Why Grocery Stores in Canada Are Locking Up Food ?

追加: 2026-05-18

[00:00:07]You know what's on my mind today?

[00:00:09]Why the hell is beef so expensive?

[00:00:12]So, there's an anti-capitalist extremist group going around Canada stealing [music] groceries.

[00:00:17]You know, the crazy thing is so many of the same people who are online right now like talking about like rob from grocery stores, steal from them. Yeah, we don't give a fuck.

[00:00:26]Just did my [music] weekly Walmart grocery order and everything has gone up again.

[00:00:33]Grocery store thefts on the rise across the country. [music] This FreshCo here in downtown Toronto.

[00:00:39]This is a grocery store in Canada. I want you to tell me what's wrong with this picture. [music] Take a look. Do you see it?

[00:00:46]Imagine walking into a grocery store in Canada and seeing basic food locked behind plastic cases like it's luxury jewelry. Butter locked up, meat locked up, baby formula locked up.

[00:00:57]A few years ago Canadians would have thought that sounded insane. But now?

[00:01:02]It's becoming normal.

[00:01:03]Grocery thefts across Canada are exploding. Stores are losing billions every year and many Canadians are asking the same uncomfortable question, what happened to this country?

[00:01:13]Because theft usually rises when people are desperate, when rent eats up your paycheck, when food prices become outrageous, when jobs feel unstable, and when ordinary people feel like they're falling behind faster than they can keep up.

[00:01:27]Canada used to feel safer, more affordable, more stable.

[00:01:31]Now, many people are struggling just to buy groceries for the week. And while some theft is organized crime, a lot of Canadians believe something deeper is happening.

[00:01:40]People are becoming financially exhausted. Why stores are locking everything up and why so many Canadians feel like the country is changing in ways they never expected.

[00:01:51]This is not a time.

[00:01:54]It's time to say Say Until we meet again.

[00:02:00]Cuz this is not the end.

[00:02:03]It will come a day [singing] Grocery store thefts on the rise across the country. This FreshCo here in downtown Toronto recently launched a pilot program that has some employees wearing body cameras. Over in British Columbia out west, some grocers there have even put their meat counter under lock and key as grocery thefts now climb into the billions annually.

[00:02:27]Carts and bags full of stolen groceries.

[00:02:30]It's a national issue.

[00:02:32]Um you know, it's taking place right across the country. A rise in five-finger discounts has Canadian grocery stores on high alert using everything from body cameras on some staff to an increased number of security cams lining stores. Some grocers have even taken to placing their meat counter under lock and key. Organized crime doesn't miss these opportunities.

[00:02:51]Industry sources tell CTV News that thefts are being driven by a mix of economic pressure and increasingly organized retail crime. Grocery stores are reporting coordinated repeat thefts tied to criminal networks. The Retail Council of Canada has called retail crime a national crisis with losses now approaching 10 billion annually across the grocery sector and growing. The RCMP in Richmond, BC say supermarket theft has doubled so far this year. We have analysts and when they see a spike like this, we have we have meetings every week. In January, Ottawa police conducted Project Pantry at this downtown grocery store. Undercover officers charged a dozen people with 78 charges with some thefts appearing to be coordinated.

[00:03:38]>> Going to a car right away and giving that that product to whoever's in the car in exchange for something. Some self-checkout counters inside grocery stores are also being exploited.

[00:03:51]>> Walmart in the States is pulling them out of a lot of their stores as we speak.

[00:03:55]>> Just last August in Windsor, Ontario, more than $220,000 worth of beef was stolen from this parked tractor trailer. The large-scale heist, another example of a lucrative crime on the rise. There are differing opinions as to where some of the items like black market beef are ending up.

[00:04:12]Though authorities believe that restaurants struggling to turn a profit are likely purchasing some of the stolen goods. This is a grocery store in Canada. Want you to tell me what's wrong with this picture. Take a look. Do you see it?

[00:04:25]Do you see the massive camera that needs to be installed by the meat because so many people now are struggling so badly that these stores need to add these cameras to make it so obvious that you're being watched because of the amount of theft that's happening.

[00:04:40]Because meat prices, the cost of groceries, the cost of feeding your family is so insane now. We just had inflation print out for food inflation 7.3% year-over-year in January, the highest of the G7. Mark Carney said to judge him by the prices in the grocery store. So why are we not taking this seriously?

[00:05:00]7.3% inflation print versus the G7? This is unacceptable. People are struggling.

[00:05:06]That's why I made a previous video. I went to Costco. The steak was $105 for four pieces of steak. These grocery stores need to put cameras on the meat?

