Followed round Wilko by shop security team.

[ThreeWarriors]

I was shopping in Wilko today when towards the end I realised I was being very closely monitored by a very unsubtle security team. I went to the till and paid for my shopping and told the lady at the till how obvious they’d been and how uncomfortable they’d made me feel. She did apologise. The whole thing was very unnerving.

I have never stolen a thing in my life and have no reason to.

I am a DV victim and probably come across as less confident. I also struggle to make decisions in shops so like to take my time. I think there were at least two men, definitely one. There was a lady there too but she was much less obvious.

I was mainly buying stuff to send to my DD at uni and am now thinking of returning it all and buying it elsewhere.

I don’t want to be followed around anywhere by unknown men.

Wilko is dumb for this sort of shit followed me around several times turns out the suspicion was that I was actually a distraction for real shoplifters zero clue about that I usually go in sniff fabric conditioner buy it and leave their instore losses were particularly high at the time and i guess sniffing fabric softener is a suspicious activity

That reminds me of when my friend’s police officer hubby got stopped by the police 😆

Ah, that’s it! I sniffed the friggin shower gel 💡

I get followed a lot, I’m a bit wobbly with a cerebral palsy type condition, people think I’m pissed etc. Always nice but I guess they have a job to do.

I've had this a few times but in Tesco Metro and Sainsbury Metro or whatever the equivalent is called. It doesn't matter what time of day or night I go in or what I'm wearing, if its going to happen, its going to happen.

tbh I think I could actually hire myself out to real shoplifters as the security guards who do it are paying no bloody attention at all to the rest of the store. I can always tell the security guards who are going to follow me the minute I go in the store because they stare at me and then immediately start following. In other stores I get no reaction at all. For instance, clothes shops, I'm fine. Its a certain description of security guard that does it, I don't want to be more specific.

Yep I did have flat lace-ups and a baggy cardigan (but open at the front so nowhere really to hide anything). I had a backpack on my back which I couldn’t easily reach. How they thought I was going to conceal my stolen booty is beyond me.

I remember many years ago when I was a young teenager being followed around a Lidl store and then being asked to open my swimming bag to
Check I hadn't stolen anything would never do such a thing was mortified and frightened.
My Dad went to the shop and put in a serious complaint.

It's happened to my Dad before shop closing down selling off stock he spotted new suitcase grabbed it was wondering round security bloke following him
My dad turned around and said if he was going to
Continue following him around then he could be helpful and carry his shopping 🤣🤣

I think it's shocking and intimidating to be followed like that does put you off ever shopping in places that have idiot security like that.

I have a friend with cerebral palsy the amount of hassle we got on nights out with bouncers saying they must be too drunk was ridiculous.

The very happened to a friend’s son and his friends. He was buying school supplies and sweets, and he followed round and then asked to turn out his pockets. He said ‘sorry but I have done nothing wrong’ and walked off and he was frogmarched to the security office and searched’ where it was proven he had stolen nothing and they said ‘sorry, we’ve had issue with lads like you’. Big mistake. The lad is a mixed race teenager and he called his mum in tears and she came straight down. Unluckily for the store, my friend works for the police and she started reading them the riot act about racial profiling etc. They were absolutely wetting themselves. The lad and his two friends walked out with £100 in vouchers and all their shopping free.

They are doing their job. They are unsubtle as its easier to stop the shoplifters from starting their thieving than it is to run after them.

Wilkos lose thousands of pounds every week from their stores, so either put up with the security team or see the shop close down as its no longer financially viable to keep open (or go to a different shop where you will still be followed). Its how society is now.

Was it in a city centre? There might have been a shoplifter in the area that was dressed a bit like you?

I find it weird being watched and did once just call them out and asked if they wanted to join me for the whole trip round the store (they didnt). Its just odd being followed as then I start to act suspiciously nervous I guess!

It's a horrible feeling! I was followed around Superdrug by four members of staff last weekend. They were not even subtle about it. I only wanted some shampoo and conditioner but I stayed around longer to keep them busy 😂

I get followed by security all the time, I think it is because I make awkward eye contact with the security and I'm quite tall

That’s disgraceful. How ignorant of them to not be able to tell the difference.

I suspect I’m slightly on the ASD spectrum and tend to walk around quickly avoiding looking at people then spend ages reading packets etc trying to decide. So I might come across as a bit different but that doesn’t mean i’m a shoplifter.

They don't know you aren't a shoplifter. That's why they follow you.

They do seem to bring a lot of unsubstantiated assumptions to the table.

The only people I’ve ever witnessed stealing anything from shops are middle-aged white men.

Happened to me in a Store 21.
I'd got a big empty bag & the manager, who looked about 12, told a staff member to watch me.
I SO wish I'd just said that I had a large empty bag because I'd been to Cancer Research shop & dropped lots of stuff off there.. :-(
It's probably been about 5 years, & I still can't forget it because it was so unjust..

You must not be black. This is a regular way of life for some of us.

