• magnetosphere@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    “You might get attacked while on the job, so here, wear this camera.”

    “If what I’m doing is so dangerous, don’t I deserve a raise, too?”

    “Very funny. Now get back to work.”

    • chaorace@lemmy.sdf.org
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      1 year ago

      “We both know the real reason you’re wearing that camera. One of you assholes is pilfering inventory again”

      “All the more reason for a raise, sir?”

      “No, that’s what the 10% non-transferable employee discount is for”

      “Of course, sir”

      all of the cameras were stolen within a week

      • MostlyMute@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        10%??? It’s 5% unless there’s a special bribe going on for us for a few weeks, like around Christmas.

  • Gyromobile@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Bodycams dont make sense if you work in a building. Just place cameras in the building.

    The only value i could see is making an offender calm down by making them stare at a camera that is recording them… even though they were already being recorded.

    • Pyr_Pressure@lemmy.ca
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      1 year ago

      Body Cams probably have microphones, allowing corporations to not also monitor the customers more closely but also their employees and make sure they say the correct things to customers.

    • GreenBottles@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      this kills two birds with one stone, they can spy and monitor their employees and it also makes them look like they made an effort to deter shoplifting

      • TopRamenBinLaden@sh.itjust.works
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        1 year ago

        The thing is that many of the employees at these kind of places shoplift too. I worked in grocery and department stores for years. Some places were worse than others. It turns out the places that pay fairer wages have less employee theft. What a concept.

        The majority of employees just take nearly expired items, and defective boxes, etc. There is so much waste and so much goes into the trash at these places. It’s hard to not be tempted, because it’s mostly just recycling at that point.

        So, I agree that these cameras are there to spy on the retail employees, on top of the customers.

  • Sagrotan@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I watched a young supermarket employee as he clearly sees a young mother stealing food, he looks at me, shrugs his shoulders, a short thumbs up 👍 from me, and we ignored it together. There you go. Still humans out there.

  • virtualbriefcase@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    The Australian Retailers Association said one in every four of these shoplifting incidents involved “abuse or assault” against workers.

    In an ongoing trial, staff at 30 Coles stores across Australia are being fitted with cameras to only be turned on in “threatening situations”.

    The title sounds misleading, from the text of the article it’s more of a panic button to alert emergency services than it is passive monitoring of employees or customers.

    • MostlyMute@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Not a panic button. As far as I’ve heard it’s just a camera that only has a short recording time. If someone is benign abusive, you press the button to make it start recording. Either the abusive person will back down at the obvious camera recording them, or they’ll get more aggressive, but at least then you’ve got footage of them. The overhead store cameras are really crap quality.

  • TwoGems@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    It’s just the right of grocery stores to price gouge you for basic biological needs, you see!

    • Root@discuss.tchncs.de
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      1 year ago

      Which is what happens in Charles Stross’ “Quantum of Nightmares”. Except it involves a good deal of Blood Magic, meatgrinders, zentai suits and abuse of the workfare system. It seems the author was very angry when he wrote it.

  • skymtf@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    1 year ago

    Shoplifting is actually really based and as an employee your employer shouldn’t expect you to do anything about it. Fuck the capitalist bullshit.

    • foggy@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Literally every corporate policy on theft is to let them steal and call the police.

      Getting involved physically in any way is a losing battle in court.

      • 0110010001100010@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Let’s see here, I’m 37 so 20ish years ago I worked for OfficeMax. We were literally trained that if someone was shoplifting to try and note any relevant details then call the cops. Even if that wasn’t told to us none of us were paid enough to do anything about it. Our one older manager tried to stop a shoplifter once and got knocked unconscious for his efforts.

        • foggy@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          A friend managed an urban outfitters in a busy area of a huge city about a decade ago. He told of organized hits, where like 7 people would come in and just clear out an entire section into trash bags and walk off in under 60 seconds. His hands were tied and also was probably being paid like 30k so he didn’t give much of a fuck either.

    • Pyr_Pressure@lemmy.ca
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      1 year ago

      They are going to fire 10 cashiers and buy 10 self checkouts then hire 10 security guards.

