A Decade in the Game

Hey, on Reddit today I was reading a post where some employees and LP were talking. Here was my takeaway.

-not all of those face cams at the SCO machines are recording

-assume that they are because some AP sit and watch the SCO feed instead of being on the floor

-if your transaction randomly gets suspended or you get the ‘bag count’ notification, you’re caught. 

-EverSeen is a new program that will be able to see unscanned items through the scanning mechanism and will freeze the entire register. Right now it is only in high-risk stores. Walmart plans to roll them out everywhere. 

My friend, who is now on lïftblr, and I have been working together for some time. Instead of telling them all of this in person, I’d rather make this post public for all newbies or maybe people who need a reminder.

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General Apperance:

I’d say about half the job is acting the part. You need to LOOK and FEEL innocent. To trick yourself into thinking you’re doing nothing wrong.

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You can’t look like you’re doing something wrong. Don’t dress sketchy, don’t look sketchy, and sound sketchy. Don’t walk in with your hood on. Dress how men or women usually dress. Blend in. If you’re black, sadly you will be a target more often. Lean away from “ghetto” fashion and if you get caught, I’ve heard of people getting away with claiming the race card. It’s up to you if you think it will work in your situation.

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Anyways, here are a few pointers you can see as a general guideline.

Don’t wear all black

Dress nice, but not too nice

Don’t wear too many bright colors. Neutral is best most of the time

LP look for those big black structured bags. Try using a wallet to hide things under or a more neutral bag

LP also look at teens (especially groups) so if possible, go alone. Make yourself look older.

Dress like you belong there. If you’re going into hot topic, pop in your piercings and wear all black with that MCR shirt. If you’re going into old navy that blue jean skirt and button up will be great

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Behavior:

For behavior, the “Don’t look/feel sketchy” is really important. Here are a few tips.

Don’t immediately walk to something and grab it. Shop around

Shop your way over to what you want

Don’t look for/at cameras. Find out the blind spots before you go. Look up but only with your eyes and use mirrors/your phone camera to check

Don’t conceal and immediately run out. If it’s an emergency, fake a phone call and pretend it’s urgent. “Wait..is she okay? When?”

Don’t avoid staff. If they are SAing you then drop your shit and leave. If they ask you if you need help don’t say “oh I’m just looking.” Say, “no I know what I’m looking for. I just got distracted.”

Don’t walk around quickly or too slowly

Look NORMAL. You’re not doing anything wrong, remember?

I tend to make a different personality for myself when I plan to “obtain” something unless I’m with friends. More outgoing and assertive. A law abiding citizen with some time to waste or a birthday to catch. It helps

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Friends:

Going out with friends? Don’t. But if they too are participanting, here are some guidelines.

Don’t be loud and obnoxious

Still follow the dress and behavior points the best you can

Look out for each other. Set of codes like “what time is it” means there is an SA and “how’s your cat” is there is a camera

Set up your own guidelines. For instance, me and my friend know that if one gets caught, the other pretends they knew nothing and they don’t admit to anything unless someone shows them proof

Your partner should know the laws in your area and shouldn’t be cocky. Neither should you

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Things To Avoid:

Talking about lïftîng in store/parking lot

Taking your stuff out in the parking lot

Whispering

Concealing on camera

Letting people see you conceal (they may decide to tell on you)

Leaving hangers

Leaving visible tags

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And thats it! I hope this helped. If you have any questions, feel free to leave an ask! My ask box and DMs are always open 💗💕 bye!!

As a (finally) former Replenishment Associate/Sales Associate/Head Cashier of the highest shrink Michael’s Arts & Crafts in our district, here is everything you need to know and probably more:

Our store didn’t even have towers.

If our Instax Mini’s (which are locked up) or film (which are behind little red locks that you can use a magnet on) were source tagged, nothing would beep.

Choose your time of day wisely.

Of course, weekend nights are a lot busier and our store in particular, for whatever reason, was always understaffed. There would be 1 Framer, 1-2 SA, 1 Cashier, 1 MOD. Mid-day always has the most associates.

I recommend the morning: it’s slow, we’re trying to get our own projects done, we’re probably still sleepy.

I do not recommend before closing, as all of the employees are running around the store trying to get shit done so we can go home.

Our Copic markers are at the front in the queue line and our Prismacolor stuff is in our Fine Arts section, both of which are heavily monitored. This brings me to:

Our cameras (that actually record and can be rewound in store) don’t pan around and zoom. 

