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I was in the Kerrville, TX, Home Depot Friday morning and noticed that the copper wire is all behind locked doors now. In addition, some highly discounted tool sets (they sell every Black Friday) were stacked up as usual, but all wired up with security alarms. A store clerk had to disable the alarms and very politely accompany me to the register.
This is another local symptom of the very recent US decline into third-world nation status. As much as I’d like to ascribe it to unlimited immigration, it’s more an effect of the US population becoming less and less honorable (although immigration has a part).
Kerrville is a modest-sized city (23,000 people); it’s a blue-collar town with a significant retiree population. These security measures may be mandated from the national headquarters and not a response to acts committed locally. But it’s a very disturbing trend nonetheless. And turning it around will take measures the American people are not ready for, in my humble opinion.
Discussion (55)
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The alarms, the locks, and the salary paid to the clerk while he walked you to the register are a tax on honest people.
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I assume that the stores know it is cheaper than the alternative of physically preventing theft. Maybe blame the lawyers.
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I don't believe this at all. Stores that have been open and successful for decades are shutting down because of theft. Worst case, if the employees aren't permitted to stop theft, and the police won't arrest shoplifters, and the DAs won't prosecute, any business just becomes one big give-away center.
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This has been going on for a year, both here in Ithaca, NY where I live and in Delaware where I'm currently working. It is irritating enough so that I sometimes drive the extra several miles to the (slightly more expensive) electrical supply house because I don't want to go through this time-wasting monkey dance.
Recently the guy told me they started keeping rolls of wire behind the checkout at the Pro area, so they didn't have to keep carrying it up for people. Brilliant!, I said, and headed right up thinking problem solved. But while they did indeed have a bunch of rolls there, they were still locked up!! Behind the counter, where only the staff can access them. And the checkout lady didn't have the key. So I still had to stand there, now holding up the line, while they sorted it out.
I mentioned how questionable this practice was, since it obviated the point of bothering to do this. I mean, they don't trust their own employees or what? She assured me that they were correctly following procedure.
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Liberal DAs are not the root of the problem - they are more like fertilizer. They encourage the problem to grow.
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