People.
When I say people however, I do not mean regular joe average peeps who PAY for their purchases, I mean shoplifters.
Back in the day, approaching a shoplifter was actually sort of entertaining. There was no threat of violence, no threat of prosecution. My various teams and I found it quite amusing and I ended up throwing more than one oversized, machismo male, out of my store. I should also mention I have had merchandise thrown at my face and have been called every name in the book. While managing for a large animal supplies retailer I even had a gang banger with a tear drop tattoo pick up a shopping cart and lob it at me. Yes, the trailing of shoplifters has gotten to be less fun.
Laws protect these leeches on society you see and every retailer I've ever worked for has had rules in place to protect not only the employee but the shoplifter. Larger retailers have in house loss prevention and these people are insured so they can tackle the ever lovin out of a thief and the ramifications are not great.
In my particular volume size however, the general rule is kill em with kindness. Or as I like to say, get up in their shit!
The first shoplifter I ever encountered has forever remained etched in my mind and now, some 20 years later, I can still see him as clear as day. This was a middle aged man shopping with about a four year old little boy. To illustrate how long ago this happened I will tell you he was stuffing Disney movies in clamshell boxes into his jacket. DVDs did not even exist.
I came around the corner to witness this man doing just as I said. He had already stuffed like four or five clamshells in his jacket. A clamshell, for those wondering, in the industry was an oversized plastic case for VHS with illustrative cover art. Many of you probably still have these in your collections. They didn't fit on the shelf with your regular VHS movies and in general just made your collection look really put of sorts.
But I digress.
So this guy is stuffing these movies into his jacket as I venture around the corner, and here is what my badass, tough as nails retail manager, clear headed, leadership in action, brain could muster:
"Hey! Put those back!"
Now I recognize in the scheme of things, a little more discretion and I could've nailed the bastard, and I further realize I could've been shot, but that wouldn't be the last time I'd be in that situation and I'm not dead so I'd say it went off rather well,
Again, digressing.
"Hey, put those back!" I say.
And do you know what he said? Can you even fathom what this scum of the earth shoplifter from the underbelly of humanity did?
He turns to the innocent, four year old little boy in his charge. Turns to him and looks right at him and says.....wait for it.....
"Now I can't get that for you."
He says this and I am guessing puts a horrifying and unjustifiable sense of shame into this sweet, innocent four year old. He then begrudgingly puts the movies back on the shelf and storms away with his child.
Not for nothin but that was the day I broke my own jaw as it hit the ground.
It was also notably, one of the Mommyhood defining moments of my life. I realized that people suck. Hardcore. And there wasn't a damn thing I could do about it.
Here endeth the lesson.
No comments:
Post a Comment