hours ago

Yes but they saved 20 billion in labour costs by firing all of those clerks, so it's the cost of doing business you capitalist vampires

[–] Rom@hexbear.net 27 points 13 hours ago

Cool now do wage theft

[–] SoyViking@hexbear.net 54 points 16 hours ago (2 children)

Self-checkout exists because the savings on labor costs outweigh the losses from increased theft. If self-checkout were a worse business proposition than manned registers, rational market actors simply wouldn't offer it.

Since self-checkout remains widespread, it logically follows that the so-called "national crisis" of theft must be less severe than the normal operating costs shops faced before self-checkout existed.

[–] MarxMadness@hexbear.net 20 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

It's just as likely (probably more so) that they didn't anticipate this much theft, or did and planned to attempt to offload the cost to the public via greater enforcement.

[–] Carl@hexbear.net 20 points 14 hours ago* (last edited 14 hours ago) (2 children)

I've seen chains go back and forth on offering self checkout, in fact I have literally installed and uninstalled SCOs at the same location, so I can only assume that it's not a simple either/or and that there are many factors that go into the calculation that make it unclear

[–] infuziSporg@hexbear.net 2 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

so I can only assume that it's not a simple either/or and that there are many factors that go into the calculation that make it unclear

Vibes, vibes, and yet more vibes.

These fuckers aren't actually calculating anything.

[–] Carl@hexbear.net 1 points 2 hours ago
[–] red_giant@hexbear.net 25 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

Anyone with an MBA, trained for middle management, is taught to look one quarter ahead at most.

Generic MBA 1: Let’s install self-checkout and cut labor costs

Generic MBA 2: Shrinkage is too high, let’s hire security

Generic MBA 3: Why are we paying for security? We could just get rid of self-checkout and get teenagers to do it instead. More cost effective.

Generic MBA 4: Let’s use AI to count how many items are in your cart

[–] Hohsia@hexbear.net 13 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

Inadvertently saw how much these types are making at my company the other day and been depressed ever since

[–] red_giant@hexbear.net 13 points 13 hours ago

I think about how, in the british empire like 1800s ruling india and shit, part of why it became more effective is that they ended the practice of being able to buy a position and replaced it with merit hiring.

And MBAs… that’s very very similar to buying a position. If you have $50-200k spare or the capacity to get that far into debt, you are buying yourself a rung in the corporate ladder.

Well-regarded MBAs openly advertise the fact their network is the bigger part of the value they offer. The seal of approval matters more than actual learning. And you can just buy it.

[–] Chana@hexbear.net 15 points 15 hours ago

My cartel is entitled to profits and if they aren't high enough it's your fault

[–] zedcell@lemmygrad.ml 21 points 13 hours ago

Slavs forever cursed to be in a superposition of white and not white under capitalism

[–] Firstnamebunchofnumbers@hexbear.net 8 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

Companies will instead spend 29482029405 dollars to get ai powered theft deterrents inatead of scheduling more than 1 cashier

[–] Rom@hexbear.net 5 points 10 hours ago

AI won't unionize

[–] DragonBallZinn@hexbear.net 4 points 9 hours ago

Oh, it’s more like that’s a very valuable PRICE SIGNAL. Don’t blame any individual, blame the MARKET.

[–] PKMKII@hexbear.net 55 points 17 hours ago* (last edited 11 hours ago) (1 children)

Fitting for Canada, it looks like they’re pulling a “the brothers Brent and Wayne Gretzky have a combined 2,861 NHL points” misrepresentation. The narrative is presenting self-checkout abuse as a major factor, with the one example being a $97 to $1 item swap. However, if we compare that to the beef heist example later, the individual who exploited the self-checkout would have to successfully pull off that swap nearly 2,300 times in order to match the amount netted from the one beef heist.

Which says to me, they’re conflating small beans self-checkout abuse with larger scale heists to justify loss prevention targeting vulnerable Canadians instead of the organized crime that, as OP alluded to, are more likely to be politically and economically connected.

