Saskatoon business Seven Sundays responds to backlash after sharing video of shoplifter

A Saskatoon business is facing backlash online after posting a video of a staff member dealing with a person who appeared to be stealing merchandise.

In the video, shared to the Seven Sundays Tiktok account before it was taken down on Wednesday, an employee politely talks to a person with a blanket covering them who appears to be taking and hiding merchandise.

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Online, some have taken issue with the store posting the video of encounter, with some commenters calling it tasteless. Another commenter called it “dehumanizing,” while many people took issue with the company’s follow-up posts explaining the encounter.

“I worked downtown for multiple years and had many encounters like this and never once felt the need to record, edit, and post it for content,” read a comment from Rachel Sawchuk on Seven Sundays’ post explaining the video.

“Everyone knows the ‘unfortunate reality’ of working in downtown Saskatoon and sharing the video isn’t raising awareness, it’s making a mockery of a struggling individual and an unpleasant but very real situation.”

Other vintage consignment stores in the city, including Juniper and Oak on Broadway and 4th Quarter Vintage, decried the post by Seven Sundays.

“Filming someone at their lowest and posting it publicly is lame,” 4th Quarter Vintage posted in an Instagram story on Wednesday.

“When businesses post or say things that come from a place of privilege, superiority or a lack of awareness, it is not only fair, it is necessary for people to speak up,” Juniper and Oak’s Instagram story reposted from one the business’s co-owners, Lara Pereira.

Seven Sundays responded to the backlash with an Instagram post explaining more about the circumstances behind the video.

In the statement, the business said the video includes about 26 seconds of a 10-minute interaction between its staff member and the person in the shop. The business said the encounter was not intentionally filmed, but was caught on camera because the store employee had been filming online content “as part of her job description,” and the camera was still rolling.

“What the video shows is our employee responding calmly, kindly and compassionately while attempting to de-escalate and set boundaries around a situation that many downtown businesses face on a day-to-day basis,” the post read.

The statement said the business reviewed the footage internally, sharing it with staff members as an example of how similar situations should be handled, and ultimately decided to post the footage as a reflection of “something that has unfortunately become part of daily life for many businesses operating downtown.”

In a video posted on store owner Sam Murphy’s personal Instagram account, he responded to the backlash the business has been receiving and took responsibility for the decision to post the video. He said their team was consulted on the matter, and a few staff members voiced concerns in the moment.

“I am the owner, and it was my idea to turn what was originally going to be an internal video used as an example of how we like to treat our unhoused community into a social media post,” Murphy said.

“I genuinely could never have imagined it getting to this point.”

He said his goal was to show a common issue that businesses are facing.

“My only intent with that video was to try and shine a light on an incredibly troubling problem we have been dealing with at Seven Sundays that makes our staff feel unsafe on a daily basis,” Murphy explained. “We tried to highlight that frustration in a lighthearted way, and it was never meant to shame or demean anyone.”

Murphy said the attitude the employee in the video took towards the person who appeared to be stealing clothes and items from the store was one of “compassion, care and patience.”

He said the store, in deciding to share the video, “may have missed the mark in some aspects,” and he took full responsibility for the decision.

“I am not afraid to admit when I may have made a mistake, and I will embrace the opportunity to learn,” Murphy said in his video.

“It was never my intention to make a blanketed statement about lower-income communities or minimize anyone’s struggles and I recognize the impact that post had,” he added.

“While I may not agree with each and every one of the comments, I am taking this as an opportunity to listen, to better understand the context of what we share, and be more mindful of this in the future.”

Murphy said people often feel unsafe in the city’s downtown core, calling it a problem that people should be working together to solve.

“Sometimes it just feels like no one cares, and it’s only getting worse with each year that passes,” he said.

“I am so incredibly proud of our staff for how they conduct themselves on a daily basis,” he continued.

“We are so blessed to have such kindhearted employees who genuinely care about our community. And the hardest part about all of this, for me, is the fact that I put them in that position. This is not what they signed up for and it is so unfair to them.”

Seven Sundays boutique, located on Second Avenue in downtown Saskatoon. The store has recently taken down a Tiktok video after receiving backlash for posting an interaction between a staff member and a person in the store. (Seven Sundays/Instagram)

Business supports Saskatoon’s downtown

Seven Sundays co-owner Taylor Cross told 650 CKOM in a previous interview that she believes the downtown is the heart of any city, which is why she and Murphy chose to set up not one, but two locations in Saskatoon’s core.

“The goal was to oversaturate the market,” Cross said in that interview.

She explained that the store first put down roots on Saskatoon’s Second Avenue, saying “We’re very realistic over what we have control over. And to us it’s our five-block radius around our business. We want to tackle that first before we go elsewhere.”

Cross said she feels that downtown is simply the right place for her stores.

“I would never open a business, personally, for me, unless it was in the downtown core,” she continued.

“I want to be in the heart of everything. I want to be able to see the Bessborough. I want to be a block away from the mall. I want to be able to smell the river.”

Cross also expressed a strong desire to support the downtown community and encourage more people to come to Saskatoon’s core.

“I want to make this a safe, comfortable, enjoyable place for people to want to come down and spend their time here, because they do, but there are still reasons and roadblocks as to why they don’t, so our goal is to take ownership and responsibility over what we have control over,” she said.

Not the first disorderly downtown encounter

The store has dealt with difficult situations in the past, including having one of its boutique’s windows broken in May. In an effort to take a positive approach to the situation, the shop displayed the rock that had come through its window – jokingly naming it “Dwayne” – and encouraged visitors to guess the weight of the rock without lifting it. The closest seven guesses were selected to win Seven Sundays merchandise.

Cross recalled a situation the day their store was visited by American singer-songwriter, Hardy.

“We don’t have a lot of riffraff downtown and, thanks to our constables, they dealt with it quick,” she said.

With a staff of 15 people, largely young woman, Cross said safety is important to her and Murphy.

“We’ve really taken the time to train our staff on how to deal with difficult people downtown, how to communicate and operate in a respectful way that also sets boundaries,” Cross said.

“I feel like they’re lessons that are beneficial to learn at any point in your life, so I look at everything as a positive and a glass half full.”

Cross said the business is learning and growing as time goes on, and the difficult in-store encounters are just one of the setbacks the business has experienced.

Downtown businesses have been regularly encountering vandalism and disorder in Saskatoon. A letter sent to city council by the Greater Saskatoon Chamber of Commerce in June 2025 said downtown shops in the city are being forced to shoulder the costs of rising crime.

Asked about the incident during an appearance on The Evan Bray Show this week, Saskatoon Mayor, Cynthia Block said significant city resources have been put into policing, fire, community safety officers and a new Indigenous peacekeeping force.

“We’re not seeing the changes that we know we need to see,” Block said on Thursday, adding that the issue is at the forefront of her mind.

“I have the most amount of empathy for what’s going on for our businesses right now, and it does need to change, and we need to lean in together… we need to respond to the crisis in front of us, but we clearly need to fix what is driving it.”

“One of the main reasons why we started Seven Sundays is to be able to have a positive impact on our community, and that is exactly what we’re going to continue doing,” Murphy said in his video.