Have you ever been followed around in a supermarket by security for no reason

[0nloop]

I have and as a poc it's usually other security poc who are doing the following. I find it disheartening, I have never nicked anything from a shop in my life and don't need to, I have the funds to afford to buy food and toiletries and trust me being followed was happening way before the cost of living crisis began. I don't act any different to the average joe or Jane shopping in day for example Tesco/Sainsbury's - I don't usually have an issue in say M&S and anyways they sell better quality stuff.

Has this happened to anyone else? Btw I'm usually shopping with my baby in pram and my other daughters - so I'm usually distracted in the shop but it's becoming a common theme.

I have had mental health issues in the past and just had a baby so my hormones are all over the place but stuff like this can tend to play on my mind.

Me, white middle aged woman. Average looking, not scruffy, nor smart. Get followed all the time. Would never occur to me to pinch anything. Just as well, would never get the opportunity. The security tend to be POC. I think it is something intangible that gets you pulled out as a threat in some way. It makes me feel self-conscious which makes it worse.

Yes and then made me open the foot muff of my toddler's pram because he had allegedly seen me stuffing food into it. Needless to say there was nothing there and i was absolutely livid. Apparently i had a pram that shoplifters used WTF

All the time!!! I am a poc and maybe it's the mum clothes too. I always get followed by security and it's one of the reasons why I stopped shopping in store!

I’ve been followed by security who pretend they are customers and I’ve asked them why they are following me.

Happened to my friend very recently. She and her friend were followed by security, then stopped and asked to show the contents of their bags. Like you, OP, they are not white.

I’m usually in my wheelchair when I’m supermarket shopping and I’ve been followed several times around a well known supermarket by a security guard. Don’t know if they think the chair means I can hide stuff more easily 🤣

I get it sporadically but enough for me to be a little self conscious. I think it is how I dress and act. I walk up and down a lot, scrutinize everything and change my mind/forget and go back on myself. I was in next looking at perfumes in Sheffield and was being followed, so I decided to buy the perfume (two in fact fuck you next) from another shop because it pissed me off. I have never stolen. I do try to think "they're just doing their job" but I still get a bit worked up.

I haven’t. My dd 19 hadn’t either until she started going out with her boyfriend who is dual heritage and has darker skin. Now she says they regularly get followed in supermarkets. Makes me angry and sad in equal measure.

I used to have the security guard in Original Factory shop follow me all the time. As I ride a bike I have a backpack and helmet so used to use the mini trolley to push them around so assume I looked suss.

It is fun going round in circles or back on yourself and watching them try to look uninterested

I worked at a chain shoe shop and we had to follow anyone with a back pack or young people with a shopping trolley (the fabric type not sure market type). Didn't bother following people with large handbags or pushchairs though. They were the rules. To be fair we were relatively discreet about it and tried to use the mirrors where possible.

I'm a carer and one of my clients once told me a story about how she was always being followed in one particular store. She was on a mobility scooter. Her way of dealing with it on one day was to call the security guard over and tell him that if he was going to follow her round the shop he might as well help her and pass her things from the upper shelves! And he did!
She now has a very good rapport with the security staff!

Yes, many years ago. He followed me out to my car, then asked me out! I'm sure these days it would lead to cries of horror about misogynistic behaviour or whatever, but he was just really nice and just gave a rueful shrug and told me to have a good day when I turned him down.

Yes quite a bit I think.

I'm white and mid fifties but it's happened pretty much all my life, I must have a guilty face 😂😂

Ditto airport security. I'm always the one getting pulled to the side, patted down and asked to remove my shoes so they can scan them.

It doesn't particularly bother me though and if I'm being followed in a shop, I try to make life easier for security by keeping away from my pockets and not rummaging in my handbag.

They're just doing a job after all.

I get followed around my local branch of the Original Factory Shop (which is so small you can see every aisle from the desk, but an assistant still ostentatiously followed me everywhere). I think my crime was wearing a mask when it was “recommended” but before it was mandatory.

