A store in California has gone to extreme measures to combat shoplifting - by making customers browse with an employee escorting them around the store.
Over-eager shop assistants that stop you to ask if you need any help every few minutes can be pretty annoying when you're trying to indulge in some retail therapy in peace.
However, shoppers at Fredericksen’s Hardware and Paint in San Francisco's Cow Hollow neighborhood will have to put up with that and more as they'll be escorted around the store by an employee throughout their whole time in the shop.
The hardware store has put up a sign announcing that during certain hours, shoppers won't be allowed to browse on their own due to so much shoplifting happening in their branch.
KRON4 reports that part of the store's entrance has been blocked off and shoppers must stay in a waiting area until an employee is free to walk around the shop with them while they find what they need.
The sign informs customers: "Attention shoppers. Due to the rampant shoplifting, Fredericksen has introduced a one-on-one shopping experience: wait here and a clerk will be right with you to help you with all your shopping needs.
"We’re sorry for the inconvenience," the notice concludes.
Sam Black, the store's longtime manager, admitted that while the controversial move might be pretty annoying for customers, they decided to try it for the sake of the business and its employees.
He told the outlet that shoplifting is worse than it has ever been in the 24 years he has worked at the business and that they have even had to drill down pots and pans to stop people taking them, and have had to lock up tools and hardware products which were a target for thieves.
Black explained: "It’s pretty bad. I mean, the dollar amounts are pretty significant, and with the tools and now we’re getting snatch-and-grabs when they take whole displays, so it’s getting kind of dangerous for the employees and the customers."
Currently, there are two hours in the morning and two in the evening during which customers must be followed around by staff, and a table blocks the entrance so people can't just walk in without a staff member escorting them.
"We just want to make it uncomfortable for the thieves so they go somewhere else," Black explained.
One customer told the outlet that the fact they've had to resort to such extreme measures is "just sad" and Black acknowledged: "Yeah, people aren’t happy. The regulars can’t believe it like we can’t believe it, but they’ve been really understanding."
The experiment has been going on for three weeks so far and the store is set to review how successful it has been at the end of the month.
Issues with shoplifting have been increasing in San Francisco, with supervisor Catherine Stefani calling the situation "embarrassing" for the city.
Stefani added: "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."
Fredericksen's Hardware and Paint is not the only store that has gone to extreme measures to stop thieves, as other shops in the city have got rid of self-checkouts in order to stop criminals shoplifting items.
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