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On Mon, 22 Oct 2012 21:31:36 +0100, Stephen wrote:
> The only shop that in Britain that I’ve been in that asked you to leave
> your bag/backpack at the door, was Forbidden Planet (SF bookshop),
> before it was a chain. Now they have a Dalek there to deter thieves, and
> security devices and bouncers. But other than that it is considered
> unacceptable. I’ve even been in a bookshop that had a sign saying, “I’ve
> gone out.
> Please write down the name of the book(s) and leave the payment on the
> counter. Back in half an hour.”
Clearly, you don't have enough American tourists. ;)
In all seriousness, though, I have been at a restaurant where the owner
asked us (as frequent customers) to just keep an eye on things for a few
minutes so she could deal with a family issue.
But in the US, if (for example) someone has to leave the front of a shop
and they're the only one working, they generally have to close the shop.
There's enough of an air of litigation that any worker who didn't do that
would be held liable for any thefts from the shop if they didn't.
And there are always enough people willing to try stealing something if
they think they can get away with it. Back in the late 80's when I
worked retail in a mall, I had a onetime friend try to steal something
from my store *while I was on duty* (and when the alarm went off, he
returned the item and claimed he was "just testing" the system - hence
the "onetime friend" status). On a second occasion, we caught a guy red-
handed using a bag with a shoebox in it (with the end cut off) to dump
expensive merchandise in and had him hauled away by the cops.
And a third occasion, I chased a couple of thieves out of the mall and
got their license number to turn in to the police because they'd stolen
some stuff as well. (It was a software store, so the items were fairly
pricey).
Some places are more relaxed about it than others. But most places with
high-end merchandise, they have no problem asking for people to leave
their bags.
Jim
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