Coles is being sued over new supermarket surveillance features in a bizarre self-service gate video
Two conspiracy theorists have made a scene at Coles after the supermarket installed barriers at self-service checkouts to combat shoplifting.
The supermarket has introduced new gates at a number of selected stores, which refuse to let shoppers out if the surveillance system thinks they have not purchased all the items they are carrying.
Footage shared by two female shoppers shows them clashing with a manager at the security gates of an unnamed store, believed to be in Victoria.
In the video, a Coles manager walks up to the couple and asks the women if they have been given permission to film in the store.
One of the women answers: ‘No, but you film us all the time’.
“Did you get permission to film us?” the other woman asks the manager.
The manager then responds that there are signs at the main entrance to the store indicating that Coles has the right to film customers.
The manager then asks them to leave the store.
‘Are you gagged? They are being gagged,” you hear the women say.
After passing through the gates without any problems, the women position themselves on the other side and film customers going about their business.
They joke with customers and say, “You got away,” every time shoppers walk through the gate.
One of the women says that the gates make customers feel like ‘locked animals’ and that no one likes them.
However, when asked for their opinion, a customer simply responds, “I’m not really bothered by the gates.”
One of the women says she “couldn’t believe” the customer didn’t have a problem with the gate.
The other says: ‘it’s always the young people’ who don’t care.
The woman behind the camera can be heard telling viewers to “dig your heels in (and) push back.”
Two women have been slammed online for targeting a Coles manager over the store’s new surveillance measures, claiming new gates treat customers like ‘caged animals’ (pictured)
A spokesperson for Coles said they had introduced the gates alongside a host of other security measures to help curb shoplifting (stock image)
Despite both Coles and Woolworths being criticized for introducing new safety measures, the Aussies called out the women for harassing staff.
‘These poor staff and the s**t they have to put up with. The staff bothering you didn’t install these,” said one customer.
“There is more than enough information on how these systems work if these influential (online respect) pursuers put enough effort into doing their research,” wrote a second.
“Private businesses do things in their store and these people think it’s a public place they can complain about,” a third wrote.
Another person, who shops in the same Coles store where the women were filming, said that ‘the amount of theft that happens here is insane’ and that the gates were needed to stop thieves.
‘A few weeks ago a couple walked out with a full cart, not after these gates went in. It’s not rocket science!’
A fifth added: “They must have better things to do.”
A Coles spokesperson told Daily Mail Australia: “We know retail crime is increasing across all retailers.”
‘We have a range of security measures in place to reduce theft in our stores, including CCTV, electronic article surveillance (EAS) and in some stores new smart gate technology that opens automatically when customers pay for their products.’