I went to Best Buy to get Star Trek Deep Space 9 Season 2. Checked the shelves, no copies. Thought this was pretty odd. So, I asked a blue shirt. He said they had copies, but they were in the back. He then asked if I wanted him to get me a copy. I said yes, so off he went. When he returned, he asked me if I was done shopping, or had more shopping to do. I thought the question was a little strange, so I asked him why he wanted to know. He said that if I was done, he would accompany me to the checkout line and hand the Star Trek set to the cashier. If I wasn't done shopping, he said he would give it to the guy who sits at the security desk by the doors. Again, I thought this was strange, so I asked why this was. He said they had a lot of problems with people stealing the Star Trek sets, and they weren't allowed to put them on the floor. Anyway, I had him leave the set with the security guy, and then had the cashier get it when I was checking out. Anybody else experience anything like this?

Actually... YES.

I work at Borders and any boxed sets that a customer wants to purchase from our glass cases has to be walked down to the cashier.

My thoughts on this are on the side of the store. These box sets do not fit into any security box / keeper and usually have a warning sticker + electronic sensor tag (both of which generally can be easily removed while in transit) and I simply see the store trying to protect it's investment.

The Best Buy floor plan has just about everying open to the public and so it is quite possible that during busy times that someone could grab a DS9 set, stroll down the aisles, remove the security tape / sensor, and stroll through the sensor gates unimpeded.

It can and DOES happen.

Something similiar happened just the other night when I was doing a guest stint on register. We are sure something was stolen but have not ascertained what it was.

It does take cojones to do this type of stunt and TIMING is essential.

But it does happen.

So.... I do a lot or product escort. And I am willing to do it.

Peace out bcbaum

With security stickers being embedded inside the actual product it is getting harder for "customers" to take them out of the store as it theoretically takes them more time to get the DVD open and the security sticker out of the case. (Yeah, I know a good razor-blade will cut that time down significantly.)

However, in my past retail stints, working before and during my years in college, I have seen some pretty clever things done to defeat the systems and get things out the doors.

Unless they actually see you steal the product, if you set off the senor at the door, they really can't stop you. They can bug you and keep asking you to come back into the store, but legally, they cannot touch you or stop you from getting in your car and leaving. If they did see you take it, and you still get in your car and leave, they can call the police, so if that's a risk you're willing to take, go for it. Personally, I just prefer shopping online to avoid these types of hassles in stores.

Why not?

whaa?

Whats the difference if they see you taking it then if they see you walking out with it. If you set off the alarm and they truly suspect you of stealing something (you just walk off) youre darn right they will call the cops on you or try to stop you.

The Best Buy I usually go to has the Next Generation boxed sets wrapped up in this weird device -- it's like a little black plastic lock, with these cords that go around the sides of the box, sort of like a ribbon on a package.

Thing is, the little cords are really tight around the box, and actually dig into the cardboard, damaging the box.

Which really sucks for a $100.00 set. I'd never buy one that was damaged.

calhoun07 is right. Just last night I watched a guy pick up a XBox live set, and walk to the back of the home theater dept. with it. Now, I was with a customer so I could not follow the kid to see what he was doing, but when he left the dept. he did not have the live set. I asked the customer to excuse me, and walked ovet to the area that the kid was at and did not see the live box anywhere so I called up to security and let them know that I thought that this kid had stolen it. Only problem was that he was out of my site for like ten seconds. As such we had to let the little theif walk out of the store because we did not see him in the process of stealing.

At closing we did a cycle count for the XBox live kits, and what do you know, we were short one.

I hate the policy that best buy has... It is no wonder that so many people steal from there.

You are correct that in states which don't provide private parties with a right of "self-help" physically restraining a suspected shoplifter is illegal. However, while it varies from state to state, the general rule is that store employees can exercise self-help and detain and search an individual the store employees believe to be a shoplifter. Keep in mind that the 4th amendment is a prohibition against unreasonable search and seizure by the Government not by private parties.

All this said, most store policies prohibit forcibly restraining a suspected shoplifter though because such self-help can lead to civil liability for the store and/or employees acting beyond the scope of their employeement if the suspicision is unwarrented or if unreasonable force is used. In the case of unreasonable force, the store's employees may also face criminal liability. At least this is how I remember it all from my criminal law class in law school years ago.

The only problem I have with this BEST BUY policy is that I would have ASSUMED that they were sold out and not even asked a clerk before leaving and looking in another store. Now I'm wondering if my local Best Buy is actually sold out of Beatles Anthologies...or if they are just back in the warehouse!

I'm sure they aren't sold out of a new release that just came out this past week. And even if you can't find something that came out months ago but is in the current week's circular, you should always ask an employee because they will check the back and either get you a copy or give you a rain check so when they get them in, you get the DVD for that week's sale price.

My store sold out of Buffy Season 3 when it came out. They totally misjudged the numbers they thought they would sell. (It might have had something to do with the floating discs that seemed prevalent in BB's shipments as well though too.)

The store I visit each week is getting better, but in the past if it wasn't on the shelf they would just go on to their website and add it to the shopping cart and see if it showed up in stock. If it did and it wasn't out, they'd claim someone must be walking around with it and they didn't have anymore, they didn't even bother going into The Employee Toolkit and looking in their store inventory. (I've had employees tell me that the website is not accurate at all in showing if a product is in stock or not so that is why I am leery if an employee doesn't look it up in inventory.)

When I was there last week there were no CSI DVD's out. The clerk looked in the Toolkit and found that they had 4 still in storage and they didn't have any Futurama out as well, and brought out and entire cart full of them.

I wound up not buying either there because they wouldn't allow me to apply the 10% off coupon (Yeah, I know they shouldn't have anyway). I went and got them both at Costco.