During the pandemic they forgot to close the store for the entire long weekend and people could just walk in with no employees there at all.

During that time, people grabbed what they needed and left the money at an unattended register.

I’m cynical enough that I suspect these anti-theft measures are an attempt to get people thinking “there must be a lot of theft these days, so the high prices make sense. The government is responsible for crime, not Loblaws”.