Security watching me in a shop

Post Reply New Topic

There is a supermarket on my way home from work I have being going into the odd day for the last 3 years.

I have spent a small fortune on luxury food items and deserts.

Yesterday I could have swore the security guard was looking at me and I threw my eyes down but I though maybe it was my imagination.

I got the same thing today and the girl on the checkout and the security guard shared eye contact with each other while I was paying.

I will never spend another cent in that place.

I would guess I am not alone in this and any of the rest of you any similar accounts to share?
Thanks in advance.

Yes, but more so in small country shops, or department stores. Never in a supermarket. If I spend too much time browsing, away from the checkout, an assistant will usually come and ask 'do you want any help?'

I usually have the opposite thing happen: usually Security guards are very friendly towards me and treat me with respect (must have an honest face too ). One time I was at a department store (Zellers) and a undercover guard was literally stalking me and making no attempt to hide it so I had some fun with it: having a good knowledge of loss prevention I pretended like I was shoplifting and had a laugh when they announced "Security check camera 4". I chuckled and told him to try to make it so obvious next time and never returned.

I do live in a community that has sky high shoplifting rates (nearly every store has a guard now) but that was no excuse for his behavior.

All sorts of these ridiculous security things happen to me.

1. I was browsing cheap jewelry in the drug store, but decided I liked everything too much and would come back later. On my way out some kind of business suit man (manager?) stopped to tell me, "You sure were a long time in there not buying anything." I had no response ready and he went away.

2. I walked into a bar because I was walking outside in freezing January and I needed to warm up. The bar owner accused me of being already drunk, even though I kept telling him I don't drink. Then he told me he was only going to serve me one drink and I asked for a pepsi no ice, which brought an interesting expression to his face -- like I'd tricked him on purpose.

3. Traveling across the border to the USA, I am invariably directed to intense questioning and searching of my luggage. I never have anything at all suspicious with me, and they're forced to let me go eventually -- but they look pretty grumpy about it. Perhaps I look like a shifty-eyed drug smuggler?

As a former security person myself, I would not take it personally. They are trained to look for people who do not match the norm for whatever venue they serve. In essence, he was just doing his job. Observe and report as needed.

If you have poor eye-contact then this will happen, being it's normally a sign of being intentionally evasive. Also if you're anything like me and take ages to make decisions or move about the shop "strangely" then staff will get suspicious you are up to something. I've been falsely accused of shoplifting a number of times.

I still have my police scanner radio and I got all of the store security frequencies programmed into it and it's a lot of fun to just listen in on what they are doing.