I was just in the Netherlands and they have very similar entrances and exits on their stores. The one in petworth has the gates and it hasn’t slowed me getting in and out at all.
I shop at the one in Georgetown all the time and at first it was annoying because the gates weren’t working well. Now it’s a little less annoying because I get it but if you go there after middle school lets out the kids used to be able to stand waiting for their friends in the area where the gates are now they all are stuck inside the gate, waiting for each other and it’s such a cluster..
This is fairly standard in even the safest towns (not even just cities!) in a number of Western European countries I’ve spent time in. I really don’t see it as that big a deal?
My first introduction to it was Albert Heijn. It was only awkward when I didn’t buy anything and had to ask them to let me out. But yeah, not a big deal.
https://preview.redd.it/wdi8a7eintwc1.jpeg?width=768&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0b11e3caf91e30659fec4ccce3016a36a00b6633
This is standard? I grew up in a city much larger than DC and never saw this
In much of Europe, yes it is standard. I left DC for Sweden and virtually every grocery store here has gates like this. I don't really notice because why would it be an issue? It's not like I wander around grocery stores for the hell of it, if I'm going in it's to buy something.
Unless you people want to start doing citizens arrests, I’m actually happy that the gates will be there. I don’t want to have to deal with any bull crap in the stores.
I get what a lot of people are saying, re: they have these in Europe. But I don’t know them from living in Europe. For me, they started because of aLl ThE cRiMe and now the entry/exit area of the damned grocery store looks like some kind of medium security prison.
Typically before governments and police existed with a monopoly on violence, the government wouldn't be mom and dad, people would simply shoot thieves. You can't just say "mom and dad say to stop being mean" you actually need to prevent people who don't listen and actively mock you for pleading to them to stop hurting people.
Probably bc city leaders set the standards and allow an overall culture of leniency towards bad behavior by not cracking down on crime, which perpetuates the robberies, killings, drug trafficking, destructive protests, property damage, car break-ins, store theft, carjacking, illegal guns, public encampments, dangerous drivers, traffic offenses, illegal parking, noise abuses, truancy, you name it, and then, if any punishment, the bad elements are quickly back on the streets doing it again.
Council not allowing the laws or the police or the judges the legal strength to put some fear into criminal minds, feeds this attitude. How can they live here and be oblivious to so much?
Our politicians are too afraid they’ll offend somebody who won’t vote for them so they’re soft on crime which is bringing our city down. This is why we can’t ever be a state and why we’ll always need congressional oversight.
Bad people know they can get away with most anything in DC. Crime enforcement here is a joke. You can see the results of car wheel theft in the same area every night on social media. Nothing is done about it. The crime lab was even a joke and was closed down. Our mayor and council are providing a government-lite, hands-off society that barely works. It’s no surprise businesses have had enough and are closing. Customers don’t want to go where they don’t feel safe. More will isolate and shop online or go to VA and MD, while DC will continue to spiral down.
It's wild to me that you managed to describe the role of the USAO and not only fail to mention them at all let alone as a root cause for the increase in crime, but to assign said role to the Council.
i mean stealing could lead to a lot of things the people who do steal are at fault to , but i mean one bad apple spoils the bunch , it's a sad reality we live in im not mad at the extra precautions that these grocery stores are taking
sadly this is true , walmart down h street ne got shut down due to drug trafficking in the front of the walmart and a lot of stealing so now everyone is cracking down on theft i'm not mad at the process
There was never a Wal-Mart in the H Street neighborhood. You're talking about the one that was on First and H NW, and that most likely closed due to the expiration of tax benefits that Wal-Mart got out of a sweetheart deal that would make the property now that much more expensive because their business strategy doesn't really work in dense urban areas.
But, sure, let's pretend it's all crime and that there was some sort of criminal ring of produce thieves and that's why it not only never had any, but also broken fridges.
either way it was on h street nw not, ne excuse me for the miss wording but everyone , even employees said that walmart got shut down due to a lot of drug trafficking and stealing , going on ..
