I'm noticing all sorts of interesting things lately.
I was in a drugstore a few days ago. An old woman was loudly complaining "This Easter bunny doll I bought is defective! I demand a refund! I demand to see the manager!"
The doll looked fine to me.
The store manager was, of course, very busy. The store manager said "If you want a refund, I need the receipt." The woman didn't have the receipt. The store manager was eager to see the woman get disgusted and leave.
The woman made sure that she walked out of the store at the same time as someone else. As she walked through the exit, the "inventory control" theft prevention system started beeping. She stopped for a moment, to see if anyone would stop her. Nobody stopped her. She then walked out of the store with an expression of disgust. She probably had other moves prepared, if someone tried to stop her. She was already in the threshold of the theft prevention system, so she didn't re-trigger it just by standing there.
I was astonished to see what had happened.
She had totally psyched out the store manager. By loudly demanding a refund, she distracted the store manager. By not giving the refund, the manager was thinking "Haha! I showed her! I got her to leave!" The manager didn't even bother to check the "inventory control" theft prevention system. That system probably has lots of false positives anyway.
As I started writing this post, I was thinking the conclusion was "That's a lot of effort to steal an Easter bunny doll. Why bother?" Now, I understand. She probably also filled her purse with expensive over-the-counter drugs. The Easter bunny doll issue was merely a distraction.
It's amazing to see the efficiency of parasites! The woman probably had the store manager totally psychologically analyzed. If she saw that the store manager was alert, then she wouldn't have attempted stealing. Maybe she scouted the store ahead of time. There's a lot of drugstores. If she visits each one and steals $100+ of drugs from each, then that's a profitable business.
Her scam works, because the store manager assumes "She's an honest incompetent disgruntled customer trying to return something." rather than "Someone would be that clever in a plot to steal."
That thief probably makes more than I do as a wage slave software engineer!
I pay the cost of her successful theft in the form of higher prices.
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Another Parasite Story
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
Chain drug stores are pink market with a heavy red tinge and those who 'own' and run them are parasites at a level many orders of magnitude greater than the scamstress in your story. Without the Rockefeller/govt medical cartel/prescription drug scam and debt money (without which few chain stores would even exist -- the rule would be mom and pop), that monstrosity wouldn't be there. Your parasite is a remora on a very large shark. And shame on you for feeding the beast.
I wont goes as far as to "shame on you," but I agree with anonymous.
At some level there is a "you're with us or you're against us" attitude I personally feel when it comes to businesses. If a business chooses the government subsidies, financial and/or land grants, etc from the government, or benefits from the fraudulent money creation process (commercial banks) I feel that people should resist them as much as they resist the state.
My opinion anyway.
Post a Comment