A Kingston grocery was left open on Family Day of this year, and despite the store being completely unsupervised, customers not only didn’t steal anything, but made the extra effort to pay for their groceries.
Const. Ash Gutheinz with the Kingston police said they received a call around 4:30 p.m. on Feb. 18, saying the doors of the Food Basics on Barrack Street were open, but staff were nowhere to be found.
According to Food Basics management, the store’s front doors were never locked the night before on Feb. 17, when the business was supposed to close at 9 p.m.
Gutheinz said police left it up to store management to report any thefts, but several days later, none have been reported.
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In one case, a Woudwyk said a female customer picked up all of her groceries, and returned the next day to pay in full.
“The lady had walked several blocks. She was an elderly lady, a regular customers of ours,” Woudwyk said. “She had a little shopping list, completed her shopping, wrote out what she took from us and came back the next day and paid us.”
Food Basics staff did say one customer took two packs of cherry tomatoes and left $5 on the counter.
Rachel Friars, a customer of the Barrack Street Food Basics for the last six months, says she was originally surprised by the news, but can understand why people chose not to steal from the store.
“Most of us are regulars at this grocery store. We know the cashiers, we know the people who work here,” Friars said. “So it’s not necessarily something that we’d do — just leave without paying.”
According to a spokesperson for Food Basics, this isn’t a usual event for the grocery store chain, but they’re pleasantly surprised by the turn of events.
“We would like to extend our gratitude to the customers who visited us on Family Day for their respectful patronage at our store.”