Woman witnesses violence outside Food Fare involving store employee, vows boycott

A Winnipeg woman says she’s boycotting Food Fare after witnessing another incident involving an employee Sunday afternoon.

Gloria Enns was stopped at a red light at Portage Avenue and Arlington Street at about 3 p.m. when she saw two men fighting. One was wearing a red apron she recognized as a Food Fare uniform.

“There was this brawl going on,” Enns said Monday.

The Wolseley resident claims the employee was repeatedly punching and kicking a man near the entrance to the Portage and Burnell grocer.

Enns called the store for more information and an employee confirmed a worker confronted an individual after seeing him shoplift meat.

Food Fare manager Tarik Zeid told the Free Press no one was physically hurt and the employee was “defending the store and the merchandise.”

Security footage from the store, which was viewed by the Free Press, appears to show a man take two packages of steaks and slip them into a reusable bag, before an employee confronts the man at the entrance of the store and tugs on the bag in the man’s hand.

There was no surveillance-camera video of the fight outside the store, Zeid said.

Zeid claims the alleged thief took a swing at the employee, who retaliated, but no punches landed in either direction.

“I’m not gonna play Superman with every shoplifter that comes in, but I run a small, family business. Every dollar counts,” he said.

Mel Mozel, who owns the nearby Bodyshades tanning salon, witnessed the incident and got involved to tell the alleged thief to return the items.

Mozel says he saw the employee punch the suspect “three or four” times.

Enns said she will no longer be spending money at the locally owned business and the event will deter her from reporting shoplifters in the future.

“If I see someone shoplifting I won’t say anything because customers would rather see that then see an assault take place,” she said.

Zeid said he spoke with the involved employee and told him not to get physical when confronting shoplifters.

Last week a Food Fare employee at the same location was suspended after a similar altercation on April 28. A supervisor confronted a woman allegedly stealing hotdogs and, when the woman allegedly swung her fist at the staffer, the employee punched her in the face.

nicole.buffie@freepress.mb.ca