let me begin this post by telling you all that i have been to 3 malls today. one of them twice. i leave tomorrow for bloomington, mn (ironically the home of the mall of america) and needed to finish a couple of last minute errands. my fleece doesn't fit in my shell (the dangers of purchasing the north face off of ebay), i bought the wrong size of a pair of pants, and i needed to return a shirt. when i got home from my first set of errands, i had received my eddie bauer christmas present in the mail, but the boots (the only shoes i would have that matched the two new kick ass outfights i got) didn't fit. of course, the stores i needed were spread out across the three malls and an REI. none of them are anywhere near each other.
so, at about 7pm i went to brookfield square, the mall closest to our apartment (really, it's about 2 blocks away). i searched every shoe store in that mall for a pair of shoes that would look equally good with a new skirt and a new suit. such a task is not simple. i asked the nice shoe man at boston store (equivalent to younkers) for about 4 different pairs of shoes before i finally found a pair that worked.
i then bought some pantyhose and sunglasses and set off for my house and bed at about 8pm. as i walked through the door, the security buzzers sounded.
first off, let me explain that i used to work at younkers when i was in high school. their customer relations is ridiculous. they refuse to announce that the store is closing in 10 minutes because some of the customers might feel rushed. so the poor clueless customers wander around aimlessly as the sales associates get more and more frustrated. and they require their sales associates to speak to people by name. which i hate. if you don't know me, don't use my name. it freaks me out. i don't like it.
so, the buzzer goes off. instead of just beeping, it goes into a monologue about how it seems that one of their sales associates forgot to remove a security tag from one of my items and asking me to wait patiently for assistance. there are about 10 people standing around staring at me as this buzzer goes off. one of them suggests i just leave. i decide, being the mostly law abiding citizen that i am, that i would wait.
i see a sales associate walking towards me and figure she's coming to help me.
she turned and walked away from me.
so i decided to leave.
of course, at this point i had moved back into the store, thus causing the buzzer to go off again as i exited. and no one seemed to care, except the 10 people standing around, who i suspect found the whole thing quite entertaining.
moral of the story - if you're going to install security systems that embarass customers, at least check their bags before they leave the store and clear any doubt in the watcherby people's minds.
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3 comments:
this has happened to me twice in the past two weeks, and one of the sales associates told me that the new alarms are set off by some cell phones. That makes sense, right? I mean, it's not like most shoppers will own cell phones, leading to a situation where the alarm goes off all the time for no reason.
In both cases I was waved through by the salespeople with complete unconcern, because they assumed it was my cell phone and not theft. If I were a different type of person but still armed with this knowledge, I would CLEAN UP this town.
i keep thinking that too. at least that way when people look at me funny for setting off the alarm, at least i can feel like i'm getting away with something.
gwen, i'm so glad you use your powers for good instead of . . . how does it go again?
good luck finding the right boots kate. i once stopped at every kohl's (and i do mean every) between woodstock ontario and berrien springs michigan looking for the right shoe size of boots to exchange. i found the right size two weeks later in coralville. blast!
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