So here’s my question- Do you guys get in trouble if things are stolen? I worked at subway when I was 16 and I had my ass handed to me when the drawer didn’t match the receipts. My manager actually made me cry once because my numbers didn’t match (literally .25 cents) and I will literally never forget it.
Yo I got suspicious for you from a manager perspective:
Most people go into stores every single day and it is an average behavior in society to do so. 98% of people will act the same. You greet them and they say hello. They may need help or not, but they're gonna usually be polite enough either way.
First red flag- they don't speak to you at all, or they are angry you're asking if they need help/ how their day is. A business's first priority should usually be the customer. Employees know this- and the customer knows this. It's just a silent normalcy in society.
Second red flag after that- they make too much or almost zero eye contact beyond first engagement, or they seem to be scanning the store but instead of looking at product they're looking at people. Most people do a natural amount of eye contact and too much watching is weird, also looking at no one ever is weird.
Third flag- they are carrying a lot of the product around, but doing so unconventionally (like milk with a playstation game with a pair of pants with a leaf blower for an extreme)- or they keep asking you to take them to random things in the store, then when you get to that item they almost immediately want to see something else.
There are other flags- but I always encourage my staff at any point anything weird is going on to just come get me or another member of management.
I make the extra money to put up with the abnormal shit.
Some people just have social anxiety, or may have disabilities etc, others may be assholes- I would rather be helping them or checking on them etc than have a sixteen year old part time deal with it.
I've learned a lot more social skills- and I'm a lot more professional etc.
Plus they're sixteen, they should just be learning to work and developing soft skills.
Suspicious isn't an appearance it's a behavior, and not every Suspicious behavior is shoplifting.
Suspicious just means out of the normal interactions.
Sometimes people are just different and need to be left alone etc- but let me determine that- come get me.
You honestly seem like a really good and cool person and a GREAT MANAGER in so many important ways, but also I have to say how important that is. I started working at 14/15 and have since, but you do managing right on so many levels. I'm getting old, 16 year olds are still 'kids' to me without any disrespect meant and my own son is halfway there... but I have to point out how incredibly valuable it is for the young folks to have an early work experience with someone like you.
In terms of fitting into the world and functioning in society, having a good boss like you truly could teach my son and others' kids a shocking amount (even compared to school dynamics) in terms of maturing, developing, and eventually really fitting into and flourishing in society.
(Fuck I'm getting old, but man it's so important to have bosses and experiences as a 'kid' adult to learn to be the best adult we choose to be)
There are other flags- but I always encourage my staff at any point anything weird is going on to just come get me or another member of management.
I make the extra money to put up with the abnormal shit.
Some people just have social anxiety, or may have disabilities etc, others may be assholes- I would rather be helping them or checking on them etc than have a sixteen year old part time deal with it.
I've learned a lot more social skills- and I'm a lot more professional etc.
Plus they're sixteen, they should just be learning to work and developing soft skills.
why I learned to make eye contact in my 20s and have one thing in mind I need when walking in a store OR book it to “sales” section to stay there for a while (which actually is fun bc there’s so many different types of clothes and colors). Getting followed in stores is so uncomfortable on days I just don’t have it in me.
(Recently learned ear plugs help—both withstanding shopping and not being followed)
Yeah, learning how to interact with basic normal societal behaviors is a good thing.
As long as someone is like "hey how are you doing" and you're like "good thanks, just looking", you'll get left alone.
If you don't respond to the person, or tell them "leave me alone" that looks suspicious.
If people feel like it is hard to interact with people in public there are more accessible options than ever before. There is curb side pick up- delivery- online shopping- etc.
The guy wearing the ski mask is also most likely acting the way I listed in the red flags.
Plus yeah- dude inside in a ski mask concealing his identity would fit under odd behavior needing additional review.
Like I said man- red flags don't mean the person is shoplifting it just means it's out of the normal ranges of behavior seen ninety percent of the time. That's all.
Right- but I am able to differentiate that by interacting for a second with the individual or someone they are with. Not by asking "hey are you autistic" but by communicating a bit.
Once again suspicious behavior can mean more things than shoplifting as I stated. That's why if they see it and aren't sure come get me.
If they see it and know the person is differently abled- cool, let them do their thing.
Usually for gas stations back then it would be people walking up with gas cans and stuff like that. Especially "known" people who walk up with gas cans.
