Retail worker rule number one: NEVER try to stop shoplifters. You aren't paid enough, the corporations running the stores exist through slave labor anyway and don't deserve the effort, and the store security will turn the footage over to the cops anyway. STAY-OUT-OF-IT.
I had a shitty retail job for a summer in college. It was one of the first things we were told and it was the late 90s. Let them shoplift. Don't say anything to them. Tell a manager who also wouldn't do anything but photograph them.
We were encouraged to make them uncomfortable by following them around but this was a store 30 mins from Philly. It was an okay area but the shoplifters mostly took the bus from Philly. I stayed far away from anyone who didn't look like they belonged in an office supply store.
(post is archived)