at stores that have a “do not interfere with shoplifters” policy, are people able to just walk in, take whatever they want, and leave without paying; or are there repercussions at some point?
In: Other
My mom works for Kohl’s and it’s become such an insane problem. People will just walk in, load up a cart full of stuff, and walk out. The employees know who these people are when they walk in but they’re literally forbidden to do anything at all. It’s so wild
In my experience, the repercussion is a police report, and handing over of video surveillance. Police open investigation(s) (which can mean MANY things depending on the situation) and often times arrests are indeed made.
So yes, go ahead and walk out with product. Eventually, you’ll be caught.
ELI5: why would anyone sane risk being shot, or even hit, for the sake of a megacorporation’s profits?
I worked at a major chain hardware store. Ppl would routinely and casually carry out large sets of power tools. It happened so often that we would barely look when door alarms went off. We were kept so busy that we just didn’t have time or care.
In my short experience in Australian retail, they haven’t stolen anything until they’ve left the shop. Policy was let them leave, call manager/ security.
employers don’t want to pay the workers comp or deal with the lawsuits from the injured employees or their family.
When I was in retail, our job of loss prevention was to just ask people who we saw shoplifting or who did certain things (like buy dishwasher detergent in bulk?) if they needed help finding anything. That was it. Evidently that was enough to deter a lot of people.
Also your employee getting shot or stabbed is going to be a hell of a lot more expensive than anything that could be shoplifted in one go.
Other folks have mentioned other shoplifting prevention stuff, but I knew a guy who was banned from Walmart because he shoplifted like a bag of chips or something idk, so there are things put in place for lesser offenses.
He was really hungry and struggling. I don’t blame him, but I hope he’s found better access to food since.
https://www.pleasantonweekly.com/courts/2024/06/06/two-sentenced-in-shooting-death-of-pleasanton-home-depot-employee-last-year/
Long story short, nobody should die for trying tonearn a paycheck;
“Blake Mohs was a loss prevention employee at the Home Depot on Johnson Drive in Pleasanton who tried to stop Knapps as she attempted to walk out with a large yellow Dewalt box without paying, according to court documents. When Blake Mohs intervened, Knapps shot him and ran to the getaway car driven by Guillory before the two fled the scene with their 21-month-old daughter in the vehicle.”
I worked in a mall in college like that. Not only could WE do nothing, the mall security guards couldn’t do anything other than follow criminals while they called the real police. Being attentive employees fought most of the theft (higher-end clothing sales, few people in the store at once, good management/culture).
But we did have a few good lines to use to basically call them out.
“Would you like me to hold those (bootcut size 26 falcon jeans) at the register for you while you shop?”
“I have a great purse that matches our black clutch that you have in your bag right now”
Stuff along those lines. I never personally got to say anything like that, but boy would I have loved to see the look on their face if I did… basically we would just be able to shame/embarrass them into returning the merchandise if we did.
But if they said “no thanks, I’m just walking out with this” we were just basically to say “cool, have a nice day”
One time I was given a $100 gift certificate to target for Christmas. I never shopped there so I wasn’t sure what to buy. Went in and walked around the store checking stuff out. Didn’t do anything our of the ordinary. I picked stuff up and read boxes, for example a nice pair of headphones, pc mouse, car stuff.
Security came up to me and started interrogating me as if I were actively stealing shit. I was like uhh what? No I’m literally shopping because I was given a gift card. He didn’t seem to believe me and watched me from a distance for the next half hour.
I ended up spending $300 on a bunch of random shit. Spent the next hour taking my time collecting all the stuff I could. After checking out they stopped me and verified every single item was paid for.
Fuck that dude. Haven’t gone back to that target since.
Latest Answers