Eastern Ontario grocery chain cracks down on theft as incidents rise

Mike Dean Local Grocer is ramping up security after experiencing a spike in thefts. CTV’s Josh Marano has the story from Chesterville.

A well-known small-town grocery store chain in eastern Ontario says it’s taking new steps to curb a recent spike in theft.

Mike Dean Local Grocer, which operates in several rural communities, has seen some locations struggle with shoplifting and is taking steps to keep theft in check. The store has locations in Chesterville, Bourget and Sharbot Lake, along with two more in Quebec.

Owner Gordon Dean says he’s witnessed a large increase of organized theft in the rural community grocery stores over the last three-to-six months.

“The organized part is resale,” Dean told CTV News Ottawa.

“What we’re seeing happening too often is full baskets or large chunks of meat or cheese, which is 15, 20, 30 packages in an organized fashion be put into somebody’s bags or put into somebody’s outfitted coat with extra pockets and walking directly out the door.”

Dean says security cameras have been added at each of the stores, but it’s not enough.

“There’s always going to be petty theft, small amounts, our problem is becoming much more organized,” Dean said. “Much larger values and repeated values where we can find something, we can track somebody, we can see it on all of our hundreds of cameras.”

According to Dean, the stores have tried issuing trespassing notices to thieves, but that does little to keep them from returning.

“They come back the next day, and they come back the next day. It’s the repetitiveness,” he said.

“It’s not $1.50 chocolate bar, it’s $300 or $400 for the meat, that’s not okay. That’s way too much into our profit margin.”

He adds more than $1,000 worth of goods are stolen each week.

At their location in Sharbot Lake, alarmed one-way traffic barriers have been installed at the store entrances along with chain lockups at any cash lane that is closed to limit the frequency of shopliftings.

The rest of the stores will see the same measures and updates in the coming weeks.

“We’re connected very much to each of those towns, we want to be transparent we’re not making these changes because we want to be like Walmart or Costco and the big city, that’s entirely not us,” Dean said.

“We’re making these changes because there’s too many problems in these little towns that need to be addressed and we’re going to take some steps forward to address them.”

Dean says he has been working closely with the local OPP.

“We, unfortunately, have had to bring the police in numerous times a week, that’s not normal in small towns that the police cruisers are out front,” Dean adds.

“We really appreciate the police’s help on this, they do the best within their means and in every case where it’s a large theft, we want to work with the police to prosecute as much as they possibly can.”

Dean says the emotional impact of theft is significant for a family-run grocer that has served rural communities for decades.

“It blows our mind, we operate our grocery stores in small towns, and everybody knows everybody so some of these people are not from the area, but some of them, unfortunately, are from area,” he says.

“I think it’s a sign of the times. It’s a sign of the economy and where society’s at, where people are doing things that typically in the past they wouldn’t have done.”

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