In D.C., several of the Safeway grocery stores have been given nicknames. My local Safeway is, unfortunately, called the Soviet Safeway because, well, it kind of sucks. But San Francisco is really upping the Soviet Safeway game (boldface mine):

At the Safeway on San Francisco’s King Street, you now can’t leave the store unless you buy something. The Mission Bay grocery store recently installed new anti-theft measures at the entrance and exit.

New gates at the entrance automatically swing open when customers walk in, but they’re set to trigger an alarm if someone attempts to back out. And if you walk into Safeway and change your mind about grocery shopping, you might find yourself trapped: Another gate that only opens if you scan your receipt blocks the store’s sole exit...

While I watched some customers struggle with the new technology, my receipt scanned immediately. The glass doors slid open, and I was free. But if, like this person on the San Francisco subreddit recounted, I hadn’t bought anything, my only means of exit would have been to beg the security guard to let me out…

Daniel Conway, the vice president of government relations for the California Grocers Association, told SFGATE in 2023 that these measures were part of a growing national trend of “defensive retailing.”

“While I can’t speak for any one company, you see the trajectory of commerce over the last 10, 20, 5,000 years, it’s all about reducing friction for customers,” Conway said. “But now you’re seeing a countervailing trend: armed guards and Tide Pods locked up.”

It’s kind of funny how you literally need to present your papers to leave the grocery store. That aside, I fail to see how this works as a business. At some point people are going to stop going to the stores that treat everyone like criminals.