Busted: Confessions of an Unintentional Shoplifter

I got caught shoplifting on Saturday morning.

That’s another retail industry first for yours truly and certainly a lead I never expected to write.

Ignorance is not an excusable alibi so the fact that I didn’t mean to steal something is irrelevant.

Long story short: I paid for a 10-lb. bag of ice; pulled a 20-lb. bag out of the Food Lion freezer and proceeded out the door. The cashier manning the one check-out lane that was open before 8 o’clock Saturday morning, politely but firmly interrupted my exit.

Since I’m not writing this blog from a cell, the story is fortunately about how this young man handled the apprehension—not about my nefarious behavior.

Food Lion had evidently done a superlative job training its associates on loss prevention.

The young man, probably in his late teens, possibly 20ish, excused himself from the three or four people waiting in his lane as he walked over to me and inquired: “Did you mean to buy a 20-lb. bag of ice?”

“No, I thought this was the smaller bag,” I said—as he took the bag from me, held it up and pointed to the large “20-lb.” imprint on the bag.

I was beyond humiliated and apologetic. He returned the 20-lb. bag, handed me the 10-lb. size I had paid for, and appeared to accept that I was merely absent-minded rather than criminal.

He stopped the shrink. He did it professionally. He exercised appropriate judgment and he resumed his cashier duties with limited interruption to the other customers he was serving.

Lesson 1: Food Lion had taught him what to do.

The second take-away message speaks to the generational differences. All you baby-boomer execs out there take note: tattoos and body piercings aside, these Gen X’ers possess an innate ability to react with confidence and poise.

Confronted with a similar situation when we were in our teens, most of us would have sought out a store manager to intercept an older adult who we suspected of shoplifting. Authority was earned through seniority, either in position or age. Not so with today’s emerging workforce—and I for one applaud the initiative and leadership potential of our next greatest generation.

—Connie Gentry

Is Your Employee Smarter Than an 11th Grader?

I can’t give you the absolute answer to the question posed above, but I can tell you what I think it should be. A store employee should be able to guide a teenage customer toward her purchase—and if that employee falls short, then the store manager certainly should be smart enough to help.

My daughter, who will be starting her senior year in high school in the fall, is working part-time for her dad this summer and, as one of her “gopher” duties, she made a trip to Wal-Mart yesterday to buy $25 gift cards for two of his company’s VIP customers. At the register, she handed over the $50 bill her dad had given her as payment, but was surprised to find out she was $16 short.

The store associate said it would be $66 for two $25 gift cards. Nonplussed, my daughter questioned the $16 surcharge and, when the employee didn’t give a satisfactory answer, my daughter asked for the manager’s assistance. To his credit, he came right over, but he backed up the employee: there would be an $8/card charge.

After a quick call to her dad, my daughter said ‘no thanks,’ went straight to Target and bought two $25 gift cards. She paid $50.

When all of this was reported to me last night, I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Wal-Mart is now charging fees—and huge ones, at that—for gift cards? Not quite believing that the world’s largest retailer would commit highway robbery, I called the store this morning, and talked to a friendly, and well-informed, lady in the service department. When I explained what had transpired, she immediately said, “Oh, your daughter must have been trying to buy a Wal-Mart Visa card, which has fees attached to it.” After going back and forth for a minute, she and I decided that was indeed the case. And, of course, the lady confirmed what I had suspected all along—Wal-Mart doesn’t charge a fee for gift cards.

However, Wal-Mart should better train its employees and managers. You would think that, when a teen who clearly wasn’t so clear about what she was buying, expressed surprise that there was a fee attached to the purchase, the employee (and certainly the manager) would have realized (as the lady on the phone did) that there was an issue with semantics, and then would have steered her in the right direction.

—Katherine Field

The Buckle: Securely Belted

It would seem that The Buckle is impervious to climate changes—both natural and man-made. The Kearney, Neb.-based apparel chain has successfully weathered a series of Nebraska tornadoes that have sent residents across the state into our basements night after night after night. (A few nights ago, Kearney was hit so hard that I actually checked the next day’s newspaper to see if Buckle’s headquarters building had been tumbled.)

But no Nebraska tornado touched the 376-store retailer—and no economic storm has either. An article in the June 6 Lincoln Journal-Star, headlined “Nebraska’s The Buckle Among Leaders of May Retail Strength,” reported on the youth fashion retailer’s shining performance that surpassed even the discount stores around the country.

For the month of May, discounters such as Costco and Wal-Mart were among the stronger performers as consumers strategized how best to spend what remained after paying their gasoline bills. But, according to the newspaper article, “Nebraska’s own The Buckle, a younger-fashion retailer based in Kearney, blew the doors off again, as it has been for months.” The article cited “staggering” numbers: May same-store sales increases of 34.7%.

I get asked all the time if Nebraska has any retail. Instead of making excuses, I think I’ll just answer “we’re home to The Buckle” and feel a little smug when I say it.

—Katherine Field

Destination Retailing Is a Two-Way Street

The school year is ending and like every proud parent I seize any opportunity to cheer on my students’ successes. Today was cause for a classic moment of spontaneous celebration – the annual arts magazine published by my daughter’s high school featured one of her paintings. The local Starbucks that we frequent almost daily just wasn’t special enough – instead we dashed across town to our favorite ice-cream parlor, Stucci’s.

There are several great frozen-dessert cafes along the way; Goodberry’s is the local craze and, of course, Marble Slab is always popular, but Stucci’s is unique because its selections are extra-creamy, supposedly because the frozen delicacies were trucked in from those prime bovines in Midwestern dairies.

The trip to Stucci’s is an extra 10-minute commute past the other options, which in this gas-centric economy equates to more than just a little pocket change, but for special occasions, it’s worth the drive.

Imagine our disappointment when we saw that Stucci’s name had recently been changed to Golden Cone. The reason, explained the co-owner, is that it has become too costly to transport the Stucci’s brand from Michigan to North Carolina. Instead, the ice-cream parlor has begun to carry the Hershey’s brand of ice cream because it is locally distributed. Hershey’s ice cream is okay, but it is available at a number of local restaurants, including fast-food chains such as Hardees.

The couple who owns the Stucci’s-turned-Golden Cone are really nice folks – the kind of people you want to help stay in business. So, whenever we’re in their neighborhood and needing an ice-cream fix, that will be our first choice. But next time we have cause to celebrate, sadly we won’t think about driving across town for the same kind of ice cream that’s available on several other corners.

The secret to destination-retail success is that it has to be worth the drive, and with gas prices approaching $4.00 a gallon, consumer expectations have been raised.

Now is not the time to trade brand equity for lowered costs – that will cost you in the long run. The real opportunity here would be for the Stucci’s parent company to step in and provide its franchisees with better transportation partnerships – unless of course they are content to keep all their ice cream in the Midwest.

The only winner in this scenario is my waistline, which will benefit from afternoon treats of coffee sans cream instead of extra-creamy frozen desserts.

—Connie Robbins Gentry