When I worked at whole foods they told us to be "aggressively nice" to anybody we suspected of stealing. Like follow them around and ask if they need assistance and shit.
I never understood the co-workers that made it their top priority to stop folks from stealing. I'd notice folks steal all the time and didn't give a shit. Hell, I used to steal all the time too.
Dumb motherfuckers buy into the line that shoplifters are the reason they don't get a raise, never realizing that they don't get a fucking raise no matter how many shoplifters get caught
when i was a department manager the only thing i was really responsible for was making inventory every month. and theft could fail me on inventory (we only had a couple hundred dollar margin in a department easily bringing in 300k a month). so i would only get upset because i didn't want a write up for too many inventory misses
i did know my margins though and we would do "controlled theft" internally using some tricks
now im not a manager and could care less. the girl who used to work for us and now has an elaborate disguise to appear severely autistic so she can steal tons of expensive products? cool i hope it works in other stores too
I wonder if encouraging shoplifters would actually discourage them (those that aren't stealing to live, anyway).
Like- "hey man, I'm just following you cuz you look like you wanna steal something, here's how you can do it and get away with it... No I'm not fucking with you, go right ahead"
Seems like some folks would think they ARE being fucked with and bail