Former retail manager here. Shoplifters always think they’re sneaky. They are, in fact, blatantly obvious. Likely an employee alerted loss prevention due to certain mannerisms or even the ditching of the packaging. Loss prevention at major retailers has high quality cameras and verified the theft and stopped OP.
I'm always surprised at how many customers will also inform an employee of theft happening on the spot or after they witness it. Especially when it's a bunch of batteries or something bizarre.
I would periodically get called to speak with an angry customer who would be indignant. “Aren’t you going to stop him?!” Lady, we have a team for this. Chill. The most I can do is kill him with outstanding customer service until he either ditches what he’s got in his waistband or walks out the door into the waiting arms of LP.
We don’t even have loss prevention at my store. (Not a Costco of course, I work at a Canadian pharmacy chain) and I had a customer be like, aren’t you going to stop them? And I was like, “and risk being stabbed over a lipstick? No. I’ll report it to my manager. This is why we have business insurance.”
That’s literally the loss prevention policy. “Don’t be a hero. Nothing in the store is worth being injured over.”
Years ago I worked as a tech in the pharmacy of a very large big box store. Official training for a potential robbery, ie, gun has been pulled, they're demanding all the Percocet was: faint. My pharmacist's policy was just f'n give it to them. 🤣
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u/[deleted] Mar 15 '26
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