Holiday N.A.T. Encounters in Grocery Hell

From Banja:

Hi everyone!  I hope you all had a fantastic holiday season.

Things were a...tad crazy at the grocery plug last week.  Long story short, two days in a row we had shoplifters.  These were my first shoplifters, too, and I was pretty at a loss for what to do.  These are long, so I apologize...

The first came on a Thursday.  In the morning, I had a friendly custy come through and buy some drinks and snacks.  We chatted, and she explained that she was at the nearby clinic with her nephew, and they were just waiting for him to finish there.  I said that I hoped her nephew felt better, and she said that she would be back later.  I bid her a good day, and went about my business.

A few hours later, my manager came up to me and asked if I had sold a certain type of perfume in the last few minutes.  I told her no, and she looked quite upset before all but running off.  Not long after that, my first customer came back. She was all smiles and had her nephew and another woman with her.  I began to ring her purchases up, when suddenly my manager and the grocery manager came up and blocked my lane.  My manager softly asked the woman to open her bag.

Suddenly, the customer's attitude changed completely.  She snapped, demanding to know why.  My manager reminded her that we have a policy that states we are able to check bags, and the woman growled that we weren't checking anyone else.  The grocery manager assured her that she was not the only one who we had checked, but that wasn't good enough for her.  I quietly suspended the order, feeling that this wasn't going to end well.  When she was informed that we were missing some perfumes, the customer suddenly stormed for the door, yelling for her family to follow.  My managers tried to ask her again to open her bag, but she bodily shoved past them, screaming that we couldn't hold her and that she was going to call the police.  I think she even managed to elbow my manager in the ribs!

I didn't actually see what happened next, but I heard pieces of it later and put the story together.  The lady continued to make a beeline for her car, while my managers followed (never touching her, though).  The lady, still screaming that she was going to call the cops, suddenly yanked her bag off of her arm, opening and revealing the missing perfumes.  My manager quickly reached in and snatched them back, the grocery manager got the license plate number, and the police were called.

The story has a bit of an anticlimactic bang.  While the police were at the store, the phone rang.  The lady was trying to call and apologize!  When asked if she wanted to apologize to the police, she quickly hung up.  What a strange story.

...

The next day, I was covering for a coworker.  The same manager from the previous day came up to the cashiers, warning us that she had seen a man switching prices.  The man and hisgirflriend came into my line, and my manager came up to me to "bag" my order (really, to check the prices).  The couple were chatting away as I began to scan things.  It quickly became clear that there were many things that the man had switched prices on, and he wasn't even very subtle about it.

For example: 

- There was sticky residue on one box where the old sticker was
- Frozen meat was marked down to two dollars
- My personal favorite: a box of grape tomatoes (normally with a green produce sticker) suddenly had a plain grocery sticker.  The price change?  50 cents.  Seriously, was it worth it?

The woman quickly realized that we were checking almost everything in their order.  The woman sneered at me before saying to her husband that we could put everything back because they were leaving.  As I suspended the transaction, my manager followed the couple outside and told them that they were no longer welcome.  When the woman demanded to know why, my manager told her to ask her companion.  She told them that she had caught them switching stickers, and the man simply threw his hands up in defense.  The only thing he had to say?  "Whoops!"  Before turning and running off.

So it's been a strange week at work.  I was almost afraid to go into work after that, lol! 

Thanks for letting me vent, RHU, and I hope you're all doing well!

--Banja

 

Comments

[NC Tony]

At least they didn't get away with it, but yeah, both of those are weird.

[Sales Agent Guy]

All he said was 'Whoops?' Give me a break!

And as for the first woman, I hope she got busted.

[Music Girl]

That's why I'm glad we don't have price stickers. Everything is priced on the shelf -- if a customer tries to say it was another price, I just ask them to show me where it was on the shelf. Sometimes we miss a sales tag, mostly it was in the wrong spot and they understand. Occasionally, they'll try to argue over the wrong price, even if it was clearly not the price for that item, but they don't really ever get away with it.

[The Last Archimedean]

Wow. Guess the first lady had a conscience attack all of a sudden.

Definitely odd. First you try to steal, you don't get away with your ill-gotten gains, and then you call to apologize? I'll never figure out how some people's brains work.

[CharlieWhiskyMike]

@TLA
I think The only reason the perfume thief call to apologize was her fear to get in (absolutely deserved) trouble. To get a conscience this Kind of People Need it hammered with thor's hammer.

@Sales Agent Guy
I Bet The Price Tag switcher shake The fact that he was caught redhanded Out of His mind like a dog shakes The water Out of Hüs wet fur. The whoops dont mean whoops i've done something wrong it means whoops holy Sh.t they got me

[Jami]

Perfume thief could be a kleptomaniac and her family could've made her call to apologize.

What? I'm sure weirder things have happened.

[Michael Chandra]

O_O What a N.A.T.s you had. And I also doubt the shoplifter had anything but her own self-preservation in mind when calling to 'apologize'.

However, I've got to say I'd work along better if they immediately went "some items have suddenly gone missing so we're checking people to try to find them". In fact if I was told that with proper honesty, I'd immediately open my bag and let them check, then thank them for being straight with me.

[Skittles]

To be fair she was right your manager had no right to search her bag unless he physically witnessed her putting the items in it. The store can have whatever policies they want but walking through the door does not now nor will it ever nullify the 4th amendment. I'm glad she got caught all the same, as she clearly deserved it.
As for the price swithchers how do people think that will work. I mean cashiers see the same items all the time, of course they will notice.

[Banja]

Hey guys! Yeah, I do wish my managers had a bit more evidence; I have to admit that my heart jumped into my throat when the lady got in our faces, and I had that moment of "Oh god what if they're wrong?"

Thank god we're switching to scanners soon. I have to admit I don't know the price of every item in the store, so that will hopefully cut down on price switchers. Thank you all for your comments! =D

[TechTyger]

Skittles, the fourth amendment applies to governments, not stores.