/ot/ - off-topic

Have people pay when they're placing their order and before they've received their food, rather than at the end?

>>20915
Eh, but then you have the risk of the restaurant giving you shifty food, and try to take back the money even though you have the right to take it back. Its complicated because it'll have a lot of loopholes on both sides.

>>20912
The unfortunate part of the service/retail industry is your ability to intimidate and guilt potential thieves.

When I was in clothing retail, we'd get Kors purses and other major brand names, but our franchise foolishly placed the purses very close to the doors. Their logic was that customers would be more drawn-in if purses were the closest to the windows and would be the first thing they shopped for.
The unfortunate effect was that this attracted lifters who would pretend to browse purses, place their choices all on a single rack closest to the doors, and then dash them as they escaped in a getaway vehicle. There was nothing we associates could do to legally stop them, and we were threatened with termination if we physically/verbally intervened.

Our management's solution was to do "enhanced customer service," where we basically bother suspected thieves (unfortunately they were profiled as black/hispanic…and it was true), and generally follow them around in the store while "doing work."
One time a reported lifter was spotted in our store and I was made to stand by the doors to "greet" customers. This intimidated/guilted the thief, and she bailed because she knew I was there despite having no actual ability to do shit.
I was promised a gift card for "stopping theft" but my manager never pulled through with corporate, though I'm sure if I did my preventative job wrong I would have gotten reprimanded.

TL;DR There's really nothing to be done about these creeps besides pics/full body descriptions, and typically it's up to other non-employees to whiteknight us because we're contractually tied up to not tirade against the "accused."

>>20967

It's a hard fact to get over indeed, but being black myself I also get profiled as a "thief" based on my skin color alone (despite having money to buy things). I understand that the reasoning they do that is because the majority of shoplifters fit that category, but it's not right to assume someone is going to steal just because of that. I've worked at Target a while back and remembered talking to the security guard about how many young and old white people were stealing left and right. There's a much better way about going to stop thieves without profiling them.

>>21020
One of my coworkers was black, really nice girl and fashionable. She went to my college. She read the newsletter that we got from corporate stating to specifically profile black people, and she started to cry. We all felt really bad for her.

I agree it's a shitty way of doing things.

>>20967
Seconding this.
I worked at a retail store at the mall for a small time, and had to greet people in front.
They told me to look out for anyone who might shoplift, because once they leave the store there's nothing you can do about it.
Once they're out, they're out and you can't go running after them or really call security.