Coles brand product quality deterioration, page-11

What I would like to see Coles management doing is focusing on removal of debt on the balance sheet + taking advantage of obvious blunders Woolworths makes to carve up it's market share.

Humor me for a second but imagine a leaner Coles operating as a proper defensive stock able to ride out downturns in the market (since everyone has to eat) without outside forces potentially affecting it as much. Now that would be nice.

Unfortunately, it seems the focus is on making stores appear dystopian to the average customer. And I'm saying this not as someone who hates on the company, but as someone who wants to see it do well. The ASX needs more good defensive shares.

The more I read about some of the strategies employed to reduce shrinkage I agree with @JCoure it could be solved just by hiring a human. Which would probably work out cheaper if you factor the intangible benefit of making people enjoy shopping instead of scaring customers away with the "technology".