[–] MarxMadness@hexbear.net 11 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

instead of the organized crime that, as OP alluded to, are more likely to be politically and economically connected

I bet it's less this, and more that it's way easier to arrest and prosecute individual shoplifters than chase organized crime. Only the former happens on camera and usually with at least one witness around.

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[–] fox@hexbear.net 18 points 14 hours ago (2 children)

Life hack: if you enter code 4011 in a self-checkout you can get up to a 90% discount on the thing you're buying

[–] Rom@hexbear.net 6 points 10 hours ago

That's bananas

[–] GalaxyBrain@hexbear.net 4 points 11 hours ago

The Donkey Kong method

[–] ryepunk@hexbear.net 60 points 17 hours ago (4 children)

As someone who works retail in these stores. It's overblown bullshit. They're still making record profits. This is a puff piece to try and get some sympathy for retail owners who are currently one of the most reviled entity in Canada.

They pushed self checkouts hard, cut hours for everything, and then they're shocked when thieves take advantage of that?

My store went from having two entrances that were mostly unguarded, to a fucking "1984" built perimeter fence with wheel locking shopping carts if you don't take the cart through a till properly. We are expected to spider wrap Lego sets and appliances and half of cosmetics and baby. They spend probably over hundreds of thousands of dollar to install security theatre bullshit instead of simply just having staff on the floor working who would mitigate most theft by having a presence there.

And I repeat, grocery stores continue to make excellent profit despite numbers that reveal people are buying noticeably less stuff (because they increased prices so damn much).

[–] chgxvjh@hexbear.net 22 points 15 hours ago

They are probably hoping to replace the remaining staff with cops the public pays for.

[–] Evilphd666@hexbear.net 31 points 17 hours ago

Another Walgreens manufactured crisis to justify spending on security, survailence, and terrorism?

[–] Maeve@kbin.earth 14 points 15 hours ago

They spend probably over hundreds of thousands of dollar to install security theatre bullshit instead of simply just having staff on the floor working who would mitigate most theft by having a presence there.

And I repeat, grocery stores continue to make excellent profit despite numbers that reveal people are buying noticeably less stuff (because they increased prices so damn much).

This right here. Because a jobless or underpaid population is a compliant, willing to work longer, harder hours for less.

[–] GalaxyBrain@hexbear.net 15 points 15 hours ago

The grocery store closest to me has one way doors to the exit that faves the street now, an alarm goes off if you even go near them, and they lock em entirely after 7pm so you have to go around the side of the building to the back parking lot. It's where the loading dock is and if there is a truck there it blocks the sidewalk and there is enough space for one car to get through at a time, so a great place to get run over. Throw in the bad curbs thst someone in a wheelchair would just have to drop off of to get off the sidewalk, the potholes and just the general awkwardness of it, im surprised its even allowed cause its hella unfriendly to people with disabilities. Like the residents of the old folks home next door

[–] GalaxyBrain@hexbear.net 34 points 16 hours ago (3 children)

A couple weeks ago I got 50$ as a settlement for these same grocery stores fixing bread prices for years.

[–] woodenghost@hexbear.net 8 points 12 hours ago

That's the real organized crime.

[–] Thordros@hexbear.net 26 points 16 hours ago

Then after the settlement, all the grocery stores doubled bread prices at the same time again. Justice served! neon-fell-for-it-evangelion

[–] 7bicycles@hexbear.net 47 points 17 hours ago (2 children)

People are running away, going to a car right away and giving that product to whoever’s in the car, in exchange for something. Its either drugs or money,

Love to call up my dealer to tell him to meet me within running distance of the grocery store I'm about to steal from so we can do our drug deal there and then instead of like an hour later at a non linked location

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[–] Crucible@hexbear.net 35 points 16 hours ago

Grocery stores in Canada are monopolies turning the entire country into a food desert, the criminals are the Weston family and their pals not people trying to eat

[–] Thordros@hexbear.net 60 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

The same industry that just posted record profits last year, again, like they do every year? The one that openly price fixes essential staples? Those folks?