I was once almost rugby tackled to the ground by a security guard outside Auchan hypermarche not far from disneyland paris. Myself, my friend and my two teenage daughters had gone in for a wander around and had a hand basket, after picking up quite a few things we realised a trolley would suit us better- these were located just outside the front of the store in the main shopping centre. I volunteered to go and fetch one so left the small hand basket with my friend and made my way to the front of the store. I managed to get through the doors and a few steps away from the line of trolleys when this security guard ran at me from behind and grabbed me, and I lost my balance and fell forwards landing on knees, all in front of quite a crowd of passing shoppers. I don’t think he meant for me to hit the ground, but he caught me off guard. I was carrying a couple of bags from other nearby stores and which had those store logos on the bags as well as everything in them had a receipt. After an angry discussion in french/english, (my french wasn’t great enough for him to understand me, and his english wasn’t up to much either so we were going round in angry circles), a passing shopper stepped in and translated between us- the guard then quickly checked my bags, realised there was nothing stolen and then I took a trolley, at which point it dawned on him why I had left the store so suddenly without going through the cashier. The crowd soon dispersed once they realised that there was nothing to see, just an angry now slightly dishevelled english lady and a security guard who was now sulking at the telling off he had just got from the lady who had kindly translated for us, and the fact that he was not the hero of the hour after all.
When we exited the store some time later having paid for all of our purchases he glared at me, as if I had personally let him down by not being a shoplifter- I never did figure out if he was just really over enthusiastic at his job, or if it just isn’t the done thing to exit a french supermarket without purchasing something first. Either way, my daughters and friend found the whole thing hilarious and I’ve always been a bit wary of store security guards since.

OP- you have my sympathy it’s not nice at all to know they are following you, my daughter and I also got followed around Ted Baker in london when she was looking for prom dresses- no we can’t usually afford to shop in there and yes she had saved for that prom dress so had more than enough out aside, but she got fed up of being stalked round the shop so in the end we went elsewhere and spent her hard saved cash.

I was asked to lift my top up as they said I was stealing

I bloody wasn’t I 8 months pregnant and huge and refused point blank to do so. I was grabbed and frog marched to the back office.

I stated that if they touched me again it was assault and the guy leered at me clearly trying to freak me out. Didn’t bloody work as my aunt was with me and heard it all. She’d phoned the police unbeknown to me at the time.

police arrive and this security guard stated I haven’t called you, this is being dealt with in-house.

I sit bemused at this point and I’m asked why I won’t lift my top to check and stand up and say no he has no authority to make me lift my top unless arrested

One of the policemen go bloody hell your huge when’s the due date. Looks like today mate as my water break I kid you not. Security guard still thinks I’m lying about baby and wants me now to be arrested.

police look at him and I get blue lighted to hospital. Baby and I were fine thankfully and I demanded an apology from the store. Never got one mind or any freebie’s not that I’d of taken them.

I'm regularly followed around my local Waitrose by the security guard. We are in there most days as it is next to the station and do our weekly shop there. We spend over 200 quid a week and have never stolen anything. But it is quite unnerving if every time you turn into an aisle or look up from choosing a product he is lurking. I wish he would bugger off!

I get this too. Its horrible and even if I can't find the thing I want to buy, I buy something else to prove I have nothing to hide.

It's horrible. I'm regularly anxious about walking out of Wilkos or Sainsburys empty handed!

Last week i left Wilko with a cheap toothbrush because of this 🤣

Tbh it's stopping me from going in store as much.. and now I stick to Sainsburys online if I can!

My jaw dropped when I read the title as I've had the same problem at Wilko. They escalated so much that at the end, several members of staff were at the exit crouching and tiptoeing trying to get a glimpse inside baby's pram.
Haven't stepped into any wilko since. What are the cameras for anyway?

They do it so the real shoplifters know they've been spotted and will move on to the next store.

Imagine for a moment, you run a shop.

Lets call it... TesWilkBury's... anyway, you lose around 2K a week through shoplifters when you don't have security guards on.

You've done all the courses, you've been running a shop 20 years and you know the usual things to look out for - lots of bags, baggy clothing, furtive behaviour, a certain look, age group etc etc.

You also know that accosting people after they have stolen something and left the store results in lots of drama and the person usually getting away, or if you do grab them, then lots of paperwork, waiting around for the police, they get taken away get a smacked wrist and they're back in a week or a month, at it again.

Do you.. carry on letting this happen .. or..

Do you employ security guards who will occasionally follow someone around who fits into one or more of the criteria that from your experience, means probably going to nick something.

You know from other branches of TesWilkBury's that doing so cuts shoplifting losses down to just £500 a week.

You also know that a small handful of shoppers will probably be intimidated and pissed off at being followed when they've done nothing wrong, however between them, they do not spend £1500 a week in your store.

What a conundrum!

I've been followed, it feels rude, it is annoying because I know I am not a shoplifter - but I also know that they do not know that.

I also prefer not to have the price of the food and goods I buy, bumped up by the cost that shoplifters inevitably pass on to other shoppers.