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Retail Theft Detectors and False Alarms?
NichardRixon asks: "All too often I set off the 'shoplifter alarm' when leaving a major department store in my area, after purchasing OTC medicine. Even though I make a point of watching the cashier 'clear' the boxes, it is evidently an imprecise process. As often as not the alarm goes off as I leave, and the security person wants to look through my bag and compare what's found with my reciept. People passing by give me the evil eye, evidently assuming that I've been caught stealing.
This has happened so so many times that my new policy is to refuse to stop for the search, telling the gaurd that they will have to tackle me, and of course they just let me go.
Shouldn't stores be required to use more reliable equipment?" What's worse is that there are many retailers that are just plain apathetic to the alarm. What's the point of having these detectors if all they are is continuing source of false alarms? What good will they be when they catch a real theft in progress and no one reacts properly because of their questionable history?
"It happened to my wife the other day, however, and she felt as though she had no choice but to wait several minutes, embarassingly on display to other shoppers, for the arrival of the manager.
I was wondering if other Slashdot readers have been having similar experiences and if so, how they deal with them."
A deterrant. Retailers don't care if they alarms are reliable; they use them to deter many of the casual wannabe shoplifters out there. And apparently they work, because the big retailers with analysts out the wazoo use them.
-- Microsoft is the most expensive commodity operating system and office suite vendor in the marketplace.
When this happens to me (*every* time I go to Home Depot, by the way), I just just walk away purposefully, ignoring the cries of "Sir! Sir! You set off the alarm". I don't make eye contact, I don't speed up or slow down. Just ignore. It feels good when you finally reach that Zen-like state of perfect ignoring.
:-)
I made the mistake of stopping once and had to sit there while they wasted my time rooting through all my bags. And yes, it's a waste of *my* time--It's not my duty to give them peace of mind. I guarantee they won't go out of their way to give *me* peace of mind.
This is the same way I handle the bozos at the end of the Fry's line that insist on checking eveyone's bag. I just scoot on past and ignore everything they say. The Fry's guys won't chase you though; The Home Depot people do.
-David
There. Now go play some cool javascript games!
I agree that you should complain, repeatedly, and in writing to the management/owners. However, at the same point, at no time did I agree to be held against my will and/or searched simply because some buzzer and a flashing light went off while I was exiting the store. If the store feels that I have shoplifted, they are perfectly free to either place my under citizen's arrest, or more likely, call the police and report it. However, since they will be able to provide no proof (I guarantee I didn't steal anything) and very little in the way of evidence, I highly doubt the police will even respond.
AS far as perfecting it, if I were a retailer, I'd rather have it get an extra 99 people out of a thousand who were innocent but also get the one person who was actually stealing something than not go off.
Yes, it's that mentality that encourages people to buy car alarms that go off all hours of the night because a loud truck drives by, or a rainstorm sets it off. Better to inconvenience/alienate/embarrass customers, rather than pay for a decent system, right?
Media Play, one of my least favorite stores for regularly priced merchandise (great clearance prices), has one of those lousy theft alarm systems that go off all the time. The staff don't care, rarely bothering to look up when it goes off. I saw a young hoodlum obviously pocketing XBox games and mentioned it to one of the drones at the service desk. No interest. The kid didn't set off the alarm, he had a nice, lined pouch in his coat... quite popular among thieves at the mall. Maybe we should all have foil-lined bags to put our purchases (or thefts) in before we leave the store...
Here come da fudge!
If it bothers you too much after you paid for the merchandise and the alarm goes off and you are stopped by the security people, do this - After they are done searching for those items on your receipt, you tell them that now you would like to return those items as you have no desire to take them home after the embarrassment caused to you.
See, that's the difference between Red and Blue states.
Blue state resident: "Good sir, under what authority would you be apprehending me?"
Red state resident: "Son, did you know this is a right-to-carry state?"
Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?