Not in a supermarket, though I notice sometimes they do move near me pretending to put stuff on shelves. That is in smaller shops. I guess they get bored standing around. Happens in very small branches of Boots.

I went into one of those overpriced foodie shops once. Not a deli just cheese biscuits, Italian stuff sort of thing. I was followed everywhere around the shop (only person in there) until it came time to pay and he disappeared for ages! WTF??? By the way am white.

Years ago I was with 2 guys that worked with me. I think they may have given me a lift. We went in a shop and I heard the assistants say "Watch them" One guy I seem to remember was either Indian or Middle East, the other was Chinese. I felt very sad.

Yes. I'm white. Have been a few times. Usually when I have an open large shopping bag. I just fold it when I realise they're following me and tuck it under my arm to show I'm not trying to sneak anything in it and then they stop following me.

By the way I guess I often look dodgy when clothes shopping as I look for the labels in clothes for the size and whether or not the fabric is that god awful Viscose that is everywhere. Unfortunately it is often situated near a security tag!!

@0nloop

it's usually other security poc who are doing the following. I find it disheartening,

Well I do not know the statistics of poc versus white shoplifters but I can tell you that when I lived in Peckham and a new Superdrug opened, there were lots of arrests. I saw it happen. The shoplifters were all black and they were absolutely enraged that the security (POC) had caught them. Absolutely furious!

All the time. I am white. Boots security guards particularly enjoy stalking me. I don’t go into Boots much as a result.

I don't think it happens often, but I probably wouldn't notice if someone was following me, tbh

I did notice when I was looking at electric Toothbrush heads in Boots, and the security guard came and stood right next to me, scowling at me. I walked off, made a complaint, and went to buy them in Superdrug. I suppose they must get a lot stolen, but I just wasn't it the mood that day and it really riled me.
Must be awful if it happens all the time

Had this the other week in TK Maxx, to be fair me and my friend were on a girls day out without our kids and were finding a lot of humour in the silliest of things.

I’m white , middle aged and look like identi kit normcore female. In my forties I was reported to the police as being a likely shop lifter, I had my two primary aged kids with me and their coats over my arm. A policeman stopped me in public and I had to give my name and address and I also proved all my possessions were my own.
I frequently even now get stopped and searched at airports. And my car has been stopped as well .
I suspect it’s because I look so average.

I was in a French Connection shop in Brighton. There was a man in there just standing looking to the side. I couldn't tell if he worked there or was a customer's partner waiting for someone in a changing room. My husband was in the menswear section downstairs and I was upstairs in women's. My husband joined me and as clear as anything the man said to a sales assistant- watch them, stay close. She looked a bit bewildered and asked me if I needed help. He made me feel so uncomfortable. I did not say anything to my husband- he was oblivious. It's one of the few shops he likes for menswear and didn't want to cut him off from that. I will go in there to accompany him but I never look at the women's stuff and I will not buy anything.

One occasion I forgot. I had just bought something in Evans. I walked back a few paces, put my bag down and went to look at something. The woman said could I come over and what did I have in my bag - the Evans bag I got with the purchase so I said that to her and that she had literally just served me!

I do get checked at the Airport all the time. The worst was when flying to Denmark - I think I was still in Heathrow and a guy wanted to check my bag. He looked puzzled. Are you flying with a child? I looked nonplussed then realised "Those are my incontinence pads!" See I am very glamourous when I fly, I out glamour Joan Collins!

One time in House of Fraser. I was in the crockery, glassware department and browsing when I noticed a bloke looking at me and following me. I was bemused. I don't know how easy it would be to make off with heavy bulky items without having bags [I just had a shoulder bag], but what do I know.

So I amused myself by walking around for ages, seeing him muttering to a shop assistant and then her watching me too. My amusement wore off, I got offended and left, not buying anything...and have never shopped in HoF again.