Unattended backpacks and other bags on the floor in the vestibule at Eddie's of Roland Park, a grocery store located at 5113 Roland Avenue in Baltimore, Maryland. This accumulation of bags occurs due to a store policy that prohibits backpacks and other bags in the store, ostensibly to prevent merchandise theft, and with nowhere else to leave these items while shopping, patrons simply leave their things on the floor in the entrance vestibule.
The problem with this arrangement is twofold. First, these bags are completely unaccounted for and unmonitored in the vestibule, as these items are not checked in and under the care of any employee. Thus there is nothing to prevent tampering or theft of these items, i.e. anyone can just pick up a bag and take it, and no one would know that anything was wrong until a bag's rightful owner returns and discovers that it is missing. The other problem is that these bags are on the floor in the store's main entrance and exit area, which is already a fairly narrow space, and thus pose a safety hazard to patrons due to their being underfoot.
I take a dim view of any stores that have a no-bags policy that also do not provide any protected place to leave said bags while patrons are shopping. Not all patrons have cars, and this policy as implemented here shifts all risk of product loss from the store onto the customer.
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