Damn that's a real shame.

[–] Runcible@hexbear.net 28 points 17 hours ago

you're making them do this!

[–] Maeve@kbin.earth 27 points 16 hours ago

$10 billion

Annually⁉️

BABY FORMULA COSTS $97 FUCKING DOLLARS????

They’re right, this is a national crisis.

Hard agree.

[–] plinky@hexbear.net 17 points 15 hours ago
[–] SorosFootSoldier@hexbear.net 33 points 17 hours ago (1 children)
[–] red_giant@hexbear.net 33 points 17 hours ago

I scanned it as the worlds smallest violin but actually it’s a fucking TV

[–] egg1918@hexbear.net 38 points 17 hours ago (2 children)

Just last August, in Windsor, Ont. more than $220,000 worth of beef was stolen from a parked tractor trailer. The large-scale heist is another example of lucrative grocery crimes on the rise.

Clearly a separate crime from shoplifting but that won't stop the media terrifying boomers into thinking every Walmart is a mad max scene

[–] Athena5898@hexbear.net 29 points 17 hours ago (3 children)

Walmart is a mad max scene just not the reasons they think. Everyone there from the workers to the shoppers are poor and desperate mostly and pitted against each other. Hell in Muskogee Oklahoma the entire landscape of the city changed when the Walmart moved.

Its a fucking nightmare. But the cause is the ruling class, not the people like boomers think.

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[–] microfiche@hexbear.net 40 points 18 hours ago (3 children)

Baby formula being 97 bucks, whether CAD or USD sounds a bit much, but my kids were babbies back In the 2010's so it has probably gone up even further. I know some of the specialty stuff is absurdly priced, babies w sensitive stomach, special nutritional needs etc. My daughter was on formula that was around $30 a canister if I remember right. I knew folks that would boost formula and sell it. If I had anything left on WIC or SNAP when I used to receive them I would buy formula and sell it to people who needed it.

Also:

Title of article, first two words are 'Self Checkout'. Then there's this:

Just last August, in Windsor, Ont. more than $220,000 worth of beef was stolen from a parked tractor trailer. The large-scale heist is another example of lucrative grocery crimes on the rise.

What the fuck does theft of beer from a reefer trailer have to do with the self checkout.

[–] CloutAtlas@hexbear.net 23 points 17 hours ago

I don't think foreign formula was worth 97 dollars even during the whole powdered milk scandal in China back in 08. I used to have to bring a whole extra luggage filled with powdered milk and/or formula back to China every year for like a decade.

As a refresher, Sanlu was padding their formula with melamine, which caused tens of thousands of hospitalisations and 6 deaths (in infants, the substance isn't good for adults but isn't fatal). A few executives for the company were executed, a few more got life imprisonment, and the government officials that either looked the other way or weren't paying attention got fired. This sent ripples through the Chinese dairy industry with consumers worrying that all formula was tainted and many parents were willing to pay through their teeth for the foreign stuff.

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[–] red_giant@hexbear.net 29 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

according to this article, the most cost effective way to obtain baby formula is probably to sell meth outside a major retailer

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[–] hellinkilla@hexbear.net 24 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

“People are running away, going to a car right away and giving that product to whoever’s in the car, in exchange for something. Its either drugs or money,”

Back in my day drug dealers were not too soft to lift their own cheese.

[–] CloutAtlas@hexbear.net 17 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

"either drugs or money"

Well I'd've exchanged it for NFTs but apparently that was a "bubble" that "burst" and is "inherently worthless" and I got "scammed" by "grifters" and my apes are worth "less than nothing" because "nothing doesn't require having to have internet access, electricity and a device to double check it's worth nothing"

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[–] Rojo27@hexbear.net 28 points 18 hours ago* (last edited 18 hours ago)

When the bourgeois class does price gouging of essential goods- Legitimate businessdean-smile

When people are having a hard time affording said goods and have to steal it to survive- Scum of the earth creating a national crisisdean-frown

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