‘Constant crime’ could lead to shuttering of convenience stores, Winnipeg councillors say

Winnipeg may have held the title of the world’s Slurpee capital for more than two straight decades, but some city councillors say the claim to fame could go down the drain if 7-Eleven is forced to shutter multiple stores due to crime.

Coun. Vivian Santos (Point Douglas) told Global Winnipeg that executives for the convenience store chain reached out to her and Mynarski Coun. Ross Eadie for a meeting about tackling the growing problem of retail theft.

“(They wanted) to discuss some of the safety concerns surrounding their employees, as well as the crime and the loss of revenue that their stores are facing in the North End — (and) one in River Heights and one in the Old Kildonan ward,” Santos said.

“With the constant crime that is occurring in their stores, where (people are) stealing food and pop and cigarettes and harassing the employees… they said in the first quarter of 2024, they’ve lost quite a bit of money, and they’ve come to us asking, ‘what are the solutions?'”

Santos said 7-Eleven didn’t give a timeline as to when it would make a decision on potentially closing the 10 stores in question, but she said such a move wouldn’t be good for the community, noting people in the North End and the inner city often face food insecurity.

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The city has suggested the company get help from police at their problem stores, through the ongoing Retail Crime Initiative — a collaboration between police and municipal and provincial leaders.

Santos said further meetings are planned to ensure the stores can remain open.

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Eadie told 680 CJOB’s Connecting Winnipeg that retail theft is more than someone just shoplifting one or two small items, and alleged that some of the goods may be being resold to other, unscrupulous, stores in the city.

“People are going in there, they’re not just stealing a chocolate bar… they’re taking the whole shelf of chocolate bars or whatever, threatening people, and then they walk out with the goods,” he said.

“More than likely, they’re not selling them on the street one by one. There’s a number of grocery stores in Winnipeg that have a lot of illegal things going on …and to them, I would say, ‘don’t buy stolen goods because eventually if 7-Eleven closes, they’re coming after you.'”

Eadie said he wants to educate residents of his ward that if convenience stores like 7-Eleven are forced out due to excessive crime, it’ll be one less place for already-struggling families to buy essentials.

“Once all these stores are gone — and they will be gone if we can’t solve this problem — where are you going to get milk and bread for your kids?”

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Rui Rodriguez, executive advisor of loss prevention and risk management with the Retail Council of Canada, said there’s been an overwhelmingly positive response from retailers to the work being done by police and government to curb crime, but there’s more to be done on the awareness front.

“Communication and education and awareness continues to be critical,” Rodriguez said. “There’s always a perception that retail crime is a property crime and a victimless crime, and we know that is not the case.

“There is some shoplifting that is low-level, but we’re talking about the repeat, prolific, violent offenders — which does lead to businesses being unable to sustain their locations and keep their employees safe.”

Global Winnipeg has reached out to 7-Eleven for more information.