Mall tip:
I don’t like messing around too much with packaging in stores: not only does it mean that I’m in there for longer than I have to be, it also increases the chances of getting seen by someone. So ninety nine times out of one hundred, the packaging comes out of the store with me (with RFIDs removed, obviously).
I realise, though, that packaging can be bulky and take up more room than you’d like, especially if you only have one bag with you. And nothing screams “Hey, look, a shoplifter!” than boxed up, brand new items visible in your hand bag.
So what do I do? I get my butt into the rest rooms, making sure I get into a cubicle with a sanitary disposal unit in it. (This allows me to make a bit of noise in there, too: it’s kind of acceptable and normal to shuffle through your handbag and unzip things and rustle with plastic when you’re digging out a pad or a tampon or whatever.) What am I doing in there? Taking things out of the packaging, and hiding them at the bottom of my hand bag or in pockets (for small instructional manuals, and carded earrings, I put them in my wallet).
It’s also prime time to triple-check anything for RFID tags– if you HAVE beeped anywhere, go into the Ladies’ before you step into another store.
And where does the packaging or RFID tags end up? In the sanitary bin. If you’ve managed to do all this without looking suss at all, odds are good that once you chuck the packaging in there, it’s gone forever, because those bins are removed by private contractors who clean them out elsewhere and replace them. And no one is going to want to go poking through a bin full of used sanitary products and hell knows what else just in case there might have been a shoplifter who used it to dispose of tags and packaging.
It’s also a good time to change clothes or wear some of your haul or whathaveyou, too.
(Apologies to those of you who use the mens’ room; I don’t know if disposing of things in there is feasible. Though I’ve heard stories of people flushing/trying to flush tags and it ending VERY badly, though.)
