Sour at Safeway

By Tania Martin
A FERNTREE Gully Woolworths has been left with eggs on its face after a woman was last month falsly accused of shop lifting.
Pam Slade, 51, said the incident had left her traumatised and she fears returning to the store.
The incident happened shortly after 4.10pm on Tuesday 30 April at the store at Mountain Gate Shopping Centre in Ferntree Gully.
Woolworths has apologised to the Pakenham woman but she is now calling for compensation.
Mrs Slade and her husband, Ted, 68, had gone into the shopping centre to pick up a few items after work.
They were finishing up their purchase when the man serving them asked if they wanted a bag or to use their own. Mrs Slade agreed to put the goods in her bag but said the Woolworths employee then snatched her bag from her arm.
They claim the employee then opened the bag, pulled out Mrs Slade’s glucosamine tablets and scanned them.
Mr Slade was outraged and questioned what the employee was doing.
“He said it’s obvious we pinched them off the shelf because Woolworths sold them too,” he said.
Defending his wife, Mr Slade told the man they were her personal tablets.
“We were not paying for the tablets and got the hell out of there and reported it to the police,” he said.
Mr Slade said he was mortified by the whole incident and that his wife takes the tablets for a back injury and carries them everywhere she goes.
“He (the employee) made such a commotion about it. I just feel so humiliated, to be accused of stealing something and the bottle was half empty and the seal was broken,” Mrs Slade said.
“You would never get past the buzzers and would be pretty silly to think you could get away with that sort of thing.”
Although Woolworths has apologised, the couple are calling for compensation.
“They think they can just sweep it under the rug,” Mr Slade said.
Mrs Slade now avoids the store and walks an extra 15 minutes out of her way to shop at Coles.
“I won’t go in there… it feels like they are pointing the finger at me,” Mrs Slade said.
Mrs Slade also fears she would be targeted again.
Woolworths said the staff member had overstepped the mark.
Spokesman Benedict Brook said the employee should never have handled the customer’s bag.
“This was an error of judgement by the staff member and he has received retraining in this area,” he said.
All staff at the Mountain Gate store have now been reminded of the correct way to apply Woolworths’ bag checking policy.
“We have taken the opportunity to apologise to the family and hope to welcome them back to Woolworths stores in the future,” Mr Brook said.