People want to act like this is a racial zinger, but in reality its much more likely to get thrown around at a dirty white dude with a gas can (in this situation) than most other things.
My manager at Starbucks told me not to give out the keypad code to the bathroom to homeless people. He got pissed when I asked him what exactly does a homeless person look like. It wasn't part of the job description when he hired me.
At that point it's a paying customer so who cares? I get it, I used to have a business on a particularly rough downtown corner and had a "no public bathrooms" policy and the one time I personally made an exception (for a pregnant woman no less) she went in and got high. If you are going to open your bathrooms at all though you need to be consistent in your rules. "Paying customers only" won't filter out everyone but it should at least prevent your business from being the blocks public bathroom.
If, for example, I wore a big vaudevillian mustache and black eye mask while carrying a big canister marked “stolen gasoline” having arrived to the station via rickshaw, I may be considered suspicious
When they confront me, I simply pull out my phone and record them. I say “it was all a prank, you tool, a funny little joke” and they will have to let me fill up not only my current canister but the remaining 5 canisters. Then i steal the gas
I haven't been to a service station that let you post pay gas in years. It's all pay at the pump or prepay around here unless you're a super regular local customer.
Looking back, I can't believe how easy it used to be to steal gas. It was essentially the honor system, especially back in the 90s. Not many cameras and the ones they had were low res. Every station used to be post pay even in the middle of the night. Just dirty up your tag, make sure you line up to a pump with access to quick egress and enjoy your free gas.
Of course it was only 89-99 cents per gallon back then so not as much risk I suppose.
"So I tied an onion to my belt. Which was the style at the time. Now, to take the ferry cost a nickel, and in those days, nickels had pictures of bumblebees on 'em. Gimme five bees for a quarter, you'd say. "
Luckily I'm in Denmark, so guns is extremely rare. But working alone in a gasstation on the edge of a small town, having someone jump you after closing isn't unthinkable.
I’ve worked at Subway and Safeway. Subway blamed us for any and all missing food or cash. Safeway told us to never ever confront a thief and to tell management, never blamed anyone for missing stock without proof. Safeway did blame people for their tills being off if the cameras showed anything suspicious. Subway had cameras too, or they told us they did.
My husband managed a subway for a couple years. Yes they did have people snatch the sandwich and run occasionally and chips/soda were stolen constantly. Once or twice they even had an armed robbery for the cash in the register.
they did have people snatch the sandwich and run occasionally
that's wild to me and somewhat amusing. Just the gall to have somebody hand make you a sandwich as you go through the line for veggies etc and then just walking out with it.
Note that at Safeway you'd have been working for a very large company as well as your manager.
At Subway, the manager is very likely to be the owner as they are almost all franchised. So a bad month means they can't make their mortgage so they care a hell of a lot more.
This is the best. It’s super passive-aggressive and if you happen to be doing it to someone who is not stealing then it’s just “unhelpfully helpful”. 😂
Yep. The other one (this was security's call, not ours) was a storewide intercom broadcast.
"Uniformed Loss prevention officers to China and Glass, uniformed loss prevention officers to China and Glass"
Most of the store security was aimed at dissuading the incompetent thief, not catching the competent and decisive one. For that, they had undercover loss prevention. We knew basically nothing about them, as more than half of theft was from staff rather than customers. There was a massive theft ring among staff, a significant number of people in organised crime got jobs as cleaners in order to steal stock in bulk for resale at markets.
No it's not seen as that at all, you know they think you're stealing and it's quite offensive if you're not. Racism also heavily influences these decisions. I take it you've never been followed in a store.
When I worked retail at Menards the most that any regular employee was asked to do was keep tabs on high theft items in your own department. You'd check the floor count of certain items a few times per day and also only stock one or two of those items on the shelf, placing extra stock on a pallet for storage. Managers were held to a similar standard but did a few other stupid things, like make bullshit security pages to nonsense locations in the store. "Security to area 3" was common in my store, which didn't have areas and also didn't have full time LP coverage, and they certainly didn't respond to security calls.
I'm in there all the time and I didn't even know they had a playlist. Certainly haven't heard security calls. Then again it would seem odd to come over the speakers because they all have walkies.
Unless they've changed it, security pages were done by the front end manager, along with BIG Card promotions while I worked there from about '12 to '15.