  • Sanctus@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Lets just let these problems boil until we’re competing with the birds and beasts again. Fuck society I guess, they got theirs.

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldB
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    1 year ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:


    The supermarket recently announced a $1.1 billion annual profit, but it also reported a spike in shoplifting and attacks directed at staff.

    Theft is costing Australian grocery giants hundreds of millions of dollars annually, with Coles reporting a 20 per cent jump in stock loss.

    “The use of these cameras has seen a substantial reduction in the amount of abuse and physical incidents our teams have faced,” a Woolworths spokesperson said.

    Retail theft is up across the board, driven by the rising cost of living, according to the Shop, Distributive & Allied Employees’ Association.

    Mr Peak says while the association welcomes the use of cameras, it believes they should only be used for deterring or filming threats towards staff, rather than “asset protection” for supermarkets.

    “We don’t want any suggestion that workers are some kind of mobile security camera – that’s where we can absolutely see this actually [causing] violence and abuse.”


    The original article contains 333 words, the summary contains 151 words. Saved 55%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!

    • Wogi@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Stealing is only legal here if you’re white, and what you’re stealing is taken from the working class.

      For instance, stealing from a pension fund: legal.

      Stealing from Walmart to feed your family: crime.

      Hope this clears things up.

      • bender@insaneutopia.com
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        1 year ago

        In America everything under $1000 is fair game to be stolen. Its such a minor charge the police do not show up.

        • dual_sport_dork 🐧🗡️@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          That’s not quite how it works, and for legal matters starting any statement with a blanket “In America” you’re almost always starting off on the wrong foot. Laws in America vary state by state, including shoplifting. But that said, I don’t know of anywhere here where it is actually legally fair game. Different states have differing thresholds where they theoretically start giving a shit.

          I believe what you’re thinking of, for example, in California they have de facto decriminalized (but not de jure legalized) shoplifting amounts of less then $950 by classifying this as a misdemeanor under state law, which the police are extremely unlikely to bother to investigate. And even if they do and someone is caught, it is rarely effectively prosecuted. That’s not the same as being “legal.”

        • Wogi@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Tell me you’re not an American without telling me you’re not an American.

          • bender@insaneutopia.com
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            1 year ago

            That doesn’t negate the fact that Americans are looting more than they were 3 years ago.

            • Wogi@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              News to me mate, though looking through recent articles for anything with the term looting in it and all I can find are two isolated incidents in cities hit by hurricanes. You sure about that?

            • papalonian@kbin.social
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              1 year ago

              gets called out for making untrue assumptions about the US based on clickbait headlines

              retorts with more info scraped from clickbait headlines

              Yanks sure are shtyoopid innit bruv

        • geosoco@kbin.social
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          1 year ago

          Even if they did, do you really want to pay more taxes to throw them in jail for 50$ worth of food? For the homeless folks, that’s basically a paid vacation.

          When you have folks on the street committing crime just to try and get into jail and off the streets, the system is broken.

          • KairuByte@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            1 year ago

            Could have sworn I read a story of a homeless guy that would walk into a bank with a note that says “this is a robbery” or some such, then waits to be arrested. Never used a weapon, never tried to fight back or escape. Why? Because he wanted to go back to prison. Three meals a day, roof over your head. Better than freezing to death inches away from a warm room.

        • LapGoat@pawb.social
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          1 year ago

          doesn’t make it legal, its just not cost effective to enforce. corporations build cases against people who shoplift until theyve hit a threshold, but i mean…its just how business is done.

          Its not like cops will help you if they see a guy actively stabbing you, doesnt mean its legal to stab folks.

        • DeadlineX@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          I worked in retail up until 2020. We definitely called the police and shared videos of thefts much less than $1k. If it was a $5 impulse item, whatever. But actual product? Police showed up, the thieve was trespassed if they were recognizable.

          I once saw a man in court for stealing a $200 video camera. I’m not sure why you think theft has become legal, but I assure you, at least in my jurisdiction, your statement is patently incorrect.

        • Chozo@kbin.social
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          1 year ago

          The police don’t show up because the police aren’t called. Stores are willing to lose money until they have lost enough to actually file charges against somebody.