To think they could have done this in the office not the shop floor?

[girlfriend44]

Walked down aisle of supermarket today where a small group of girls were gathered. The police were there and a few staff.
Everything was taking place in the aisle where people could hear.
Phonecard was being made to a parent to ask them to come and pick their daughter up as she's been shoplifting.
Another girls mother arrived and said what did she steal?
Daughter said its not me, I didn't do anything and the mum hugged her and said you've got nothing to worry about then.
My question is should all this have been carried out in the aisle.
Didn't people used to get taken to the office years ago.
I thought there was domething funny about conducting all this in the aisle while shoppers going up and down?
Did the girls deserve privacy or who cares, their own fault?

I have worked in retail security. Ideally you would take them away from the shop floor, but it does depend. Perhaps they dont have an office anymore. Or if it was staff instead of security dealing with they didnt want to risk anything taking them out of sight, or the girls could have been causing trouble before the police arrived and it was easier to keep them there, especially if they were a group. All depends on the circumstances.

Some supermarkets don't have CCTV out the back so might not want to take potential shoplifters out the back so staff don't have allegations made against them, especially if the potential shoplifters are underage.

If I was a male security guard, I wouldn’t take a female, particularly underage into a back office to avoid allegations.

Or maybe they wanted to take them to a private room but the girls didn’t want to go and they didn’t want a physical altercation. Who knows?

No.it was the police and a couple of female shop staff not security staff.

Child might have refused to move. Or there might not be an office. Or it’s already in use for another shoplifter or sensitive situation. Or staff are (in my view legitimately) worried about what they might be accused of by an upset child or parent, and want witnesses/cctv that might not be present in an office.

I doubt it’s an official policy of public humiliation, I wouldn’t think any more about it.

*Didn't people used to get taken to the office years ago.
I thought there was domething funny about conducting all this in the aisle while shoppers going up and down?
Did the girls deserve privacy or who cares, their own fault?

The biggest issue is probably their safeguarding rather than their privacy though.

I was once with a friend who was caught shop lifting. Both of us bundled into the back room of the store by security guard and giving a right dressing down.

However, at no point was we allowed to call our parents, they kept threatening the police but didn't actually call them.

We were not allowed to leave (or able to, given the number of coded doors and winding corridors we'd walked down) and no one knew where we were.

It was beyond terrifying. At one point an older woman came in to grab something on her break, I asked her to call the police or my mum, she just shrugged and left us.

There was no signal either so the sneaky text id sent to my mum never delivered.

I would understand if it was a short sharp shock intended to scare us but we were kept there for over 2hrs in total. The shopping centre was closing at that point and we were escorted out.

I would take the public embarrassment any day over how vulnerable I felt.

Surely just don't shoplift if you don't want the embarrassment

Exactly. If it was a bang to rights case, and in the days the police actually to deal with shoplifters reasonably regularly, then they would often walk them back out through the shop in handcuffs to the police car as a deterrent to others. Rarely they get taken away to the police station nowadays especially if juvenile, if the police turn up at all.

CCTV will on the shop floor, but not in the office. It is safeguarding to keep everyone in public view.

Also coded locked doors; child out of view... I think the public embarrassment is a safer option.

You can't make her go anywhere if she doesn't want to

Yep. You can ask people to accompany you to the office/off the shop floor but you cant drag them against their will

When I worked in retail - admittedly many moons ago so things may be different now - you were only allowed to confront shoplifters once they had left/as they were leaving - until that point it wasn't theft. If I remember correctly you had to know what they had taken and where it was too. So maybe these girls had been doing something else that needed the police?

Police rarely attend for shoplifters. Unless they had been in previously, reported, and then returned for more

I locked someone up for shoplifting while off duty in a supermarket. I asked to take him through to an office to wait for a patrol car to come and collect him, the security manager claimed they didn’t have one so I had no choice but to wait with him in the store, with a tight grip on his arm.

She I worked in retail they used to have two female staff members go into the security room whenever a female was accused of shoplifting. We had to wait there, awkwardly, without speaking, til the police came - which could take a long time.

I think these days it's probably safer for everyone to keep it all out in public, especially where the shoplifters are teens.

Yes its an absolute minefield now. I am glad I don't do it anymore!

You clearly have never worked in retail and have no ideas of the extent of juvenile nuisance/shoplifting. These youths are getting more violent and out of control. Bringing in knives, riding pushbike round the store, they know they are untouchable. So yes, you are being unreasonable. They deserve everything they get

They don't even bother with knives, they just SAY they may or may not have one

Glad parents were called in

I remember doing this too. Where I worked it just needed to be two staff members, one of which had to be female if the shoplifter was also female. It was so awkward!

It may have just been two staff members, most of us were female though (store was unisex clothing but far more popular with women than men at the time - everyone’s favourite discount clothing store 😉)

Most awkward thing in the whole world, especially when they clearly had not been shoplifting and they were really upset about it and tried to beg us to help them, and we were instructed not to say ANYTHING, not to leave for any reason, etc.

They may have been followed from another store. It dosent necessarily follow theyd stolen from the store they were in.
When one of the mothers said what has she stolen, the policeman said we don't know yet.

Mine was good retail so we’d usually have male security guards and then they’d call a woman over to stand with them in the security office. We were allowed to speak to them but it wasn’t a situation that easily led to idle chit chat tbh.

*food retail. I wasn’t criticising where you worked