Is it just me being put off from shopping in the highstreet because of the constant high alert for shoplifters ??

[TheThreeCheesesOfTheApocalypse44]

Took dd shopping earlier this week, wasn't looking for anything specific but having a browse in Mac.....the security guard was very blatantly watching us as well as the shop assistants pouncing on us as we walked through the door asking if we wanted any help. My reply was no thank you, we're just looking which seemed to be an indicator we were on the rob !

Felt so uncomfortable we ended up walking out. Went into Charlotte Tilbury. Same experience, again we weren't looking for anything specific but DD would usually con me into buying some overpriced thing. Instead they lost a sale.

Things came to a head in Lush, we'd said no thanks to a basket as we always get the same bath bomb and didn't intend to buy anything else.......I actually caught the shop assistant over my shoulder having a good old squint into my hotel chocolate bag to see what was in there. (( looked her square in the eye and said what ARE you doing ?? )) As I went downstairs to pay I ended up saying to the girl on the till that 'there's a fine line between protecting stock and making customers feel so uncomfortable they lose business' and pointed out the girl who'd followed us downstairs. And explained what had happened.

I get it, I work in retail myself and this was probably sparked by the radio system alerting other shops of a frumpy looking mum and her dd but we'd literally done looking wrong. They lost sales as a result, they lost sales for other shops as I couldn't be arsed after that and we went home and they lost a sale for the pub we were going to go to for lunch.

I'm still pissed off about it. Hell I don't even like shopping. Is anyone else feeling like this ? It's just so off putting......I'll be sticking to online and small business owners in future who don't make me feel on edge !

Very strange
Have never had anything like this when out shopping

yanbu - Guilty until proven innocent seems to be the new mantra these days.

Me neither.

I've never experienced anything like this. I also worked retail for years and can only remember a handful of occasions where we had shoplifters.

Never ever experienced anything even vaguely similar. Think you were just unlucky

Dd sticks to the cheaper makeup lines when shopping in person unless she has an adult with her. She hates that they see a teenager and assume if she is shopping more expensive she must be a shoplifter. She ends up just shopping online instead so she can buy what she really wants.

I’ve never had this until recently at Superdrug when a staff member made a point of standing close to me and moving along thr make up as I did. I told her in the end that I was going to boots as I didn’t appreciate the scrutiny; I was trying the testers out on lipstick (on my hand) and was wondering if I wasn’t supposed to be at one point and it’s been a while since I bought lipstick but surely that’s still ok….

Never had this either. Thought this thread was going to be about you being worried about shoplifters/pickpockets which are plaguing shoppers in London. I’m more put off going shopping by that to be honest. A sales assistant can follow me all they want…..at least there would be someone to ask if I needed help! 😆.

Last time I went to London i couldn’t even find a sales assistant at the till in half the shops, they have gone self service. One shop there literally was no staff downstairs, I could have walked out without paying for armfuls of stuff!

I think I look pretty respectable, in all senses of the word, for a middle aged woman. But I am not British and I think that is probably obvious. This happens to me occasionally and I hate it also.

It has never happened in my home country, in London or in a major American city so I do think it is about the fact that I look slightly Continental and possibly slightly semitic.

OP, do you look typically British, or otherwise? I am not excusing prejudice, of course.

Unfortunately in Bath we get it a lot at this time of year and weekends because the shops are so busy that gangs of shoplifters from elsewhere target it as a good place to shoplift and I'm afraid it's not all 'hoodied up young men either' so we are told- plenty of what like mothers and daughters etc apparently- I'm afraid the arseholes out there make it a pain for the rest of us

DH in 20 and 30s always got followed by security- no obvious reason -also always got stopped for surveys. I did when kids were young and had pushchair - never squinted in bags just wondered round shops after us clearly keeping an eye on us.

Sometimes we'd leave other times just ignore.

I assume we fitted some profile - didn't happen in every shop so could leave and shop elsewhere.

I wonder if you had many bags or big coats or something that made you look sus in so many shops.

If you fitted the description for someone mentioned over the radio.....