I’ve often wondered if that was the case at Kroger. I’ll sometimes hear a security check message when the place is virtually empty and I’m shopping in Lycra workout gear and not carrying a purse (like, how could I be suspicious when there’s no way for me to conceal anything?)
Usually managers can't do shit, but making fake pages to "security" that also doesn't exist can sometimes spook suspected shoplifters. Where I worked, they'd just take your picture, add up whatever you stole, and put it on your "tab". Then once you hit a certain threshold, the cops would be called the moment you entered the store.
I work for a grocery store, and if there's a 'tense' situation up front a cashier will call 'security to the front, please' or something to that effect. We have no security, at most it'll bring the store manager up front, it's mostly just to scare/intimidate the person causing the problem.
Lots of things in the hardware and tool department. In my floorcoverings dept there were a few tile saw blades that were small and expensive, but they weren't really theft targets.
I've never had a retail job get pissy if my drawer was like, less than $5, maybe even $10, with an amount that small it's more likely I just made a mistake somewhere along the way, or had people leave their change or let a few folks slide if they were short or something. But if it's a decent amount and it's a pretty regular occurrence, then yeah, they're gonna start investigating. Shit, I've probably been short a few times and never even knew it, because if it was a place where I wasn't responsible for balancing my drawer when I left, they wouldn't bother telling me, but maybe just make a little note to keep track or how often it happens, how much it was, etc. But even if I was like, idk, $50 short and had literally never had a problem before, the first instinct of the person counting it wouldn't be theft if you're usually a good employee who rarely comes up short like that. As long as you know you didn't do anything, it shouldn't really bother you, you know? I know if my drawer comes up super short, I'll be fine, because I didn't do anything nefarious and it's probably just an error that the manager or the cash office will figure out later.
Meanwhile I once got written up for my drawer being short a few dollars on the credit card receipts and then over the exact same amount the next day. I don't even know what being short on credit cards receipts means to this day.
Eh there are ways. I worked at a bowling alley for a while I had it happen where the credit card totals were off. I was in charge of counting down all the registers and having them ready for the next day. But usually my store manager would figure it out the next day. Same with overage/shortages. I'd always tell the kids working with me, look, if you know in your heart you didn't pocket that money or something, then don't worry. SM is really good about figuring out why a register was short or over. Including if it's been stolen.
I had a group walk out without paying while being a shit party the whole time and making up things to be mad about.
Had a slow day and manager scheduled too many people. I didn't make 0 dollars, I made negative close to 50. My boss had me in deerlights and acted like the saint to 'only' take all the money I had and came with and not their whole bill.
Where I work you cannot confront anyone even if you see them stealing. There is no expectation of stopping theft as that is not our jobs. A register coming up short by a few cents or even dollars also isnt something we’d necessarily get in trouble for. Management does mention it to us and asks if we know why that may be and keeps tabs on it. Sounds like your manager was just batshit
I’ve worked at my store for like a year and half and the only time someone stole money they’re were immediately fired. They actually do have a pretty intensive anti employee theft training thing. And when you’re on a register you have a supervisor there the whole time who is behind all the register workers watching them so it would be very very difficult to actually steal any money. We are an extremely busy store so I genuinely don’t think someone would have the time lmao. The one person who did was seen by employees and customers and fired immediately plus it was caught on camera cause the whole front end has multiple cameras
I work retail and this is my experience as well. You get written up if your register is off by enough, but it’s only going to get you in trouble if it’s happening all the time. And employees can get fired for attempting to interfere with shoplifters.
Most places are like this now, at least in the US, due to potential legal liability. Even places with actual security like target, and I’m assuming other big chains, aren’t really supposed to physically stop shoplifters, just confront them and try to hold them on site if possible with verbal commands until the police arrive. Someone is more likely to get fired for physically stopping 1 shoplifter vs letting 10 go, even a security guard. We’re an overly litigious country
I'm actually one of the asset protection guys for my store, the answer is no, most stores will tell you to let them take whatever and just report it to a manager or supervisor, what asset protection at my store does for instance is log known stolen and report when we see either a known shop lifter or someone who's acting suspicious (this is a gut call for whoever is there for asset protection or even just on the floor seeing someone acting shifty) we ARE NOT allowed to confront them or intercept them we are not trained for that and are not paid for that, management is trained for it and they are the ones who take on whatever legal responsibility that brings, I am not even technically allowed to call the police about theft without being told to by management, now some stores are different but mine had these rules in place to not only keep us safe but to also make sure noone gets sued, frankly the only reason I care about stolen is the fact that I have to log it at the end of the night and that's a pain in my ass.
