Hacker News Reader

Comment by pier25 | Hacker News Reader

Is this common in the US? (retail workers being searched)

I don't know about in the US, but in Canada, I used to work at Forever 21—a California-based retail chain—and you are required to go through a pat-down right before you leave the store.

You'd have to look for a manager, and ask them to escort you to the front of the store, and have them pat you down.

Thats interesting, I worked at a Forever 21 in the US ten years ago. They policy was that they would "look" (really just glance into) bags, but never actually touch people.

That’s surprising, if only because I’m not sure how you could steal more than $10 worth of stuff without a full garbage bag.

Didn’t seem to help them. They filed for bankruptcy.

> if only because I’m not sure how you could steal more than $10 worth of stuff without a full garbage bag.

People who have an idea how to do it, please don't write it here, as it can lead to worsening of the situation for store workers.

Your regular honest worker is better off, when dishonest coworkers won't steal.

I meant worsening of the situation for workers because of increase in security buffonata as a probable reaction to such revelations.

Wow. The only time I ever had to go through something like that was working for Ferraro/TicTac in Brantford during the summer when I was a student.

We would have our lunch bags randomly searched as we passed through the outer security gate on our way to parking.

Bloody TicTacs.

They would leave snacking items or seconds in the break room for people to eat if there were any—just don’t walk off the lot with a half pack of TicTacs.

But I’ve never experienced so little trust elsewhere.

My brother worked at a Cadbury chocolate factory for a while. They had a "take as much as you want, whenever you want, for personal/immediate family" policy.

That was because they discovered that most people, after a week or two of free-for-all binging never wanted to eat another bar of chocolate in their life, and so the company's costs were near zero.

Funny, my mother can't stand chocolate because a relative owned a chocolate shop and spoiled her when she was little.

My grandfather worked for Cadbury/Nelson for years!

While he was still there we got some amazing Easter baskets as kids.

And that's a pretty great assumption. From what I understand they were a great group to work for.

I worked at K-Mart part time during college. On the closing shift they would lock us in the store and not let their employees out until after the managers in the cash cage finished counting. But they wanted us to clock out the second we hit the end of our scheduled shifts. So we would be expected to stay locked on premises for anywhere from 15 to 30 minutes unpaid. But they tried all sorts of sketchy things that probably violated labour laws. Changing schedules without notice, scheduling people to close then open with less than 8 hours between shifts. Not publishing the scheduled for the next week until Saturday afternoon.

I used to work in stadium tech and you were searched when leaving the Cowboys stadium more thoroughly than when entering.

If only management were checked as thoroughly to prevent wage theft.

Yes, sadly so. I worked as a vendor to a retail company. Every time I went to their office (which was attached to one of their facilities that held product) I had to undergo a bag check. I never had to do the bag check if I went to an office that wasn’t attached to a location with product in it.

My father worked in retail for over 40 years. 10 for Office Depot, which sells a lot of computers and phone stuff. He has never been subjected to a search, nor searched others.

I once worked at a large industrial plant which had pretty strict rules about what you could bring onto the premise and any kinds of bags could be checked/searched. But they also had a huge locker area at the gate, so it was very easy to leave your stuff there. And also, any checks at the gate were done in a few seconds.

More and more so. I guess because wages have stagnated, and some companies actively keep employees at part-time hours to avoid paying benefits, so theft is more enticing? Dunno, just a guess.

Much shop theft is through employees unfortunately.

I don't think it is 'common'.

Not unheard of either.

Yeah - especially if there are products with a small form factor and high resale[1] value.

Is not paying employees for time they're required to be present also common? Yes. More or less every store I am aware of.

[1. edit, typo, I meant resale here, not retail]

Reply on news.ycombinator.com