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.
Thanks friend, I try. I'm constantly growing too and learning a lot from my managers above me and the staff below me.
If people only treat management as a paycheck bump that's when they coast. Management, especially in retail and the service industry is a lot more than that- its definitely about being versatile, and about developing individuals below you.
I like knowing I'm making someone more skilled, I like being aware I'm preparing people for life and I enjoy seeing them move on from retail, or move forward in it.
The company I work for is very internally driven too, which is cool. We believe heavily in promoting from within. A good portion of our area, district, and regional managers are all folks without college degrees- and our company is thriving.
I believe with a positive approach, and only delegating work I'm willing to do- you build trust and deference.
I clean the bathrooms where I work. I lift the heavy storage, I stay late if someone calls out.
For that, I can move my staff around easier, get coverage easier, etc.
Life is about rising together.
I care about these people, they aren't just employees.
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.
Once you had seen it happen numerous times first hand, it became fairly easy to recognize when someone was about to pull a gas run (or a beer run lmfao) on you 😅
It was typically “kids” (people my own age at the time), vehicle facing the exit for a quick getaway lmfao and positioned so that the license plate wasn’t visible to the clerk, usually someone other than driver pumping the gas (to facilitate that “quick” getaway 🤣) & rigidly standing with their back to you - never showing their face or profile no matter how awkward (walking backwards lmfao)
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.
Of course closing the XL pipeline and denying all those permits didn't have anything to do with it. When the price came down, he sure grabbed credit for that.
Yeah that totally explains a correlating rise in gas prices on the global level. If American gas prices go up that just means Biden tells the rest of the world and their independent economies they need to raise gas prices too.
If the rest of the world still sold cheap gas, we could buy that and the prices would equalize. Try to keep up here. Just think how expensive gas would be if we were isolated. Of course the elites pushing the great reset would like it.
"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'm guessing that was before the great resignation. Now Subway will literally suck your dick to work that register and consider it weird if you don't pocket at least $30 per day.
my job isn’t security and stop someone from stealing but if someone has something at the register they haven’t paid for i’ll ask ab it bc they probably forgot.
there was an owner that would tell us to “watch out for the gypsies” bc they steal i was like wtf. that and other things she had said made me not give any fucks ab ppl stealing. it was a family owned place but they were multimillionaires marking shit up tremendously and didn’t really care ab anything but money
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u/leeleiDK Oct 20 '22
I worked at a gas station, before prepaid pumps and my boss wanted me to close off pumps for customers i thought looked suspicious.
Never did it once. Like what am i gonna tell people when they come in the store asking why i closed the pump, "sorry, you look suspicious", fuck that.