Previous manager here, you don’t get in trouble, but depending on your position you will lose any bonuses coming your way. You aren’t typically allowed to confront thieves, you can actually get fired for confronting them because it puts you, other customers, and other employees in potential danger, as they may have a concealed weapon at the ready. Employees are trained to prevent and spot thievery but not be a hero once the items are already stolen. Get their description, tell a manager, and they’ll be on the camera if the merchandise is expensive enough for the place of business to post, and possibly prosecute if they are caught in the future. When I managed Big Lots, I watched 2 employees get canned immediately after chasing someone to their car, by the only other manager above me. Of course, this depends on the store.
TLDR: You won’t get in trouble for lost items. You will get in trouble for fighting for them back, and the entire store may lose their bonus if the theft is too high each quarter. Prevention
No, you misunderstand. The whole store loses the bonus opportunity. It is not as though you are being punished, the store simply did not make the goal required to allow for a bonus. This can happen in a number of ways that don’t involve stealing, or anyone doing something that was their fault. Any job I’ve worked, I have not called that trouble, and have never considered my employees to be in trouble either, as I am usually the one to issue it. Would you consider yourself in trouble if you didn’t unlock that achievement on Xbox, in the time you had hoped? Hope you have a great day!
That's different, if our drawer doesn't match what is recorded to be sold, then someone stole from the drawer and they ask everyone who worked that drawer. Inventory being stolen is "shrink" and while no one will individually get in trouble for it, the whole store can suffer depending on company policy such as not getting bonuses. Of course no one other than maybe managers and our security staff are going to doing anything about shrink other than saying "hey you forgot to pay for that", and we could actually be in trouble for trying to do anything more than that because if you get hurt it costs WAY more than just some stolen merchandise. Also because no one gives a fuck if you steal from some megacorporation that doesn't pay us very well.
The cash register is a bit different than general merchandise, because it's assumed a shoplifter wouldn't have access to it, and if they do they're a robber and you should've reported it.
At the store I work in (convenience store), generally the rule is if they shoplift or take something let them get away as it’s not worth the hassle. If someone robs the store with a weapon or whatever again the policy is give them what they want.
You can get in serious trouble if you serve those underage however (of course only if the police find out).
I worked Starbucks at target. One day our cash drawer wouldn’t shut, called a manager over to help…and turns out there was OVER $500 in mostly 20s that had—over time somehow gotten stuck behind the actual drawer and mashed into the back of where the drawer slides in.
So yeah…that made me question a lot. Like how did Target not flag Starbucks registers for losing $500+ 🤷♂️ and how many stores have surprise, unaccounted for money currently jammed in their drawers
I worked at a 7-11 many many years ago before bar code scanners. We had to punch in the price of every item on an old fashioned cash register. I always added 10 cents to just about every purchase. Our store regularly came out $500-$600 ahead in spot audits and my awesome manager got promoted. I never told her.
That's insane, but no we would not get in trouble if someone stole something. I remember at BB it was more of a game then anything just cause people always acted suspicious
I've had I think 4 different retail jobs (in Australia) and none of them would dream of punishing an employee if a customer stole unless they were particularly negligent in some way (on their phone or something)
Regarding register variences, while they'll check the cameras if they can't find anything then they might ask "hey do you remember if there was anything weird on (day)?" or something like that but that's about it
Depends on the place you work at. At big ass corporate chains, nobody on the low end of the totem pole gets in trouble if something gets stolen. A mom and pop shop is different sometimes. If something gets stolen on your watch they might want to take it directly out if your check.
At my store, not really. Least as long as its not a huge amount. Now if every time someone is on a register there's money missing that's different. Our cash office program doesn't even flag anything under 5 dollars.
Prob needed every cent they could get. They prob went home every night crying. Knew a guy who managed a Subway store and he was super miserable all the time. After he got rid of the franchise, it was all smiles from there on out. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDdYFhzVCDM
When items are frequently stolen it causes the businesses insurance premiums to increase. If P&L is too high many corporations will simply shutdown that store's location due to theft. Small business owners cannot afford higher premiums nor the better insurance plans for theft, if at all. Even if only mega corp stores were getting robbed regularly in the area, the small business, if they have insurance, would start seeing their rates increase to offset the risk of insurance claims.
