I was in a Wal-Mart (not at all proud of that) buying trash bags or socks or whatever, when suddenly over the loudspeakers came “Security cameras track and record, security cameras track and record” or something to that effect.
My first reaction was to feel rather guilty and self-conscious, despite the fact that I never had any intention of doing a runner with my $4.99 bulk-pak of tube socks. Then I started wondering if they had security footage of my friend dry-humping the fiberglass Ronald McDonald in the entrance, and could I get a copy of the footage for my web-page. Then I got to thinking…
If the Wal-Mart gestapo wanted to catch a shoplifter, why would they announce to the WHOLE STORE that there was something security worthy happening, when it seems like every employee has a fancy walkie-talkie strapped to their hip?
Secondly, had I been a shoplifter shoplifting bubblebath or third-rate sweatshop manufactured clothing (what the hell is WORTH stealing in a Wal-Mart?) wouldn’t you dump it toot-sweet after hearing that announcement? As I recall from my days in retail the merchandise has to actually leave the premises before it’s considered stolen.
Thirdly, how would the security folks know whom to “Track and record” in a store choc full of seemy lookin’ folk (myself included)?
there is a great line in the Kevin Smith movie, Clerks, dealing with this issue:
“Honesty through paranoia.”
You do know, of course, that 9 out of 10 of those reflective bubbles or cieling mirrors have noting behind them. The trick is…which one do have the cameras?
Why on earth would anyone want to shop at Walmart?
Let me think… around here they generally have the lowest prices on all the mundane items we use around the house. Saving money isn’t a bad thing so I don’t know why I see people apologizing for shopping there like it imlies that they are too poor to shop somewhere else. Only stupid people pay more than what they have to for stuff. If Walmart has lower prices I will shop there.
Anyways, it has already been said, they make announcements like that to deter shoplifters. If there was no shoplifting the price we pay for things would be a lot less. I worked for a drug store chain once and we lost tens of thousands a year to shoplifters… who do you think ends up paying for this loss? You and I.
Walmart sells all kinds of things, and some have higher pricetags.
They’ve got cheap formula prices, and they carry cheap diapers that don’t fall apart.
… so that’s why people shop there, and that’s why people might shoplift stuff there (in reverse order)
(hijacking this into a Walmart thread). I have one Walmart near me that is a pit. One is 20 minutes away and is nice. Same merchandise, but I avoid going to the close one at all costs. The nice one? Shopping there is actually * enjoyable*. Yes, that’s right, me, Mrs. Junior League PhD Candidate, actually enjoys Walmart.
Wal-Mart…funny. I personally don’t like the things. Suprisingly, I have only TWO in general area (by general area I mean the whole state in which I live.) One’s forty minutes away, the others an hour. I only shop there if I am dragged there by somewone else. Yes, I do buy stuff (okay, I’m a hippocrip, who cares?) but only things that are SIGNIFIGANTLY cheaper. Certain items (CDs, electronics, and socks) are almost the exact same price as other stores, even though Wal-MArt has a better deal and s always lowering prices. My ass you are.
Having worked in a retail store, I do know that when a potential shoplifter is spotted, but hasn’t been caught or seen doing anything considered criminal, security sends out a generic call like that.
In the store I worked in, the security staff were a bunch of paranoid racists. A black or Hispanic person would walk in the store, and the call would go out. Ours was “Security to the (north, south, east, west) doors”. Funny thing was, the store was in a kind of white trash neighborhood, so most of the people caught (and scores more that were never caught) were bucktoothed inbred hicks. But since the security staff was cut from the same cloth, so to speak, they’d never look at Bubba-with-the-shifty-eyes-and-the-twitchy-tweaky-walk-with-the-VCR-under-his-arm; they’d always put out the call for the minority, though.
Needless to say, they had about $1 million in inventory shortage in one year. Dipshits.
Hey! where else can you buy underwear, a new pair of jeans, bulk candy, and a light fixture at 1:30am? I know I shop there for my jeans because they are the only ones who carry a pair that fit my ass and hips properly. And they are only 17 bucks!!!
And who listens to the announcments at Wal-Mart
True, but it’d be nice if they actually had my size IN STOCK! Everytime I go to the one near my house (2 miles), they have my jeans in the really teeny sizes (in petite) or really huge sizes (in tall and petite). They have exactly two pairs of jeans in my size and d@mn if some jerk doesn’t race me to the display stand and grab not one but both pairs. I end up driving to the one 30 miles from my house, but they always have plenty in stock, not to mention a lower sales tax (over the county border). Plus it’s a cleaner store, and the employees there have a better attitude.