Anyways, never experienced anything like this. I have no issue shopping.

Did any of you see the recent Dispatches programme on shoplifting gangs?
It was quite shocking to see them in operation, they literally fly people into the UK to do the robbing. The filmmakers confronted the ringleader in his home country and he actually seemed shocked to be approached because, in his words, there are 1000 people of his nationality all doing the same!

Just as bad was the undercover filming of the Cash & Carry wholesaler from Bedford who said he is very interested in buying large quantities of stolen goods.

Really interesting to see how the criminal economy works, but also totally appalling! And they literally do get away with it, either not serving any prison time or pathetic sentences.

I’ve coached my teenagers to keep their hands out of their pockets and not to be too touchy in shops just because they’re in an awkward demographic.

I once got shadowed around an expensive shop when I was a scruffy mum with two under three in a double buggy. It was quite fun. I was just as bored than the security guard so we kept each other entertained for an hour.

I grew a new shadow when I was looking at portable speakers in John Lewis, recently. It was a little unnerving so I had a bit of fun walking round and round the displays, looking more closely at what was available than I had originally intended before buying the thing I'd already decided on before visiting in Fenwick's where it turned out to be a whole 5p cheaper!

They've alarmed the staircases, too, which meant I had to use the annoying and random twin lifts with autistic DS1 when I visited, the other day, as he didn't like the noise and won't use escalators.

Yes

Given the epidemic of shoplifting I am not surprised stores are being quite intrusive. They risk losing £1000's and need to stop as much as possible. Even this pisses off one entitled woman, making her annual visit for a single bath bomb, who thinks she should be above suspicion.

Never noticed anything of the sort in any shops when I've been doing Xmas shopping.

I,can't stand walking into shop and being jumped on anyway, do we want help no?! I don't know anyone who likes it

I'm very much British and white......I dont think I particularly stand out. Bit fat, wearing a Seasalt parka, straight leg jeans and black trainers. Hardly high end fashion but meh. I wasn't wearing make up but dd was and does every day.

I think the initial suspicion was because I'd refused the assistance (( did this because dd has Autism and its happened before where she's ended up spending a few hundred. It's her money so I can't stop her but she can't afford it ! Not that it's relevant or any of their business )) And that's what triggered the suspicion. Either that or the fact we'd walked out of a few shops without buying anything which I know is a red flag.......which has always seemed daft to me. I mean if the shop doesn't sell the anything Iike or need then it stands to reason I'm not going to buy anything 🤔

Either ways it's just put me off now. I'll be sticking to businesses where we actually get decent service.

@teafreedomoctopus no which country are they from

I do tend to pick up a basket - even if we only intend to buy one thing - less so if we really are browsing - if we spot something go get a basket first then pick up off shelf.

Think I was taught to do so - and to keep hands out of pockets - as a teen and to look with eyes not hands.

I do remember getting narked in Debenhams before they shut - we were a family group three generation with three teens - and a middle age man loudly knocked some glass over no where near us - and the security and staff started following us round the store everywhere we went - the middle age man flapped around area then left didn't follow him at all.

How does me saying I'll take my business elsewhere because I didn't appreciate the experience make me entitled ? Are they entitled to my money which I work so hard for ? Make it make sense please 😬

I get this all the time when out with my pram. Security guards following me around Boots and Sainsburys. I’m a pretty unremarkable looking woman in my mid-thirties.

I've never experienced this!! In fact the total opposite in that I recently went Christmas shopping in the city and something in my bag was setting off all the alarms every shop I went in.
Only one place did the security guy have a half arsed look at my shopping bag.. but then just shrugged when he couldn't find anything.
And I did loiter a bit after I set off the alarms in each place to see if anyone wanted to check.
Still no idea what was setting them off. I didn't steal anything and when I looked at all of the items I bought at the end of the day none seemed to have any security tags left on...
But there was a complete lack of interest beyond one security guard playing peeka boo with my baby in TK Maxx!!

Tbf I never go in Lush..

Perhaps those shops you went in have just had a soate of shoplifters recently??
Seems very odd tho.