Presuming their managers did indeed instruct them to behave this way (which I have no trouble believing, at all), the article doesnât mention how they plan to prove this was a CVS-wide policy, and not just a couple of rogue managers. Especially since CVS almost certainly has a written non-discrimination policy (as all giant corps do, even if they donât follow them). I sadly have a feeling that the most likely outcome here will be a couple managers being thrown under the bus, maybe an out of court settlement, and a âno admission of guiltâ from CVS.
Yes, I think so too. Especially since the most important portion of most corporate non-discrimination policy is written on the back:
âDonât write down our discrimination policiesâ
Well, okay, this is a bad thing, but donât forget, thereâs NO SUCH THING as white privilege!
/s
Granted I grew up in Birmingham, AL, but both the managers of both of the retail stores I worked in told me to keep an eye on black people (âNot to be racist, butâŚâ theyâd start with).
I donât understand why I havenât clued in until now that as a middle aged, middle class white guy I can probably get away with a lot because no one thinks Iâd do anything. Iâm gonna go steal me some liquor from CVS! They wonât be watching me!
I worked at Kmart for awhile, and part of that was as a security guy at the front. Those friendly people handing out leaflets? Those are security people. My job was to eyeball every person and call store security if sketchy folks came in, and they often did.
The big thing to watch out for were groups of 2 or 3 teenagers wearing backpacks. They were our obvious shoplifters, and were always awful about looking innocent. Nobody told me to watch for black people. Just âteens looking shifty wearing backpacksâ.
Now known in many stores as âloss prevention specialists.â And you may have been, instead of a âclerkâ or âcashier,â a âsales associateâ?
Yikes! Iâve pretty much learned to grit my teeth when I hear a sentence that starts like that, because chances are that what follows is going to be pretty damned racist. 
Off topic aside: I am pleased to note that the word âdamnedestâ was offered to me by autocomplete as I was typing the above.
The News Quiz on Radio 4 read a clipping from the Bournemouth Echo last week:
A bank robbery took place in New Milton, Hampshire a week ago. The criminal dressed in a white tracksuit, white trainers, and wrapped bandages around his head and face like a mummy.
The police said: âthis is a serious crime, we are looking for a man described as white.â
Well, sort of. I was a âdoor greeterâ, serving double-duty: answering any questions about where to find things, but also scoping everyone out as the first level of store security. That was after several years of being a cashier, which I still did during rush times. The actual âloss preventionâ folks stalked around the store watching for people putting things in their pants or purses.
90% of my âsecurity guyâ thing was telling teens to leave their backpacks and duffel bags at the front desk, and watching them stalk back out.
Having known people who worked in loss-prevention, I instantly believed it. I donât even think it was official CVS policy (which isnât to say they arenât responsible for who they hire and how they behave) but I can say that when black people say they feel tailed in stores, itâs not just a feeling. One friend in particular whom I think of was a white guy who said that he would find himself following black people around the store more often than white people. He didnât say it was because he believed they stole more often, he just said it was something he subtly found himself doing. Other people he worked with, however, were actually very strident in their belief that black customers should be followed more- which even if he disagreed certainly affected his thinking.
Thereâs a video that goes around online where they have a black kid stealing a bike, a white dude, and then a white lady. I find it pretty amusing that when the cute girl is stealing the bike, all the men are like, âHey, can I help you with your bike, little lady?â I feel like I could TOTALLY lead a gang of middle aged ladies into some crime spree and make some major coin.
Indeed. And for those who havenât seen it, a great video indeed.
ETA: thanks, watched it again. truly . . . disgusting. We have so far to goâŚ
@ChickieD out having fun in retirement
I saw that awhile ago, and IIRC it was pretty fucked up. Didnât they have one where there was a pretty white girl straight up say âI am stealing this bikeâ and some guy helped her? Thatâs some serious cognitive bias, or voo-doo punany. I am not sure which.
Yes, that woman (ahem) is at the end of the clip I embedded. The men who fall all over themselves to help her steal the bike! are funny and horrific at the same time.
Also this one:
The honest truth is that itâs usually incredibly obvious when someoneâs trying to look innocent. Holding their coat in a weird unnatural way to hide the bulge of hidden merchandise, striding âcasuallyâ towards the door, itâs ridiculous how obvious shoplifters are. If youâre a middle-aged white guy (or a middle aged black guy, or a middle aged asian woman, whatever) and you confidently walk out the door with merchandise, youâll most likely get away with it.
