OK, so this wasn't a story about *real* shoplifting, but it did remind me of some earlier shop mischiefs that involved first person singular. When I was an undergrad student, I once actually managed to shoplift a book from a bookstore (it was a polisci journal, nothing canonical), and the second time I tried (it was a textbook on rhetorics that I needed for an exam) I didn't bother taking all the precautions and the alarm by the door went off. But get this: after I returned the book to the front desk, I stayed on and rummaged through some other books on display that interested me. No idea how I managed to do that.

Actually, this may be part of the explanation: in my first country, somebody caught shoplifting food or a book is never prosecuted. If caught, the good is returned to the owner and that's that. Stealing food is a desperate act and if somebody really needed some food so much and could not afford it through any other way but shoplifting, that's almost OK. As far as stealing a book goes, there's a tacit agreement that 'students will be students'.

I remember reading in a book about the beginnings of the Second Feminist Wave (I think it was A Feminist Memoir Project by Snitow and DuPlessis) a personal history of a feminist activist of that time. One day she would go to an Ivy League University to give a lecture to a roomful of sophisticated well-off young women eager to learn more about feminism, and the next day she would join a low-income single mothers' anti-poverty group that went on a raid of a chain department store in search of winter clothes for their kids... It's a chilling read. She says she was lucky to be able to be active in both environments, and that both types of activism are equally important. She also mentions, however, that she felt more comfortable in the latter.

Maybe I look clueless enough that they believe me...

An anecdote. I had bought a book, at Lichtman's (Remember them, before Chapters and Indigo - I guess it's just Indigo, now - deep-sixed them).

I went to Towers (not sorry they restructured themselves, out of the Canadian market, but HMV does need some serious local competition. Have you seen their prices? They make the banks look like charities.) for my music fix.

Sure enough, off goes the alarm! A hulkish manager descended upon me like a ringwraith on a mission. I was asked to empty my backpack of books and papers. The damn aluminum strip, was hidden inside the book, from Lichtman's, mummified within plastic shrinkwrap.

Now when I enter a store, and trip the surveillance system, I shout, loudly, "Incoming!" and assume the position, arms spread upwards, and legs apart.

Store personnel usually approach me, in whispered tones, asking if they can demag my merchandise from another store.

They know I have the attention of their other customers.

b.

[ August 23, 2002: Message edited by: boadicea ]

That's unbelievable, that a store would press charges against a woman who was chasing a small child out of the store. I suppose there are people who use that as a ploy, but if she was coming right back in again, then come on. That's ridiculous. I'm sure I must have done that at least once with Amir. I can't remember a time, but I'm sure I've done it.

The systems engineer who designed that surveillance device must have had links to a police riot squad.

"Whack 'em, and stack'em."

I've "shoplifted" twice there. Once my ex bought something that didn't get rung through. I attempted to get that rectified during my next purchase there, but the cashier laughed and said it was too much hassel, forget it.

The second time was when I bought some dryer vent. It's accordian in nature, and sold by the foot. I got about ten feet of it, and scrunched it up to carry it easier. At the checkout, I joked that I had "one foot of dryer vent." The cashier didn't pick up on it, and in spite of two confessions, rung it up as one foot.

Who am I to argue?

I don't shoplift not because I am above theft, but because the take isn't large enough. Now, if some $50,000 dollar item was able to fit into my pocket, who knows?

The part that bothers me about it, is that if we are going to have a zero tollerance policy on shoplifting, then the very same penalties should be assessed to the retailer when there is a discrepancy between the price marked on the good, and the price entered in the cash register computer.

It's the same offence. Theft is theft.

Walmart's anti theft electronics are infamously faulty. I bought a radio/cd player stereo for one of my girls there and the thing went off.

I never like shopping at Walmart in the first place and rarely did.

I certainly have not been back since, nor will I again.

quote:

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I must have done something wrong.

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The fellow next to me was selling wooden shelves and boxes made from an Ikea manufacturer's scraps. He told great stories of how he had tried working in mill for a year, but didn't like it. This was followed by a year as a postal carrier. Then he decided that he just didn't like work. He then spent 20 years on Valdez Island watching the seals play.

Anywise, I showed him a lid knob that I was using and bemoaned the fact that they cost so much --$7/each. He asked me how many I could use. The next week he showed up with a paper bag full. I asked how much and he said $.25/each. I asked where did you get these for 25 cents? "Oh, I steal them" was the matter of fact reply. Seeing that he had caughten me off guard he said, "Don't worry, I don't steal locally, I go up Island".