To boycott Aldi

[NameChanger22]

Today I went to Aldi to do my weekly shop. It's my local supermarket and I often shop in there.

However, today I witnessed an incident which I found shocking and upsetting and it has made me think I won't shop there again.

I was walking past the tills with my trolley when I saw a security guard grab a woman as she was about to leave the shop, he didn't speak to her. I instantly thought she must be a shoplifter. He picked her up and carried her across the shop in front of everyone and then slammed her into a wall and pressed his body hard against her. She was screaming that he was hurting her. It looked so brutal and aggressive. She screamed more that he was crushing her ribs. Then he threw her into the staff room and 4 male members of staff bundled in after them. It was really shocking to watch.

I had no idea that security officers are allowed to be this heavy-handed with potential shoplifters.

I waited for the police and told them what I'd seen. They said they would watch the security footage and see for themselves.

If she was shoplifting she was obviously in the wrong, but I don't think she deserved this kind of brutal treatment.

Anyway, even though Aldi is convenient and cheap for me, I've decided to do all my shopping in Tesco now. AIBU?

Don't think there's anything they can legally do once they've left the premises so probably leads to them being aggressive.

I always thought it was th other way round Headinhands. That as long as the suspect is in the store, they can't do anything (at any moment, fear or conscience might make them change their minds), but once they step outside, they can be challenged.

The amount of handwringers on here is unreal

So many who've obviously never worked in retail in rough areas or even just.. 'retail', end of.
Where I worked this time a year ago, we had to be walked to our cars at night as sometimes shop lifters would be waiting to attack staff and had indeed had attacked (before I started there)
If , for eg, your teen daughter or son was being threatened with or stabbed with a needle, would you be so keen to judge the guard?
It really is wearing when it's week in, week out
When I worked in a certain town (my hometown) on average it was about one out of every three days that the 'needlers' as we called them, kicked off. I would let them walk out of my store with cameras (ie stealing cameras) rather than risk being stabbed. Sometimes the mall's guards got heavy handed. Sometimes not. And as said..some had to wait for their HIV results.
As Poloshot says..

And believe me, none of the ones I knew were stealing for their kids...it was purely for smack.

When I worked in retail I had a charming teenager girl who was no more than 5ft who would often come in and threw heavy things at staff members for a laugh, show us the syringe or knife she was carrying or spit at us. If security saw her they certainly didn’t wait for her to try to leave before they apprehended her and I’d struggle to sympathise if they were rough with her.

I can almost guarantee she was known to them and they were probably at end of tether
But if not, then it's very unfortunate and they will no doubt be found out

Tiny people often use the sneakiest /nastiest tactics as they can't use brute strength. Biting, scabies, using disease to threaten, sending out thugs to 'greet' staff after work

Yes EnglishGirl was going to say the spitting... awful. It's really lovely to have to complete a shift with no change of uniform when you've been gobbed on or had other bodily products flung. All for politely asking if you could look in their bag (as you'd seen them fill it)

YANBU to boycott anyone you like for any reason, or none.

I must admit I’m finding it hard to have sympathy for the woman though if she was in fact shoplifting

The spitting is by far the worst. I was punched in the face once by a 6ft bloke when I asked him to give back what he’d stolen. People who haven’t dealt with this in their working life have no idea how frightening it is. Ive also had to have a police escort to my car after work, had a gang with knives come in during the day and rob the tills, had endless threats. My successor in one store had an armed gang raid the shop during opening hours.

OP by all means give your statement but this woman could well have been dangerous so let the shop and the police do their job before jumping to conclusions. Also most head offices pass any complaints back to the store manager to deal with, that’s what they’re paid for.

The police couldn't care less about petty theft and shoplifting. I can almost guarantee this woman has stolen time and time again from the store and the staff got fed up.... Is grabbing and throwing around shoplifters professional or even legal, no. But it will put the shoplifter off from coming in your store for a lot longer than the threat of police or a banning order.

Some of these replies are awful.

If she was stealing or well known for stealing it makes no difference. She was assaulted and there is no excuse for that.

If she threatened him with a knife wouldn't OP have seen it? OP said she was just walking out of the shop, doesn't sound like someone who needed to be tackled to the ground for safety reasons. Plus, I wouldn't fancy picking someone up and slamming them into a wall if she was carrying a weapon. I am not a security guard , but is that really the way they handle that situation?

They don't have security at my local Aldi. Can't remember seeing any in the (admittedly few) other branches I have been in.