[00:05:13]This is what Canada has become? Wages are stagnant? This is not acceptable. We hold ourselves accountable to our families and our work and our children and society. Why are we not holding the government accountable for their failures on food inflation when they themselves have said to hold us accountable to these numbers? They're utterly failing Canadians. This is unacceptable. Never in my life would I have thought cameras need to be put in place like this in our grocery stores because people are so desperate. And this explains why violent crime is also coming up because people are desperate.

[00:05:44]People are trying to survive. And it's hitting them most where they can't even eat properly and feed their own families and children. You know, the crazy thing is so many of the same people who are online right now like talking about like rob from grocery stores, steal from them. Yeah, we don't give a fuck. Are the very same people who just a few years ago, if they saw a lower income person, especially a lower income person of color, stealing from the grocery store, would be the first ones to call security and tell the manager, and then smugly talk about bad values and bad parenting. It's so funny how we're so quick to normalize and even celebrate certain types of behavior when the economy starts to affect the rest of us like it does some of the most vulnerable people. And for the record, I actually don't advocate for like stealing and shoplifting from like big box stores like this to prove a point because at the end of the day, it's going to be frontline minimum wage workers who bear the brunt of this. They're going to be responsible for new enforcement, new monitor, and the people who actually end up shoplifting are not going to face criminal charges uniformly. I definitely do advocate for boycotts, protests, petitions like those at Lead Now and other organizations where we can keep up the pressure on companies, organizations, and the government to ensure like things like the new grocery store code of conduct actually have teeth and actually force these big box retailers to ensure that they're not ripping off everyday Canadians and pretending like it's just the economy.

[00:07:07]Follow me or don't follow me. I don't really care. So, there's an anti-capitalist extremist group going around Canada stealing groceries. If this isn't proof that groceries are really, really expensive in Canada, I really don't know what does. This group calls themselves S'il vous plaît de Fleuve, which translates to the river uprising. They dress up in hoodies, masks, and gloves, spray paint the cameras of your store, and then they continue to rob it. Their main goal is to stick it to the capitalists by being what they see as modern-day Robin Hoods, stealing from the capitalist stores and redistributing the goods on the streets.

[00:07:39]Some of you left this watching this might think that this is noble, stealing from the rich and giving to the poor.

[00:07:45]Too bad communists have a very loose definition of what they consider a capitalist. Recently, they robbed and vandalized a local bakery in Quebec.

[00:07:54]They entered, filled their bags with bread, and shouted, "Everything is free!" Then spray-painted the storefront and left. But this wasn't a large price-gouging grocery store. It was a small bakery founded by a French immigrant that came to Canada with nothing more than what he could fit in a backpack. Who spent 20 years working hard and building a family-inspired small bakery. The extremist group claims that they only attacked the business because the bakery partnered with a company that provides a scan-and-go self-payment system, and they didn't like the company that provides it. The bakery owner said, "This isn't activism, it's theft. Attacking a local bakery, is that your revolution? Because in the end, you're not attacking the system, you're attacking people who work." And obviously, I couldn't agree more. There were several raids just like this in Quebec, including one where 100 people robbed a Maxi supermarket in Montreal.

[00:08:47]These numbers are growing and their message is the same: our lives before their profits. This is how communists see the world. Business owners aren't opportunity-creating productive individuals that provide people with jobs and well-being. They're capitalist oppressors who are actively exploiting their workers and their customers. They believe everything should be free despite never assisting with the creation of goods. And now the left is cannibalizing themselves because their movement is designed to only ever grow and shift to the new oppressed class.

[00:09:16]They say they support the poor immigrant that comes here with nothing but the shirt on his back. But when that same immigrant no longer needs assistance, the movement turns on them. And we're going to see more and more of these demonstrations that this group is talking about. The group in question literally advertises on their website that they will be doing more action on their action map taking place May 23rd to 26th stating that they will be putting an end to the world of concrete and reclaiming their territories from developers and land grabbers. The sad part is I can tell from these videos, these are probably well-off middle-class middle-aged white adults benefiting from the very system that they wish to destroy. Crazy.

[00:09:58]For any Trump-hating American who thinks they can just go to Canada to get away from him, uh if you like steak let me give you a reality check. If you want something that is for sure not 3D printed meat, you got to go to the specialty butcher shops, right? So, here we got four packs of potatoes, a six-pack of tonic water, little piece of candy cane that wifey wanted, uh one slice of carrot cake, a little thing of uh bocconcini and tomatoes, one little thing of bean salad. Now, we got a couple pieces of jerky. Here it is, couple pieces of pepperettes.

[00:10:35]Two rib eyes.

[00:10:37]Two marinated sirloin steaks and one regular sirloin steaks.

[00:10:43]With that thing of Caesar dressing.

[00:10:45]What do you think the cost is for this whole expenditure?

[00:10:52]What are you thinking?

[00:10:53]40?

[00:10:54]50?

[00:10:55]60 bucks?

[00:10:57]80 bucks?

