random lil pieces of 🏋️ advice
🏵️bring stuff with you - at a makeup store, bring your "empties" so you "know what you need to buy", at a craft store it depends what specifically you're there for but i crochet, so i'd bring like a lil ball of yarn that i'm trying to "color match", you get the idea, it's a very normal thing to do and gives you a great excuse to be rummaging in your bag/pockets
🏵️talk on the phone - people on the phone tend to pace, wander, fiddle with things, pick things up, etc, and the SAs wont be paying attention to you.
🏵️if you're going to carry hooks or magnets, conceal them on your body. if you get caught, having tools makes it planned instead of spontaneous
🏵️building on that, if you ever get caught, always always say it was an impulse, you don't know why you did it, it was stupid, you saw your friends do it, etc.
🏵️wear sweatbands on your arms, like halfway up your forearm. you can tuck pencil/lipstick size items into it.
🏵️easily forgotten detail, remember to put something soft at the bottom of your bag if you're going to drop things into it 😉
🏵️if you're planning to return things, always pay with cash and use a fake phone/email if they ask for one. honestly, pay with cash as often as possible in general. the last thing you want is a store building a case against you and getting your info from your credit card
🏵️sometimes when doing returns, stores will ask for your ID. say you forgot it at home/recently lost it. if they give you any grief, just offer to come back another time. this is how stores track you in their system and potentially flag you for suspicious activity.
🏵️you should have a fake name, phone number, address, and email address memorized and ready to rattle off.
🏵️wintertime special: wear too many warm things. hat & scarf. be holding a few items in your hand, set most of them down, take off your hat/scarf and shove it in your bag along with 1-2 items.
(can y'all tell i like sleight of hand better than finding a blind spot to conceal? looking for cameras is the most sus thing you can do, imho)
