Can confirm. Used to work for a big retailer and one day caught someone stealing (not food) and confronted them. I was a pretty solid employee who had been there for years but my manager had to fight hard to stop me from being fired; it was a really close call.
Yeah it's been 20+ years since I worked retail but we weren't allowed to confront anyone, especially inside the store. We had to wait until they left the store for a manager to approach them and we had to be 100% sure they stole something in the first place.
The worst I ever saw happen to someone is they gave it back when confronted outside the store, it was a $5 can of automotive spray paint.
I was never quite sure if this was all legal reasons or because of the blowback against the brand if someone was wrong and it made headlines.
When I was a youth, we used to go to Safeway and get donuts or "Mojo's" (wedge fries) at the bakery, then munch them while walking through the store so that they were gone by the time we got to the till to buy our cans of pop.
One of those unforgettable moments from those years was when we were finally called out by a security guy, something very casual like "you boys are gonna pay for those donuts up front, right?" and Chris who was "that guy" in our crew, bounced his donut off the mall cop's head and ran like his life depended on it
Can confirm. Used to work for a big retailer and one day caught someone stealing (not food) and confronted them. I was a pretty solid employee who had been there for years but my manager had to fight hard to stop me from being fired; it was a really close call.
Yeah it's been 20+ years since I worked retail but we weren't allowed to confront anyone, especially inside the store. We had to wait until they left the store for a manager to approach them and we had to be 100% sure they stole something in the first place.
The worst I ever saw happen to someone is they gave it back when confronted outside the store, it was a $5 can of automotive spray paint.
I was never quite sure if this was all legal reasons or because of the blowback against the brand if someone was wrong and it made headlines.
When I was a youth, we used to go to Safeway and get donuts or "Mojo's" (wedge fries) at the bakery, then munch them while walking through the store so that they were gone by the time we got to the till to buy our cans of pop.
One of those unforgettable moments from those years was when we were finally called out by a security guy, something very casual like "you boys are gonna pay for those donuts up front, right?" and Chris who was "that guy" in our crew, bounced his donut off the mall cop's head and ran like his life depended on it