Are you regularly followed by security guards in shops for no reason?

[Pavementworrier]

If so you are my people

I'm a middle aged lawyer with kids I don't dress weird and I'm old enough to have the confidence to be sure there is nothing particular thievy about me but there is something in my manner or essence that gets the shiny tabard men twitching.

(Latest shout out to you, Boots in the st James Quarter Edinburgh)

It has been like this since I was a teen, when I figured it was because they assume teens are all lifting lipstick but then it never stopped.

So now I figure they probably think they can look busy by following me without any risk whatsoever while the men with holdalls continue to fill their boots (sometimes literally).

Btw it is often the case that dark skinned people like me are followed around more than others.

Important to acknowledge that shoplifters don't fit a particular profile and shoplifting is on unprecedented scales.
I am regularly followed and find it really irritating but so be it

What do you consider a red flag?

Ditch the black and white striped bag with "SWAG" written on it.

The big bags, mask, gloves, standing shiftily looking from side to side.

I know you think that was some gotcha and I was going to say "I look like a middle class LADY HOW DARE YOU".

🤣

How do you know?

TK Maxx is annoying. The second you step in Velcro man attaches himself, often thumping your back he’s so close, and shuffles round admiring ladies xs sweaters while you pathetically try to move.

Meantime nasty large gentlemen junkies are robbing Gold Label three foot away.

But you’re looking to see if they’re watching or following you. That’s what makes you look shifty to security guards

Many people will sense that someone is following them. It's not unusual to have someone near you in a shop but they tend to move away when they're doing their own thing. Someone being with you on your whole journey round a shop is not usual and you might look round to see who it is. That's understandable, surely.

Par for the course as a black person. In my case anyway and that of many I know.

I had a lovely grey Seasalt rain coat which seemed to attract security guards. I'd be followed in loads of shops. It doesn't happen if I wear a different coat!

Yeah today i selected my products, turned around and the guy was right there in my face. I gave him a look and he seemed a bit annoyed that I was planning to pay for my £3.20 of items

Maybe they SHOCK talk to each other about it?!?

Are you searching out the security guards when you go into the shop? This can make you look suspicious if you are. Completely ignore them like they are a ghost.

If you find they are following you around the shop, you could give them the 'death stare' to show that they are harassing you! I did this to one guard and he looked embarrassed and walked away. The security guards shouldn't be making you uncomfortable.

But, yes, I have been followed. Not often, but it has happened a few times. Don't take it personally though, it must be a very boring job for them at times and they have to find something to do!

Absolutely, but the OP seems hyperconscious of being followed, and I imagine it’s evident in the way she keeps tabs on the proximity of security, which is likely to code to them as behaviour that may suggest shoplifting. Which means they are more likely to follow her, she feels singled out and self-conscious, and the whole cycle begins again.

Shoplifting is rife because they continue to target the wrong people where i live they used to follow women especially ones who looked tired and had pushchairs (because apparently they were probably on drugs) they literally held the door open for a man stealing a television he was a regular in the shop walked out with lego toys etc the biggest was the TV though and they literally held the door open and moaned about theft

one of my friends gets followed a lot (she's black, she takes it philosophically) in one place she had quite a bit of stuff in a basket, and asked the security guard, since he was there anyway, to hold it for her so she'd be quicker. He declined but did step back.

Yup there’s a guard who stands at the end of the aisle I’m in at my local Tesco, I’ll go to another aisle and he’ll be at the end of that one!

Used to be a security guard in the local co op years ago. Anyone with a pushchair....he was following them. I used to walk round the shop twice before I brought anything 😂

Always boots. I have fun going all around the shop. I also wait till they do the ‘look around’ as if they are not following and I hunker down ’gotta look at that bottom shelf’ and they lose me.

Either I have never been followed by shop security or I am completely oblivious. Possibly both.

Yes me! I always thought i had some sort of paranoia 🤣 especially in Superdrug when I am looking at the makeup. Maybe women in their late 50s are too old to be looking! However me and my daughters were followed in M&S once when they were teens and we were looking at the giant Percy Pig. I was so angry I actually went up to the security guard and asked him to stop following my girls!

I never do but my husband does! I don't know why.

O don't think I've ever been followed by a security guard in a shop - if I have, I haven't noticed it! To be honest, I'm usually busy in my own head and don't often notice the people around me when I'm shopping!

Stop suddenly - look them straight in the eye say ‘can I help you?’

or if they’d re following you say ‘oh thank you a personal shopper - you can carry the basket for me’

make sudden stops / turns or walk really slowly / really fast alternately.. just for the sheer hell if it.

or just totally ignore them

they have a job to do…