Asda, if you've got a pram, presume your on the rob!

IceColdRum

This all seems rather strange to me as working in retail I was always told not approach shop lifters no matter what and if I really needed to then I was just to ask if there was anything I could help them with (to put them off).

I'd never ask if they were going to pay for the items even if they were obviously nicking them, I don't get paid enough! that's what the managers therefore

Crazy_Jamie

I know they have to be vigilant but would a thief be so obvious?

Yes, they would, and often are. You seem to have this image in your head of supermarket shoplifters being highly experienced and technically skilled individuals akin to the high street version of Ocean's Eleven. The reality is that the majority of shoplifters are about as unsophisticated as it gets in their methods. Neither taking their own bag to place items in nor hiding items in a child's pram are particularly uncommon. They're not being vindictive in approaching you and asking a simple question; they are making an objective assessment of behaviour that is often associated with shoplifting, and approach you in order to put forward a deterrent should you actually be intending to take items without paying for them. If you don't have such intentions, then that's fine and no harm is done on either side. Either way there's nothing to be worried or annoyed about.

shellsuit wrote:

If people have ever thought I was on the rob, they can come and check everything once I've been through the checkout as I have never had anything to hide.

When behaviour is displayed by customers that is consistent with someone who could be intending to shoplift, there is no harm whatsoever in approaching that person and asking a simple question. If you are intending to shoplift, it is an effective deterrent to know that your behaviour has been spotted. If you are not intending to shoplift despite displaying such behaviour, then no harm is done. Either way staff cannot be criticised for taking reasonable attempts to prevent the commissioning of criminal offences.

purple.sarah

IceColdRum wrote: »

This all seems rather strange to me as working in retail I was always told not approach shop lifters no matter what and if I really needed to then I was just to ask if there was anything I could help them with (to put them off).

I'd never ask if they were going to pay for the items even if they were obviously nicking them, I don't get paid enough! that's what the managers therefore

OP said it was a manager who asked if she was going to pay for her items, other members of staff just reminded her they were there or popped up apparently looking for something, in keeping with the training to be helpful rather than confrontational.

Azari

jamespir wrote: »

a couple were jailed and lost their kids because a child in a pushchair took something from a supermarket

Link?

At the very least you are putting a completely different interpretation on things than the court concerned did.

Edit: Or there is important information missing concerning prior convictions and/or evidence that the parents were aware of what their child was doing (or had trained it to do that).

The likelihood of two people being sent to jail for a simple shoplifting first offence seems somewhat remote.

Leory

If I was shopping and saw someone with/without a pram putting items straight into a bag, I too would think that they were shoplifting.....I'm sure anyone that saw you doing it would think the same.

Lip_Stick

OP. I've often thought of putting items in a bag when pushing the pram. Never have though but I was always stashing things in the hood, particular large bottles of lemonade and such like. I've also put large items like boxes of baby wipes under the pram. Never got stopped in Asda or anywhere else.

Once I was in Tesco buying a niece a birthday present. I was talking to my brother on the phone telling him the different types of games they had. In the end for some reason I didn't bother buying one and left the shop. I was halfway through the shopping centre when I noticed I had one of the games in the folds of my hood. I quickly went back to hand it in before I had security rugby tackling me.

I also went through airport customs with a bottle of milk in the hood that I'd forgot about. Security had seen it on the x-ray machine but couldn't find it and in the end they handed me the pram back. It was only after I'd walked away that I realised what they'd been looking for. All that training and they couldn't find a bottle of milk in a pram lol. :eek:

poet123 wrote: »

Sorry, but using a bag for life before paying does look suspicious, as does stacking shopping you have not paid for on a pram. Use the basket provided and you will have no problems.

Do you not realise how hard it is to push a pram straight with one hand whilst holding on to a full heavy shopping basket with the other?

Lip_Stick

purple.sarah wrote: »

It has nothing to do with having a pram and everything to do with putting shopping in a bag or pram instead of a basket or trolley. It looks like you have something to hide, putting items in the bag before you've paid looks like you're trying to pretend you have. It's irrelevant if you were pregnant or pushing a pram, people can and have shoplifted in those circumstances. They are watching you for a good reason, your suspicious behaviour, so don't change where you shop, change how you shop.

So whilst they are watching the OP, junkies are walking out with large flat screen tvs. Generally shop lifters have something in common. They try to hide what they are doing.

mildred1978

Lip_Stick wrote: »

Do you not realise how hard it is to push a pram straight with one hand whilst holding on to a full heavy shopping basket with the other?

Depends on the pram. I can easily steer mine one handed - even up hill - and have often pushed a shopping trolley/carried a friend's child or big cake/birthday present in the other hand.

Lip_Stick

mildred1978 wrote: »

Depends on the pram. I can easily steer mine one handed - even up hill - and have often pushed a shopping trolley/carried a friend's child or big cake/birthday present in the other hand.

Bet you danced a jig at the same time.

mildred1978

Lip_Stick wrote: »

Bet you danced a jig at the same time.

Not quite!! :rotfl: