Читать книгу Fly On the Walmart: Confessions of a Young Walmart Greeter - Kristin Ph.D. Mango - Страница 18

DOSE OF ADRENALINE

After a month on the job and not one attempted theft, I began to believe that theft very rarely, if ever, occurred. It has happened over the course of a month that people protested or ignored me when I asked for their receipt, and they had paid for the items. So when a man pushing a shopping cart with five large camping items and no Walmart bags ignored my requests for a receipt, I did not think much of it. Some people had a difficult time hearing my soprano voice, especially over the noise of the busy Friday afternoon store activity.

A sympathetic customer tapped the man on the shoulder just outside the door and told the man that I was trying to get his attention. The man stopped and looked at me as I hurried over.

“I’m sorry, sir, but can I see your receipt?” I asked.

“Of course,” the man said cheerfully as he searched through his wallet, then his pockets, producing no receipt.

“You know,” he said, “I think the cashier still has my receipt. I’ll be right back.”

He pushed the cart, with me following, a little past the entrance door, on the side of the building out of my line of sight. When he walked back into the store, I brought the cart by me at the greeter station. Naïve, I expected the man to return momentarily, but after fifteen minutes, I realized I had probably stopped my first thief. I could feel my adrenaline rising. I told a fellow employee what happened, and he took the merchandise back to customer service for me. It felt like the word spread quickly after that that the new girl had caught a thief.

The second theft occurred only a couple hours later. This time, I was ready and still on an adrenaline high from my first catch. Interestingly, the second theft was almost a copy of the first.