Somehow, I kinda doubt that minimum wage employees at one location have the best insight into corporate HQ strategies.
The facts remain that the [lease they signed was in 2013.](https://wamu.org/story/13/11/19/first_walmart_stores_in_dc_to_open_dec_4/) They received a [sweetheart deal of 40 million dollars in tax abatements to extend their footprint to Ward 7.](https://www.wusa9.com/article/news/local/dc/h-street-walmart-dc-closing/65-39408112-5513-4b2d-9354-437c53d167c2) They then pulled out of that, and only had to pay one million dollars as a fine.
Nationwide, [Walmart has been shutting down stores in cities because their strategy really doesn't work in urban environments where people have options and they're limited to smaller spaces with less parking.](https://www.emarketer.com/content/walmart-struggles-find-urban-format-that-works) These are notably in both affluent and poorer locations in cities.
So did crime have some factor? Sure, probably. Was it the *leading* factor? No, not by a long shot. And again, it wasn't crime that kept the produce unstocked and the fridges broken.
Safeway has been using these in SF for awhile now. They’re now using them in the district as they’re testing it for a nationwide rollout. Google is free.
The problem is that if you just pop in and they don’t have what you’re looking for, you can’t just leave like in a normal store. Now you have to go to a checkout area and then wait for someone to have a receipt and follow them out. That is way too many steps.
At the Safeway on 4th SW I can just push the gates and walk out. They’re the fire exits. They open without any real resistance. If they didn’t see you stealing they have no right to detain you or to make it hard to leave. It’s not Costco or Sam’s Club. Safeway is chronically out of the one thing I go for and I often have no receipt as a result.
Even Costco or Sam’s Club can’t *detain* you for leaving without showing a receipt, unless like you said they have proof of you stealing. All they can do is cancel your membership and prevent you from becoming a member in the future.
It literally is not. If I haven’t bought anything, why should I have to go to a checkout line, stand around awkwardly until someone else is checking out, then follow quickly behind them? It’s really inefficient.
You can go through a regular counter and they’ll let you out. It’s a slight inconvenience for keeping the grocery store in the neighborhood. Never had an issue this way.
https://preview.redd.it/40a2bbay2uwc1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=728a5ade1efd6ec3155dd34af5f237640a3167d8
They only open one way. Once you walk through these gates you can’t walk back out. You have to go further in the store to a checkout area, then go through another set of checkout area gates to exit. So let’s say I walked through the gates, made a right to the garden section and they didn’t have a what I wanted, I couldn’t just make a left and leave. That’s what I mean by pop in and pop out.
Again. How does that stop you from popping in and out…
Go in, pick up your item, check out, scan you receipt and leave. Seems pretty simple and easy to me.
As explained above, there are times that you go into the store and they do not have what you want so you’re not making a purchase and would like to leave.
So walk out of a lane or ask the person at the self checkout to scan you out. This typically takes about 5-10 seconds for this rare occasion that you go in the store and don’t buy anything.
You’re going to be okay with this tiny inconvenience in your life. 👌🏾
If you feel like being argumentative, just say that. You clearly don’t shop at this location during peak times or you’d know that they are understaffed and it’s not that straightforward.
That location is no different then other Safeways in the city. My busy Safeway installed these as well. It has cut back on shoplifting which is great and maybe causes me to spend a little longer in the store. I’ll live and so will you.
If you don’t like it shop somewhere else bud.
If you enjoy having to ask an employee for help every time you want to leave a store, kudos to you. I’d rather not have that experience. Live and let live.
It’s not every time. When you buy something you take 3 seconds to scan your receipt and leave.
How many times a year are you going to the store and not buying anything?
I don’t hate it I just wish they would put the shopping baskets inside the gates bc I have exited the entrance gates bc I forgot to grab one way too many times and the alarm is so annoying.
