I'm angry with Waitrose

friendlygingercat

Many years ago I walked around a well known book shop with an expensive art book under my arm. I was trying to work out whether I could afford it by juggling bills until my student grant arrived. Eventually I decdided I could not afford it, put it back on the shelf and left the store with a cheap SF novel.

The manager came chasing after me and told me that he KNEW I had intended to steal the book and only put it back becaue I was aware I was being watched. There was a very robust exchange between us which ended in my reporting him to the CEO and threatening legal action. I got a grovelling letter back and a £10 voucher. £10 was quite a lot in the 1980s.

Two weeks later my grant cheque arrived and I again visited the store to purchase the book, handing in the voucher as part payment. I was hoping the manager would be around so I could give him the side eye. I have visited the shop many times since and never seen him.

Legally you are not allowed to challenge a customer until they step outside with the goods. Until they actually leave the building they have to be given the opportunity to pay for the goods or put them back on the shelf. If they leave the store without them then you cannot charge them with an offence.

Ideally one should observe selection and concealment of goods as well as non payment.
You can challenge once the person has walked past and ignored the last opportunity to pay ie the last till available before leaving the shop.

In my retail experience shoplifters were stopped just before they left the shop- apart from one memorable occasion when a store detective pursued a shoplifter along Tooting High Street into the garden of a private house.
After a short struggle the thief fell against the house window, breaking it and cutting his hand.

Unfortunately the cost to sort that lot out far outweighed the value of the stolen items.
That was about 25 years ago, back when shoplifting was taken seriously.

Granatlast007

butterandjam

Allira

NotSpaghetti

I wouldn't be emailing them!
We don't really know what has happened behind the scenes.

Why not?

It will be interesting to see what Waitroses's reasons are, if they respond of course.

Waitrose are not going to publically discuss or reveal the employment disciplinary history of Smith (or any other employee present or past).

No, but Waitrose are fussy about their image and would be influenced by a good number of customers writing with concern about this case and the treatment of the employee.

I read that the chap had spent years watching people get away with shoplifting and it was a last straw moment. I get that and to start musing about his mental health is dismissive.

You're not a Waitrose store manager by any chance are you butterandjam ?

There are a lot of other jobs which are not customer-facing in supermarkets.
Walker Smith could have been transferred to one of those on the same pay.

I worked in a supermarket (admittedly only for a short time) and never saw a customer at all.

I seem to remember that years ago when D did her M&S management training at Handforth Dene, three criteria had to be observed before action could be taken on shoplifting
1 ) opportunity to take without paying
2) intent ( I suppose like not just accidentally dropping into a basket )
3) possession - on leaving the store.
Have I got that right?
It has become so blatant nowadays and forms part of organised crime.
Who pays for it? We do of course in higher prices, trimmed costs and possibly staffing cuts. No wonder he “snapped”

RosiesMawagain

I seem to remember that years ago when D did her M&S management training at Handforth Dene, three criteria had to be observed before action could be taken on shoplifting
1 ) opportunity to take without paying
2) intent ( I suppose like not just accidentally dropping into a basket )
3) possession - on leaving the store.
Have I got that right?
It has become so blatant nowadays and forms part of organised crime.
Who pays for it? We do of course in higher prices, trimmed costs and possibly staffing cuts. No wonder he “snapped”

I wonder if the losses from shoplifting in that store meant that the manager was told he had to lose a member of staff to cover the costs?
Job done!

Family members have long retail careers. Initially they were not only allowed but encouraged to apprehend shop lifters, chasing across car parks if necessary. That message changed some years ago. It became far too dangerous for staff to attempt to stop a thief because of the prevalence of knives, staff have also been threatened with syringes. Staff are no longer permitted to intervene, the store has a duty of care to them and to customers. Were Waitrose right or wrong? My head says they went by the book, my heart says an alternative way could have been found.

Can I just interject another aspect of the 'shoplifting' (actually theft) scenario. One of my sons is a policeman. Some years ago when he was a uniformed constable many shop managers would call the police having apprehended a thief. They wanted the police to proceed with a prosecution. When it became apparent the manager would be required to attend court as a witness suddenly their time was too valuable for that. Then they had the audacity to object to the police not pursuing the offence. It seems they'd rather their honest customers covered the losses.

As soon as I read the story in the Guardian, I emailed Waitrose regarding their unfair decision to sack this worker.
The employee apologised but it fell on deaf ears and two days later he was marched out of the back door.
Shoddy treatment.

My Waitrose takes a different view, clearly. Another customer and I were able to point out a car to the security men who were chasing shoplifters. The layout of the car park meant they could block their exit and apprehended them. The head of security came back and thanked us and said he had reached the end of his tether with shoplifters. He is still there working so it may be that it is up to the individual store manager how they deal with such an incident. A long overdue stand has to be taken to stop this. It's reached epidemic proportions.

