One time, my previous store manager was walking next to a shoplifter. She told me to watch the woman, but decided to handle the situation herself.
“Hey, you. Yeah, I’m talking to you. I know you, don’t I? Yeah, I’m sure I know you.” And the woman keeps saying, no, she doesn’t recognize my manager. “Where are you from?” My manager starts naming different places, “Yeah, I’m sure I know you, I got friends all over. I’m sure they know you, too. I know your face, I don’t forget a face.”
I was standing there totally amazed, but my manager was quite protective of her store and her employees. She didn’t stop, until the woman stepped by the door, and pulling a pile of denim out of her bag, throws it on the floor–it was our denim she tried to steal. The shoplifter leaves, but after the door closes behind her, she sticks her middle fingers at my manager and starts to swear up a storm. I was thoroughly impressed. I have never gotten the chance to do this, but one can only dream, right?
So my manager casually picks up the denim, handing them to me, asking me to put them back where they belong. She smiles and then she walks away.
Tags: denim, employee, i know you, i'm talking to you, jeans, retail, sales, salesperson, shoplifter, smiles, steal, stole, store, take, thief
Memoirs of a Retail Salesperson 
May 7, 2010 at 9:45 pm |
[…] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Adam Petrovsky. Adam Petrovsky said: Shoplifter: I Know You « Memoirs of a Retail Salesperson http://bit.ly/dxMg8v […]
May 9, 2010 at 2:36 am |
Great points! I will be checking back here often!
May 13, 2010 at 12:18 pm |
Geez, I don’t know if my mouth would be able to catch up with my mind if I ever tried to do that to a shoplifter. I always get really hot in my cheeks and feel a bit shaky like I’m about to get into a fight when approaching would be thieves. Your manager was very brave to do that. And better to do something about it than to ignore it and take another loss.