It’s become harder to find premium ice cream in some Victoria grocery stores after grocers started keeping it in freezers behind the scenes to thwart a rash of shoplifting incidents.
According to Victoria police spokesman Bowen Osoko, the thefts are drug-related.
“People who are struggling with addiction and who use substances, specifically methamphetamine, often crave sugar,” he said. “They’re often up a very long time, and you’ll often find that people are either unable to eat or they’re burning lots of energy, so they end up craving high sugar and high fat.”
That craving sometimes turns into a shoplifting spree to get a sugar fix.
Fairway spokesman Robert Jay said to combat the thefts, they have tried to limit the quantity of high-end ice cream they put out on the shelves in some stores.
“We’re not packing them full — we’re just putting up two or three containers of each flavour so we have them up there,” he said. “We are trying to lessen the impact.”
Jay said it seems to be the sugar content the thieves are going after — they’ve also targeted chocolate bars and other high-sugar snacks.
“The ones we have apprehended have been sort of spaced out,” he said. “The people we have caught, some of them have been caught multiple times and when we do call the police, they often recognize the person, write them up and ban them. But they come back to the store.”
While Fairway limits the quantities on its shelves, Thrifty Foods has taken to storing Häagen Dazs, one of the most expensive ice creams, in a back freezer at its Cloverdale location. Customers have to ask staff to get them their flavour of choice.
Douglas Bourque, general manager of the Market Stores, said Häagen Dazs has always been a target for theft at The Market on Yates.
“We had, at one point, considered doing the same thing as Cloverdale Thrifty’s, but the logistics of maintaining that were not possible, as our back stock freezer is on another floor,” he said. “Ice-cream treats in general are problematic. We recently had to discontinue a local brand of ice-cream sandwiches due to theft.”
The Market on Yates now employs security at its entrance.
Osoko said the rise of this kind of property crime has left many retailers frustrated to the point that they don’t even bother calling the police.
The most recent Statistics Canada figures suggest retail crime in Victoria increased seven per cent last year.
“There’s a significant volume, both in terms of what we respond to and what we’re told and [what] people aren’t even calling us about,” Osoko said.
Addiction affect people’s ability to make good decisions, he said. “So, you see people thinking moment to moment and not thinking about the consequences of their actions.”
Osoko said recently, two VicPD members were outside a Pandora Avenue grocery store when thieves with stolen ice cream were chased by security right into their arms.
Jay said it’s clear there needs to be more help for people struggling with addictions.
“We have to do something about helping these people out — it’s so unfortunate that people get caught up in drugs,” he said.
aduffy@timescolonist
