{"id":519720,"date":"2026-03-05T06:33:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T06:33:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/519720\/"},"modified":"2026-03-05T06:33:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T06:33:07","slug":"woolworths-shoppers-concerned-new-anti-theft-gates-may-trap-them-and-hit-their-children-woolworths","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/519720\/","title":{"rendered":"Woolworths shoppers concerned new anti-theft gates may trap them and hit their children | Woolworths"},"content":{"rendered":"

The trial of a security gate in a Woolworths in Sydney has left customers concerned for their safety, with some saying the series of low-height bars have \u201chit\u201d children in the arms, legs and face<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Maria, who was shopping with her two children at Woolworths<\/a> in Bass Hill in south-west Sydney on Wednesday, told Guardian Australia that she noticed the new entrance \u201cstraight away\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe level that they\u2019ve put it at, is the level of the kids in the pram,\u201d said Maria, who asked that her surname not be published.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you wanted to enter without hitting your child, you\u2019d have to go in backwards.\u201d<\/p>\n

Woolworths is trialling the new anti-theft entry gates in six stores, including Sydney\u2019s Bass Hill and Camberwell in Melbourne\u2019s east.<\/p>\n

Maria said she was surprised that the gate wasn\u2019t temporary, and told Guardian Australia that many parents with similar experiences had complained to Woolworths, asking them to change it back.<\/p>\n

The gates contain two sets of bars that can only be pushed in one direction. Maria said she was particularly worried about children grabbing the bars, which may spring backwards into them. Describing her one-year-old, Maria said that obviously he\u2019s going to play with them.<\/p>\n

Susan, who asked that her surname not be published, has lived in Bass Hill for 50 years. She was caught off guard by the change and like many others felt uncomfortable.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought, I\u2019m going to get caught in there,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m going to get stuck.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Woolworths in Camberwell was the first store to introduce the new design. Photograph: Bertin Huynh\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

Prior to the new gates\u2019 installation, entry to the Bass Hill Woolworths was via a sliding door.<\/p>\n

Customers in Bass Hill first noticed this change last week, but the first store to introduce this new entry was in Camberwell, Victoria, where the gates have been in place since late last year.<\/p>\n

There has been significant backlash to the gates online. One Reddit post with more than 5,000 upvotes said: \u201cThese spring back and are at a toddler\u2019s face height\u201d; another with 2,900 upvotes said: \u201cthese gates make you feel like livestock\u201d, while a third with 2,000 upvotes said: \u201cI wonder how people with disabilities are going to get through these security gates.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Guardian Australia described Maria\u2019s experience to Woolworths, a Woolworths spokesperson expressed concern and stated that they will be reviewing feedback as they assess the trial.<\/p>\n

Woolworths is not the only retailer to introduce new preventative measures<\/a> in response to rising retail theft. IGA, Spotlight and Drakes are using similar anti-theft gates in some stores.<\/p>\n

The Woolworths spokesperson said that theft is one of the main drivers of violence and aggression towards their team members.<\/p>\n

The supermarket giant is scheduled to enter legal proceedings with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission defending their alleged pricing practices later in the year. Woolworths recently reported a 16% increase in profits<\/a> over the past six months, up from $739m to $859m.<\/p>\n

Most of the eight customers Guardian Australia spoke with at Bass Hill understood that the gates were changed to prevent theft, with one customer acknowledging that the entrance would \u201cno longer be a run-away gate\u201d. However, they felt that the tradeoff of convenience was not worth the additional security.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just quite annoying,\u201d said Susan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The trial of a security gate in a Woolworths in Sydney has left customers concerned for their safety,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":519721,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-519720","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519720","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=519720"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519720\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/519721"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=519720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=519720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=519720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}