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    The Noble RenardAnna Merlan
    7/01/16 4:14pm

    Macy’s reportedly detained more than 6,000 people in one year.

    Are you fucking kidding me?

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      Stig-a-saw-us wrecks sez Bernie is wrong on nuclear power.The Noble Renard
      7/01/16 4:18pm

      That has to be more people than NYC puts in Rikers.

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      coddatThe Noble Renard
      7/01/16 4:19pm

      Honestly that's fewer than 10 suspected shoplifters per year per store. To put it in perspective.

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    RumberaAnna Merlan
    7/01/16 4:41pm

    This is why I was so happy when online shopping really took off in the late 90's. So sick of getting followed in these department stores and having my pocketbook eyed suspiciously. I actually made a scene and went off on a woman who trailed 6 feet behind me since the second I walked into the store, checking whatever I picked up.

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      LooseSasquatchRumbera
      7/01/16 5:01pm

      They used to do that in the Best Buy store I worked at in college. They’d just say ‘Code 9' or something like that and specify an area and all associates who weren’t with a customer would have to run over there and start cleaning and straightening everything.

      Then the ‘target’ would move (and it was usually one or more minority youths or a minority woman with a stroller) and they’d ‘Code 9' somewhere else they had moved to until they got frustrated and left. I never liked that policy and was glad that it got struck down by a bunch of minority customers threatening to sue or go to the media. . .

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      Macross was my jamRumbera
      7/01/16 5:07pm

      Until I was about 25, I would be followed around the store. One time when I was 14 (but let’s be clear, I was 4'10" and looked like I belonged in the 5th grade) I told someone that only child molesters follow kids that closely and they backed off. It was finally the day that I was detained by someone at a fred meyer I had been going to for 6 years every day in the afternoon (clerks knew me by name). My mom called the manager and ripped into him about it and they apologized to me, but it totally soured me to the place, and retail shopping in general.

      Now I’m basically ignored in most stores which is great.

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    Ka Mai - New and ImprovedAnna Merlan
    7/01/16 4:24pm

    Judge Manuel Mendez ordered Macy’s to cut it out, saying the law only allows customers to be detained while an investigation is taking place.

    Even this is too much. You should be allowed to detain a shoplifter until the police arrive, and not a moment longer.

    Also:

    Palmer, Reifler and Associates PA

    Maybe don’t pick a law firm whose names are euphemisms for stealing.

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      DunlinKa Mai - New and Improved
      7/01/16 4:34pm

      NICE.

      I confused euphemism with acronym for a moment and wondered what you meant by PRAPA but once my brain kicked in, +1 for the “rifle through” reference.

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      Ka Mai - New and ImprovedDunlin
      7/01/16 4:37pm

      Thanks. When I saw those names, I was like “this one has just been gift wrapped for me.”

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    BuddahbeanMisplacedHerBurnerKeyAnna Merlan
    7/01/16 4:21pm

    Carrying clothes between floors in the same store is theft??!! Hell, I’ve done that multiple times before. What a racket.

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      JenniferRabbitBuddahbeanMisplacedHerBurnerKey
      7/01/16 4:31pm

      Did you do it while black, though?

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      Oh Donnaaaaaaa! Donna Strunk!!!BuddahbeanMisplacedHerBurnerKey
      7/01/16 4:55pm

      Right? And if there happened to be some sort of rule about paying for things before leaving a floor, good luck finding a Macy’s employee to ring up your purchases. I once wandered around for over ten minutes trying to find someone so I could pay and if I hadn’t needed the stupid dress for an event I would have abandoned the thing.

      (This is not a dig at Macy’s employees. I have worked at similar retail establishments and it's a shitty job where you're often expected to be in five places at once. Management, however, is never on the floor no matter how short staffed the store is.)

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    UrbanAchieverAnna Merlan
    7/01/16 4:39pm

    What the holy hell is this fuckery?

    Waaaay back in the 80s I was stopped in a California Macy’s after I had left the store - the plainclothes store security guy asked if we could talk about the shirt I had tucked into a folded newspaper I was carrying. It was a hot day and I’d taken off my shirt and was just wearing my sleeveless T-shirt. I pulled out the shirt and held it up - it was obviously a worn shirt. “Sure, what do you want to say about it?” I thought this handsome young man was just tossing out an innovative pick-up line.