Sections recorded: entrance, front registers, jewelry, fine art, receiving (”the back”/employees only), stickers, cash office.

No one is actively watching the camera monitors. If we’re bored and lazy, we’ll sit and watch, and it’s somehow hypnotizing.

I recommend concealing while walking along the outermost walls of the store, basket aisle, clearance aisle, seasonal, and if you’re ballsy- the classroom.

Don’t go to the bathroom, at least ours is next to the frame shop, aka someone gon’ see you walk in with merch.

We find empty boxes all the time. We don’t ever look more into it.

The empty box goes in receiving to get damaged out and thrown away. Ditch em in the clearance aisles if they’re too bulky.

No designated LP person. I used to joke with customers that I was LP and I don’t feel like tackling you today, but really. In all of the time I was there, we had ONE LP guy come in to creep on us and customers.

I’ve sat in the office and watched a woman rip pegs off the wall, dump a wall of strung beads into her bag, and leave the store in less than 2 minutes. We were more impressed than anything tbh.

We cannot confront you, even if we watched you put it in your bag.

We can only customer service you to death and be mildly passive aggressive.

We won’t chase you down, but the MOD will fill out a report if you were seen on camera.

***If you are caught on camera, a screen cap of you and description of the incident will be emailed to every store in the district.

Park further away y’all.

Our parking lot was shared with four other stores (the “mall” was an outdoor shopping center)

When I first started working there, my manager told me to park within 8 spots from the front because that was the limit of the cameras.

Returns/Exchanges

So you lifted something from a different store and Michaels carries the exact same one…

If you return something without a receipt, we will give you the lowest price the item has been in the past 90 days, in store credit.

We also need a valid driver’s license so the (national) system will track how often you do non-receipted returns.

If you go up to the register with random, high value items in a non-receipted return transaction (like one expensive brush, one expensive tube of paint, and a pair of jewelry pliers all at once), we have to call an MOD.

If your total refund for a non-receipted return purchase is over $100, the system will prompt for a manager override.

Cash and debit receipted return transactions will be refunded as cash. I had a coworker who would keep these receipts from people who wanted them thrown out, do the return himself, and pocket the cash.

If, for whatever reason, you have a fake traveler’s check, try cashing it in here.

Because we do them so infrequently, I had a manager take it for me, and it turned out she took an apparently fake traveler’s check and didn’t even know.

However, pls don’t use counterfeit bills here. If we get too many in X amount of time, the Operations Manager will get fired.

So you actually want to buy something?

Still apprehensive to conceal in your bag? We are supposed to look to make sure you’ve got all of the items out of the buggy, we are supposed to look inside baskets and boxes, and underneath the liner of baskets. Conceal little items underneath your bag, that is sitting in the child seat of the cart.

50% one regular priced item (with exclusions): 400100719008 is the barcode number. You can ask the cashier to type this in, in “item entry.” It will always work, regardless of what coupon is out that week,

Our employee discount is 30% off your purchase, including sale items (with exclusions): 400100451588.

Is the line too long and the framing counter is open? Be really nice and you can check out there.

Pls be nice to the cashier and don’t ask to make eight separate transactions for eight of the same coupon with the same method of payment. While lifting doesn’t directly affect my paycheck, this coupon policy abuse shit does. if the store doesn’t meet projected goals, we get less hours, which means I have less money to put in my gas tank.

Am I missing something? Ask!

Sneaky ass bastards.. Beeped at a store during a haul today and couldn’t get why.. Upon futher inspection I found this fucker right under 2 overlapping stickers.. Haven’t seen one of these that are just wires yet, so I thaught I’d share.

Okay I’m now making it optional. But please.

A Question:

do y’all think this is a magnet detector? it’s a small square panel in a nördström’s dressing room. I tried to examine it a bit but it wouldn’t move. it also has what seems to be a layer of black felt or something over it.

Stores: 5BËLÖW, Ïcïng, Lüsh, B&BW, ÄË, ÜÖ, Päcsün, Äërïë, PÏNK

Unpictured: 2 LipBalms $10, Starbucks Drink $4

My blog got deleted like a year ago. Ive just come back to rejoin the community, and its like dead or so scattered that its not a community anymore. I know many people hate us as shoplifters but on my god. This is a whole new level.