Gucci Little Piggy

Kicking. Squealing.

Defending the Flash Rob

At Reuters, an attorney named Deanne Katz writes a 5 point list on how retailers can prevent flash mobs which she profiles by writing “In most cases, the perpetrators are teenagers.”  So at least we know that Katz understands that profiling is a useful tool in thwarting these thefts.  Her stopping point for such profiling is not fully known.

Katz’s suggestions:

  1. Be alert
  2. Practice good customer service
  3. Act quickly
  4. Create a ‘no bags’ policy
  5. Don’t give up if shoplifters leave.

These tactics might work for lone thieves or small groups.  Retail stores train their employees in “loss recovery” tactics.  For example, if a thief ganks a red shirt the employee will ask them if they’d like some red earrings to match.  The thief will usually put the merchandise back.  But this is what a flash rob looks like.  Tell me how many points on that list would have been effective against this wave of zombie looters.

The simplest solution is to advertise on the store front window that the store operates security cameras.  Rooftop snipers are the next best bet.

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14 Responses to Defending the Flash Rob

  1. Camlost 08/01/2012 at 7:21 am

    Strange that these things never seem to happen in lower Manhattan – must be due to the very active policing by the NYPD.

  2. Mark 08/01/2012 at 8:03 am

    I always wonder what is going on in the mind of the average zombie flash mob looter as he is doing something like this. Is he looking at the store owner and thinking something like “if you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that”.

  3. Professor Hale 08/01/2012 at 8:27 am

    This is why they can’t have nice things. The effective way is the way things are done already in “their” neighborhoods.
    1. Don’t build a store where murchandise is openly displayed.
    2. Restrict the number of customers allowed into the stor at any one time with remote locking doors.
    3. Employees and high value or pilferable merchandise behind thick plexigalss, for their protection.
    4. Heavy autolocking doors that can seal a criminal in long enough for police to arrive.

    This is why there are no Walmarts in DC.

  4. Gorbachev 08/01/2012 at 9:24 am

    Baseball bats. It’s my answer to this problem. And very generous policies regarding self and business defence.

    I thin the zombie flash mobbers are basically thinking–

    “I’m black, I can get away with it, anyway it’s all stuff owned by white people and they’re all guilty and I deserve anything ican put my hands on and who cares, let’s just fuck and eat and burn the world”.

    That more or less sums it up.

  5. Gorbachev 08/01/2012 at 9:37 am

    Exit doors that seal if the employee trips a switch are good.

  6. Scott 08/01/2012 at 9:38 am

    Just start doing what grocery stores do in the liquor section. Lock up the stuff black people like.

  7. John 08/01/2012 at 9:39 am

    I thin the zombie flash mobbers are basically thinking–

    “I’m black, I can get away with it, anyway it’s all stuff owned by white people and they’re all guilty and I deserve anything ican put my hands on and who cares, let’s just fuck and eat and burn the world”.

    Yeah, that’s the gist of it, except their internal dialogue would undoubtedly be the ebonics, retard version of the above.

    “Zombie flash mobbers” doesn’t quite get at the central identifying feature of these creatures any more than “teens” does. I know what fits perfectly, but I guess it’s not fit for print.

  8. thrasymachus33308 08/01/2012 at 10:02 am

    Professor Hale’s comments are quite to the point. Historically stores have not offered customers free access to the goods. You went to a counter, and asked for what you wanted, or entered and were immediately greeted by the owner or a salesperson who showed you what you wanted. The self-service store is a recent invention- if my pop history is correct the first self-service food market was the Alpha Beta chain in California, which had the idea of arranging the stock in alphabetical order so that customers could find what they wanted themselves and bring it to the clerk and pay for it. This system is cheaper but depends on a certain basic amount of honesty and social order. Soon enough stores where black people have access will go back to the old system.

  9. SMH 08/01/2012 at 10:31 am

    If Deanne Katz was talking about rape, then her list would be non-existent. Instead she would just say “only men can prevent rape.”

    The idea that women should take steps to prevent themselves from being raped is still foreign in the West and Europe.

    Can you imagine people walking around saying “only teenagers can prevent shoplifting” ?

  10. Camlost 08/01/2012 at 3:45 pm

    “Exit doors that seal if the employee trips a switch are good.”

    lol

  11. nick digger 08/01/2012 at 8:45 pm

    Ship ‘em back to Africa.

  12. Jimmy 08/02/2012 at 2:39 am

    How about a sign that says no blacks allowed? Blacks show up, have them arrested. I seem to remember that working in the past.

  13. DMann 08/02/2012 at 8:50 pm

    @Camlost, that video is phenomenal ! The most perplexing thing though, is, why was the one guy wearing high heels?

  14. Dystopia Max 08/05/2012 at 8:32 am

    Because “Gay mafia” isn’t just a figure of speech.

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