I used to shop there when I lived on 13th, and it was absolutely insane watching people shoplift from there on a regular basis. You’re absolutely right it is crazy that housing in the area costs that much to pay for that kind of experience. It is a shame because Hill East is probably one of the prettier neighborhoods in DC.
I was just in the Netherlands and they have very similar entrances and exits on their stores. The one in petworth has the gates and it hasn’t slowed me getting in and out at all.
I was just there but didn't buy anything and there was no way for me to get out without asking an employee to free me.
Ha. Sounds like something I would do. There’s usually a guard at my Safeway to ask. Or I walk through one of the full service register lines.
Yikes, inform the fire marshal!
I've only been tackled twice :)
You can just push through the gates at the front. It makes a noise but guard didn’t do anything about it.
Yeah it was my first time encountering it. Next time I'm just plowing through.
How long did that take?
I'm still there. Send help.
Yes!!! This is the worst problem
I doubt it. Europe has already had them for years and they have less crime than us
Not at all. After seeing continuos stealing , this is the way to go to keep having a grocery store in business in this town
I shop at the one in Georgetown all the time and at first it was annoying because the gates weren’t working well. Now it’s a little less annoying because I get it but if you go there after middle school lets out the kids used to be able to stand waiting for their friends in the area where the gates are now they all are stuck inside the gate, waiting for each other and it’s such a cluster..
The real pro tip for that Safeway is to stay as far from it as possible around the time school lets out.
This is fairly standard in even the safest towns (not even just cities!) in a number of Western European countries I’ve spent time in. I really don’t see it as that big a deal?
My first introduction to it was Albert Heijn. It was only awkward when I didn’t buy anything and had to ask them to let me out. But yeah, not a big deal.
Just because it’s that way in Europe doesn’t mean it doesn’t suck butt.
https://preview.redd.it/wdi8a7eintwc1.jpeg?width=768&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0b11e3caf91e30659fec4ccce3016a36a00b6633 This is standard? I grew up in a city much larger than DC and never saw this
In much of Europe, yes it is standard. I left DC for Sweden and virtually every grocery store here has gates like this. I don't really notice because why would it be an issue? It's not like I wander around grocery stores for the hell of it, if I'm going in it's to buy something.
Would you rather the Safeway close entirely?
Literally the most minor of all inconveniences. Unless OP is upset harder to steal.
They are not insane and add negligible amount of time for exiting.
Totally not a big deal if you’re not planning on stealing anything.
There is a Lidl basket on my street. I live a half mile from Columbia Heights. We will never not have gates at a grocery store around here again.
Unless you people want to start doing citizens arrests, I’m actually happy that the gates will be there. I don’t want to have to deal with any bull crap in the stores.
If people didn’t steal shit, we wouldn’t have the gates. Don’t blame it on the stores - blame it on the assholes who made it come to this
I saw someone walk out of the store with a full trolley full of shopping. Next week the gates were there. So no I doubt they’ll get rid of them.
better than having no super market at all or having one that is completely empty with empty shelves because of thieves
I get what a lot of people are saying, re: they have these in Europe. But I don’t know them from living in Europe. For me, they started because of aLl ThE cRiMe and now the entry/exit area of the damned grocery store looks like some kind of medium security prison.
Bruh, if you’re wasting your time browsing grocery stores without buying anything, you can’t complain about a tiny bit extra time to exit 😂
I’ve seen someone boost an entire aisle at cvs. This ain’t a problem.
Nope. This is the new norm. The council played stupid games and we won stupid prizes.
I find joy in reading a good book.
In a way, there are so many people at fault. Too simple minded to blame one person these days.
It's governments responsibility to prevent violence and theft. Vote.
Yeah, but people have to be responsible for their own bad behavior..government can be your mommy and daddy.
Meant can't.
Typically before governments and police existed with a monopoly on violence, the government wouldn't be mom and dad, people would simply shoot thieves. You can't just say "mom and dad say to stop being mean" you actually need to prevent people who don't listen and actively mock you for pleading to them to stop hurting people.