    Long story short, he apologized profusely, and was clearly nervous I would report him for false accusation. I thought shoplifting was a fair enough suspicion, a shirt tucked into a newspaper and carried under my arm, and anyway, the guy was polite throughout.

    Reading the article above, I’m wondering what would have happened if I didn’t happen to be white.

    It seems like there should be more punishment for this kind of private detention and extortion.

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      LooseSasquatchUrbanAchiever
      7/01/16 4:58pm

      Well, as a former Loss Prevention officer, I’d have to say you were out of the store, so white or black or purpler or space alien, it would be some big-time shit for them to actually abduct you back in the store (unless they could convince you to come back inside).

      Generally we were trained not to go outside the doors with or after a suspected shoplifter because you never knew what would happen. You could get stabbed, or one of you could get hit by a car, the store doesn’t want that kind of liability, even if they want you to be a huge dick while people are IN the store. . .

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      unicornsliveforeverUrbanAchiever
      7/01/16 5:25pm

      Of course it’s because you’re white! It’s nothing to wonder about. It’s real.

      a) I’ve been to the same Macy’s in the article, and I’ve made the mistake of walking/escalating between levels with my tentative purchases. They’ve always been eager to help me, and they’ve even told me it’s OK to do that. I’m a white man. “What else are you looking for today? Whenever you’re ready, I’ll ring you up right here!”

      b) I’ve also worked retail. It’s common procedure to split the team into different tasks or regions of the store. When black people arrive, one employee peals off from their task to follow the black people. The other employees adjust their task/position to cover. (Hard to explain, but my store had very specific departments, so our assignments were clearly set out. Official store policy was that black customers, as a rule, disrupted and adjusted our assignments.) I also remember being told that I didn’t follow them close enough — I’d say I could still gauge whether they were shoplifting from a distance, but my manager once finally just came right out and said, “You’re supposed to follow them so close behind that they feel uncomfortable and leave.”

      It’s just so, so, so weird when people “wonder” if racism exists.

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    thespotteddogAnna Merlan
    7/01/16 4:22pm

    I hope she was able to call the credit card company and get the charged dismissed. that’s bullshit.

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      Marylee111thespotteddog
      7/01/16 5:30pm

      Seriously, she was basically robbed.

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      HerRoyalRednessthespotteddog
      7/01/16 11:46pm

      Yeah, I can’t believe that’s legal. They took her card out of her wallet, without permission, and then charged her what I think is an excessive amount. And all for trying to return stuff, for which she had a fucking receipt!

      GIF
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    SarsAttacksAnna Merlan
    7/01/16 5:55pm

    When she refused to do so, her credit card was removed from her wallet and charged for the full amount.

    What the ever-loving fucking fuck of all fucks. And the NYPD, by loyally waiting outside the front gates to have their “perps” delivered unto them, essentially endorsed this shakedown. That meteor is taking its sweet fucking time, innit.

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      HerRoyalRednessSarsAttacks
      7/01/16 11:43pm
      GIF

      Its un-fucking-believable. It’s robbery!

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    Nrstanley9Anna Merlan
    7/01/16 4:23pm

    Sounds like false imprisonment, a felony. I don’t even know what fucked up thing to call the “fee”. Extortion? Ransom? Theft?

    I support criminal charges against those responsible.

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      goddessoftransitoryNrstanley9
      7/01/16 11:12pm

      All of those work, add in “unlawful imprisonment” and you’re set.

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    thatsmylampAnna Merlan
    7/01/16 4:37pm

    Now that is fucked up. Now I know how Macy’s makes money, because it certainly isn’t from their merchandise. I worked there once. It’s a shit show.

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      peppypepsthatsmylamp
      7/01/16 4:41pm

      You didn’t figure out that their credit card was their major source of income when you worked there?

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      CatAssthatsmylamp
      7/01/16 6:12pm

      I was once hired by Macy’s on a Friday and told I’d be called that Monday with a schedule and a start date. I never heard from them again.

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    grapesIickAnna Merlan
    7/01/16 4:27pm

    This cannot be legal.

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      acmeindustriesgrapesIick
      7/01/16 4:38pm

      I guess that’s the point of the lawsuit.

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      grapesIickacmeindustries
      7/01/16 4:57pm

      I like the way the Macy’s spokesperson refers to these practices as “civil recovery”.

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