Last year in an effort to get out of debt and keep from accruing more debt, I picked up a part time job at the local Walmart store. What was a temporary job that was supposed to last a couple of months during the holidays, has now turned into an unintended, never ending, mini career. As crappy as the job can be sometimes, it really is entertaining and offers a window into normally concealed segments of our fine conservative happy valley.
One of the recent additions to our staff at Walmart is in the area of Loss Prevention. (Maybe we had people before but I never noticed them - or maybe they were ninjas. If so - they were crappy at their job!) There has always, and will continue to be, a horrendous shoplifting/shopping scam problem at our store. But for the first time since I have been employed, there seems to be some action. In the last 2 days that I have worked, we have had at least 5 arrests made, and it wouldn’t surprise me if the police created some sort of scheduled pickup in the future.
One would think, if I were going to steal something it would be something cool like a tv. Since it can be difficult to fit one of those in your pocket, you get an array of other things. The other night I was asked to price out a small bag of items that 2 women had tried to lift. I’m thinking, wow - this ought to be good. Here is what I found:
1 Bottle of lotion for extremely sensitive skin
Night cream
Tank top
Skank shorts (You know - the kind that don’t actually cover anyone up the right way?)
3 Thongs (not the sandals)
Grand total - 47 bucks.
So this begs the question - why in the world would you steal a bunch of crap with the chance of getting caught and prosecuted if that is all you are going to get?!?! Maybe it was easy stuff to grab - it isn’t like it takes much space up in the bag you’ve got. Later that night we caught a lady in the self check out lane that conveniently forgot to scan 40 bucks of chicken, corn dogs, taquitos and tampons. I was mad at first then puzzled as she then went with the “it must not have scanned correctly” excuse as we unloaded 4 bags of stuff from her cart. Then I felt bad for a second when she tried to pay with her food stamps debit card that only had $22 on it, and neither her credit or debit would work. For a minute. Then she started taking items off her list. I would have been okay if she had said, I guess I only have enough for the loaf of bread, container of milk, and stick of buttah, but she puts that stuff back so she can get the Pepsi, and other crap. Whatever.
There are many more tales to tell, but they will wait. Makes me wonder though how you get to the point where you are stealing stuff from the grocery store. I can maybe understand if you are going to starve without it, but will you really die if you don’t have your thongs?