[00:10:58]100 bucks?

[00:11:00]150 bucks?

[00:11:02]Welcome to Canada.

[00:11:04]200 and 62 dollars for this.

[00:11:10]All right?

[00:11:12]And this is one of the best shops in my area. Quality people, quality fucking food.

[00:11:18]Like, you get what you pay for in this country. So, this is why we go back there.

[00:11:23]But, that's the cost [music] of doing business after 10 plus years of Trudeau and Mark Carney backed policies.

[00:11:31]He was an advisor to Trudeau during his reign and now he's running [music] the fucking ship.

[00:11:36]So, yeah, you tell me.

[00:11:38]Do you want to live like a Canadian?

[00:11:41]Because getting annexed by you guys is starting to become a popular option in the local watering holes.

[00:11:47]You know what's on my mind today?

[00:11:49]Why the hell is beef so expensive?

[00:11:52]We were just checking and I remember about 2 years ago this big chunk of beef at Costco was about $120.

[00:12:01]It's over $200 now for the exact same piece of meat. Made in Canada, raised in Canada, packaged and transported in Canada, and we're paying Wagyu prices.

[00:12:13]That's on my mind. Maybe it's on yours.

[00:12:15]Okay, see you later.

[00:12:17]Thefts are being driven by a mix of economic pressure and increasingly organized retail crime. Grocery stores are reporting coordinated repeat thefts tied to criminal networks. The Retail Council of Canada has called retail crime a national crisis with losses now approaching 10 billion annually across the grocery sector and growing. The RCMP in Richmond, BC say supermarket theft has doubled so far this year. We have analysts and when they see a spike like this, we have we have meetings at every week. In January, Ottawa police conducted Project Pantry at this downtown grocery store. Undercover officers charged a dozen people with 78 charges with some thefts appearing to be coordinated.

[00:13:03]>> going to a car right away and uh and giving that uh uh that product to whoever's in the car in exchange for something. Some self-checkout counters inside grocery stores are also being exploited.

[00:13:16]>> Walmart in the States is pulling them out of a lot of their stores as we speak. Just last August in Windsor, Ontario, more than $220,000 worth of beef was stolen from this parked tractor trailer. The large-scale heist, another example of a lucrative crime on the rise.

[00:13:32]>> Just did my weekly Walmart grocery order and everything has gone up again. So, a 12-pack of eggs has gone up two bucks.

[00:13:45]Gas is up.

[00:13:46]>> [sighs] >> In my In my province, it's two bucks over two bucks a liter right now.

[00:13:53]All because some fucking dickheads in the Middle East can't decide what fucking man in the sky to pray to and they're going to bomb each other, we have to pay for it.

[00:14:02]You know, I've been I've been stressed about groceries since pre-COVID, but at least back then I could do my weekly re-up for about $200.

[00:14:15]And let me get Let me remind you that back then, that was a cart full of food.

[00:14:22]Now I am buying literally the things that I need to survive. Meal planning.

[00:14:28]Nothing is purchased unless I know I'm going to eat it. I don't buy vegetables or fruit anymore unless my kids ask for it because they're craving it. Red meat?

[00:14:38]What the fuck is that? Oh, you mean ground beef slop? Yeah, I'll get that once in a while so that people can remember what meat tastes like.

[00:14:47]Do you know what I eat every day?

[00:14:49]Ramen noodles.

[00:14:51]Coffee.

[00:14:53]Juice is a privilege that I might have to give up soon.

[00:14:56]And yeah, a lot of Canadians have had to give up good coffee and have had to start drinking shit coffee. And are they going to make it so that even drinking coffee alone is a privilege?

[00:15:08]Um you know, there was an amazing study once where this woman proved that she could live off of a breath of air and a teaspoon of water a day. I think that's what the Canadian government is trying to do for us. So, I'm on a diet. I've been on a diet. But now, I think all Canadians are going to be looking at this breath of fresh air and teaspoon of water diet because inflation's not going to stop. 16% groceries are said to be going up. Gas?

[00:15:42]Well, who fucking knows? Whatever the hell they decide. Inflation, the housing market, interest rates, nothing's going to fucking stop.

[00:15:52]Our wages aren't going up with it. My my union for my job fought for a 3% raise over the next 5 years. So, essentially, that's actually a loss with the way inflation is going right now. There's no fucking motivation to really bother.

[00:16:11]And why would you want to go to work if going to work means that you're burnt the fuck out, you can't afford to feed yourself, can't afford a fucking coffee to get through your day, can't afford new shoes so your fucking feet hurt, and yet you're going to pay half your fucking wage in taxes?

[00:16:31]Why wouldn't people want to stay home?

[00:16:35]Fuck's sake.