How would you feel if the full information came out and painted a very different picture?
I don’t agree with violence.... but....
What if it came out the woman actually had a string of criminal convictions and was known to carry weapons and react violently when challenged On shoplifting?
Putting security, Aldi staff and customers at risk?
Don’t forget these security guards have families of their own. He will be someone’s father, someone’s husband and son trying to make a living and needs to act to protect himself and those around him.
If it turns out she was just shoplifting and not likely to be abusive then ok, it sounds like he overreacted, make your complaint and shop at Tesco.

You need some more facts about what happened and what factors were at play before making a decision.

What I mean is, surely they need to use reasonable force? If someone isn't waving a weapon at someone (OP would have noticed if she was) then was that much force needed? I understand that there might be times where you really need to use brute force, but someone walking quietly out of the store doesn't sound like someone who needed to be handled so brutally.

Englishgirl, my friend managed a small food shop in a 'bad area' and one day got badly attacked by a member of a certain local 'notorious' family. All caught on camera and went to court. However..said family started stalking her and she needed police protection. She got a fair amount of compensation, btw. However... she also needed to move back to her home town taking her v small children with her, in a different part of the country, for her own safety. It totally ruined her life for many years. No shop work is worth that.
So, I don't have much sympathy for the average shoplifter any more given friend's experience and my own. I'm still in retail but now in a huge store with security. When you are in a tiny store, eg a family run one, it's a different story . I used to work alone in a cabin type shop at the edge of woodland, for years. While I was never physically hurt, there were quite a few unpleasant encounters and nothing could have stopped me from being attacked. But it was definitely when I was in actual towns that there was real danger.
The other side of it is that for years I helped a junkie who wasn't ever violent but always rewarded us by stealing from my shop. He used to sleep in our doorway (even though in theory he was my next door but one neighbour) or outside loo and me and my volunteers all helped him. We used to let him clean up in our staff loo (he got beaten up regularly by other junkies) and found him clothes and food. But for every 'nice junkie' there's the skinny, frail looking one who is actually v dangerous

U2 of course ideally they’d use reasonable force but the OP saw a snapshot, not what led up to the incident. If they knew she had a syringe for example they’d want to make sure she couldn’t get to it.

alltoomuch I got out of retail about 7 years ago, I enjoyed the job and was paid well but the amount of shit you put up with daily is appalling. I’m not at all surprised by your friends experience unfortunately.

EnglishGirl,, I got threatened last week in my new job, a customer slammed into my legs with his trolley and threatened to do it again and was muttering obscenities. This is not one of my worst experiences by any means and as I said, v good security where I work now.
But I used to run a photographic store and of course cameras and film (this was before digital got big) were great money makers for smack heads - a camera would be a quick sale down the pub and the film would turn up at car boots. I'd have a needle pulled out on me about once every 3 days so I'd always let them take what they wanted. As I said, co worker did actually get stabbed and had to undergo the ordeal of HIV tests. Of course they always say they have AIDS. Most don't. but many have Hepatitis etc...
Also temped at a solicitors and a few of my colleagues were threatened there too...one caught scabies from a client attacking him..
I really have lost much sympathy for the average shoplifter. I've been homeless myself, and broke many times. There are food banks. These people steal to order.

“What if it came out the woman actually had a string of criminal convictions and was known to carry weapons and react violently when challenged”

And what if she wasn’t? Absolutely take this further, OP.

I didn’t think the police were bothering to prosecute for shoplifting anymore and it was considered low level crime. They don’t come round about cars getting broken into anymore. My local Co op gets targeted every morning and wholesale robbery of meat etc and nothing is done. There are a group of beggars who drink all day long hassling people and stealing from the shops.

However, Aldi security should wind their neck in and I would never shop anywhere I had seen this occur. Especially not woman being taken into a room by 4 burly men who knows what went on.

Bloody hell that sounds horrific.

Shop lifter or not it was extremely heavy handed

And we don't even know she was shop lifting. Or if any crime was committed at all.

I'd be reporting this for sure. I wouldn't expect to hear abyone being treated like that. Restraint is for people who are resisting and dangerous surely.

Neither we nor the OP knew the situation. The OP and her army of armchair detectives have no idea what goes on in the real world.

She's probably a well know shoplifter, who is banned from the store and who carries knives or needles - or is know to have HIV. Thank goodness there are staff there to protect us. All this talk of being triggered and making a complaint is ridiculous, OP think this through properly and not through middle-class specks where everyone is a victim and start being sensible. Would you want your DH or DS to come home with a HIV bit of his arm (but at least he was pleasant to the offender?).

If she threatened him with a knife wouldn't OP have seen it?

No not necessarily.

I reported security in a well know store once for dragging two very young guys by the neck. I begged them to go easier they were choking them. Some security guards are professional, some are thugs with a sense of entitlement.