However, I have learned never to go shopping at any Wal-Mart between 11:45 pm and 12:30 am when they shut the entire register system down to close the books, and it takes 45 - 60 minutes to get one register running again, and when they do, everyone rushes to that register, and the one single line stretches to the deli in the back of the store and my ice cream has melted and finally someone finally gets the bright idea “Let’s open another register!”. No kidding, I went into the store at 11:45 pm for a pair of stockings and finally got checked out at 1:15 am. I was not a happy puppy. For all their advertising about low prices and being a freindly/family place to shop, this is definitely a minus in my book.
I heard something like this once, also.
I think they said, “Security cameras track and record section 4, Security cameras track and record section 4.”
I thought the same thing, why would they advertise to the shoplifter they might be recording him, and then realized, as Saint Zero said, it must be more of a preventive thing. After all, who knows which section is Section 4?
Maybe it’s a generic announcement when someone suspicious-looking is in the store? Maybe a group of rowdy-looking teens? Some shifty-eyed types in long overcoats on a hot day?
A relative who works at Wal-Mart alleges that they do it randomly, and on purpose. They have walkie-talkies if they want to talk about a real shoplifter.
The person who does the announcing is usually up front, in the customer service area. The announcement is for whoever is running the cameras. Usually, they try to scan the higher-risk areas at least once an hour. Small, pricey items (cosmetics, electronics) are ripped off more often than the other departments. Kind of random, yet kind of predictable.
A friend who used to work at Wal-Mart once told me that his store had a “code name” that they used for shoplifters and the like. All the employees knew the name, so when “Jack Stone (or whatever the fake name was) to the toy department” came over the intercom, customers were none the wiser, but security knew where to go.
About Wal-Mart: I can often find DVDs there that have already sold out at most other places in town, so that’s kinda nice. Plus, they frequently put DVDs on the shelf before they’re supposed to, so a disc that’s supposed to premiere on Tuesday can often be picked up on Saturday. The downside is, DVD makers put anti-theft tags inside the DVD case a lot these days, and either those tags don’t demagnetize or the employees don’t know how to do it properly; seems like I set the damn shoplifting thing off just about every time I buy a DVD.
Yup. 24-hour SuperCenter Wal-Marts (food and McDonalds 6am - 11 pm), each and every last one of them in a one-hour radius - 7 stores and and possibly another one going up if someone can pay-off the zoning board). They’ve closed, torn down or moved the ‘little’ 8 am to 11 pm stores and turned them into the 24-hour ‘Super Wal-Mart’, or worse, the ‘Super Wal-Mart’ with the strip mall attached (including pet store, various clothing stores, discount shoe outlets, Christian gift/bookstore and ‘Everything for a Dollar’ stores. They still close down on Christmas and Thanksgiving. Shorter hours on other holidays.
Kind of like the Wegmans chain in upstate New York. Started as a small grocery chain, added a bulkfood aisle, gourmet stuff, video rentals, florist, separate liquor store, and added strip malls to the Wegmans store itself (add a Chase-Pitkin Hardware Store to the above list). These monstrosities are now informally known as ‘Mega-Wegs’.
My friend recently got fired from Wal-Mart for theft, but only because a fellow employee ratted on him. The cameras (at least in that store) were for use of verifying theft, not actually observing theft. In other words, if they caught you stealing, the tape would be evidence for court. However, if you didn’t get cought, the tapes would be recorded over in a week.
My friend was fired over a single incident, although he had taken several hundred dollars worth of merchandise (DVD’s, videos, games, etc.). Wal-Mart never found out about the extra theft.
My other friend (yes, I have immoral friends, but what can I do?) used to play what he called the “Trenchcoat Game”. He, as well as several of his friends, would put on their trenchcoats, boots, piercings, etc. and walk around a store, picking things up, putting them back on the shelves, and generally just looking as suspicious as possible. They never stole anything.
However, the one guy who dressed all preppy, who entered the store a few minutes after the others, would load up on all sorts of goods. Then, he would simply walk out, followed a discrete amount of time later by the trenchcoat-wearers. They never got caught, and made off with all sorts of merchandise.
