Retail Stories: "My Life, My Blood, and My Soul"

I've worked on multiple retail jobs and collected a lot of interesting stories. I still think back to the experiences...

Today, as the first story in this series, I would like to share one that saddened my heart the most.

Can you imagine the words "she's my life, my blood, and my soul" coming out of a young boy around 6 or 7 years old?

Now, this isn't a romance story, so no, nothing cute to "aww" about. This is actually about a mother that had brought her son along on her "shopping spree".

I can't remember the full detail of the story, as it had been years ago, but, I remember vividly sitting on a tall chair in the back of our store, on my lunch, listening to the yelling and the crying.

A woman in a red winter coat was escorted in -- to the back of the store -- by the store's Loss Prevention Officer. A little boy around 6 or 7 years old was holding the mother's hand and they were guided into the Loss Prevention (LP) office. The office door stayed shut for quite some time and the words can't be made out -- but the next thing I heard was "don't take her away, you can't take her away, she's my life, my blood, and my soul" and the rest were yelling and mumbling. That was the point when police were called and they realized they will be escorted out by the police back to the station.

If my memory isn't tricking me, I remember the little boy with dark curly hair and red hoodies with navy denim jeans. The little boy, let's call him Alvan, was trying to protect his mother, at least from what it sounded like.

I'm not sure about you, but I certainly can't imagine the little Alvan saying those words all by himself. I do believe for those words to come out of a little boy, it would either be taught, or he watched a lot of TV, or perhaps he has experienced a lot in life -- at such a young age.

After some time, there were 4 or perhaps 6 police in the back -- remembering vaguely. A female cop entered the LP office, and the door was shut. The next thing, I remember was the mom being taken away, along with little Alvan.

Throughout this enter experience, what I remembered the most was little Alvan saying "she's my life, my blood, and my soul", I mean, I can imagine the mother saying it, but not Alvan. After they were taken away, my heart continued to ache, I feel terrible, through the logic of how things unfolded, it wasn't their first time. I feel terrible for Alvan, he's brought up the not so great way and had to experience his mother being escorted for the wrong reasons.

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Facts

Losses/shrinkage due to shoplifting/theft etc. in retail impacts you and I, as retailers/businesses lose money due to the shrinkage, they have to make up the money somewhere, it could be fewer incentives/offers or perhaps increase in prices.

Let's put a little number in here for some perspective of how crazy the numbers are for something that shouldn't happen, "theft, fraud and losses from other retail 'shrink' totalled $50.6 billion in 2018" in the US, while there were "140,200 incidents of shoplifting of $5,000 or under, a rate of 373 incidents per 100,000 population" in Canada in 2019.

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*Disclaimer: Retail Stories are based on actual events and experience, with some details added and/or edited. If there is any resemblance to your experience and/or people you know, it may or may not be coincidental.

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Resources

https://www.securitymagazine.com/articles/90330-retail-shrink-tops-50-billion

https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/85-002-x/2020001/article/00010-eng.htm