Books Shopliftingology
posted by on February 28 at 11:45 AM
In this week’s book section, I write about chasing after shoplifters in my recently-ended career as an independent bookseller. Here’s what I would do if I couldn’t catch them:
On the rare occasion when a shoplifter would run faster than I could, I would shout at his back as he escaped into the city: “Why don’t you steal from a fucking corporate bookstore, you asshole?”
This morning I got a very thoughtful, eloquent e-mail from a bookseller who took umbrage at the above passage. In order to preserve the booksellers’ identity, I’m going to run portions of the e-mail, and emphasis is mine.
I work at a corporate bookstore in Seattle…I’m one of the “security guards” you mentioned in your article…When you said in your article that you ask shoplifters why they don’t steal from corporate bookstores instead of independent ones, I was so disappointed. I know that theft doesn’t mean the same thing to my company that it means to an independent bookstore, but it means a great deal to me and my coworkers. I (have been) personally assaulted by two shoplifters I was attempting to stop. I saw my coworkers pushed, threatened with knives, threatened with violence, one was even slashed with a box cutter.Those “security guards” you so disdain, who put their safety on the line with every confrontation (don’t make much money). But this isn’t about money, even, it’s about our humanity, which you imply is somehow lessened by the fact that we’re employed by a large company. Yes, I’m just a number to my CEO, but I’m still a person, Paul. I still get angry when I see injustice. I didn’t lose all capability for independent thought the second I signed my w-4 and donned my name tag…My point is that it’s incredibly small-minded of you to imply that it’s somehow less of a crime to steal from my store than from yours.
I envy the freedom you have to chase the shoplifters; you’re right about the corporate rules that keep my coworkers and I from doing the same thing. What that leaves us with is a sense of helplessness; these people can take things from us and we can’t even chase them down and try to reclaim our stolen dignity with a few angry shouts. When some one steals while I have to watch helplessly as they run away, regardless of if they struck me or not, they’ve taken something from ME, not just from my employer.
The same mentality that spurs shoplifters in your store, (or any store) that it is somehow justifiable to steal from you because you have enough money to own your own shop, to buy food (or drugs, or booze) or have a car or a house, makes it OK for they who have less to take from you who has more, this same mentality is what fuels your “steal from the corporations” suggestion. That because it won’t put Borders or Barnes and Noble out of business to take a few books from them, it’s OK (or at least less criminal) than stealing from a smaller store.
You should be ashamed of putting such an poorly constructed argument, based on such immature reasoning in print…(W)hen I get shoved by a crackhead making a dash for the door with a bag full of stolen merchandise, it won’t hurt any less, my bruises don’t fade any faster, and I sure as hell don’t get paid any more for the trouble, because I work for a big corporation rather than a small independent store. Think about that next time you’re encouraging some lowlife to go to my store instead of yours.
My response is after the jump:
I wrote an e-mail explaining that I worked at a corporate bookstore for four years and an independent bookstore here for eight years, and then I talked about the corporate/independent thing. Here’s what I wrote, with some changes to protect the booksellers’ identity:
I have to say that my piece wasn’t a recommendation to shoplifters that they steal from corporate bookstores. But that corporate bookstore thing was, honestly, what I would shout to the ones who got away. My experience working at a corporate bookstore was clearly different than your current employment; I was told not to intervene at all. We used (inept) outsourced security guards for every aspect of loss prevention.I’m against shoplifting. I’ve never shoplifted anything in my life, not even as a teenager. I don’t think that my article was pro-shoplifting. I know the feeling of frustration that comes when somebody else feels like they’re pulling something over on me. Working at the independent bookstore, I was threatened at knifepoint, hit, vomited and shat upon, and called so many names that I can’t even begin to remember them. I must’ve called 911 well over a hundred times.
Maybe I’m underestimating my influence, but I don’t think that my piece will convince anyone to shoplift from a B&N or Borders rather than a University Bookstore or a Bailey/Coy; I don’t think shoplifters will listen to me or anyone else, really. I just wanted to talk about this little-reported aspect of bookselling. If I believed for a minute that I had convinced someone to shoplift a book with the article, I certainly wouldn’t have written it in the first place.
When I wrote freelance for The Stranger and worked at the independent bookstore, I never wrote about shoplifting, even though I wanted to, because I knew that my bosses would probably fire me. It’s something that’s never addressed in public. But it’s a pretty powerful subject, even an obsession, in the bookselling world. I know a lot of independent booksellers who say the same thing—Steal from a big corporation if you’re gonna steal!—but the underlining thing, that doesn’t get spoken aloud, is don’t steal. Now I’m left wondering if independent bookstore employees who say that are assholes.
Uh - yes, underlying the sentiment of "steal for corporate bookstores if you must" is that it's less bad to steal for corporate bookstores. Sure, each event of stealing impacts their bottom line less than a smaller store, but it still is a cost to them, and as others have pointed out, carries the same risk and damages to individual sas stealing from your beloved indie bookstore.
