In my effort to update things, i.e. blog, Twitter, etc... I realized that despite saying on my just-posted blog entry (and on Facebook) that I didn't have anything to say, I actually do have something to say!
So I went to Dollar Tree on my lunch break and saw some stealing going on. It wasn't shoplifting, per se, but it was definitely stealing. The man in front of me in line had an armful of random things: mustard, a plastic army hat, cards, a couple of toy swords, candy... just stuff. He also had a young boy with him, probably about 5 or 7 years old. When he got to the cashier, she seemed to know him (and especially the boy) and mumbled to the man something like "fifteen." The man got what looked to be three wadded five dollar bills out of his pocket and then put them on the counter. After she bagged his items, none of which were scanned or rung up on the register, she told me that she was ready to ring me up. The man left.
Interestingly, this has happened to me. A few years ago at my local Dollar Tree, I went in to get a few things and when the cashier "rang me up," he simply bagged my items, told me the total (somewhere around $3.28), I gave him cash, he gave me change and I left. I realized that he didn't ring up my items, but it wasn't until I got out the door that it dawned on me that he was stealing from the store. If he didn't ring up my items but still only charged me what I would have paid if he had, his register would ultimately show an overage at the end of the night and he would pocket the extra. Obviously this would only work if the customer was paying cash.
Now that I think about this, I seem to recall that this sort of scam got a couple of people fired from the Chick-fil-A that I worked at in high school.
Anyway, back to today... I wonder what was really going on with the cashier, the customer and the child. I didn't count the man's items, so I don't know if he had more or less than what she charged him. Since it appeared that she knew the man, was she just trying to help out a poor guy with a kid without damaging his pride? Or was she just using him to make a little money for herself?
After having had someone use me to make some easy money off Dollar Tree, I decided that if they tried that trick with me again I would ask for a receipt so that they would have to ring me up on the register. But I really don't know what to make of what happened today or what, if anything, I should do about it.
So I went to Dollar Tree on my lunch break and saw some stealing going on. It wasn't shoplifting, per se, but it was definitely stealing. The man in front of me in line had an armful of random things: mustard, a plastic army hat, cards, a couple of toy swords, candy... just stuff. He also had a young boy with him, probably about 5 or 7 years old. When he got to the cashier, she seemed to know him (and especially the boy) and mumbled to the man something like "fifteen." The man got what looked to be three wadded five dollar bills out of his pocket and then put them on the counter. After she bagged his items, none of which were scanned or rung up on the register, she told me that she was ready to ring me up. The man left.
Interestingly, this has happened to me. A few years ago at my local Dollar Tree, I went in to get a few things and when the cashier "rang me up," he simply bagged my items, told me the total (somewhere around $3.28), I gave him cash, he gave me change and I left. I realized that he didn't ring up my items, but it wasn't until I got out the door that it dawned on me that he was stealing from the store. If he didn't ring up my items but still only charged me what I would have paid if he had, his register would ultimately show an overage at the end of the night and he would pocket the extra. Obviously this would only work if the customer was paying cash.
Now that I think about this, I seem to recall that this sort of scam got a couple of people fired from the Chick-fil-A that I worked at in high school.
Anyway, back to today... I wonder what was really going on with the cashier, the customer and the child. I didn't count the man's items, so I don't know if he had more or less than what she charged him. Since it appeared that she knew the man, was she just trying to help out a poor guy with a kid without damaging his pride? Or was she just using him to make a little money for herself?
After having had someone use me to make some easy money off Dollar Tree, I decided that if they tried that trick with me again I would ask for a receipt so that they would have to ring me up on the register. But I really don't know what to make of what happened today or what, if anything, I should do about it.
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