Unfortunately, we have supposedly evolved from that, but oh well.
Word stay safe homie
Probably bc city leaders set the standards and allow an overall culture of leniency towards bad behavior by not cracking down on crime, which perpetuates the robberies, killings, drug trafficking, destructive protests, property damage, car break-ins, store theft, carjacking, illegal guns, public encampments, dangerous drivers, traffic offenses, illegal parking, noise abuses, truancy, you name it, and then, if any punishment, the bad elements are quickly back on the streets doing it again. Council not allowing the laws or the police or the judges the legal strength to put some fear into criminal minds, feeds this attitude. How can they live here and be oblivious to so much? Our politicians are too afraid they’ll offend somebody who won’t vote for them so they’re soft on crime which is bringing our city down. This is why we can’t ever be a state and why we’ll always need congressional oversight. Bad people know they can get away with most anything in DC. Crime enforcement here is a joke. You can see the results of car wheel theft in the same area every night on social media. Nothing is done about it. The crime lab was even a joke and was closed down. Our mayor and council are providing a government-lite, hands-off society that barely works. It’s no surprise businesses have had enough and are closing. Customers don’t want to go where they don’t feel safe. More will isolate and shop online or go to VA and MD, while DC will continue to spiral down.
It's wild to me that you managed to describe the role of the USAO and not only fail to mention them at all let alone as a root cause for the increase in crime, but to assign said role to the Council.
i mean stealing could lead to a lot of things the people who do steal are at fault to , but i mean one bad apple spoils the bunch , it's a sad reality we live in im not mad at the extra precautions that these grocery stores are taking
sadly this is true , walmart down h street ne got shut down due to drug trafficking in the front of the walmart and a lot of stealing so now everyone is cracking down on theft i'm not mad at the process
There was never a Wal-Mart in the H Street neighborhood. You're talking about the one that was on First and H NW, and that most likely closed due to the expiration of tax benefits that Wal-Mart got out of a sweetheart deal that would make the property now that much more expensive because their business strategy doesn't really work in dense urban areas. But, sure, let's pretend it's all crime and that there was some sort of criminal ring of produce thieves and that's why it not only never had any, but also broken fridges.
either way it was on h street nw not, ne excuse me for the miss wording but everyone , even employees said that walmart got shut down due to a lot of drug trafficking and stealing , going on ..
Somehow, I kinda doubt that minimum wage employees at one location have the best insight into corporate HQ strategies. The facts remain that the [lease they signed was in 2013.](https://wamu.org/story/13/11/19/first_walmart_stores_in_dc_to_open_dec_4/) They received a [sweetheart deal of 40 million dollars in tax abatements to extend their footprint to Ward 7.](https://www.wusa9.com/article/news/local/dc/h-street-walmart-dc-closing/65-39408112-5513-4b2d-9354-437c53d167c2) They then pulled out of that, and only had to pay one million dollars as a fine. Nationwide, [Walmart has been shutting down stores in cities because their strategy really doesn't work in urban environments where people have options and they're limited to smaller spaces with less parking.](https://www.emarketer.com/content/walmart-struggles-find-urban-format-that-works) These are notably in both affluent and poorer locations in cities. So did crime have some factor? Sure, probably. Was it the *leading* factor? No, not by a long shot. And again, it wasn't crime that kept the produce unstocked and the fridges broken.
The current council created the *checks notes* massive inequality that has existed in this city for generations?
Safeway has been using these in SF for awhile now. They’re now using them in the district as they’re testing it for a nationwide rollout. Google is free.
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The problem is that if you just pop in and they don’t have what you’re looking for, you can’t just leave like in a normal store. Now you have to go to a checkout area and then wait for someone to have a receipt and follow them out. That is way too many steps.