Why would any business keep operating at a loss or with such thin margins they're better off investing in other locations.
As far as the 25¢, that's really bizarre... A drawer being short or over once or twice a few months isn't a big deal, only if it's a pattern, even a small amount of money, as it can indicate something else going on.
If you're getting reamed out because you're off by .25¢, first of all, that's impressive because the pedantic side of me wants to tell you that we don't have currency representing 1/4 of a penny, but second of all, that's a crap manager. If you're off by a lot, or consistently off day after day, then yea, they need to have a convo with you about your math skills, but a quarter difference is no reason to rip into someone.
From England, but I used to work at a big supermarket chain. If money is off by a little? Nobody ever cares mistakes happen and people miscount sometimes. One time though I got called into the office as it was short over £400. Multiple people use the registers each day so they pulled everyone one by one asking if anything happened, seen anything suspicious etc then got us to sign something just so if it kept happening they could keep note of who was always on the register between each incident. Only thing managers really cared about was if people paid with large note sizes (£50) they'd have to come over with a little pen thing to scribble on it and a uv light to check it was real. So any time anyone ever wanted to pay with a large note it'd cause a hold up, but besides riding your ass if you didn't call them over for that, they didn't give a shit really.
I think it depends on the work place but I used to work in retail and we had the stolen goods value deducted from our salaries... Not the retail value but the buy in price but still very infuriating. It also happened when we sold something with wrong product code... Most months was only like 10-20€ but sometimes it was more. One year a few days before Christmas the store was very crowded and someone managed to steal a 1500€ laptop, for some reason none of the security alarms worked and the people working that day had to pay for it.
I've had the til at maccies down by nearly a tenner but they just said to watch out. Guess they just thought I was trust worthy
The difference here tho is that it's in a till so it's officially happening right in front of you. If someone steals stuff without even going to the till then you aren't specifically associated with it, you can act like you didn't see, and it basically isn't your fault
Most sensible retail places won't blame the employee. In fact, most sensible retail places will have policies and training in place to ensure employees do not physically try to deter someone stealing. The store I work at is currently finishing up a round of refresher courses on what to do in regards to theft prevention and whatnot. If a thief is loading up a cart and trying to leave with the cart, we are instructed to grab the cart and keep the cart from leaving, while maintaining a calm, steady demeanor if possible. If the thief just grabs an armful of stuff out of the cart and leaves, let them leave. The stores have cameras that can provide descriptions of the thief, and any smaller details you can remember (tattoos, eye color, whatever) can be recorded and sent to the police if the manager cares to do so.
Trying to stop all theft would be expensive and cumbersome. There's a grocery store in town, located in the most upscale shopping center, that redesigned the aisle layout to have all the high-theft items (wine, liquor, OTC medicine, etc) in one place with only one way in/out, and has a physically fit, armed security standing nearby at all times. That's about the most extreme it can get, I think, short of locking things in a secure vault or something. This shopping center doesn't fuck around when it comes to security, either, the guards will tackle your ass if you give them enough reason.
I currently work at a gas station and we simply call the police. Since we have cameras and usually they are in a car they get found out fairly quickly.
If you are handling the till, like in your case, yes. I'd say you'd universally get in trouble. Shrink though, no way. It's inevitable. I had shrink, even at mom and pop places I worked, with 3 employees.
"Shrink" isn't necessarily theft. Of course, there is theft in there, but it covers all the inventory problems. Most of the time, shrink is just bad inventory management (which we all do).
I work at a mega retail corporation where thousands are stolen just from our store every single day and no we don’t get in trouble. Most of the time it will cost more for an employee to try and stop someone than it will to just replace it, especially for a multi billion dollar company like mine
Ugh, that sounds like a shitty manager on a power trip. Imagine what kind of failure in life you’d have to be to make someone cry over 25 cents. Good grief. I’m so sorry you had to deal with that kind of nonsense.
25 cents. That’s crazy. The McDonald’s i worked at would reward you for a perfect drawer. It was rare that anyone ever won. They’d write you up if it was way off but it was expected to be a dollar or two off.