If stealing is always wrong, just call the shoplifters nasty names and say "don't steal".
So yeah, it's an assholish thing to say/imply that big corporations are somehow acceptable targets in any way for illegal behavior. How about "if you're gonna take from the tip jar, do it at starbucks", or "if you're gonna dine and dash, do it at cheesecake factory".
It's like the whole "pro graffiti if it's on a big corporate building where I don't have a stake involved" attitude.
I'm really impressed that he decided to email you about this, and thought his points were very well-made.
However, I think the "if you're going to steal, do it from a large corporation" argument holds some water, mostly because a large corporation has such losses worked into their bottom line, and it has a smaller impact on their viability as a business. Financially, they can absorb the loss better than a small business. It has nothing to do with "dehumanizing" the people in charge of loss-prevention; it's just about the numbers. I've never stolen anything from any store, and never would, but I don't think you were in error to tell the people who stole from your store, who are clearly going to steal something regardless of all the reasons it is inappropriate to do so, to steal from a place that is better-equipped to suffer the loss.
What frustrates me most about people stealing from bookstores is that it's not about fulfilling a need; that's why we have libraries, so people can have free access to books and information. Unlike accepting food- or clothing-related charity, which can involve some swallowing of pride or possible exposure to a sermon, libraries offer their wares judgment-free. I'm not saying that stealing food or clothes is somehow "justified," but on a scale of justifiability, stealing from a bookstore ranks very, very low.
After reading your article, I assaulted a security guard in Bellevue's downtown Borders for a copy of My Friend Leonard, which I've already read, and it sucked.
He tried to stop me, but I was super-shiv certified.
This is all your fault, Paul. How could you forget that the Stranger's readers are comprised of impressionable idiots? For shame.
Wait, there isn't a Borders in downtown Bellevue. Um. Barnes and Noble. Yes! That was the one.
Zzzzzz
I am the walrus! Woo!
I had a pretty visceral reaction to that line, too. How much money does a bookstore have to make before it's "okay" to steal from them? What about stealing from one of the bigger independents -- sure, they may not be B&N and but they're not Twice Sold Tales. Is it okay to steal Stephen King but not a small-press poet? Most importantly, if you can't afford the book you want, why not do something really radical and check it out from the library?
Stealing is wrong.
Progressive tax is basically stealing. So is progressive tax wrong?
It may have been an offhand comment that started this, Paul, but I think everyone who criticizes big companies, esp. those in retail, needs to remember that real people work there, people just like you and me, and to widely pan everything about the company with the same broad disdain often showed on here can be a big mistake. You know your subject better than most of your peers on Slog, and even you goofed on this one. Remember to see your disdain for things from the opposite viewpoint, as you eventually did quite well here.
It is folly to ask criminals to have some sort of moral code. People steal where it is easy to steal from. I know people who worked at Value Village. People stole from there all the time. Why steal a two dollar shirt when you can steal a two hundred dollar one from Nordstrom? Because you have a better chance getting caught at Nordstrom. It is a crime of opportunity.
The real problem is that there is almost zero penalty for stealing. If you steal something from most stores, they just tell you to never darken their doorway with your presence again, which most career thieves flagrantly ignore. Make the crime cost something if you're caught.
When I worked in the fiction section of "a large downtown bookstore" we kept the Kerouac, Thompson, Burroughs, Bukowski, etc. behind the counter and customers actually had to ask to look at them. It was worth much more to the management for some folks not to find the books and buy it somewhere else than to have hundreds of dollars of shrink every week on the exact same books. Good Riddance to the graphic novels though - they were impossible to keep in order and always fell over on the shelves.
I think the bottom line is, stealing from a big corporation hurts the owners of the corporation less than stealing from a small company hurts the owners of that company, but stealing hurts the frontline employees (be they owner-operators or wage slaves) the same.
Too long. Didn't read.
You were "shat upon"??? Wouldn't you have to stay still for quite awhile for someone to be able to do that?
Well, someone rubbed their shit on me. And the shit was fresh.
@8,
No form of taxation in a democracy is stealing. Our forefathers opposed taxation without representation, not all taxation.
@15,
Thanks for reminding me why I don't work retail.
@16: Try that argument in the District of Columbia.
@18,
I highly doubt #8 is from D.C.
paul, i work at a local independent bookstore, and i think the knee-jerk response "go steal from the damn barnes & noble" is pretty universal. whether it's assholey or not, it just feels right in the moment. i think other people maybe don't get the larger context- how much the big guys fuck the little guys, and how much of a war it feels like sometimes. it feels kind of unfair to get fucked by giant corporations and dirty little kids. like maybe the street punks should be on your (underdog) team or something, fighting the man.
p.s. we loved your article. it's posted on our bulletin board.
@15: How did you not punch this person?
Comments Closed
In order to combat spam, we are no longer accepting comments on this post (or any post more than 14 days old).