I’m Not A Thief

I was on a trip to Colorado visiting my family recently. It was a stunning fall day and my husband and I and my parents had taken a drive to one of those lovely little mountain towns. We had just finished a very nice lunch and we were wandering around the town looking in the many little shops on main street. We hadn’t bought much but we were enjoying window shopping and popping into some of the small shops. We were in one such shop and we’d been in there for a few minutes. It was an amazing store full of interesting novelty items and gifts. We were laughing, showing each other cute merchandise, browsing, generally doing what every customer does. I had already found several things I wanted to buy and was browsing the rest of the store before picking them up off the shelves and taking them up to pay.

The shop was divided up into two sides with a large archway between the two. My husband and I were on one side looking at the items when I realized there was a woman standing close to us, uncomfortably close. She was working very intently on reorganizing merchandise on a shelf next to us that was already perfectly organized. I quickly realized she was monitoring (stalking) us to make sure we didn’t steal anything.

The first place my mind went was to rationalize and defend her presence. My husband hadn’t shaved and was looking scruffy, we weren’t carrying any other shopping bags indicating we had made other purchases, we were alone in that area of the store. All of which must have been suspicious. Then I thought a little further. We had come in with my senior parents, we had asked questions of the clerk at the counter calling attention to ourselves, we were carrying a to go box with the remains of lunch. We clearly were not criminals. After thinking through it, my thoughts turned to anger. I said to my husband, well within earshot of the woman stalking us, “Let’s get out of here, I was going to purchase some gifts, but if they’re going to treat me like a thief, I’m certainly not going to spend my money here.”

I get it, as a small business owner you often see the dishonest side of people. When you’ve been in business a while it’s easy to start to assume that people, all people, will take advantage of you at every opportunity. And the truth is that many people do take advantage but what you have to remember is, most don’t. Most are decent, honest, people trying to do the right thing. Does that woman save money by stalking her customers to prevent shoplifting? Probably. Is there a need to be vigilant and act when necessary to minimize loss? Most certainly. I would counter though that had she read the signs, all of the signs, her actions would have been different. If, as a business owner, you spend your days in a perpetual state of distrust, perhaps you need to find a different way to make a living. It’s stressful for you, it’s bad for your business and it’s insulting to your customers. That’s not the kind of life I want to live or the kind of business I want to run, do you?