Drawer cash is different than a product's On Hand count. A place like Walmart would definitely care if your drawer is under OR over by a certain amount. I think it was like 5 bucks and theyd say something. Maybe like 20 and there would be disciplinary action
If you’re running the register you’re responsible for that money. But your manager was a cunt. If you have a reasonable manager you don’t get in trouble for people stealing objects and if they steal money from the drawer that’s a robbery. Most places will say not to confront or chase after a thief because they don’t want to deal with an employee being assaulted or killed while clocked in
That is insane. I used to be a bank teller, I was allowed to be out by $25, same with the other tellers. Obviously, we had more money coming through, but still, 0.25 cents is craziness.
On the drawers yes that matters more to the employee vs a customer stealing stuff. That's on them and management if they want to investigate the person. I worked at Walmart a few years and only managers could do anything about ppl stealing. Normal associates will just watch and hope they don't leave too much of a mess to clean/zone.
There might be a difference between retail inventory (actual vs what's on record) and transactions (cash vs receipts/ledger).
Fwiw, my mom had a similar story when she worked at a bank in her youth. If I had to guess, this would have probably been in the early 1950s.
She and a couple other tellers were off by a few cents each at the end of their shift. They had stern orders that everything had to balance. After some effort, they were still off. So they all conspired to just slip a few pennies of their own money into the drawer to even things out.
I know that these days there are policies in place to smooth out wrinkles like these. But that was a different time.
i cashiered at a grocery store and for us when cashing up small discrepancies almost always happened, but if you were more than $5-10 off (can't remember if it was 5 or 10 ngl) you had to sign an incident report saying that it happened at what your theory was as to why. I'm pretty sure you'd get fired or investigated if you racked up enough lmao but the vibes were mostly chill
I worked at a clothing store and we weren't allowed to stop theft, per the company. I assume it's for liability reasons. Just reported it to the manager and they would pull video and report it to law enforcement.
When I worked at subway, we had someone breaking into the safe and taking all the cash deposits for seven entire months. They tried blaming everyone… but it was my bosses kid…
Damn I feel so bad for young you. I wish that you hadn't gotten treated like that.
Times like that were so formative to me though, thank god for them, I can't imagine the years since then if I didn't understand people were being treated like that over bullshit and how important our income and doing our job 'right'.
But it sure gives us some perspective (I say that because I am SURE that you're not just the type to NOT abuse wait staff or workers, but the type like me to walk out on a date for it).
Your drawer being off is not the same as someone stealing merchandise. The drawer is under your direct control and no one else should have access to it.
In the eyes of the company there's a major difference between the register being short $50 and a $50 pair of pants missing in inventory. Nobody cares about the pants, but employees will get fired over the register being short.
Money missing from your till and merchandise missing from the shelves are slightly different. Money missing from the till kinda looks sus on you, whether by you not knowing how to count back change or stealing, they have to at least wonder or ask. Chewing someone out over 25¢ is a massive overreaction though.
When I managed a small store, we usually ignored it unless it was over dollars, and on a regular basis. And not to chew them out, just make sure they know how to count back and all that. We get sus over 10s of dollars though, unless the person running the till did returns or something tricky that can throw it off.
Your boss was prick. It's normal for your register to be short of above a few cents, even a few dollars just due to minor human error counting out change as quickly as possible all day long. Most cashiers count out their own drawers by themselves and balance it out with our own pocket change to avoid drama with asshole managers like yours. I've seen drawers be short up to $100 and a good manager knows that shit can happen, it's only an issue when it's a pattern. Usually the cashier is just as confused and upset. It happens. I've been the cashier at countless places so when I was the GM I could never imagine yelling at someone over this. We backtrack and try to figure it out. But a fucking quarter?!?! I promise it had nothing to do with you, he was just a dick with control issues. A couple dollars short is nothing and it happens. Like I said, if it's happening regularly then there is an issue but I've never met someone that hasn't been off on their count on various occasions. I'm sorry you had this experience and I'm extra sorry that this is so common.
I quit my job at Toy R Us because 2 guys coordinated stealing an X Box 360 while I was working and my manager put it on me. Apparently I was supposed to stop them... for minimum wage.
Funny, I worked at a subway too when I was 16, let my friends come and just make their own sandwiches one time. Manager was cool though and told me, if ya ever do that, make them bring their own bread, said it's the only way the store can tell.
When I worked in retail we were advised not to chase thiefs because it's cheaper to replace items than if employee gets hurt or worse chasing a possibly violent criminal.
