You Can't Leave Unless You Buy Something

An anonymous reader quotes a report from SFGATE: 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.

During my Monday visit, I purchased a kombucha and went through the check-out line without incident. (No high-tech gates block the exit if you go through the line like normal.) But for journalism's sake, I then headed back into the store to try going out the new gate. 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.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.