Walk through a Canadian Tire or Walmart and you will see high-priced items locked away in cases that require employee assistance to purchase.
But locking up cheese?
That’s what happened in a Vancouver No Frills store, according to a shopper who posted a photo of a sign they spotted in the deli section.
Sandwiched between packages of cheese curds and bags of mini Babybel cheese snacks is supposed to be 250g wedges of President’s Choice Spendido Parmigiano Reggiano and President’s Choice Spendido Grana Padano.
Instead, there was a sheet of paper showing images of the two PC cheeses — priced at $9.99 each (on sale from $10.99) — that read: “Please see an associate for assistance with this item. Thank you!”
Vancouver resident Andrew, who posted the photo on Reddit’s Loblaws Is Out of Control page, wrote: “Yeah, I won’t be doing that.”
In response to a query from the Toronto Sun, Loblaw noted that No Frills stores are franchised, so it was the owner’s decision to lock up the cheese.
“The franchisee implemented the policy to address theft at their store,” the company said in a statement.
“Theft is an ongoing issue across the retail sector, having a significant effect on colleagues and customers — impacting prices for everyone.”
Commenters on the post mocked the store’s anti-theft tactics.
“So instead of hiring appropriate levels of loss prevention, paying customers are being inconvenienced?” while a second person replied, “The inconvenience is just another reason not to shop there. They don’t even have staff that’ll help you get the cheese.”
One Redditor sympathized with the employees. “That’s so rude to the deli worker who definitely doesn’t have time for that crap.”
Others noted the fly that appeared to be dead on the note to customers.
“Dead fly for the extra razzle dazzle,” one wrote.
A second commenter joked: “That’s the associate. He’s exhausted from fetching cheese all day and they don’t pay him enough to not take unscheduled breaks.”
“And suddenly no one buys the product,” one person wrote. “100% success anti theft measure.”