Store orders customers to wait for employee escort as shoplifting soars
A well-known San Francisco shop, Fredericksen's Hardware and Paint, is trying a new tactic to tackle the "rampant shoplifting" that's been killing smaller businesses.
The store in Cow Hollow is now offering a "one-on-one shopping experience" with shoppers escorted by staff members. The plan is to separate genuine customers from those who want to steal. During certain times, Fredericksen's is now blocking part of the entrance and making people wait for a staff member to assist them, instead of letting them wander around the shop.
Signs in the store say: “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."
The store's long-serving manager thinks it's a strategy worth trying for the good of the business, its workers, and its customers.
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Fredericksen’s Hardware and Paint in the city’s Cow Hollow neighborhood have a strict new rule for shoppers (KRON4)"It's pretty bad," said manager Sam Black. "I mean, the amounts of money are quite big, and with the tools and now we're getting snatch-and-grabs when they take whole displays, so it's becoming kind of dangerous for the employees and the customers."
Black says that for two hours in the morning and two hours in the evening, a worker will help individual customers. A table at the front acts as a barrier to stop potential thieves from moving freely in and out of the shop.
The escorted shopping rule is only in place for about two hours a day, though (KRON4)"We just want to make it uncomfortable for the thieves so they go somewhere else," Black said. He added that in his 24 years of working at Fredericksen's, theft is the worst it has ever been. The team has even had to bolt down pots and pans to stop shoplifters from taking them.
They've had to take action to stop people stealing tools and home stuff. One shopper told KRON4 off-camera that the whole thing is "just sad."
"Yeah, people aren't happy," Black told us. "The regulars can't believe it either, but they've been really understanding."
Customers will now wait to be helped by an employee who will escort them around the store (KRON4)Black says he and his team had to try something because city leaders or police haven't helped them much. They have been experimenting with one-person shopping for three weeks now. He says they're going to look at the results after a month.
Black doesn't know how long they will keep doing this one-on-one shopping at his shop. Catherine Stefani, San Francisco supervisor, said: "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. That's why I'll hold a series of hearings in March to push our city agencies to fill the hundreds of vacancies at the Police Department as soon as possible to stop the bleeding, reverse the damage, and finally protect our residents and small businesses."
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