me being away from the record store does not somehow prevent insane shit from happening at the record store so Buckle Up Folks as I tell you about the fucking Saga that has been unfolding as I have been gone.
so, for the most part, the record store generally operates on a good faith policy. we put a cart of cheap records outside and for the most part people will come inside and pay for them. the general demographic of people who buy vinyl tends to be pretty chill so up until now this works.
also keep in mind that for the most part there is only one person behind the counter. meaning that if I'm checking someone out then all my attention is there. similarly if I'm doing some other organizational task.
so the store has a mix of both new and used stuff. the new stuff needs to be bulk ordered from vinyl suppliers and is therefore what we make the lowest profit margin on, but we also sell a lot of the new stuff because it's popular so it makes it worth it.
anyway, my boss noticed that someone has been stealing a lot of the new records. this has been going on a few months.
he tells us to watch the customers carefully, which we do, but obviously, with only one person in the store at a time, it's hard to do all the time.
more shit gets stolen so my boss put up a security gate and we magnetic sticker tagged all of the new records near the front of the store.
my three other coworkers noticed a guy who they thought had been stealing, he was always there early and always seemed to be putting shit in his backpack. when confornted and asked to open his backpack he made a bunch fo excuses and made a beeline for the exit and tripped the security gate, but this seemed to not deter him.
the thing about him is that he was always very chatty and he mentioned that he was a lawyer, so of course he sold his soul for a quick buck robbing an independent record store.
my boss says that he's banned from the store, unless he (my boss) is in, in which case to let him in for A Confrontation ("cage fight!" as my coworker said"). we caught him on security camera and we all know what he looks like.
however, here's where things get interesting - my coworker managed to find the motherfucker on linkedin because the idiot told us his name and where he worked and even left his phone number when trying to sell his stolen records back to us. I wonder how his fancy law firm will take to knowing that he's been committing petty theft from a local record store...
