(no subject)

[telophase]

I keep failing to post about this, but think about it every day when I'm at a con in the artist alley: I think I've only ever lost one item to a shoplifter at a con. And I'm not even sure about that one. :)

Back at Ikkicon this year, I noticed at one point during the day that I had one less copy of Project Blue Rose on the table than I thought I should have. No clue as to whether someone walked off with it, whether I failed to write it down, or whether I counted my books wrong at the beginning. I think it was walked off with, however.

But considering I've had one item shoplifted in the six years I've been doing this: not bad!

Comments

[vom-marlowe.livejournal.com]

In my years of doing craft fairs, I only had a shoplifter once. I'm not sure why someone would shoplift several dog collars in cheerful colors, but there you go. :P My guess was they needed Christmas presents and were broke--it seemed to be the theme that year.

[telophase.livejournal.com]

There's one company at the cons I go to who deliberately set their space in the dealers' room up to encourage shoplifting, and bust as many as they can catch. While I know that shoplifting is a bigger concern in the dealers' room than the AA and they have a personal crusade against shoplifters, I think that's a whole lot of effort they could spend doing other things if they set it up differently.

[vom-marlowe.livejournal.com]

Huh.

My response to the shoplifting was pity, rather than anger. I mean, if you're hard up for presents and times are tough, well, honestly I can see the urge. It's a rotten thing to do, but-- there are worse things. If someone had told me they couldn't afford the collar but really wanted it for a present for someone, I'd probably have given it to them for cost (and did once or twice). Maybe I lack the killer instinct.

I know there are some kids who shoplift for fun, and I have no patience for that, but I haven't had any trouble with them.

[telophase.livejournal.com]

Having worked con staff at the dealers' room and seen that most of the people who shoplift are highschool or younger kids, I'm mostly for pulling their badges for a first offense and leaving it at that. (Pulling the badge keeps them from getting into the dealers' room and events, but won't stop them from hanging out with their friends in the hotel, which is, I think, punishment enough for the first-time impulse shoplifter.)

Repeat offenders, or the ones deliberately setting things up to steal, like the kids at one con who created bogus costumes that were just big shoulder guards with capes hanging from them concealing their entire bodies so they could quickly stash their ill-gotten goods away? Those guys, I'd prosecute.