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On 22/10/2012 5:16 PM, Jim Henderson wrote:
> That, however, is sometimes true. Parking spaces are generally part of
> the shop property,
I will say one thing about parking spaces in America, from my
experience. There is enough space to park and open your doors on both
sides. In the UK you sometimes have to do a snake dance to get in and out.
--
Regards
Stephen
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On 22/10/2012 8:50 PM, Jim Henderson wrote:
> On Mon, 22 Oct 2012 20:56:34 +0300, Eero Ahonen wrote:
>
>> Jim Henderson wrote:
>>>
>>> Some stores really look down on people bringing in backpacks, though.
>>
>> In Finland we have this thing called competition. If one store looks
>> down on you, just choose the next one.
>
> In the US we have that thing as well, but we also have this thing called
> "shoplifting", which stores wish to prevent, which is why many will not
> let you bring a backpack into the store (or will ask you to leave your
> bag with someone at the front of the store).
>
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.”
--
Regards
Stephen
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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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On Mon, 22 Oct 2012 21:14:57 +0100, Stephen wrote:
> On 22/10/2012 5:16 PM, Jim Henderson wrote:
>> That, however, is sometimes true. Parking spaces are generally part of
>> the shop property,
>
> I will say one thing about parking spaces in America, from my
> experience. There is enough space to park and open your doors on both
> sides. In the UK you sometimes have to do a snake dance to get in and
> out.
I need to visit the parts of America you have, because I find usually
there's some idiot with a gigantic 4x4/SUV/Hummer who's decided to park
right next to me, and invariably I need a can opener to get into my car.
Jim
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> 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 if you wrap a few layers of tin foil around the inside you don't
even need to worry about removing the security tags in-store :-) My
sister works in retail and has seen all this sort of stuff too, it's
amazing how ingenious the thieves are.
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Jim Henderson wrote:
>
> In the US we have that thing as well, but we also have this thing called
> "shoplifting", which stores wish to prevent, which is why many will not
> let you bring a backpack into the store (or will ask you to leave your
> bag with someone at the front of the store).
Yep. That's why the clerk might friendly ask to show the inside of the
backpack/bag and that's also why there often are lockers available (free
or something like 50 cents) for storing the bag in front of the stores.
But no clerk or other staff member has ever looked down at me because
having a backpack. They have always considered me as a real, paying
customer by default.
> Jim
-Aero
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> Yep. That's why the clerk might friendly ask to show the inside of the
> backpack/bag and that's also why there often are lockers available (free
> or something like 50 cents) for storing the bag in front of the stores.
> But no clerk or other staff member has ever looked down at me because
> having a backpack. They have always considered me as a real, paying
> customer by default.
Yeh it's pretty common here especially for people on bikes that they use
a backpack to carry the stuff they bought. In the UK I've never seen
anyone ask to look inside, although it happened quite often whilst I was
living in Germany (even just normal shopping bags that you brought
yourself they wanted to look inside sometimes).
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On Tue, 23 Oct 2012 08:51:39 +0100, scott wrote:
>> 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 if you wrap a few layers of tin foil around the inside you don't
> even need to worry about removing the security tags in-store :-) My
> sister works in retail and has seen all this sort of stuff too, it's
> amazing how ingenious the thieves are.
Yeah, I forget the name of the shoebox device (but it actually does have
a name). The guy didn't remember/know the tags were on the items,
though, but I remember it was some sort of network device (this was in
1987 or so, so it was worth a few hundred bucks).
I ended up stuck in the store's office with him waiting for the cops to
show up. *That* was fun. 17 years old with an older thief under my
supervision. He asked to use the phone to call his wife, his lawyer, etc
- and I told him that the police would take care of that when they picked
him up.
The cops, in the meantime, got lost on the way to pick him up.
I worked for "B. Dalton's Software Etc." - the mall had a B. Dalton
Bookseller in it as well. So the cops came to the mall and went to the
wrong store, and it took them a bit to realize that they'd gone to the
wrong store.
Jim
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On Tue, 23 Oct 2012 17:51:42 +0300, Eero Ahonen wrote:
> Jim Henderson wrote:
>>
>> In the US we have that thing as well, but we also have this thing
>> called "shoplifting", which stores wish to prevent, which is why many
>> will not let you bring a backpack into the store (or will ask you to
>> leave your bag with someone at the front of the store).
>
> Yep. That's why the clerk might friendly ask to show the inside of the
> backpack/bag and that's also why there often are lockers available (free
> or something like 50 cents) for storing the bag in front of the stores.
> But no clerk or other staff member has ever looked down at me because
> having a backpack. They have always considered me as a real, paying
> customer by default.
And some customers would think it insulting and outrageous to have their
bag searched, as if they were being accused of committing a crime and
having to prove their innocence (which in theory is presumed in the US).
There's no solution that's going to satisfy everyone. Some stores do
have lockers, some stores have a bag check, some do a search....And in
each case, someone's going to be pissed off.
The solution that works consistently is to not bring it in in the first
place. Then there's no problem.
Jim
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On 22/10/2012 10:25 PM, Jim Henderson wrote:
> On Mon, 22 Oct 2012 21:14:57 +0100, Stephen wrote:
>
>> On 22/10/2012 5:16 PM, Jim Henderson wrote:
>>> That, however, is sometimes true. Parking spaces are generally part of
>>> the shop property,
>>
>> I will say one thing about parking spaces in America, from my
>> experience. There is enough space to park and open your doors on both
>> sides. In the UK you sometimes have to do a snake dance to get in and
>> out.
>
> I need to visit the parts of America you have, because I find usually
> there's some idiot with a gigantic 4x4/SUV/Hummer who's decided to park
> right next to me, and invariably I need a can opener to get into my car.
>
Go south young man, go south.
--
Regards
Stephen
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