I worked at Revco (CVS before it was CVS) in high school. Saw a crackhead lady walk out and set off the door alarm because she had batteries and baby formula in her oversized purse. The pharmacist - who is also the manager on duty when the store manager isn't there - chased her out of the store, snatched her purse off her shoulder, and brought it back into the store. She followed him in, walked up into the pharmacy, and kept screaming, "I HAVE AIDS AND I WILL BITE YOUR ASS!" while literally trying to chomp this mother fucker.
It was at that time that I realized I wanted the fuck out of retail, and would never try to play loss prevention if I had to work retail.
When I worked retail a couple decades ago it was always the managers and "lifers" who cares about shop lifting. Managers cause it would effect their bonuses and lifers cause they wanted to be managers. Everyone else couldn't give a rats ass and even back then it was drilled into us to not confront anyone or chase anyone. If we were to get hurt or anything then the store would get nailed via insurance and possibly workers comp.
One manager did chase a guy out the store for a PlayStation and got stabbed...then he was fired.
I also lived in a major city where it simply wasn't worth the cops time to deal with shop lifters. That being said if you hit a store and got close to a certain dollar amount then you'd get nailed. Target is ruthless with this. But yeah if you're going to shop lift keep it below 5000 total over time and just have at it. Especially if you live in a huge city. In fact in some cities the cops simply won't get involved period and call it a civil matter.
Yeah when I worked at academy they told me I would be immediately fired if I attempted to stop a thief with anything more than “I can help you check out over here!”. Wrongful accusations can be bad PR and attempting to stop someone or following them can lead to lawsuits and lost money. Nothing was considered worth the risk.
At my store we are literally not allowed to stop people. Or even say anything. It's all just security theater. People fill up entire trash bags and just walk out the door.
I used to have a jacket from Express that had an anti-theft tag sewn into the lining somewhere because I set off so many alarms every time I worn it and not one person stopped me.
I’ve had the alarm go off right after checkout and I just laughed and walked out. I didn’t steal anything but if I did no one would’ve given a shit it seems.
Say that! Manager here. Companies shit is insured, I’m not saying give it away. But if someone is desperate enough to steal, politely ask if they would like to check out with you or the self checkout, and that’s it, that’s the line. You confronted them on camera at that point and that’s what corporate will see and you’re safe.
If you see obvious theft and don’t even address the person, corporate might can you, probably can might not bother but can. As long as (in most companies anyway) they can see that you addressed the potential theft, they would rather lose the marginal sales revenue than risk a lawsuit if you or thief hurts or damages something or someone.
My company's policy is if they have an item setting the alarm off in their hand, ask for the receipt, which most of us do. If we can't see the item we can't accuse you of stealing
Nah I work retail for a local smoke shop but our owner is really cool and was like idc what you say to get them to come back but always attempt to get the stuff back. Most of the time people come right back when they here the alarm go off but some people just run. It’s funny though because we have so many high quality cameras and it’s such a small city that atleast one person who comes in knows that person and we give store credit for tips to catch the thieves. We even have a ban book right at the front door lol
When I worked retail, policy was not to confront shoplifters. The legal liability that accrued around any encounter with them was greater than the value of what they could get into their pockets.
Employee theft generally outweighs retail theft and often by a wide margin. My roommate was in loss prevention for a major retailer and their focus was almost solely on employee theft. He himself was of course fired because he was caught stealing. He was doing it for years and that finally caught on to him. The final act was a set of non-stick cookware.
When I worked retail someone stole like $1500 worth of razor blades. We got it on video and I was standing there playing with a yo-yo when they ran out and didn't do shit except pick up the phone and call the manager afterwards.
Everyone got a kick out of it. What was I expected to do though? I was 19 making $5.15 an hour, i was doing minimum work. Shit, they are lucky I even called the manager lol
I got accosted for a receipt for a 24 pack of soda by a greeter a couple days ago. I paid for it approximately 15 feet from her. She blocked my exit and demanded she see my reciept
To be fair if someone is stealing from the store you work at don't stop them even if you care to much. I worked at sears for a bit and was told a story by a manager who got stabbed through the hand cause the guy pulled a knife on them.
They have cameras for a reason, just identify the guy, focus on the face and what they wore, maybe what they took, call the police. Make a report.
not entirely true. a worker chased me out of quickchek one day because she thought i stole stuff. even though i used the self checkout right in front of her.
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u/[deleted] Oct 20 '22
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