“Folded clothes will eventually be touched;
But buying customers are here right now.”
I might have been schooled today by young shoplifters who unknowingly played the stealing game better than I. For one, we’re having a big visit tomorrow, so many people were spending time folding–yet, as big managers have said before, “I don’t care if the store looks like a tornado hit, if there are customers, and you make money, I’m happy.” Who cares if you folded the entire store beautifully, if you spent the entire day ignoring customers? Seriously, I was working my butt off today, trying to make money–our store has been having trouble, people have been losing hours, and yet the people who could be helping coworkers earn more hours are just standing around folding.
This struck a huge chord once I realized there were shoplifters. One of the new coworkers later said, “Oh, I said hi to them.” AND? No announcement of their arrival? Not a care to keep an eye on them and treat them like customers? Shoplifters and thieves have a hard time stealing if there is actual customer service going on around them. I was amazed when I saw them casually walking in the back of the store with their bags full and they were smiling and having fun. Why? Because no one was around them, at all. I rushed by, because I was helping several customers at one time, and said on the walkie-talkie, “THERE ARE SHOPLIFTERS IN THE STORE! They are obviously enjoying themselves, because their bags are full!” Everyone else sprung to action, because they saw who I saw, and instantly recognized them as shoplifters. As I’ve said, it’s sad when shoplifters look like shoplifters. Even worse, there were four of them!
I tried to finish with my customers, but I was burdened with too many, while trying to keep an eye on these shoplifters–even though I’m not trained to deal with them, I’m expected to deal with them. So I’m searching for a bag to get the price, seeing three coworkers at the cash register as I groan to myself. I walk by the shoplifters swearing, saying I’m looking for a bag–which ironically, I know they picked up one of our bags and filled it with clothes. They started to talk to me, saying, “Whoa, you just swore!” I talked to them about ‘the bag’ and refused to leave the area they were in–it was quite obvious they wanted the clothes in the front of the store.
Eventually, I had to move. No one was helping me deal with them, and I actually had customers waiting for me in the fitting room. This always irritates me to no end. As I turn to walk away, they leave, with the bag. Here, they were in a win-win situation. There was no tag on the outside of the bag–they are inside–so I couldn’t say, “Hey, that’s our bag!” They can just say, “I already bought it!” Nor can I legally look into their bag, even if it beeped when they left–although, it didn’t beep because these bags had no sensors on them, nor did the clothes they stole have sensors. I was in a helpless position, and all I could do was stop them from stealing more clothes. Instead, I grabbed all the bags of the same type and put sensors on them immediately.
I then had to leave for my lunch break. In that time, they actually returned twice–with us communicating to all the other stores nearby that these people are shoplifters. I was amused to hear, they came and tried to steal something, but they beeped at the door. Later, I found they tried to steal another one of my bags, but threw it in a corner when it beeped. At least I saved that bag. It just becomes tiresome when I have to deal with these shoplifters, and work hard to sell to customers, while I have to watch other people walking around ignoring customers, folding, and generally not carrying the weight of their own paychecks. Retail is killing me.
Tags: bag, beep, beeping, clothes, customer, four, great, happy, kids, new, notice, noticing, novice, see, seeing, sensor, service, serving, shoplifter, shoplifters, smile, steal, stereotype, stole, stolen, stuffed, swear, swore, take, talk, thief, thieves, witness
October 21, 2010 at 10:43 am |
There is obviously a lot to know about this. I think you made some good points in Features also.
Keep working ,great job!
November 30, 2010 at 2:19 pm |
I find myself coming to your blog more and more often to the point where my visits are almost daily now!
January 20, 2011 at 12:33 pm |
Most what i read online is trash and copy paste but i think you offer something different. Bravo.
January 30, 2011 at 9:50 pm |
Thank you. 8)
January 21, 2011 at 5:49 am |
Just keep making good content. Exactly what I needed! I have been browsing the various search engines all day long for any decent article such as this…
January 26, 2011 at 1:32 am |
Someone I work with visits your blog regularly and recommended it to me to read as well. The writing style is excellent and also the content is top-notch. Thanks for the insight you provide the readers!
January 30, 2011 at 9:50 pm |
Thank you. I try, or at least I hope, one day I can just help evolve the way customer service is handled so it isn’t so destructive on people’s self-esteem and feelings. 8)
January 29, 2011 at 4:43 pm |
Awesome website you have here, it’s well made and has very good data.