As we continue the account from yesterday in the post: When Retail Becomes Dangerous: Part 1, we take up with me being accosted by the gang member over his missing booze:
The gang member wanted either his booze or the money he paid for it. Appealing to the manager, she just shrugged and said we were going to ignore him.
The week I started, I told the manager that it was dangerous to require people to leave their property behind us at the counter. That it put us in the position of being responsible for their things. a better solution to the rampant theft would be to ban anyone from bringing bags in in the first place. This way the onus would be on them not to bring bags with them to our store, and it would prevent the employees from having to answer for their property.
But she refused, and also denied my request to be moved away from the exposed and dangerous register 1 as I was still in training. Turns out she'd been promoted to run a number of stores and wanted to lower her "shrink" to make a good impression for senior management.
She was also from "the hood" herself, and enjoyed chasing after criminals. Thus this set everything up for me on that fateful day.
Tightening The Noose Of The Chain Of Command
So the gang member got on his phone to a more senior member, pacing back and fourth and shouting obscenities. This prompted the arrival of a second (and presumably, higher-level) gang member, and I was pointed out to him by the first one.
He now starts demanding compensation for his friend, but at this point we had no proof that a theft had taken place at all, management said it could all be a scam just to get money, so I asked her if she could look at the surveillance video, but she refused.
Now the second gang-banger gets on his phone, and calls an even higher level guy, while cursing and pointing at me. Fearing violence, people start trickling out of the store. I say to the boss "Look, you have to do something, these guys think I'm in charge."
She shakes her head no and continues working as if nothing is going on. I tell the guys that it's not my policy on bags. "If I could look at the video, I would, but I don't have any power, I'm just a new employee."
Somebody, we don't know who, says something to the effect of waiting for the workers to leave and then shooting them outside. At that point I'd had enough, and told the manager to call the police or I was leaving.
A Fitting Conclusion
She continues to ignore the situation and furious at her inaction, I informed her that this isn't what I signed up for and I was quitting at the end of the shift. I didn't want to leave her all alone since we were the only two workers there for at least another hour.
Seemingly taking real note of the commotion for the first time and at the urging of the customers, she finally tells the gang members she's calling the cops.
As soon as its obvious the police are really on their way, the second gang-banger hustles his ass out. The police come and we finally have a review of the store video.
In it, you see me bent over the counter at the credit card POS helping the confused elderly woman, when a junkie comes in behind me, gets his own bag, and seeing the booze, swipes it for himself.
While I'm talking with the guy and one cop, the other cop is in the back watching the video. Once it's been confirmed that his liquor was actually stolen. I ask the manager "so are we gonna pay him out of petty cash?" But remember, she wants to look good in front of management and refuses, saying he'll have to eat the loss.
So worried about the safety of our employees, I told the guy and the police that since management won't do anything, I'm going to make him whole myself. I reach in my wallet, give him 25 bucks, and tell him "now go get your booze."
The police left, and I said my goodbyes to the other workers as they were arriving. I was steamed that the management failed to act like one and that her policies were putting the workers lives in danger so she could look good. I counted my last deposit and left the company amicably.
Later on that day as I was leaving, the thief after hearing that we were under threat due to his actions, felt guilty and brought the bottle back. I walked past him and heard the manager yelling and cursing him out saying how his action had cost her a good employee. What a way to run a business. I haven't been back since.
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I wanted to say: "stay safe", after reading part 1. Glad you acted like this. Your boss still has some lessons to learn. What a woman... sigh
Thanks for sharing this intriguing story. Glad it had a ( somewhat ) happy ending.
I was always concerned that something like this would happen,but combining that, with her request for me to chase after a little girl who'd stolen, was it for me.
I totally get that. It sounds like a pretty extreme situation. Do you see yourself staying in that area in the future?