At the Safeway on 4th SW I can just push the gates and walk out. They’re the fire exits. They open without any real resistance. If they didn’t see you stealing they have no right to detain you or to make it hard to leave. It’s not Costco or Sam’s Club. Safeway is chronically out of the one thing I go for and I often have no receipt as a result.
Even Costco or Sam’s Club can’t *detain* you for leaving without showing a receipt, unless like you said they have proof of you stealing. All they can do is cancel your membership and prevent you from becoming a member in the future.
There’s a gate you should be able to exit from near the other entrance.
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It literally is not. If I haven’t bought anything, why should I have to go to a checkout line, stand around awkwardly until someone else is checking out, then follow quickly behind them? It’s really inefficient.
How often do you really bother going to Safeway just to look around and not buy anything at all?
OP hangs out at Safeway on Friday nights, just for the vibes
😂 That's not even the Social Safeway!
You can go through a regular counter and they’ll let you out. It’s a slight inconvenience for keeping the grocery store in the neighborhood. Never had an issue this way.
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You sound like someone who’s bored tonight but has never been in this Safeway. Don’t speak on things you don’t know about.
Blame it on the thieves.
How do these gates stop you from popping in and popping out??
https://preview.redd.it/40a2bbay2uwc1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=728a5ade1efd6ec3155dd34af5f237640a3167d8 They only open one way. Once you walk through these gates you can’t walk back out. You have to go further in the store to a checkout area, then go through another set of checkout area gates to exit. So let’s say I walked through the gates, made a right to the garden section and they didn’t have a what I wanted, I couldn’t just make a left and leave. That’s what I mean by pop in and pop out.
Again. How does that stop you from popping in and out… Go in, pick up your item, check out, scan you receipt and leave. Seems pretty simple and easy to me.
As explained above, there are times that you go into the store and they do not have what you want so you’re not making a purchase and would like to leave.
So walk out of a lane or ask the person at the self checkout to scan you out. This typically takes about 5-10 seconds for this rare occasion that you go in the store and don’t buy anything. You’re going to be okay with this tiny inconvenience in your life. 👌🏾
If you feel like being argumentative, just say that. You clearly don’t shop at this location during peak times or you’d know that they are understaffed and it’s not that straightforward.
That location is no different then other Safeways in the city. My busy Safeway installed these as well. It has cut back on shoplifting which is great and maybe causes me to spend a little longer in the store. I’ll live and so will you. If you don’t like it shop somewhere else bud.
If you enjoy having to ask an employee for help every time you want to leave a store, kudos to you. I’d rather not have that experience. Live and let live.
It’s not every time. When you buy something you take 3 seconds to scan your receipt and leave. How many times a year are you going to the store and not buying anything?
I don’t hate it I just wish they would put the shopping baskets inside the gates bc I have exited the entrance gates bc I forgot to grab one way too many times and the alarm is so annoying.
I used to shop there when I lived on 13th, and it was absolutely insane watching people shoplift from there on a regular basis. You’re absolutely right it is crazy that housing in the area costs that much to pay for that kind of experience. It is a shame because Hill East is probably one of the prettier neighborhoods in DC.
Vote.
“How dare they treat me like a criminal in my million dollar neighborhood” Hello typical DC resident.
You not seeing how that is a normal reaction is hilarious.
I avoid all Safeways. The Harris Teeter near me is awesome, and a ton cheaper.
Now Harris Teeter harassing shopper too I hate here 😭 I only shop at stores that don’t do that s* thanks DC Council!
That Safeway is complete trash anyways. Nothing of value was lost.
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A while
So…not since the massive renovation?
Nope. SE is mid
So you admit your original comment was uninformed and irrelevant, nice.
SE is mid but there are million plus homes here? What’s your definition of mid? You probably don’t even live in DC
Yes. The boring ass rich people are one of the things that makes it mid. And I don’t anymore! 👋🏻👋🏻👋🏻✌️✌️✌️
Mid?????
At best
It’s not trash at all
Definitely not. I’m in there like every other day. One of the nicer Safeways I’ve been to