[00:16:37]This building at the corner of Albert and Milton near downtown Nanaimo has been the home of a general store for over a century, but making a living here has probably never been so hard. It's not easy for us to lock everything, you know. Sureeta Patel and her husband bought the Superette Foods in November 2024, but theft has been almost a constant problem ever since. I think it's happened every day, but you know, it's not easy for us to watch them, you know, in every second. Big problem because it costs us so much and it's so small as to me, honestly. We've had 50, 60 dollars at a time stolen, 100 dollars at a time stolen. That's a lot. And while the area's homeless, they say, is responsible for most of the theft, this well-dressed woman was caught stealing food on video surveillance just last week.

[00:17:29]>> not a homeless person? No, no.

[00:17:32]She That day she came with, you know, big car.

[00:17:35]That's surprising to you? Yes. It's all resulted in a tough decision for the Patel family, which was to put the meat section behind lock and key. Customers now have to ring a bell if they want to purchase meat. How does it make you feel though that you have to lock up your meat?

[00:17:51]>> Now, I'm feeling, you know, a little bit, you know, safe now that, you know, I'm not losing money. And the police come, the police go, and nothing happens. And that same person that is stealing comes in the next day and the day after. Kevin Shaw has been fighting for better public safety in Nanaimo for years and says there's just no deterrent for thieves.

[00:18:11]>> We have to arrest people that are that are stealing stuff. The prosecution has got to prosecute these people, and the judges have got to give jail sentences.

[00:18:22]Nanaimo RCMP say this case is currently being investigated and that shoplifting in general has increased dramatically over the last decade compared to residential break-and-enters, mostly to be sold for drug money. Police urge store owners to report it every time it happens. Absolutely. So, regardless whether you want charges or not, we would advocate that the stores uh call the police. If anything, then we have an understanding what's happening in our community. Without a report, we don't know. Meanwhile, regular customers here at Superette feel for the Patels.

[00:18:56]If you're stealing food, I can I I understand you're hungry.

[00:19:02]But, they're good people. Just talk to someone. The owners here, they're family trying to make a go of it, and yeah, and I'd hate to see them go.

[00:19:10]The Patels have said they've considered to India where society is more law-abiding than here.

[00:19:17]So, what does it say about a country when grocery stores start locking up everyday food items? Think about that for a second. Not electronics, not expensive jewelry, basic groceries, meat, butter, coffee, baby formula.

[00:19:33]A few years ago, most Canadians would never believe this could become normal here. Canada used to feel safe, stable, and affordable. People trusted each other more. Stores didn't feel like high security zones. But now, more cameras, more locked shelves, more security guards, more frustration everywhere. And honestly, I think what scares people the most isn't even the theft itself. It's what the theft represents.

[00:20:00]Because when people are financially comfortable, society feels calmer, people have patience, communities feel connected. There's less desperation.

[00:20:11]But when people can barely afford rent, when groceries become outrageously expensive, when full-time workers still struggle to survive, society starts changing.

[00:20:22]And Canadians are feeling that pressure everywhere.

[00:20:25]Families are cutting meals. Young people are giving up on ever owning a home.

[00:20:31]Parents are stressed every single day.

[00:20:33]Students are drowning in debt. Seniors are watching their savings disappear faster than ever. People are exhausted.

[00:20:40]That's why these conversations hit such a nerve online.

[00:20:43]Because deep down, a lot of Canadians feel like the quality of life they once believed in is slipping away. And the hardest part?

[00:20:50]Many people feel like nobody in leadership truly understands what ordinary Canadians are going through right now. People don't want luxury.

[00:20:58]They don't expect perfection. They just want life to feel manageable again.

[00:21:02]They want to walk into a grocery store without feeling anxiety.

[00:21:05]They want to fill up their cart without checking their bank account and panic.

[00:21:09]They want safe communities, stable jobs, affordable housing, a future they can actually believe in. That's not asking for too much. And look, this conversation shouldn't become about hating people or blaming ordinary individuals trying to survive.

[00:21:24]The bigger issue is whether Canada's economy, housing system, wages, and cost of living have become completely disconnected from reality.

[00:21:32]Because something clearly feels broken.

[00:21:35]When theft rises, when stores lock everything up, when working people still can't survive comfortably.

[00:21:41]Those are warning signs of a country under serious pressure. And Canadians are noticing it.

[00:21:46]Maybe that's why so many people keep saying Canada doesn't feel the same anymore. So now I want to ask you honestly, do you think Canada is heading in the wrong direction? Have grocery prices and daily life changed dramatically where you live? And do you still feel hopeful about Canada's future?

[00:22:03]Let me know in the comments below.

[00:22:05]And if you enjoy real conversations about affordability, Canadian life, rising costs, and where this country is heading, make sure to subscribe.

[00:22:13]Because we're going to keep talking about the things a lot of people are thinking, but few are willing to say out loud.

[00:22:23]>> [music]