Meat Thieves

[mharbourgirl]

Though, what was more entertaining than her plight to get steak for the price of ground chuck was her outfit. Dear Lord.....I don't know who let her out of the house like that. She had on an oversized Tweety bird sweater with pink leggings on, and this was in the early 2000s, so the awful trend of skin tight leggings and oversized shirts hadn't quite reared its ugly head back yet.

I hate to break it to ya, honey, but she'd probably saved that outfit from, oh, 1984 or so. Because that was the sort of thing I wore in high school, when I wasn't wearing big shirts with giant belts and overdone makeup and painted-on jeans. Yeah, there are a few pictures I made my brother remove from his facebook photo albums on pain of pain, because dayum, the 80's weren't pretty.

[Shalom]

Am I the only one who keeps her cheese in the top shelf of the door with the pull down cover and the meats either in the freezer or in the long drawer that goes across the bottom of the fridge part?

No, I keep my cheese in there too. I really shouldn't, though, because that's the warmest part of the fridge: it's supposed to be where you put the butter, and they have a hole through the insulation at that point so that your butter stays a little softer. As a result the cheese doesn't last as long, but it never hangs around that long in this house to start with...

oh, as for the meat: it always goes in the freezer unless I'm planning on cooking it right away. That thing at the bottom is supposed to be the vegetable bin, but I generally shove in there anything that doesn't fit up top. Problem is that it then gets forgotten about. My mom's old fridge even had two drawers down there, with the one on the left labeled Meat Keeper, and there was a hole in the insulation on that as well... but in this case it was a side-by-side, and the hole went into the freezer, so that bin was colder than the rest of the fridge.

[EricKei]

I was always under the impression that the entire point of making (most kinds of) "hard" cheese was so that it would last longer sans refrigeration -- I keep mine in the fridge anyway, tho I will occasionally let a hunk of cheddar sit out for an hour simply because it tastes better warm for some reason.... But how can one tell which kinds would be safe to leave out, vs ones which MUST remain cold? I assume that anything Pasteurized needs to stay cold, period....But, aside from that...?

[downforit2008]

Sounds like there are a bunch of people who like meat so much, they prefer to STEAL it or fool around with the labels on them for discounted prices. Perhaps they're planning a barbecue in January? Not likely. Glad that they were all caught in the act!!!

Sounds like y'all need to hire some employees to guard the meat section pretty damn closely.

[telecom_goddess]

geeze if you're going to steal some meat at least get the good stuff like a rack of lamb or a whole side of beef...the stuff that's 100 or 200 bucks .

[crazylegs]

Meat is a big-ticket item, hence the high thefts. You know what else is a popular product to pilfer? Cheese. I can't remember the details, but last year some UK stores ended up tagging their cheese because it was getting stolen so much!

Pfffft - amatuers, when I worked at footwear chemist we had to tag the loo rolls in the customer toilets.

Cheese, coffee, meat (as well as skin cream, razors, batteries & perfume) are all stolen with alarming regularity.

Occasionally there will be runs on paracetemol as well.

[RealUnimportant]

I was always under the impression that the entire point of making (most kinds of) "hard" cheese was so that it would last longer sans refrigeration -- I keep mine in the fridge anyway, tho I will occasionally let a hunk of cheddar sit out for an hour simply because it tastes better warm for some reason.... But how can one tell which kinds would be safe to leave out, vs ones which MUST remain cold? I assume that anything Pasteurized needs to stay cold, period....But, aside from that...?

Unpasteurised would be more likely to go off, due to the unchecked bacteria; I remember as a child I'd always love it when we got packed lunches on school trips as there'd be small pocket-sized packs of cheddar - and I always ended up with half a dozen in my pocket for the day & they were always edible!

[EricKei]

Good point -- I was likely thinking about (the not unrelated) pasteurized milk -- the process kills both harmful and helpful organisms in the milk, making refrigeration mandatory immediately upon cooling (pasteurization is essentially boiling, and yes I know it's more complex than just that), rather than optional or delayed.

[BroSCFischer]

-Baby formula.
<snip>
-DVDs (SOMEHOW the entire shelf of DVDs was cleared at my previous job with two guys sticking them into cooler bags and walking out when staff weren't looking. Given that there's a friggin CAMERA over there as well as the fact that it takes some time for the shelves to be cleared shows that the store was not that great)

I believe I have told the tale of the Big Theft at my former employment, the grocery store. Apparently a two man team stole $1500 worth of Baby Formula. One guy distracted the cashier, the other cleaned the shelves.

I hear they use it to cut drugs.

SC

[EricKei]

I hear they use it to cut drugs.

SC

It is also frequently sold on the black market.

[DGoddessChardonnay]

It is also frequently sold on the black market.

Just check out the local flea market . . . you'll not only find baby formula but also a slew of health and beauty care items . . . some of it will be private label stuff as well as national brands.

Several years ago there was a flea market vendor busted with around $30,000 worth of stolen items . . . a lot of it came from local grocery chains (the one I worked for at the time included.)

He may not have been as noticeable had it all been name brand stuff . . . private label items will be a dead giveaway.

[dragon_wings]

Just check out the local flea market . . . you'll not only find baby formula but also a slew of health and beauty care items . . . some of it will be private label stuff as well as national brands.
<snip>

That's why my store locks up a lot of stuff. It sucks cause customers bitch constantly.

[DGoddessChardonnay]

That's why my store locks up a lot of stuff. It sucks cause customers bitch constantly.

We currently keep our baby formula inside a Plexiglass kiosk at the front checkouts. Customers cannot access it . . .they have to ask the cashier to get the formula for them.

Sucks but that's what we have to do to keep the formula from being stolen.

[dragon_wings]

We have a majority of our deodorants, body washes, and razors locked up. As well as higher priced name brand weight lose supplements, allergy meds, cold meds, and antacids. Not to mention a lot of our electronic items at or near photo. (I know I'm missing some but can't remember.)

Note: I work at a pharmacy/drug store in a high crime area of Baltimore.

[DGoddessChardonnay]

We keep most of our razor blades behind the counter now and have a shrink card program in place to help reduce shoplifting.

I've even had to type out cards for the condoms and pregnancy tests that are kept behind the counter (which in my store in North Greensboro is - all of them) b/c they aren't officially included with the card program Corporate set up. So I basically went into Word, typed up and formatted the cards, cut them and taped them to the blank shrink card holders and they are setting up on the shelves.

I can put out one of the cheapest brand pregnancy test on the shelf, for example, and not 30 minutes later it's gone and if I scan the tag with the gun to do an item inquiry count, it will still show that one as being in store.

So, it's keep them all behind the counter and have signs to inform customers that they have to get them at the register.

Again, I'm so sorry it sucks to be you, Mr. Customer but we have to sell this stuff, not let it get stolen.