Godddd stop spreading the propaganda that entry-level retail workers are punished for other people's shoplifting. They aren't! I've worked retail for 4 years at 5 different places (Walgreens, Target - at 2 locations, Sam's, and 2 local places) and have never heard of this happening. Shrinkage is considered part of expenses, entry-level employees aren't expected to stop shoplifting (and are more often explicitly told not to), and this is definitely against company policy at any big chain

I'm sure it does happen under the table or at small businesses, but people talk about it like it's guaranteed every time you nick a drink. It's fucking not, and by saying this every single time someone talks about theft you're doing exactly what the capitalists - including the ones who enact this policy - want. They're holding workers hostage and you're giving in to their demands

Boosts appreciated

@socalledunitedstates >entry-level employees aren't expected to stop shoplifting (and are more often explicitly told not to)

Can confirm, about the only training I got for my first job (at Mervyn's, may it rot in piss) was "if you see someone stealing, don't try to stop them."

@LexYeen And it's obvious why. Just imagine what would happen if these companies told their employees, "you will be punished if anything is stolen, so keep an eye out and call out anything suspicious"

In every single location you'd have employees following and probably yelling at black customers, guaranteed. It'd be a PR nightmare. No big company would make that policy

@socalledunitedstates @LexYeen I mean that does happen to black customers. Not necessarily the yelling, but definitely the following. I agree the β€œemployees are fined for shoplifting” is BS, though other kinds of pressures happen, but pretty much all black people I know have shared at least one story of being followed by employees, sometimes confronted too.
@LexYeen @socalledunitedstates bringing this up because the β€œcan you imagine” kind of framework is often used to describe things which really do happen at scale and people just don’t know/hear/care.

@platypus @LexYeen Right, I know it does! I just mean it'd encourage that behavior to a much higher degree, and that'd be directly tied to a change in policy rather than "one racist employee"

I admit that was ambiguous, thank you for bringing it to attention