A San Francisco store is taking a new approach to curb shoplifting.
During certain hours, customers are escorted and helped through the store by a clerk, instead of roaming around on their own.
Manager Sam Black explains some of the measures that have been taken at deter shoplifting at Fredericksen Hardware and Paint.
“They rip the whole thing off. So now we put this oak beam to stem the tide a little bit.,” he said.
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Now, a front table is set up during certain early and late hours – a message explains to shoppers they should wait for assistance. The store introduced a one-on-one shopping experience to protect itself from rampant theft.
“The shoplifting got too much and the snatch and grabs that’s when it had to stop. When they come in and rip stuff off the wall, it’s kind of endangering the employees and the customers and that’s where we kind of had slow it down a little bit with the table,” Black said.
Black added that merchandise just disappeared from shelves.
“Frying pans, we have really high end cookware here, six pans in a week,” he said.
So now a clerk helps customers through the store. Black noticed the problem during the pandemic, but says it’s gotten worse. NBC Bay Area asked why he hasn’t filed police reports for the thefts.
“It doesn’t really do anything. So there is no point unless it’s really, really dangerous," he said.
It’s been three weeks since these efforts began. NBC Bay Area asked people Thursday about their reaction to the changes.
“It’s inconvenient, where you can’t just go in and look around and see what you need. but I understand their position, just getting a lot of stuff stolen,” said San Francisco resident Larry Chew.
San Francisco Supervisor Catherine Stefani issued a statement on this issue saying in part:
“This situation is tragic and embarrassing for our city, and it’s all the more reason to get serious about solving our police staffing crisis. We need more police on our streets, and we need them now.”
