Do you think its annoying when your in a shop browsing and the staff think your a thief?

Question

Why is it that when I go into shops staff always come over and pretend to tidy shelves next to me ,because they think I'm gonna steal something. I do not look like a theif. Not that a thief looks a certain way. It pisses me off! Has this happened to you?

Answer 1

my fella used to have a long beard and tended to dress down - (still does, but the beard is shorter). We have always had fun watching security tailing him/us around. If we were so inclined, I am sure he could distract them and I could do what I wanted.
Unfortunately, security guys have nothing but looks to judge by - unless you are a known thief, and there is an awful lot of store theft.

Answer 2

All the time! I don't live in the UK now and I have to say that it never happened whilst I was there. Where I live now, however, the staff pounce on me as soon as I enter a shop and if I say I'm just looking, they follow me around and make me feel really uncomfortable, not to mention very angry. I can't concentrate on my browsing, so I usually walk out without buying anything. I have to admit that it seems to be the usual practice in this country, but if I find a more 'modern' store, where they encourage browsing and leave you alone, I almost always make a purchase. I think if it repeatedly happened to me in the same store in the UK, I would ask to see the manager and make a complaint; customer service and all that! There needs to be someone on floor control, I know, and that's acceptable and necessary with the huge amounts of money being lost through shoplifting. To have someone right behind you all the time, however, is ridiculous and offensive.

Answer 3

I agree that this is unfair and people shouldn’t do it to certain people they should do it for EVERY-ONE, because a thief doesn’t look or dress in a particular way. It’s never happened to me, but I have known a few people that it has happened to. One girl that I know in the end said to the security guard that had been following her I am not a thief there is no need to follow me, but I should let you know that while you have spent the last 15mins following and watching me the old lady that is just about to leave the store has been stealing stuff. Now had you been doing you job you would have seen her doing it

Answer 4

Yes, ive had that whenever i walk into small shops, and when they don,t move i ask them to because i want a look at the stuff they are in front of, and if they then just stand there about a foot or so away and pretend to check other produce, i stare him/her out and attempt to look bothered. But when they are really wrong and ask you to come to the managers office, this is what to do....
Say one sentence only; "I have nothing to hide." Then take all your clothes off! you will not be arrested for indecent exposure, you will be compensated for the trouble. Another trick is when they are in such a position, (usually squatted down with bended knees), slightly nudge him/her as if by accident and watch them do a messed up roly-poly!

Answer 5

Yep, I reckon it happens to everyone from time to time. I find if they are looking at you and you think they are watching you, that going and making a real nuisance of yourself helps a lot for the cal ma. Go around and find rails of clothing with sizes missing pick one item up from each of the rails and then ask the staff member who's watching you to go and look in the warehouse for the missing size in each one. When they get back, tell them you have changed you mind because they look like a cheap shop and walk out. Alternatively, just pick up a huge pile of cloths as if to buy them, scrunch them up a bit and make sure all the hangers go missing and then go to the tills drop them there and walk off after saying oh **** I forgot what the time is, the larger the pile the better the effect. If food shopping just fill a trolley with stuff then go round putting it all back in the wrong place, always a larf.

Answer 6

It used to happen to me all the time when I was thin and shopping alone. Sometimes it still does, but usually only if shopping alone, not with the kids. I am one of those people who like to look at everything...even reading the backs of the products and all that. I do not usually dress down either and usually am fixed up and don't look, you know, a certain way, so that's not it. I think it's that you're alone and taking such interest in the stuff. Also staff are told to watch certain looks, like clean cut middle class looking white people.... Haha. I saw two such girls with the stick straight blonde hair and all walk out of a Walmart in Reynoldsburg OH with stuff still sticking out their shirts and no one stopped them, but I saw them stop to check a black person's receipt. Staff think they have to be racist, ethnist, classist (can't think of the word for it but you know what I mean hopefully), ageist, etc to save a few bucks, but they miss who really steal from them. To staff, here's a hint: they always wear the current trends and you can smell their perfume five minutes before they are near you...and mommy has $100k+ salary....

Answer 7

It only happened to me once. I was cornered outside the store. I had the clerk put the food in boxes that I needed, to save bags.
I showed my receipt, put my food in car and went back in and reported the bloke to the manager who I knew well. It was a small chain and the idiot who asked if I had a receipt just happened to be there.
I proceeded to blow up, then called the company office, and finally, refused to go back for a couple of years. If they do not trust their customers, I don't think I care to shop where the clientele is of such questionable morals!
Finally, I can understand why some do steal. The prices they are getting for food! The real thieves are the ones setting prices!
Now ending rant....except...
Places like that can kiss my *rse!

Answer 8

I think they are just trying to think of a way of opening a conversation with you with the intent to sell their merchandise. If you are doing nothing wrong, you needn't be defensive, just go about your business. Retail businesses take great losses due to theft, it doesn't seem unwarranted that they are gaurding their valuable merchandise. What bothers me however is when you are in restaurant and have just been served your meal, you take a bite, look up while still chewing your waiter/waitress is asking how everything is, you smile and continue chewing but can't really answer. Once I was praying before my meal and the waitress came over and proceeded to try and converse with me. Didn't she notice my eyes were closed and my head was bowed down. The really need to be a little more observant.

Answer 9

Yeah this has happened to me. I actually went shopping last week and had the security guard following me around. It makes you feel so uncomfortable and I just don't want to spend my money in shops like that. You are even worried to go in you handbag to say check your phone because you think that they will assume you are stealing something. I know they have to be cautious nowadays but I feel they are always eyeing up the wrong people!!

Answer 10

Yes, just before Christmas last year I was in the Paul Smith shop in Nottingham, during the week so it was quiet, I was looking for something for the girlfriend.
Exactly as you say, pretending to tidy shelf's etc... wherever I went.

Did piss me off as I'm in there often and was even wearing one of their shirts.