Hobby Shop Membership to curb shoplifting


funnelfan

funnelfan

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Watch This;

http://www.ktvu.com/video/28747102/index.html

Not sure how effective this will be. You have to balance anti-theft measures against what will drive customers away. While regular customers will think nothing of signing up for memberships, new customers may just walk out the door instead of giving away their info. A better idea would be to rearrange the aisles to give the employees lines of sight and eliminate the hidden spots.
 
All I can say is I doubt it's the model railroaders doing the shop lifting.
 
BSVRR said:
All I can say is I doubt it's the model railroaders doing the shop lifting.
Click to expand...

Agree 100%.
Years ago down in Miami, Fl. a few shops tried the membership only thing & they only lasted about a year. 1 of them had been in business for about 40 years. Most people won't do a membership because they are afraid of identity theft. That woman would have a hard time realigning ea. shelf because of the size of her building. I would do what WM does & put the real expensive items in a lockable glass case. Stuff real easy to walk out with, although WM loses about a million bucks a month in stolen CD's & DVD's.
When I worked at WM we use to find empty CD & DVD cases all over the store including the store warehouse.:mad:
 
I can sympathize with the shop owners fighting the theft problem, but I would certainly not register to shop there. One more cog added to the shop the internet wheel. It will surely end in disaster for the shop owner.

I agree, I doubt there are model railroaders doing shoplifting. Most likely the younger car or airplane fans whose morale values aren't totally established yet.

I wish we lived in a world where shop owners didn't have to fight this problem, but we never have and never will.
 
Honestly, I think you're all wrong in profiling the model railroaders as being the non-theft shoppers. More then once have I overheard conversations (including at WPM), and the San Bernardino railroad days, about people walking away with stuff. WPM is largely a model railroader event, you have to pay to get in, so someone (95% sure it was a model railroader) walked away with a model.

At a swap meet, I witnessed a shopper bag several items behind the seller's back, and when I said something, he quickly left. Guess what? He had a Santa Fe bumper sticker on his pickup...

Now... I'm not sure that this would slow down the theft. From the looks of it, she needs to re-organize the store for better view, put the cash register next to the door, ect... But then, it is hard to tell from the video, and reporting...
 
To characterize model railroaders as non-thieves is wrong.

Several years ago at a show in Mobile, Al. I witnessed a local modeler, who not only was well respected for his abilities, but was also a college professor of music, get busted with over $2000 of N scale equipment he had lifted at the show. He had been one of my friends for years down there.

I cannot understand why someone with the capacity to pay for all of that easily would still resort to stealing to get it.
 
None of us is above the law, but every one of us attempts once or twice to demonstrate otherwise in our lives. I wish I could claim a spotless record, but I would be a liar if I said I was squeaky clean.

People with means, substantial means, who steal, do have a problem, though. It can't be a rational thing in general to steal, but when people worth millions steal lipstick from a Mom & Pop, or even from a giant like Wally's, there's something not right upstairs.
 
It's a sad reality these days. I'm not sure how the memberships will help curb the shoplifters, but it's worth a try. I think there are better ways to prevent shoplifting, such as counter sales, or a no bags in store policy.
 
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