Safeway: Once is forgivable... Twice Not So Much.

Sometimes a story breaks out because it represents an uncommon lack of common sense. Last month, a pregnant woman was arrested at Safeway and jailed... for forgetting to pay for a sandwich, after paying for $50 of groceries. Oh, and her toddler daughter was placed in foster care for a day while mom and dad made good on a couple of $5 sandwiches. Safeway said, "From our preliminary investigation, it appears we may not have handled this matter in the best possible way. We are taking this situation seriously, and giving it our full attention." It got a lot of media coverage, and made Safeway look much worse than foolish.

Yesterday, in another Safeway, a 4 year old girl opened a package of dried fruit and ate a few pieces while her parents were facing the other way. A store security guard took her to a locked room, told her father she would face criminal charges, and made the girl (age 4!) sign a document acknowledging she was banned from all Safeway stores for life.

Safeway now has a significant and systemic problem. Expect the media to be hunting for other stories of abuse of process committed by their private security employees. And with the number of stores they have, no doubt some will be found. And the cycle will repeat. Safeway's only choice is to announce a new training program and store policies now, or wait until they get tortured with more stories and a few State AGs start an investigation.

In Safeway's defense, shoplifting and employee theft are usually the largest single loss in operating a grocery store. It's fair to want it stopped. And they fired the security guard who behaved like an idiot.

Safeway said (this time), "Our policies on shoplifting are intended to protect our customers, but built on common sense. And everyone understands what common sense is."

Well, maybe not everyone.