For a multi-level bookstore, you’re going to follow this plan: work from bottom floor to top floor, then stop at the Starbucks when you’ve gathered all of your loot.
Take a reusable bag, preferably a canvas one. You’re going to “line” it with a t-shirt safety-pinned to the inside of the bag, to create a lining – this will hide the books’ sharp corners, so it looks less sus of what’s inside when it’s slung over your shoulder.
Gather your loot floor to floor, browsing as a normal shopper. I have a rule of 5 books per trip. It’s a decent amount to seem like you’re really buying them, but small enough to not notice that you’re hauling.
Items that will for sure be tagged: books over $25, journals, Bibles, anime/manga, fandom books, entertainment category books, maybe bestsellers. These are high shrink categories.
BEWARE the hardback books! They are most likely to have embedded RFIDs in the spines.
BEWARE ANY STICKER stuck to the book. Barnes and Noble is known for their “percentage off” stickers to be RFIDs! If a sticker is thick/you can’t see through it/you can’t peel it easily, it’s an RFID.
Check all items for RFIDs by flipping through them from cover to cover. Usually they’ll be stuck inside a cover. If for some reason they’re on a page, the book will naturally separate on a page with a thick sticker on it, but RFIDs stuck to pages are unlikely.
Almost all I lift are fiction/novels around $15 and I’ve only ever found one RFID. Remove with caution, it’s better to just forget lifting the book entirely.
Okay, once you’ve got your items, go to the Starbucks. Sit your items on a table, order a drink, pay cash of course, then sip your drink and play on your phone. When the Starbucks cashier is busy making drinks, casually place your items in your canvas bag, sling over your shoulder, travel back down to the exit, and leave.
Also peep my latest book haul *shameless self-promo*
baratheonpilled
jacobvanloon
gummygunk
kianamaiart