The person you are talking about is a security officer.

That is his role and different to the person who was told not to apprehend but tried to do so anyway.

As I was leaving the supermarket this morning the security man was at his station next to the exit.
I asked him if that particular branch suffered much. He said that it did and sometimes he was able to stop trolleys from being pushed out.
He also told me that he has to pay £600/year to keep his training( I think it was training but it could have been insurance) to enable him to keep working. Shouldn’t that be a cost met by the employer?

Totally agree ! Total over reaction! Shame on waitrose

I too despair at the apparent high rate of shoplifting. However, I don’t think that stores are helping themselves with the proliferation of self service tills and the lack of staff on the shop floor. I see this in M&S, John Lewis, and all the supermarkets. This does not exonerate shoplifters from the retail theft crime that they are committing, but surely it is a factor in the opportunism?

Granatlast007

butterandjam

Allira

NotSpaghetti

I wouldn't be emailing them!
We don't really know what has happened behind the scenes.

Why not?

It will be interesting to see what Waitroses's reasons are, if they respond of course.

Waitrose are not going to publically discuss or reveal the employment disciplinary history of Smith (or any other employee present or past).

No, but Waitrose are fussy about their image and would be influenced by a good number of customers writing with concern about this case and the treatment of the employee.

I read that the chap had spent years watching people get away with shoplifting and it was a last straw moment. I get that and to start musing about his mental health is dismissive.

You're not a Waitrose store manager by any chance are you butterandjam ?

???? I 've not mentioned his mental health.

Is that a bee in your Easter bonnet?

I have to add my name to those who are boycotting Waitrose. I too think it’s appalling that this man has lost his job. That manager needs to put himself in the position that the staff are in - the frustration must be unbearable- shoplifting small items if you are starving might be overlooked- but stealing to feed either greed or a habit should never go unchallenged. Poor show Waitrose.

Mr Smith, as predicted by an earlier poster, has been offered a job at Iceland.

Agree with you wholeheartedly

Get yourself a big bag fill it up and walk out, they wont stop you, I'm off there now 🤣🤣

Jaxjacky

Mr Smith, as predicted by an earlier poster, has been offered a job at Iceland.

Oh good!!

I'm off to Waitrose too, jakuss.
Although I vowed to boycott them, if the food is free why stand on principle?

I despair at this country, unbelievable..is this "WOKE" stuff? I simply do NOT understand.

I have just come back from Morrisons,, they have security tags on WASHING POWDER! and we wonder why this country well so many of the people act the way they do! I give up!

Iceland are really good at image/brand management, that made me smile.

If this man had an otherwise unblemished record then yes, I agree, the treatment was very harsh.
From what I read the local mgr didn't take the decision it was passed upwards presumably to head office. The response from Waitrose is all about the care and safety of staff members and customers. They are simply trying to ensure that nobody gets hurt because of tackling a shoplifter and they actually said that no product was worth anybody getting injured over. I think that's the right attitude for them to have.
At the same time I do understand that shoplifting appears to be rife nowadays and many businesses especially smaller ones are losing so much that they even go out of business and something has to be done but if I were a shop worker I would not want to risk my life by challenging someone who could have a knife, could be mentally ill or just desperate.

What are supermarkets actuallydoing to prevent shoplifting in the first place?

Rosiesmawagain
“three criteria had to be observed before action could be taken on shoplifting
1 ) opportunity to take without paying
2) intent ( I suppose like not just accidentally dropping into a basket )
3) possession - on leaving the store.”

That’s the point. The man who had the eggs in his bag hadn’t left the store when the employee went for him.
So the employee didn’t know whether he was intending to actually steal them or not.
To all those critical of Waitrose (which is only following standard employment law procedure) how would you feel if you accidentally put something in your own bag instead of the store basket, and felt a heavy hand on your shoulder?
If you feel so strongly about this, why not crowd-fund the man to sue Waitrose for unfair dismissal, and see how far you’d get?
Not very far I suspect.

Aveline

What are supermarkets actuallydoing to prevent shoplifting in the first place?

Nothing.

I could barely stagger out of Waitrose with the amount of stuff I lifted but they just smiled as I walked past. One even said "Have a nice day".

Supermarkets have fraud budgets built in for this purpose

I think Waitrose manager, given that the employee had a previous warning for disregarding policy and the employee was aware of the policy as well, did what he had to do, dictated by management.

Thr employee would have probably done it again. What if he had got hurt?

The policy makes sense.
It is up to higher management to solve the shoplifting problem.