There is a trend in shops which is really starting to irritate me. I’m referring to the habit of installing security personnel at the entrace/exit of a store with their primary purpose being to scan your receipt and ensure that you aren’t carrying out an unpaid-for plasma tv screen with your purchase of underwear and a chocolate bar.
The inference in this case is so explicitly clear – ‘we think you’re stealing from us’. A great way to build customer relationships in a connection economy!
understand that they all experience certain levels of pilferage. But I’m sure that most of it is an ‘inside job’ by their own staff or related suppliers’ staff. The percentage of actual theft by ‘paying’ customers cannot be higher.
And yet they insist on inconveniencing me everytime I choose to spend money at their store and not a competitor. And they reward my loyal patronage with a cursory glance at my receipt, a scratch around in my packet and an official looking stamp or signature on my receipt.
I don’t know if this is a form of job creation which the government is enforcing on retailers. But I strongly suspect that it is easier to employ someone to do this than to address the more serious issue of your internal security issues. Why enforce draconian measures and treat adults as cheating children when it’s about establishing a healthy relationship of trust and mutual respect between management and staff?

I had a run-in at Mr Price in Cresta on Wednesday (cos it’s the end of the year and I’m just gatvol) and when I voiced my dissatisfaction with this practice to the manager, I was met with arrogance and contempt. The cherry on the top was when he stated that he could easily remove the security person at the exit but would then have to raise the price of the mechandise to compensate for the increased rise in theft!
Well just as he has the right to do what he chooses in his kingdom, I have a right to decide where to spend my money. I will never set foot in his store again!