Crossposted to customers_suck because it deals with both sucky managers and customers.
Another woman whom I'll call Cigarette Thief was also in tonight. Most of the cigarettes are locked away, but there are two open cases that we can't keep an eye on every second. When CT came in tonight, she stopped by the cig. case and took out several packs, then vanished out into the store. My coworker J. came over to me and warned me that she was probably going to steal them. She also didn't want to deal with the woman because apparently they're related somehow. That was fine with me, but since I didn't want to directly confront her we decided that as soon as she came up to pay, if she didn't have the cigarettes on her, I'd call the manager on duty, S., to come up and deal with it.
(Short Backstory: CT is a regular. She's in the store at least 4-5 times a week, and she steals cigarettes every single time. Two to three packs a day, five days a week... yeah. Apparently this has been an ongoing situation, although I didn't know about it till today despite recognizing the woman as a regular, because J. spoke to the CSM about it and the CSM said to call the manager on duty, who would deal with it.)
So Office Assistant K. goes off to tell Manager on Duty S. about the situation so he'll be forewarned. Coworker J. turns off her light and comes to bag for me so she won't have to confront the woman. Sure enough, CT comes up to my register with a box of soft drinks... and no cigarettes. She's still in line when Office Assistant K. comes back up and whispers to me, "S. said he can't do anything unless he actually sees her, so just forget about it."
I ring CT up and helplessly watch her walk out the door once again with several packs of cigarettes.
The thing is, we have fully functioning security cameras in the office. If she's been doing this every day, it would be on tape. Not only that, but J. was a witness to CT stealing them! So not only is an employee's word not good enough, but neither is the store's security camera. It's ridiculous to have the manager on duty have to eyewitness a theft before s/he can take action. I think they're just too lazy and stupid to bother. I'm tempted to call corporate Loss Prevention just to see what they'd say. They'd probably just ignore it since I didn't personally see CT steal them with my own eyes, but surely those cameras are there for a reason.
I knew that our store was lax on theft because I'm the one who has to pick up all the empty containers around the store (medicine, food, tobacco, you name it), but I didn't realize that they'd refuse to do anything about a repeat theft when the culprit - and the proof - are standing right there. Maybe we should just post signs that say "Come on in, it's all free today!" or "Yes, those cameras really are fake." But I'm sure the thieves figured that out a while back.
Another woman whom I'll call Cigarette Thief was also in tonight. Most of the cigarettes are locked away, but there are two open cases that we can't keep an eye on every second. When CT came in tonight, she stopped by the cig. case and took out several packs, then vanished out into the store. My coworker J. came over to me and warned me that she was probably going to steal them. She also didn't want to deal with the woman because apparently they're related somehow. That was fine with me, but since I didn't want to directly confront her we decided that as soon as she came up to pay, if she didn't have the cigarettes on her, I'd call the manager on duty, S., to come up and deal with it.
(Short Backstory: CT is a regular. She's in the store at least 4-5 times a week, and she steals cigarettes every single time. Two to three packs a day, five days a week... yeah. Apparently this has been an ongoing situation, although I didn't know about it till today despite recognizing the woman as a regular, because J. spoke to the CSM about it and the CSM said to call the manager on duty, who would deal with it.)
So Office Assistant K. goes off to tell Manager on Duty S. about the situation so he'll be forewarned. Coworker J. turns off her light and comes to bag for me so she won't have to confront the woman. Sure enough, CT comes up to my register with a box of soft drinks... and no cigarettes. She's still in line when Office Assistant K. comes back up and whispers to me, "S. said he can't do anything unless he actually sees her, so just forget about it."
I ring CT up and helplessly watch her walk out the door once again with several packs of cigarettes.
The thing is, we have fully functioning security cameras in the office. If she's been doing this every day, it would be on tape. Not only that, but J. was a witness to CT stealing them! So not only is an employee's word not good enough, but neither is the store's security camera. It's ridiculous to have the manager on duty have to eyewitness a theft before s/he can take action. I think they're just too lazy and stupid to bother. I'm tempted to call corporate Loss Prevention just to see what they'd say. They'd probably just ignore it since I didn't personally see CT steal them with my own eyes, but surely those cameras are there for a reason.
I knew that our store was lax on theft because I'm the one who has to pick up all the empty containers around the store (medicine, food, tobacco, you name it), but I didn't realize that they'd refuse to do anything about a repeat theft when the culprit - and the proof - are standing right there. Maybe we should just post signs that say "Come on in, it's all free today!" or "Yes, those cameras really are fake." But I'm sure the thieves figured that out a while back.